A new blog devoted to childcare issues.
An alarming number of college-educated women are leaving the work force to stay at home and raise their children, a trend that is a tragedy not only for the mothers, but ultimately their children and women as a whole.
So said law professor and working mom Linda Hirshman in a 2005 article for American Prospect magazine that has ignited an intense debate among mothers.
A good one to bookmark as the next few weeks are likely to see lots of media noise from groups like the federally funded Child Care Advocacy Ass’n of Canada. (Gormley – next time you have these people on your show, be sure to push your guest on where they get their funding.)
Update: a note from Helen Ward, President of Kids First Parent Assoc of Canada;
Please check out our website kidsfirstcanada.org for extensive research into daycare . I emailed the Child Care Advocacy Assoc of Can a long time ago to request their finincial statements (as their website says) and they did not respond.
Below is from my report “Fact and Fiction , Ideologies and Agendas” (PDF)
We are 100% volunteer run since 1987, and receive $0 from gov. One request for
funding some years ago was turned down: we were told we are “regressive”. Must
go now and see about getting one of them white picket fences!
That could be because college educated women are smart enough to realize that that is the best thing for the childs development. We have seen what shoveling kids off to pre school and afterschool programs do, followed by both parents coming home after working all day with no time for raising their children. Perhaps this will help eleviate the “stick em in front of the xbox” and they will be good all evening mentality. I realize that many parents can manage two careers and raise a family, but there are way more who just cannot.
Thanks for the link Kate.
Oh wait… I should type more than a single line of appreciation or I may get accused of doing a drive-by.
A few other things.
Macleans this week has a very good interview of Laura Schlessinger by Linda Frum where they get into a lot of parent at home stuff. She makes a few good points about someone always being there for the kids. My wife I worked hard to alter our schedules to keep the kids out of daycare, although we had to be a bother to the grandparents at times.
Last week, Ken Dryden was on Mike Duffy with Jane Taber guest-hosting. He made two very blatant appeals to the media to stand up for universal daycare and it looked like the Liberals, the Dippers and CTV are all on the same team for this one. Wierd to see him rally the ‘troops’ like that.
Anyone who wants to see the Tory position on childcare fully developed can go to
http://www.fraserinstitute.ca/strongandfree/index.asp
and peruse Volume II of Canada:Strong and Free by Mike Harris and Preston Manning.
It’s really the core policy of the right so this issue is going to be the watershed, the ‘hidden agenda’, the blah blah blah.
Wow, made it through a whole post without a one-liner Penny. Gonna do a drive by with a bit of inane anger?
A two month old baby at home right now. Mother off on maternity leave for 1 year. Some mothers are back at work by this time in fact in the US 6 weeks maternity leave is most common. Are we looking for more “american style childcare”?
Honestly unable to imagine shoveling our child off to a daycare, strangers looking after our child for 9-10 hours a day.
enough
An excerpt:
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Driveby McHitAndRun said: “Macleans this week has a very good interview…”
What is this �Macleans� of which you speak?
OK, I just googled it: apparently, it was a Canadian 20th century papyrus �news� �magazine�. A version is still printed via traditonal methods, though it effectively ceased being relevant precisely at the moment it started referring to fishermen as �fishers�, somewheres around 1994, I figure.
Actually, I think I recall seeing a stack of �Macleans� at my Grandparents� house when I was very young…
The natural end result of socialism/communism: Grade “F” for failure; the crushing of the individual human spirit; to mold your children & you into a mindless, sycophantic “worker” for the State. Do you wish to be a worker/bee/ant in a collectivist dung hill? When you give your assent to these socialists for these state nurseries you will send your children to be re-modelled into the “New Citizen”.
Once this homogenization is done, the “Dictators” seize control. See George Orwell’s Animal Farm & 1984 for a possible, future utopia/dystopia.
This is the aim/goals of Dryden, a failed hockey player, & all the collectivists of the liberal left: “F” for failure. +
Doing Comparative Education:
Three Decades of Collaboration
Part IV: Communist Education
Extract:
Shimoniak concludes:
In brief, the language of communism cannot be trusted.
