The war in Iraq has to end. To support our troops, we have to bring them home. But how? That’s been the big question in my mind. Fortunately, 45 Democratic challengers to Congress have come up with a plan. Now they need to sell it. Arianna Huffington has some suggestions about that. In the meantime, we need to spread the word that there is a plan out there that was endorsed by a former assistant secretary of defense under Ronald Reagan, Dr. Lawrence Korb: “Bringing our troops home is the first, but not the only step that must be taken … Continue reading »
Mar 312008
There are two aspects I want to focus on in my summary of Jennifer Hecht’s Happiness Myths: Wisdom gathered from history about happiness and the influence of money on our society. The book is very well written and contains much more insights, gained through taking a historical perspective, than I will touch on here.
Kay Trimberger has written an interesting article on the differences between the Indian and the U.S. women’s movements as it pertains to single women. Trimberger traveled earlier this year to India to attend a Women’s Studies conference in New Delhi. She used that opportunity to find out more about the Indian women’s movement, in particular why it fights for the rights of single women and tries to bring all single women together (“single, deserted and divorced women”). She writes: Social structural differences in how single women relate to the institution of marriage might help explain why single women have been … Continue reading »
Mar 242008
Reading Stephanie Coontz‘ Marriage, A History is a fascinating journey through time. Coontz’ main argument is that the shift from “yoke mates” to “soul mates” that started in the late 1700s contained the kernel for the demise of marriage. Her historical account also calls into question whether marriage itself is still serving a valuable purpose in our modern world. It seems to me that it’s time to move beyond the idea of marriage. That seems to be the logical conclusion of the ideas of the Enlightenment and the shift toward the pursuit of individual happiness and equality between all people. It … Continue reading »
Mar 222008
What quantum mechanics is to the New Age movement, neuroscience seems to be to sexism: Neuroscienctific terminology can be used to lend false credibility to sexist arguments. Like: men’s and women’s brains are so different that their traditional roles are based in the neurological firing of our brains. Cordelia Fine wrote an interesting – and upsetting – article taking apart the “findings” from neuroscience popularized in recent books (thanks to the Feminist Philosophers for blogging on Fine’s article!). Here are some excerpts from Fine’s excellent article (please see her article for all citations): Unfortunately, scientific accuracy and commonsense are often … Continue reading »
You’ve no doubt seen the headlines: Marriage keeps your blood pressure low. Well, at least when you’re happy in the marriage. Yet, even with that after-thought qualifier, the media got it wrong (again). Bella DePaulo took the time to actually read the original published article. Here are some of the things she found out: There were NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES in blood pressure [ when averaged across the 24 hours of the observational period] between the married people and the single people. There were NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES in blood pressure between the married people and the single people during waking hours. … Continue reading »
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