Category Archives: News and Politics Blogs

Two Cents Tuesday

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I have decided to launch a new series on cool mom: Two Cents Tuesday.  It’s all the things that swirl around in my head as I drive along or make breakfast, but can’t really work up  a full lather about or a blog post.  I’m modeling this on Herb Caen’s legendary column from the SF Chronicle …, sort of Andy Rooney, but I pluck my eyebrows.  Really, Andy, all those years on TV and know one told you that you needed a weed wacker for those eyeballs?

Obama

I don’t really understand why everyone is so mad or disappointed with him.  Everything he has done he pretty much said he would.  I wasn’t happy about beefing up our money and humans to Afghanistan, but he never said he wouldn’t. All those big “Hope” and “you are the change you have been waiting for” stuff, I never took that literally or as a sign of a huge difference between him and any other mainstream Dem.  It was all code words for “get rid of Bush and Cheney and their ilk”. At least that’s what I heard.

Gay marriage

Okay, this  needs some reframing.  One side says, civil rights, the other says it’s a religious commitment that is saved for men and women only.  Listen, here is what marriage is:  a legal contract. Someone can put their own religious or emotional meaning on it, but when marriages break up there is a reason people call lawyers: because it’s a legal contract. ( In case you didn’t get that the first time.)  So, when my friends, male and female, harp about what they have to pay their soon to be ex’s I always say, “well, you did sign a legal, binding agreement.  You married someone in a community property state with no fault divorce, so it doesn’t matter if he/she makes your skin crawl, you have to pay.”

We don’t exclude gays or Mormon’s or Scientoligist or anyone from creating an LLC, or entering into business agreements, making a will so, why would marriage be any different?  Sorry, yes on 8 er’s the train has left the station on this one.  Ultimately, society and the law will allow gay people to marry.

Emails for money

Every day I get no less than 5 pleas for money.  They are always poorly written.  They sound like Balki from “Perfect Strangers”.  Either there is an inheritance waiting for me.  Or they they need to get money out of their country and they need help laundering it.  I prefer the Viagra spam, at least it’s honest…well except for the claim that their penis will grow 3 inches longer.  Who is answering these things?  Because a bunch of Nigerians sit down and write them for some reason.  Better to go call up QVC and unload some cash there.  I’m guessing they prey on people who have little education and little grasp of English themselves.  Isn’t there a way to stop these?

Example below, supposedly from a bank in England:
Infact I thank God very much for all the movement I made, every thing goes normally. As for our agreement with the DILOMAT COURIER SERVICE COMPANY UK they promised that your consignment will leave this Country any monment Next Week,But the Director of the DIPLOMATIC COURIER SERVICE COMPANY said that they need your contacts informations to able them meet up with you immediately they Company Diplomat Agent arrived to your Country.

Since when do bankers thank God?  Sometimes I am tempted to return with red pencil like a teacher and correct all the mistakes.  But, where do I begin?  Besides, I have another email here waiting for my attention, something about horny ladies.

Which world to trust? Inception,Sherrod

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I’ve joined the millions by seeing “Inception”. I enjoyed it and it is a brain teaser. Partly because of the plot and partly because of plot holes. My mom review would that at times it was hard for me to sit through since a main theme is DiCaprio’s character wants to get back to his children.  A young girl and younger boy.  Just like my set.  It made me do a manicure in the theatre ( rip off the tops of my nails) and I very nearly ran out of the theater to go home an see them.

Didn’t help that Vivien was so upset that we left her with a sitter, but jeez, I never see movies and it was just one afternoon.  But, as the tension in the film goes on and on I could see her unhappy face standing on the front porch I wanted to escape the dream scape, toss the keys to Mark and Oliver and go running home. Or call a cab. When we did get home she was sitting and laughing with my mom.  Glad I didn’t go chasing her down several levels ( that’s an in joke for people who have seen the film).

The Shirley Sherrod debacle caused a lot of talking heads to say that this shows that “race is a big issue in America”, or “Obama bungled again” or “what kind of name is Vilsack anyway?”  But, I think the big take away, the teachable moment is this: don’t trust bloggers.