Russian and Chinese communism are not the types of
communism that were dreamed of for many centuries. As
seen in every country where the Communists came to power,
the individual lost his freedom not to the state, but to
a few dictators, who were power-hungry individuals. There
can be no two political parties, there can be no more than
one representative in an “election,” and there
cannot be division of power between God and the ruler.
At the same time the Communists realized that the only way
to stay in power is to educate their own intelligentsia,
their own leaders and their own children. For this reason,
the number of schools has increased in every country they
have occupied.
…
A distinguishing mark of Communist states is their commitment to reforming the ideals and philosophy of their citizens along so-called Marxist-Leninist lines. In this task, the schools, the higher educational institutions, and the youth movement are expected to play major roles. It is not surprising that this is so, for such institutions are ideally adapted to centralized, bureaucratic forms of control and to the inculcation of officially prescribed ideas and norms. Thus, education in the Soviet Union and other Communist states serves a much wider purpose than merely insuring the perpetuation in power of a small clique of rulers. It is intended to be the instrument for bringing into being a new type of citizen as the basis of a new social order. To see Communist education only in the light of the abuses of state power that have taken place, as Shimoniak tends to do, may lead us both to misunderstand the appeal of the Communist system and to underrate its potential for survival. +
http://www.hku.hk/cerc/4b.htm
His statements are incredibly dumb.
And especially dumb considering how our lifespans are increasing on an exponential curve. If you’re going to live to 80-130 years old spending a few of those years to take care of the most important people in your life isn’t that big a deal. And even if it was its not for him to say anyway.
Richard Cranium “Perhaps this will help eleviate the “stick em in front of the xbox” and they will be good all evening mentality.”
Its worth noting that a large part of that mentality stems from the fact that many parents nowadays are paranoid of kids going outside without constant parental supervision. Better to raise your child as a battery hen than risk them to the perils of the outside world.
Hey Maz,
I agree with everything on that last post except the part about Ken Dryden being a “failed hockey player”
Dryden made his NHL debut in 1970 for the Canadiens, and became the backbone of six Stanley Cup winning teams in the 1970s…
His regular season totals include a .650 winning percentage, a 2.24 goals against average, and, most incredibly, losing only 57 games while recording 46 shutouts in 397 total games. No other modern goaltender has ever been even remotely close to earning nearly as many shutouts as recording losing games. He won the Vezina Trophy as NHL’s top goaltender five times and in the same years was selected as a First Team All-Star.
All this in 9 years and taking a year off while doing it to finish a law degree. I am not sure what more the man would have to do to be a “successful hockey player” by your definition.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Dryden
Daniel
“….I hope public daycare policy is not going to be based on the C.D. Howe study,” she said…”
Another C.D. Howe study….
Welfare a burden to cities
2006-02-24
The Ontario government should stop forcing Toronto and other cities to fund social services such as disability benefits and welfare, according to a prominent right-wing think-tank.
A C.D. Howe Institute report released yesterday contends Ontario cities spent $501 per capita on social services in 2005, compared with $56 in Nova Scotia, $14 in Quebec and $2 in British Columbia….
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/toronto/story.html?id=ccac785a-9e17-46a5-a558-8e089d93a321
How the provinces compare in social spending:
British Columbia $2
Alberta $34
Saskatchewan $5
Manitoba $2
Ontario $501
Quebec $14
New Brunswick $0
Prince Edward Island $0
Nova Scotia $56
Newfoundland $2
http://www.cdhowe.org/pdf/commentary_226.pdf
Abject Arrogance.
Let’s assume for a moment that these “alarming number of college-educated women” actually had the intelligence and ambition to complete post secondary education. Are we now to assume the act of childbirth resulted in these women suddenly becoming stupid and lazy?
Please.
Whoever said you could have it all?
Myth & Reality
Forget all the talk of equal opportunity.
Feb. 27, 2006
Here’s a pop quiz on gender equality. In which part of the world are women most likely to reach the highest rungs of power?
Choice A offers new moms 12 weeks of maternity leave, almost no subsidized child care, no paid paternity leave and has a notoriously hard-driving business culture.
Choice B gives them five months to three years of paid time off from their jobs after having kids. Millions put their offspring into state-sponsored day-care centers for several hours a day. Government agencies, full of female directors and parliamentarians, protect workers at the expense of business and favor a kinder, gentler corporate culture.
