TresSugar

Arianna - Iraq Is McCain's Viagra: You Like a Dose of Huff Po?

LibertySugar — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:00:23 -0700

Last night on The Colbert Report, Arianna Huffington explained that John McCain's passion for Iraq is "his Viagra." Ariannna, the supreme ruler of the liberal site The Huffington Post, discussed how she fell out of love with her former hero McCain, while promoting her new short-titled book: Right Is Wrong: How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution, and Made Us All Less Safe.

The Huffington Post is not shy about its agenda - and love for Barack Obama. The fact that the site features unabashedly left-leaning opinions, often written by public officials or celebrities, probably means you either love it or hate it. I actually spend more time reading the comments, which are often fiery, but surprisingly nuanced.

Do you enjoy a regular dose of the Greek-born populous Arianna? Or, do you find The Huffington Post too partisan of a pill to swallow?

Women's Colleges Try to Sell Liberal Arts in Middle East

LibertySugar — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:00:55 -0700

Five American women's colleges are taking their admissions presentations overseas - to the Middle East. School officials have been speaking with young women in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.

The appeal to Middle Eastern women is paradoxically natural and awkward. Single-sex education is the norm in the Middle East; however, liberal ideas espoused on traditionally free-thinking American female institutions do not find a home in the conservative region.

Middle Eastern women attending a "Sister" say they enjoy the invigorating political climate on campus. But, one thing did shock many at first - open displays of homosexual affection. One student said:

At the beginning, there were times when I’d have to close my eyes and say, "O.K., I’m at Mount Holyoke, and it’s different." But that lasted only a week or so, and now I have so many friends who are openly gay, and it makes no difference.

Ironically, the biggest challenge for the admissions officers isn't appeasing fears that the schools will be too wild, nor the opposite - convincing them that they are not nunneries. Instead, the schools must sell the value of a liberal arts education, as opposed to a professional degree. Do you think they can pull that off in the Middle East?

Is Liberal Bias in Your History Book?

CitizenSugar — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:30:54 -0800

What did you learn in history class? That the Rosenbergs were innocent? Gorbachev, not Reagan, ended the Cold War? That FDR knew the Japanese were going to bomb Pearl Harbor but did nothing to stop it? Neither did I, which is why I am skeptical about the market for 48 Liberal Lies About American History (That You Probably Learned in School).

The author, a US history professor, reviewed 15 to 20 of the bestselling college US history textbooks and The People’s History of the United States and set out to prove that history books have become too politically correct and anti-American. What lies did he find? To find out, read more.

Columbus killed millions of Indians: Not so. He attributes this to bad statistics. So thousands?
Separation of church and state: The Founding Fathers did not want the "wall of separation" that history tells us.
A disproportionate number of anti-American pictures: Too many KKK pictures, not enough landing on the moon.
Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy because he was a marine: Oswald did not shoot Kennedy because of his "marine-ness" but because he was a Communist who disliked Kennedy’s hard line against the Cubans and the Soviets. I could believe that!

A lot of these are worthwhile counterpoints, but others - Columbus killing millions, the Rosenbergs' innocence - are not things I learned in school as much as grumblings I've heard since leaving.

I always heard history class was too pro-American - looks like the backlash of the backlash has begun! Is history class a time to be critical of the US, or a time to celebrate its achievements? Will we ever find a balance?

East vs. West: Berlin Wall Divided Two Attitudes Toward Nudity

TresSugar — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:00:49 -0800

When the Berlin Wall fell 20 years ago last week, East and West Germany had to integrate two very different cultures. Freedom may have spread quickly through the East, but nudity - the East's favorite and perhaps only freedom - never caught on in the West.

Freikörperkultur (FKK), or liberal body culture, was really the only way to rebel in the East, where the most quotidian details of people's lives were observed by the Stasi, East Germany's secret police. Though the East German government forbid FKK at first, many government officials were into walking around nude, so they protested with the argument that "doing FKK" did not mean you weren't a good communist. Good point - don't they put kids in school uniforms to level the playing field? What's more egalitarian than wearing nothing!

Yet on the west side of the wall, the attitude toward nudity was more on par with America and its don't-even-discuss-it-in-public ethos. A West German interviewed a former East German for Vice magazine to find out what's so great about wearing nothing. Check out some of the highlights after the jump.

Hillary Talks Sexism, Obama's Job Offer, and Mad Men to Vogue

TresSugar — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:00:35 -0800

Hillary Clinton finally sat down for a long-overdue Vogue interview. She offended editor Anna Wintour during the primaries by turning down the fashion mag out fear of looking "too feminine." And though she won't be on the December cover, the article is as substantial and satisfying as a cover story.

From night swimming alone to her favorite shows (Mad Men!), we see a side of Madame Secretary that all the vetting in the world would not unearth. See some of what she had to say below.

On visiting countries as a high-ranking female: "You can go to some countries and there's not a woman in the room. They don't even make the effort to give me the token woman minister. . . . And in lots of African countries the honorific for women is 'Mama.' So I had lots of people say to me, 'Mama, what about this; Mama, what about that?'"

On President Obama's job offer: "I was stunned after the election when President Obama asked me to consider this. . . . I really was very unconvinced. I did not think it was the right thing to do. I didn't want to do it. I just really had a lot of doubts, and I kept suggesting other people: Well, how about this person! How about that person! This one would be really good! But then a friend of mine called me and basically said, 'How would you have felt if you'd been elected and you'd called him and asked him to do this?' And that really made a big impression on me. How do you say no? And so . . . I said yes. And here I am."