I say this as one.  But c’mon, there is no journalistic ethics in the blog world.  I don’t have an editor going over my copy or fact checking.  The O in online stands for Opinion.  That is what it is.  Take it all with a more than a grain of salt. Trusting the veracity of an assertion from a non affliated blogger ( meaning, it’s not a Time reporter, extra) is like thinking some guy in Nigeria does have your lottery winnings.

Idol and Water

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I felt the Cool in my url last week thanks to two outings.  The darling Soyan On, stylist for Idol, got me tickets to see an Idol dress rehearsal.  That is at 2pm the day of the taping of the show.  Waiting in the hot sun with masses of people wearing black (I was also wearing black, not very original) wasn’t much fun, but when we were let in we saw the mentor for the week Harry Connick Jr onstage.  I have always thought him attractive, but ALMOST LOST MY PANTIES seeing him in person.  Cha-ris-ma!

Ryan Seacrest doesn’t dress up, but the Idols do and they largely run the show true to time.  They redo some things.  There is a hilarious array of fake judges.  Fake Randy calls everyone dog, Fake Ellen likes everything, Fake Kara gushes.  All true to life.  Fake Simon barely gets to speak, so not so true to life.

For Idol watchers it was interesting, because Casey did sound MUCH better in rehearsals, than he did in the show later, which Harry Connick Jr told Ryan later in the live show.  I screamed from my granny gown in my room, “That’s right, he did.”

Actually they all sounded better in person.  TV kills the sound.

Later that day, Mark and I were picked up in a brand new Lexus and taken to a gallery not far from us for a dinner sponsored by Fiji water.   A rep from their company had asked me if MP would attend when we were at the Palm Desert food festival.  Being half in the bag as I was (see earlier post on that) I said, “SURE”. As it got closer, we were both like, “What’s this dinner?” I wasn’t sure what to expect, so when we arrived and I saw candles and champagne I was so glad Mark had worn his suit and I had worn my textured hosiery.  It was on one of MP’s few nights off so that was cool.  They called it Tastemakers of LA.  Other chef’s were there, Susan Fenniger, Mary Sue Miliken, lovely gals, both.  The last winner of Top Chef and Ilan Hall, who won TP before.  I made Mark twitter about him and generally promoted him around the room, so I will try not to be bruised that he didn’t return my email after he said he would be thrilled if my dinner club came to his new restaurant, The Gorbals, next month.  Sigh, whatev.

The dinner was also benefiting Meals on Wheels, a charity Mark has worked with for years. The dinner was cooked by Nobu.  He was there himself.  Pretty cool.

There were some designer reps there, but I didn’t know that until later.  Something I love more than fashion was about to eclipse all other wattage in the room.  In walked Mayor Villaraigosa.  I, being the daughter of a former local politician, waved him over to us ASAP.  We talked for while about wine, food, city deficits, the usual.  Very cool.  Then figuring we had monopolized His Honor enough we drifted toward the tables for dinner.  There were only three tables in the room full of chunky, rough hewn wood, concrete floors and rusted chandeliers.  I saw that the Mayor was at the head of one of the tables and who was seated next to him? My husband.  Well, hello, “A” table! I was on the right side of MP and across from me was Eric Garcetti, President of the City Council and his darling mother Sukey (for  those out of LA, you might remember his father Gil Garcetti was the D.A. during the O.J. trial). After 35 years working in restaurants MP seems to know everyone.  He embraced Mrs. Garcetti.  I’m thinking, I didn’t know you knew them.  Ends up her daughter had worked in one of his kitchens many years ago.

A rep from Fiji water was on my right and I asked her, “What’s this dinner for?”  She said, “We want you to have a good association with Fiji water.”  Well,it was a great evening of intelligent conversation and I regaled them with my tales of growing up with local politics, they could relate to the battles and such.  And Council-member Garcetti and I compared primary stories, he slogging through the snow in Iowa for Obama, me eating Chimichanga’s while working for Clinton.

My mom-self came out when I found out Garcetti was a Rhodes scholar, Naval reserve and he and his wife have fostered children.  I turned to his mom, “How did you raise this kid? I have to duplicate it.”

“Hold them them close and then set them free,” she said cheerfully.  Nice, but there has to be more to it then that.