So which place is better for women who want to make it to the top? If you guessed A, the United States, you’d be right. If you chose B�Europe�think again….
…Why is this? Simply put, Europe is killing its women with kindness�enshrined, ironically, in cushy welfare policies that were created to help them…
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11435567/site/newsweek/
Not just woman but parents need to be respected for their choices, not dictated to by the government or daycare lobbyist. If you want daycare use it, if you want to stay at home then do it, there are also many other choices you can use. Either way they all need to be respected and treated equally.
Thanks for the link Kate…
Sara,
” Either way they all need to be respected and treated equally.”
I think that you’ll find that SDA doesn’t usually follow the I’m Ok your OK line of thinking.
Ideas and arguments are presented, judgments made.
Dear Ms. Hossack;
I watch the ‘Goldhawk Live’ program regularly and I’m generally impressed with the calibre of discourse.
I understand he will be discussing child care issues this Sunday, yet if I’m correct, none of the participants are parents of pre-school children. Needless to say, the Liberal and Conservative representatives will put forth the political/economic case for their respective parties and Monica Rysech of Child Care Advocacy Association will put forth the ‘statist’ public daycare proposition.
Who though, will speak for the typical stay at home mom or dad. I am the latter and want to hear from someone who can speak to my issue: equality under the law. Stay at home, single income families are penalized for being attentive, caring parents who willingly forego some of the toys and perks we subsidize for (some) parents who choose a two income lifestyle.
I’d like to see the ‘Choice for Childcare’ spokesperson added to your lineup and would appreciate having an ordinary, average parent speak for me rather than a professional ‘childcare advocate’ or politician with an axe to grind.
Regards
Randy
Nanaimo, B.C.
If the statist Liberal party genuinely cared about the welfare of children they would have at least funded special interest groups on every side of the argument to get a balanced perspective on child care. The fact that they haven’t and, in fact, in some cases actively impeded representations from other sides of the argument suggests that they have some other agenda in mind.
I don’t know what that agenda is. Their approach is so full of holes that only the truly insane would continue flogging it.
Tories canceling day care deals
TORONTO (CP) – The new Conservative government has notified the provinces it will terminate child-care agreements signed by the previous Liberal regime as of next March. +
via canoe news +
More re sacred hockey/cow: Suddenly, Dryden jumps hockey ship? What gives? Hockey as metaphor.
Did not Dryden abandon hockey? Will Dryden abandon the children’s crusade? (Did not Martin abandon Emerson/Liberal Party/Dryden?) “You play. Period.” +
After three successful seasons as goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens in the early 1970s, Ken Dryden suddenly quit hockey to return to college. A minor event in the history of Canada, but a momentous one in the life of the 10-year-old in Pete McCormack’s second novel, Understanding Ken. “Hockey isn’t like choosing where you want to live,” explains the book’s young narrator. “You play. Period.” +
http://www.ffwdweekly.com/Issues/1998/1015/book4.html
Probably one of the major reasons for almost all Muslim countries being failed countries is their blocking of women into the workforce. The West has come a long ways to improve the situation for women. But now that the feminist movement has fizzled somewhat, while more career women are having children again, society needs to help encourage women coping with the dilemmas of careers and child rearing.
Therefore a couple of things need to happen.
First society needs to reassure women that being a mother is a very tough and important job. Also, that it�s just as rewarding to society as whole as becoming successful career person.
Next, the work place, particularly large professional law firms and accounting firms and medical clinics and the financial institutions, all need to set up programs to allow women in and out of the workforce to have kids and stay at home with them for awhile without falling dramatically behind in their careers.
Unless we do these things we�re not much better than the radical Islam males that want to hold women back from equal treatment.
I also know a couple of young dads who have chosen to stay home and the mom goes to the work These dads deserve a pat on the back because as alluded to by one of them above, I don�t think there�s much of a cheering section for them.
I think the PC plan is a good one in that it allows parents to choose what they want to do. If they want to stay home and the money helps, then great. If they want to send their child to daycare, that’s fine too.
But I’m wondering why a person’s personal choice to have children should be funded by the government. I guess if it prevents social problems down the road, then I’m grudingly for it.