On Mad Men: "That's how it was! That's why the women's-liberation movement was so shocking. It was like news from outer space"

See what else she had to say after the jump.

Can Women Have It All?

TresSugar — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:30:17 -0800

A successful career. A loving marriage. Well-loved and well-behaved children. The promise of women's liberation holds that women can have all of this if that's what they want. But one teacher wrote in the Daily Mail yesterday that telling a young girl that she can reach the top of the career ladder and raise a family is passing on nothing more than a fairy tale. This not-so-modern woman thinks:

"The young women we are sending out into the world believe they can have it all - and, if they don't, they will have failed. And what a tragedy that is, because the truth is that modern women can't have it all. They may succeed in their careers and they may succeed as mothers, but to do both at the same time? No, that is not possible without making huge sacrifices which many will find simply too much."

Obviously life is full of compromises and trade-offs, but I don't think that means women have to choose between success outside the home and success inside the home. With a little balance, I think women, just like men, can manage both. What do you think?
Photos courtesy of AMC

Should Radical Environmentalists Be Punished Like Terrorists?

CitizenSugar — Fri, 09 May 2008 07:50:36 -0700

Eric McDavid, a member of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) convicted in March of planning to bomb a dam and forest service building in Northern California, has been sentenced to 19 years and seven months in prison. His actions have been called "conspiracy in an eco-terror case."

The US Attorney said of the sentence:

Today's severe punishment of nearly 20 years in federal prison should serve as a cautionary tale to those who would conspire to commit life-threatening acts in the name of their extremist views.

McDavid's family pleaded for a light sentence saying saying that their son was peaceful and caring. Another ELF member who was also charged, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit arson and testified against McDavid in exchange for a lesser sentence.

An FBI agent testified about items found in the ELF house including bottles of bleach and chemicals, and anarchist literature, some by the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski. ELF is thought to have been behind the torching of the Seattle Street of Dreams homes earlier this year.

Do radical environmental groups like ELF really have altruistic agendas? Do they need to resort to sometimes violent acts in order to raise awareness and accomplish their mission? Does the cloak of eco-do-gooding mask a terrorist organization no different than any other? Should we punish them like terrorists even though they're trying to save the planet?

Source

Messy Room? A New Study Says You May Be a Liberal

CitizenSugar — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 08:00:14 -0700

A controversial new study hints it may be possible to look at a room and figure out how that room's inhabitant is voting. Set to be published in the Journal of Political Psychology the study asserts that empty pizza box is "behavioral residue" that points to "distinct cognitive inclinations" that sends liberals in the direction of ambiguity and intellectualism, and spins conservatives toward order. These inclinations "drive the way one leads one's life and displays one's life in their living and work spaces," says one of the study's authors. Here are the differences they've found - see if you buy their findings:

Conservatives:

Right-leaners often have spaces filled with calendars, postage stamps, laundry baskets, irons and sewing materials. Fun! Darning socks time!
Their bedrooms and offices are well-lighted.
They decorate with sports paraphernalia and flags - especially American ones.
The study's authors say, "Conservatives have a need for order, for there not to be ambiguity. There you see that expressed by being more orderly, having more cleaning supplies, needing to have everything lined up and organized so that one feels one's environment is predictable and therefore safe."

Curious about that messy room? To find out their findings on liberals, read more.

Liberals:

Lefties have spaces that are colorful and filled with books about travel, ethnicity, feminism, and music.
They have music collections covering folk, classic, and modern rock.
While they're rocking out to the above collection, they're looking at their art supplies, movie tickets, and travel memorabilia.
The study's authors say, "It's pleasurable for liberals to think more. They gravitate toward art, to things that are not as concrete."

Do some of these conclusions sound. . . stereotypical? Not everyone is on board with the science behind the conclusions. Political scientist Evan Charney, a fellow at the Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy at Duke University, says,
"Confirmation bias has flooded into this [area of] study. I'm a liberal but I don’t believe liberals are superior people or that there's an obvious correlation between personality and political ideology. [The studies] take the most value-laden language and treat it as if you're talking about a left-spinning or right-spinning neutron. They are invariably going to reflect the value assumptions of a society-in this case, academic liberals."

Conservatives, are you home making a McCain/Palin quilt in your brightly lit room? What do you make of this? Good science?

Source

Naomi Wolf: Angelina Archetype of Liberated Woman

TresSugar — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 04:00:00 -0700

"Her persona hits an unprecedented level of global resonance - and makes women want to be with her and be her at the same time - because she has created a life narrative that is not just personal. Rather, it is archetypal. And the archetype is one that really, for the first time in modern culture, brings together almost every aspect of female empowerment and liberation."

- Naomi Wolf in Harper's Bazaar on why so many women find Angelina Jolie intriguing, beyond the fact of her beauty. Jolie, Wolf argues, is proof on some level that women can have it all. She’s a mother, a sex symbol, a humanitarian, and has been in both conventional and unconventional relationships. Finally, she seems unapologetic and has yet to be “punished” for her experiments as the stars of the past were.

Source

Front Page: Bush Says Life Out of Office Is Liberating

TresSugar — Fri, 22 May 2009 08:00:24 -0700

While delivering a high school commencement speech, George W. Bush told students that it's liberating being out of office, even though he has to do things like pick up dog poop. - MSNBC
Malls across the US have become ghost towns thanks to hard times. - Wall Street Journal
Bill Gates thinks technology will help get the US out of the recession. - Reuters
Critics are dismissing a congressman's proposal to make 2010 the "year of the Bible" as either unconstitutional or a waste of time. - Politico
A town known for killings by the KKK during the civil rights era has elected its first African American mayor. - New York Times

Source