MY POLITICAL BET

I bet that both Attorney General Holder and Secretary of Defense Hagel will be in office until 2016.

Both have resigned, but have stated that they will stay in office until their replacement has been confirmed.

In this case, "confirmed" means that the President appoints the new prospective office holder and the US Senate "confirms" the appointment.

Although the Senate has new rules about being able to confirm presidential appointments with just a simple majority, I do not believe that it applies to appointments at the cabinet level.

I do not think that the Republicans will agree with ANY of the replacements that President Obama appoints.

When I was in high school, I read a book called, Advise and Consent, about the confirmation of a presidential appointee. I do not know if it has held up to the test of time. It did teach me that a confirmation is a serious political event.

The Republicans are trying to act as a monolithic group. The prospective Republican presidential candidates tend to turn against any of their leaders that gets too far in front of the pack.

Does anyone want to take my bet?

BARBIE BODY IMAGE

I feel SO guilty that I let my daughter have Barbie dolls. I thought that there was NO WAY that a doll could affect my daughter's body image of herself.

Many girls were not affected by Barbie doll image. But too many TV women look exactly like a plastic Barbie, complete with big, unbelievable breasts. Their plastic surgery faces are so identical that I can only tell them apart if the surgeon made a visible mistake. I think they are removing teeth and ribs in order to be a more perfect Barbie. They are certainly dieting to the point of starvation.

The worst is the Barbie shoes. Five inch heels are stupid, unsafe and VERY BAD FOR THE BODY. I am SO DONE with the women detectives on TV who wear these heals while investigating crimes. THERE IS NO WAY that ANY intelligent investigator would wear shoes that are basically like wearing shackles.

What is REALLY WEIRD is that men seem to like these plastic women. I guess some men are attracted to women partly as a trophy to dangle in front of their friends and enemies.

If women want to be accepted as serious people, then they need to dress and act like serious people. A doctor recently said that no man, who wants to be taken seriously, wears clothes exposing legs and arms. The doctor is right.

I know that when we were liberated, we wanted to be able to choose what we wore. I have no objection to anyone wearing whatever they want in a party setting. But in a business setting, it is STUPID and unprofessional to wear mini skirts, plunging necklines and crippling shoes.

BARBIE IS A DOLL, NOT A ROLE MODEL.

WINTER HOLIDAYS

I am starting to celebrate the winter holidays. For me, this means Christmas shopping.

Cavepersons celebrated this time of year. There are caves in Arizona where the transit of the sun is neatly marked so people could know exactly what day would be the shortest day of the year. Stonehenge famously marks the summer and winter solstice.

Anthropologists think that solstice information was necessary for agriculture. I think it was simple fear of the dark and wanting assurance that the sun would return to light the way. It is an easy step to light a bonfire to help the sun want to come back.

A large portion of the world does some celebrating at this time of year.

So I am going to a holiday theme faire, where I hope there will be hand made crafts, such as wooden toys, silver rings, bone buttons, and lots of great food.

It is important to take time to celebrate with your fellow humans.

AN EARTH ROBOT IS ON A COMET!

It is like every Earthling will get to ride the tail of a comet.

Hooray! Hazza! Good work Europe!

THE FALL OF THE WALL

My children could not understand why I was SO HAPPY when the Berlin Wall fell. I did not know how to explain that an entire country had been a prison.

So I told them that I had been on the other side of The Wall. I went on a tour of East Berlin from West Berlin. The entire city of East Berlin looked totally empty, with almost no cars on the streets. The guide said that it was a holiday.

Even the museum was empty. We were quickly shown the bust of Nefertiti, and then were told to go immediately to the bus. But I saw the fabled gates of Babylon, and could not resist a quick side trip to see them more closely. When the guide found me, she was trembling with fear. As if losing me would cost her life.

On the way back to West Berlin, we had plenty of time to see The Wall as our bus was searched for people trying to escape into the West. The Wall looked like prison walls, with barbed wire on top, guard towers, guards with machine guns. A large mirror was bought out to search under the bus.

Since then, I have visited several US prisons. NONE of them had anywhere near the number of machine guns per yard as did The Berlin Wall.

If you use just intimidation to govern, then eventually you have to imprison all of your people to keep them from escaping into freedom. Or else all that can escape, do escape. Leaving you to govern the ones who have figuratively crawled into bed and pulled up the covers.

Now, twenty five years later, the old Soviets are trying intimidation one more time.

If I were them, I would worry that their aging nuclear weapons might blow up in their faces.

DEMOCRACY'S DOWN SIDE

The Republicans DID take over both the US Senate and House of Representatives.

When I am done crying into my beer, I will try to find issues where a compromise is possible.

IS DOES NOT HELP to use hyperbole and name calling.

I think the war on drugs is a racist policy, because so many chocolate people are convicted of drug crimes. It is important to call the policy racist, but to NOT call the politicians racist.

The nasty name the Republicans called Senator Udall is NOT helpful. Senator Udall was trying to give women control over their own bodies. To call him an insulting name is to lower a political debate into unproductive name calling.

Let us try to keep the debate civil. I will do my best to not use nasty name calling.

To clarify. Democrats already have compromised on health care. Most of us wanted universal health care, like Medicare, for everybody. We agreed to accept a plan Romney implemented in Massachusetts, but we are not happy with having to give up universal health care. 

Republicans did not compromise on health care, they just want it repealed. 

The art of compromise is a tough challenge. Often, in a good compromise, both side are unhappy, because they did not get everything they wanted.

For instance, I want complete control over my own body, but I am willing to accept the compromise in Roe v Wade. It is also important to NOT forget the horrors of back alley abortions.

Getting everything you want is NOT compromise.

GOOD LUCK TO THE USA. We are going to need it. :)