I am also for the Conservative plan for funding some physical activities such as hockey, soccer, etc. as this should help promote healthy lifestyles. But piano lessons? This is where I’m starting to think that the Conservatives need to take their hand out of my pocket and rather give me a tax break than funding little Sally to play ‘Mary had a Little Lamb’.
I agree with nomdenet, it’s dads and moms who want to stay home now. I’m a recent college grad and I want nothing more than to be able to stay at home with my kids before they go off to kindergarten.
Most of my friends (male and female college grads) want the same thing. This is not a “tragedy” regarding women internalizing patriarchal oppression. This is about men and women wanting to raise their kids themselves (and having a tax system that supports their decision to). Couldn’t Linda Hirshman’s comments be labelled as sexist and homophobic in an era of gay stay-at-home dads?
If other families want or need to go right back to work, that’s fine, but I don’t want to fund their daycare.
(besides… it doesn’t take much research of Quebec’s “universal” daycare system to discover that professionals have benefitted more than low-income families and that it is woefully underfunded. The Liberals’ 5 year funding plan was also horribly underfunded)
I wonder when or if Stephen Harper will get around to cutting off taxpayer funding for groups like the Child Care Advocacy Assocition? Its benefactor Status of Women Canada would be another good bunch to cut off. These people obviously have a right to make their case — just like the National Citizens’ Coalition — but not to do so on my dollar.
The blogosphere should start accumulating a list of advocacy groups that Harper should cut off. Most will be on the bureaucratic left; for some reason, groups arguing for a smaller government tend not to get state funding.
I’ll the start the list: Let’s get rid of the Ministry of Canadian Heritage (which funds among other things Status of Women and the CBC), thereby saving about 2 billion a year.
I wouldn’t imagine they would get cut off but removing some of the biased woman would be a good start. Replacing some of them with real people, parents who have gone through this so we can get an un biased opinion would be more beneficial don’t you think…
I’m still begging CPAC to let me in, they have refused yet again.
It’s now time for the Conservatives to get to work on the budget, and in MUST include some serious tough-love treatment of special interest and leftist lobby groups. No more tax dollars for these groups who only cause trouble in society and annoy us to no end… with the help of the MSM and others… I can’t believe I used to believe all of those folks used to speak for the average Canadian…
If their causes are so popular, then they can now solicit donations like any other group. Me, I’ll just say as I exit the store with my bottle of merlot or port: “Oh, dear… I’m sorry… haven’t any change at all… paid with my debit card… have a nice day…” with a smile!
They must now prepare for the future, where they’ll have to make a living in the real world like most of the rest of us. I don’t get tax dollars for promoting my own interests, so why the hell should anyone?
No, Sara… with all due respect, the groups must be completely cut off from taxpayer funding… period. We have only so much money for all of our priorities, and we cannot make everything a “priority” like the hated Liberals did.
It isn’t a question of whether there’re biased folks in the groups or not.
There’s nothing stopping concerned citizens from forming nonprofit organizations funded by membership fees and/or private donations, bake sales, etc. In fact, the citizen groups and church groups are just that! They don’t need public funding to press their interests and issues publicly. In fact, our new PM, Mr. Harper, used to preside over the National Citizens’ Coalition, a privately-funded organization which acts in the interests of ordinary citizens and, for example, fought against the anti-Charter-guaranteed-free-speech Liberal tyranny that we know as the “Gag Law”. Mr. Harper fought the law bravely and now he has the opportunity to scrap it. You go, Stephen!
Once upon a time government was so small that one parent could work and make enough to support mom, er, the child-rearing parent and 4-5 children. Then the state got a bit bigger making it necessary for both parents to work but who could make enough to take care of their 2-3 children. Then it got bigger yet so that both parents had to work but were still struggling to provide quality 3rd party care for their 1.8 children. Then there came “conservative” blogs which talked about what “society” neeeded to do, and which government programme would be best, yada yada yada.
Society is a abstraction. Shrink government back to the 20-25% of GDP (from nearly 50% now) and biology, nature and free markets will do the right thing.
Don’t take the money and then dole it back — with humunguous government overhead (Harper will be no exception!)– that’s extremely costly and fiscally leaky.
