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Kudos to an Anti-Anorexia Fashion Designer
Tweet Share on Facebook September 28, 2007 Comment (1)It takes a lot to be shocking online anymore, but Italian fashion designer Nolita (short for Northern Little Italy) has accomplished this feat. The firm celebrated Italian fashion week with a series of billboards and newspaper ads sporting a naked anorexic model.
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Eradicate Poverty to End Insurance Crisis
Tweet Share on Facebook September 26, 2007 Comment (2)Let me state for the record the following:
1. The expansion of federal funding for children's health insurance is by far not the most costly item forcing the United States into record deficit territory. The Los Angeles Times reports that the U.S. treasury secretary has asked once more to raise the debt ceiling (the amount the United States can borrow, mainly from abroad) beyond its current $8.96 trillion (with a "t") level.
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SCHIP Is Key Battle in War on Poverty
Tweet Share on Facebook September 24, 2007 CommentWith SCHIP (the State Children's Health Insurance Program) set to expire next week, the Democratic Congress and President Bush are locked, pitbull-like, in a nasty debate over funding for uninsured children.
Sure it's a tear-jerker. No one wants to see children go without healthcare. But we as a nation must step back during this face-off to ask why is it that, absent a resolution to the debate, some 10 million American children (more than 6 million already on SCHIP and an additional 4 million whom congressional Democrats would like to add to the program) will be left uninsured? And what can we do to prevent future generations from becoming uninsured?
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On Tax Cuts vs. Healthcare, Obama's on Track
Tweet Share on Facebook September 21, 2007 CommentI'm all for cutting taxes, and I'm all for making it easier on hardworking, middle-class Americans. But there are some major-league rubs in Sen. Barack Obama's plan.
The first question with Democrats is always, how do they define middle class? For Obama, it seems to be families making up to $75,000 per year. A family of four living on that much money in Fallon, Nev., would qualify as upper middle class if not, in some circles, as upper class. But a family of four trying to live on that amount of money in Manhattan or Los Angeles or San Francisco or Chicago would not be making it, period. In other words, Democrats' definitions of "middle class" must be thoroughly examined and radically altered to be brought into reality.
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Healthcare vs. Tax Cuts
Tweet Share on Facebook September 19, 2007 CommentDemocratic primary voters now have a clear choice: subsidized taxes to provide healthcare for all Americans versus lower taxes on the middle class. Barack Obama's promise this week to deliver up to $85 billion in annual tax relief for middle-class Americans is the type of plan that has the potential to stop the so-called unstoppable Hillary Clinton.
The gut of Obama's plan is to offer a $1,000 annual tax credit for middle-class American families with two earners. This, he says, would cut taxes for 150 million Americans, or roughly half the population.
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A Lesson on Menopause and Diet
Tweet Share on Facebook September 17, 2007 CommentI had the pleasure recently of meeting one Ginny Gong at a chichi reception honoring women in the arts. Gong is national president of OCA, the Organization of Chinese Americans. She kept me rapt for about a half-hour, comparing the health and habits of Asian-American women with those of other American women.
She informed me, for example, that Chinese women and indeed Chinese-American women do not experience menopause. According to Gong, they do not exhibit the same symptoms (hot flashes, weight gain, thinning of the skin) that American women typically endure when their periods stop. Why?
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Sex Bias in the Sales Force
Tweet Share on Facebook September 14, 2007 CommentThis week, the Wall Street Journal ran a front-page story about a gender bias lawsuit filed against a data-storage company by two saleswomen.
Headlined "Tech and Testosterone; a Data-Storage Titan Confronts Bias Claims," the story recounted what it's like for women to work in the testosterone-laden technology sales industry.
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Antigay Slurs Aren't So Outmoded
Tweet Share on Facebook September 12, 2007 CommentOne would think and hope that in this day and age, such a campaign would not be necessary.
But the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation has organized a "Be an Ally and a Friend" campaign to persuade straight people to join in the fight against anti-LGBT prejudice. The campaign consists of video public service announcements and pointers on how to wage the battle.
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A Real Downside to Virtual Relationships
Tweet Share on Facebook September 10, 2007 Comment (6)It could be said the website Second Life is a harmless way for people to live out their fantasies in a virtual community. It could also be said that Second Life and other virtual worlds where real people spend voluminous amounts of time pretending to be something they're not are sad commentaries on the state of American culture.
Second Life is not the first nor is it the only such website.
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Opt-Out Revolution Fizzles
Tweet Share on Facebook September 7, 2007 Comment (2)So much for the opt-out revolution.
Now we discover more evidence that the so-called revolution, in which career-oriented women ditch their hard-earned work-world advancement as soon as children come along, is media mythology. A new Gallup Poll finds more American women prefer working outside the home over tending to it—a trend reversal Gallup pollsters call significant.