We stayed late enjoying the hobnobbing with bold face names who were all fun and down to earth.  It was a good association.

Oh-lympics

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Are they on? Because I’m not watching. If I didn’t get my funny twitter updates from the Onion I might not know they were going on. Well, I did notice Hardball on MSNBC has been pre-empted. Unless Chris Matthews has taken up hockey and no one told me. Ha!

Team Swiss
Creative Commons License photo credit: Chase N.

I usually get into it at some point, but naw. Not happening. Maybe it was the public death that tainted it for me. (By the way, it was hard to find a link that didn’t have the picture of the poor man being thrown to his death.)

It was so awful how they showed the Georgian luger being killed. I mean once they knew he had died did they have to show it over and over? Have some respect.

Are you into the Olympics this year? What up closes and personals am I missing? Maybe because I have started reading again, I can’t fit it in right now.

It’s News! Sort of.

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On the eve of The State of the Union speech by President Obama, I was trying to watch some political shows per usual.

“Vivien, let me watch the end of ‘Hardball,’ and then I will play dress up dolls with you.” I played dress up dolls while Hardball was on. Compromise.

I’m sure you are like me. You sit at home watching the news or reading it online, and you think,

“No, no you aren’t getting it.”

or “Um, that’s not how I see it.”

So here are a few of these random thoughts in no particular order.  I would love to hear from you about when you challenge the conventional wisdom of a news story. Political, pop culture, whatever.

QUIT CALLING IT A HUG! Florida Governor Charlie Crist did NOT hug Obama. It was nothing like that pathetic shot of McCain Squeezing George W Bush like his momma after she has been out of town for a few days. Crist grabbed Obama’s arm while they shook hands. It wasn’t even the “Straight Man hug,” the embrace while they each loudly pat each other on the back. Crist may be an overly tan moderate who has gotten on the wrong side of some conservatives, but news people stop saying he hugged a guy he didn’t.

MASSACHUSETTS SENT OBAMA A MESSAGE TO SLOW DOWN ON HEALTH CARE.

Yeah, not really. The Bay state sent a message that charisma plus retail politics still rules the day. That race was decided the same way most are: who is more likable? Who would you rather have a beer with? Martha Coakly seemed cold and officious and couldn’t talk about baseball (among other gaffes). Scott Brown is a hunky, likable pro choice Republican. He handled questions very well and the first person he called when he was elected was Vicki Kennedy. That’s a smart politician (weird comments about his daughters came after he was elected, oops). Yeah, the economy still stinks, people get nervous about some big proposals, but I think if I had met Scott Brown years ago I probably would have slept with him.  I’ll vote for that… in my mind.

WILL OBAMA STOP TALKING ABOUT HEALTH CARE AND START TALKING ABOUT JOBS?

I may scream if I hear some hack pundit say this one more time. Way to allow the health care business–and it is a business– to set the debate. It does have to do with jobs, it does have to do with job creation. If a business is crushed by the cost of insuring their employees, will they hire more people? No. Will they try to hire less employees and only pick up freelance people whom they don’t have to pay benefits too?  It’s already happening. If health care costs eat up the little profit margin a small business has, will they stay in business? The costs are soaring. I’m still perplexed at how cost containment isn’t more front and center for the debate on both sides. I’m not saying the Obama plan can fix these issues. I am a big hair less Dane or Swede in my heart when it comes to health care, I’m for cradle to grave, but fat chance getting that in the US. Bottom line, health care debate is NOT separate from jobs.

OCTOMOM PLEASE KEEP YOUR CLOTHES ON

Barf, who wants to see that head case parade her newly bounced back body? Not me. Right, I’m sure you are mother of the year with your 14 kids and your workout routine. Good for you. Go away.

And most importantly,

MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

Can we please discuss how our emphasis on being a war machine bleeds education and safety from our kids, robs the middle class of resources, and leaves our mentally ill and poor to wonder the streets and annoy as we walk out of Trader Joe’s? One doesn’t have to be a dyed-in-the-wool hippie to see that these huge companies that make the weapons and support staff (Blackwater anyone?) hide behind our patriotism and support our troops sloganeering. It’s called war profiteering, and it’s so ingrained in our country, few see it, and less speak about it. It’s not a mainstream discussion, and this mother thinks it should be.