LEAVE the money in the hands of the family, most of which, given their druthers, would keep one parent at home at least for the formative years up to school age.
I was talking about potty training the other day with another parent.
Her kids were getting the early learning experience of daycare and mine are stuck at home with a house wife.
So anyway my oldest child to be tiolet trained was 2 but that was when my dad was dying so 1/2 my life was in hospital and mom was close to term with another. My daughter was kind of trained at 1.5 and regressed when dad got sick but pulled out around 2.
So this other parent has 2 kids hers were not trained til 3 and a half.
Thats early learning you don’t know how to take a dump? Can you take seriously that these kids are learning quadratic equations if they don’t try to go potty on their own?
Plus they are hefty things. I guess from sitting there learning all day.
Can’t blame moms for staying home they are the best years to bond with your child why some want a series of strangers to do it I do not know.
Like some punk who was serving fries at mcdonalds the day before will care more about your child.
me no dhimmi “Shrink government back to the 20-25% of GDP (from nearly 50% now) and biology, nature and free markets will do the right thing.”
Considering how we already have virtual currencies with a circulation value that exceeds the GDP of a few african countries its only a matter of time before taxation becomes a very tricky proposition. It’ll be interesting to see how the nation state survives the 21st century. I suspect it won’t, not in its current form anyway.
Mark F Proudman “The blogosphere should start accumulating a list of advocacy groups that Harper should cut off.”
You guys should be doing a lot more political agitating. And you could be feeding memes to the MSM like Boing Boing does. But first you have to tone down the partisan rhetoric, roll up your sleeves and start doing the necessary work. Until then your political influence is going to be limited.
DrWright: Your:
why some want a series of strangers to do it I do not know.
Those early years are called formative because what is learned sticks, and therefore is a danger for extreme statists. I don’t think it’s being rabidly conservative/libertarian to observe that the family is a serious threat to state power, nor to argue that the family (nuclear and extended) has been seriously weakened by an overweaning, all-“caring” state. Leviathan makes the need for strong families seem less urgent.
Can there be an uglier delusion that the phrase “caring government”?
Liberal government funded groups, to tell them what they wanted to hear. Ex: daycare lobbyist, Childcare advocasy of Canada.
They would listen to “Fund the Child” because they did not fund us.
This has cost us a lot of money out of our own pockets to do this. Yes, I’d love the money back but I would prefer they just listened to us rather than fund our group.
Harper did hear us on Nov 21st, 2005. He listened to the woman at the Ottawa Rally and gave us hope…
“Considering how we already have virtual currencies with a circulation value that exceeds the GDP of a few african countries its only a matter of time before taxation becomes a very tricky proposition”
I like you better when you are substantive Chepe 😉
There’s nothing wrong with Canada that a stiff poll tax (I’ll pause while Jose settles down…) wouldn’t cure. A nice juicy poll tax of, say, $2000 a year for all citizens 18+ would bring in about $48 billion, with zero paperwork and hassle. Can’t pay the tax? You don’t get to vote.
Maybe we could tweak it a bit so if someone pays more than $2k into the system they get one extra vote per $2K, but cap it at, say, 10 votes or so. Elections would be more like shareholder meetings.
When Thatcher brought in the poll tax I was against it, vertical equity, etc. I’m well aware of the history of the poll tax and the arguments against it; I don’t care. We’ve got a situation here in Canada where no party can get elected unless they offer The Victim Groups oodles of cash. The Tories absolutely had to offer a brand new ten billion dollar child care scheme or they simply would not have been elected. 39% of female income tax filers don’t pay any income tax; is it surprising that they vote en masse for the Liberals? And on that note: most of those child care cheques are going to go to mommy and single mommy, not daddy; watch how fast the Tories climb in popularity with female voters once they get “on the payroll”, so to speak.
OK, a poll tax may be going too far, but a minimum income tax or more realistically a flatter tax would be more equitable. My first year out of school I made $25K and paid $900 in tax (only worked 9 months that year). That’s less than four percent, for what was at the time not a bad wage for an entry level job. We’ve created an artificial two-tiered society, where the mooches and Victim Groups vote for the party that gives them the most free stuff. This is problematic.
On the list of org cut off from funding are all special interest groups etc that sue the govt or go to the other courts with the govt paying for both sides. Then Wendy and her anti-gun crusade should be denied funds. The status of women should be disbanded. Women have to start taking responsibility for their actions, and stop expecting the taxpayer to pay for them. Abortion and day care come to mind. When they bring up the argument of rape or incest being the cause of many abortions, I don’t buy it. Probably they don’t know who the father is, and got caught. Having the baby could be embarassing when it does not look like, or is a different color, than the husband or boyfriend. If you want to play, be prepared to pay for it yourself.
Daycare to Liberals/NDP is about 2 things; both are intended to buy votes with taxpayer money.
1. It�s about over taxation by Ottawa. Martin was trying to find excuses to hold onto the money instead of cutting taxes. This new socialist Daycare program if anything should be Provincial like Quebec�s but Martin wanted to keep the money that�s rolling-in plus it helped him get Buzz and the CUPE unions onside to help buy that special interest voter.
2. Unions are dying in the private sector. In a knowledge based economy everyone is essentially a mobile job-hopper and behaves like the self-employed, hiring out their services to the highest bidder. So unions would die if it weren�t for government jobs, most of which should be outsourced. CUPE knows that and therefore unions fund all those advocacy groups mentioned on this thread.
Conservatives should just cut taxes and let parents figure it out. But Harper needed to get elected and unfortunately needed a program to counter the socialists with. Call Harper a pragmatic hypocrite. But Harper�s approach is brilliant.
This Daycare thing will be an enormous fight because it is, when combined with fiscal rebalancing; symbolically the death rattle of socialism at the federal level and the socialists know it. We’ll still have socialism at the Provincial level , but at least there will be open Provincial competition on taxation levels and productivity.
Has anyone read the article on “The Real Cuba” that is in the currant National Post?That is where Canada is heading if we do not protest.
Early learning? Why? What happened to kids being kids? When you put children into structured “early learning daycare”,they have a time to learn,a time to eat, a time to nap,a time for structured play,no time for imagination and figuring out how things are by themselves.
Then the “so-called experts”,wonder why children can’t figure out how to play without the help of a “game boy” or the tv,that tells them what to do and how to do it and when to do it.I wish we could just let them be kids,they’re “growing up” way too fast as it is! I have a daughter who worked in a daycare,but she said when she had children,she would NOT place her own there,and the other workers didn’t either!
Approximately 10 years ago I watched a program where 12 professional women were asked, given a choice, would you sooner work or stay home and look after your children, the answer was unanimous, stay home. If we had a tax system that was favorable to the family there would be no need for this discussion. Let the lib/left BS excuses begin.
me no dhimmi “Can there be an uglier delusion that the phrase “caring government”?”
How about compassionate conservatism?
Western Canadian “If we had a tax system that was favorable to the family there would be no need for this discussion. Let the lib/left BS excuses begin.”
People seem to forget that back in the day of the stay at home moms such families did make financial sacrifices in order to rear their children. My family lived in the top floor of a semi-detached house. We had everything we needed but very few luxuries. Entertainment meant friends and vacations mean’t camping. It was perfectly clear to us that couples without children could afford much, much more than families even then.
Nowadays most people wouldn’t consider having two kids without twice the living space and a whole raft of special classes, an extra car, fashionable clothes, cellphones, toys, expensive vacations and consumer goods.
It hasn’t really become more expensive to raise children on one income its just become too expensive to do it in the manner in which we’ve become accustomed.
Anonalogue “There’s nothing wrong with Canada that a stiff poll tax (I’ll pause while Jose settles down…) wouldn’t cure. …”
You’re right I don’t like that idea. I’m a capitalist who likes to see capital flowing, not accumulated by bluebloods.
However I suspect there will come a time when a poll tax may become the only way a government can viably collect tax as income and consumption taxes become simple matters to circumvent.
Of course by then the dynamics of capitalism will have changed. It’s becoming easier and easier to start ventures without massive capitol outlays. So talented, hard working people born into low income families are going to such unprecendent oppurtunities that a regressive tax isn’t going to matter.
I’m a stay-at-home dad.
We tried daycare with our first child. It was very stressful for all of us, juggling two careers and trying to care for the little one. When our second one came along, I decided to put my career on hold. Now we have three, and I’ve been at home for 5 years now. So I’ve seen both sides.
The government is doing the right thing by promoting choice; let the parents decide how best to spend the money. Everyone’s situation is different. Some people want just part-time care, some don’t live in big cities with formal daycares. For us full-time parents, the money will definitely come in handy for things like swimming lessons, sports, etc. For some it means the difference between baloney and steak.
How about compassionate conservatism?
You bet, wean people off the gov’t tit. Nothing could be more compassionate than to stop enabling people’s self-destructive behaviour.
…more college edumucatded wemen leave the works force and head home to raise kids.
Oh good, no more competition and being embarrassed that a “girlie beat me” because I AM A Man…
Cue in Village people ‘YMCA’ music please.
…let me hear ya say Y-M-C-Aehhhh…
Mr. Metroman you are the man! (as long as there isn’t a female around), you can get things done (as long as there isn’t a female around), you can make the big decisions (as long as there isn’t a female around)…
Yyyyyy Mmmmm Seeeeaa Ehhhhhh
Oh yeah Baby!!!
(whoops shouldn’t say that around this crowd)
…for those who have a struggle wearing the pants around the house a few tips to a happy marriage:
10. The wife told me I could make all the important decisions and she’ll make the small mondaying type ones
(so far after 8 years I was told there hasn’t been any important decisions to be made, so I’m cool)
9. Learn to count to three. Why three? Because after that she’s already convinced you it was your fault…so don’t bother counting higher.
8. Anything over $100 has to be ageed upon by both parties. So I get the store to make two invoices for $99+ when I buy computer games and toys…
7. Take her out to supper once a month. We go to Wendy’s, Arbies’, and Pizza Hut, you know the ritzy places, then say something about watching the budget.
6. ‘Accidently’ drop some dishes while washing, you’ll never have to step foot in the kitchen again.
5. Let some plants die, get her nice dress sucked up by the vacuum cleaner, you’ll be confined to either the den or the computer room.
4. Start drooling, grunt, and say incoherant things while staring wide eyed at her when she asks “does this dress make me look fat” type thing. She’ll think you’re still the same horny caveman that madly fell in love with her…seeing she’s the edumacated type she will feel protected.
3. Buy her flowers, a day after special occasions like Valentines or Anniversary’s to show how frugal you are instead of “ooops”.
2. Learn to compassionatly smile and say I’m sorry, like those airline stewardesses during a crash.
1. But the biggest thing is – be honest and learn to say “I’m sorry’, or “I was wrong” and hope that she doesn’t read this blog…because you know, she’s edumacted and only cavemen types troll these grounds.
😉
whoops…Point #2 should be:
2. Learn to compassionately smile and say “Yes Dear”, like those airline stewardesses during a crash
…Freidan slip
Yah, and all that tomax leaves you short in the bedroom eh… haha
Saying “I have no opinion” works in most situations.
Jose: dang! I really wuz going to include that but demurred in favour of uncharacteristic crypticness :).
Yes indeed, we are in complete agreement on this: Bush’s “compassionate conservatism” is every bit as ugly a delusion as “caring government”. A lotta folks were disappointed to discover that Bush is not a conservative; however, he was upfront about it, but we thought it was just sugar-coating for the children. Another example of Bush meaning what he says!
And while we’re at it, there’s no “third way” either; just the right way and the wrong way.
Er, one more: “The facts of life are conservative” – Margaret Thatcher.
Anonalogue: indeed, flat tax! High marginal tax rates kicking in at such low thresholds are a killer. You know it when you meet average Joes and Janes who don’t feel it’s worhwhile having a side line for example. Actually, I think declining rates at higher levels should be considered. Imagine the explosion of creative entrepreneurial activity that would ensue were people not to feel they were being punished for extra effort.
Even a flat tax is “progressive” however. For example, if Peter pays 25% on $200K a year he pays $50K for gubment services, whereas Paul at $50K pays $10K. As Peter is definitely NOT receiving 5 x the amount of gubment services, he is paying substantially MORE per “unit of gubment” service.
Jose: your notion of cash accumulating in the hands of bluebloods is a economic fallacy. Recall Papa Chretien had the same argument against tax reductions, namely that the money would be hoarded and therefore out of circulation. Unless you put it in your mattress money is not out of circulation, but will be borrowed by entrepreneurs who will increase the capital stock through productive investment. And BTW, that is the only way to accomplish increases in real income.
I do know how to spell gubment correctly!
How about socialism in Zimbabwe? The natural end result of socialism: mothers & babes in arms shut into police cells. Woe to Zimbabwe.
Left liberals remain mute, silent; silent as the tomb of Marx/Engels/Stalin/Mao, & all the rest of the evil, socialist, monsters.+
Zimbabwe — Cathy Buckle — Good Lord Deliver Us
Letters written by Cathy Buckle ^ | 2006-02-18 | Cathy Buckle
Posted on 02/25/2006 3:11:47 PM PST by Clive
Dear Family and Friends,
The Litany Bird is back in my neighbourhood this week and it is cause for considerable comfort to hear its voice these evenings. The fiery necked nightjar is a nocturnal bird and lays its eggs on the ground amongst a small scratch of leaves. Its piercing call, such a familiar Zimbabwean sound in the early evenings and on moonlit nights, is matched to the words Good Lord Deliver Us.
It is amazing that the nightjars have managed to survive another year in our dirty, plundered and ravaged semi urban environment. They have survived the fires that scorched every inch of bush 6 months ago. They have survived the endless flow of men, women and children who walk out into the bush every day with axes to chop trees, hoes to dig roots and packets to collect mushrooms and fruits.
The Litany Birds have miraculously survived the boys who aren’t in school anymore because the fees are just too expensive; boys who harvest birds with catapaults and boys who climb trees to take eggs and fledglings in every nest they find.
The Litany Birds have also survived the unemployed young men who walk into the bush in small groups every day. They are armed with crude home made weapons and follow lean and fearsome packs of hunting dogs which flush out every living creature.
This February the Litany Birds are back, they have survived the piles of garbage dumped in the bush, the people and the plunder and they cry out defiantly every evening. Their voices give hope for a similar resilience for our people and country.
The call of the Litany Birds is particularly appropriate for Zimbabwe this week. Over 150 women in Bulawayo and 240 in Harare were arrested for trying to march on Valentines Day. Unarmed women, calling only for dignity and food were arrested. Some of the women carried babies, they too were taken into police cells.
As I sat in the dark this week, in these evenings of incessant power cuts, I listened to the Litany Bird calling out Good Lord Deliver Us and I struggled to find peace. It was hard not to think of ordinary women: mothers, daughters, sisters, some with babies – crammed into police cells. I feel such shame that things like this are happening in our beautiful country and so ashamed that for 6 years we have watched helpless, rudderless and aimless as everything has deteriorated to the most appalling levels. +
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1585572/posts
Mr. Howard from Australia is certainly NOT a coward! He has common sense and he is a patriot. Our poor country has been stiffled, intellectually and emotionally at about age 15. Too many Liberano/Dipper governments stealing from us to bribe others. We, the people, no longer know how to DEMAND Justice for ourselves and our fellow Canadians. The eagerness of ‘over-stuffed'(with their own importance) decendants of the courageous people who settled this land to dump everything the pioneers stood FOR is revolting. Why do we want to gush over and pat with patronizing ‘compassion’ everyone who is radically different from us, while viewing our Canadian values as out dated and not important to any modern sophisticate? The Indian people who lived here long ago FOUGHT the europeans who came to take the land they considered their own. The tribesmen lost, Europeans moved in and took over – the Europeans were stronger and better armed (eg. they had better weapons to kill the enemy with).
This ritual has happened over and over again in the history of every corner of the world, he who carries the greatest weapon rules. That is just the way it is… the Indian people should have never let Cortez get off the boat!!
Canada is huge and sparcely populated but we do not need any new “Trojen Horses” comming in to defeat the people who live here. Defeat is not EVER good. I hope all you who believe that the people here should adjust our ‘values’ to accomodate conflicting ‘values’ will take the time to speak to someone who has been a part of the defeated side in some war. Reading a book on the subject is very helpful if you can read with any degree of comprehension. Try “Gone with the Wind” for starters.
Sorry everyone I posted under the wrong topic, I ment to respond to the Ideaologies and Agendas post above this one.