What are some of your fist pounders or head scratchers?

Just cuz he’s cute…

Obama and the Princess

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I had planned to lace into President Obama this morning. As I waited for Vivien to fall asleep in her pop-up castle my mother gave her for her birthday, I composed the blog in my head. I would start out saying, “Look, you all know I was a Hillary supporter during the primary, but when that went south I threw my support (like I’m Al Gore and being sought for my backing) to Obama.”  I never thought he was the transformative figure others saw. I’m old enough to have been jumping up and down for Bill Clinton and though I love me some Bill, his flaws are well documented. So, I feel like I had been through this before.

I really liked Obama’s personal biography. Single mom, abandoned by dad, involved grandparents who sent him to the best high school while living in an apartment. And throw in first president of color and I’m in. Not to mention, I cried in 2000 and 2004 with Bush/Cheney. I was going door to door in Florida for Kerry, so unlike the “Yes I can” people, I didn’t need a cult of personality to know that Bush was not smart enough to be president and that Bush/Cheney are the kind of military industrial complex hacks that Eisenhower warned us about. And one of the big shovels Obama used to bury Hillary was his opposition to the Iraq war (which I never supported) and her vote to authorize forces. I used to argue, “But he was in the Illnois Senate at the time. He might have voted differently had he been in DC at the time.” No, the Obama mamas and others were so forceful at Vivien’s ballet class, I started talking about the weather.

So, now President Change is authorizing 30 thousand troops to Afghanistan. A war we have lost lives and spent billions on for 9 years. In a place that has no victory. I spoke yesterday to a former Marine officer who works in my building. He had tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq. I always say, “Thank you for your service, and I’m sure I’m talking out  of my ass, but here is what I think; I really want to know what you think.” In short, he said unless we bomb the place to smithereens there is no victory in Afghanistan. They have home field advantage. They shoot from high up the mountains. And the “bad guys” mingle with the civilians so the enemy is not always clear (Vietnam anyone?). And they move into different countries when the heat is on and come back when they can. And in Iraq they are told not to shoot at mosques, but the insurgents (during Faloujah) went into the mosques and shot at them. And then there was the story of during a siege when they ran out of ammo.

Me: “You must have been so terrified.”

“Anyone who says they weren’t are lying,” the vet said. Finally they airlifted ammo and ordered air strikes on the mosque where they were being shot from.

We know the soldiers will do what is asked of them. We knew Bush wasn’t a student of history. But Obama seemed to be. So, we are still in Iraq, escalating Afghanistan, and the GOP is using this as an excuse to not fund health care, which is something that we all need. Americans do die, become sick, and go bankrupt because they aren’t covered. I support the war tax because I think unless there is a draft the cost of war will not come home to Americans and thus no political pressure will be applied.

So, except that Sarah Palin doesn’t get to fly in Air Force 2, what’s been the advantage to electing Obama over McCain, in regards to foreign policy?

Anyway, look, that’s the rant I had planned. I don’t want anymore of our soliders to die, and I don’t want to leave my children with a debt for a folly. But instead, my friend called early this morning and said she had $100 tickets for free to a special screening of The Princess and the Frog. The princesses would be there. Would Vivien want to go?  Would she! So, I’m scrambling to get showered and people fed and out the door.  But later I’m really going to speak my mind.

Shhh, Mommy’s Watching Tributes

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Ted Kennedy’s passing is the kind of event that makes me want to just park myself in front of the tube and take in the tributes and old news footage. The great speeches, the sad face at funerals, the neck brace after his greatest moral failure. Only to be punctuated by reading articles on line and in the paper. But as a mother one rarely gets to do that. But I did get a bit of it… yippee (hate to say yippee around a death, but there it is). Rex took the longest nap of his young life, and Vivien was happily playing at her neighbor friends.

Then I heard that Domminck Dunne died. Dunne and Kennedy seem so different, but they had a terrible common thread. Both of their lives were marked by the murder of at least one close family member. I always enjoyed reading Dunne’s essays in Vanity Fair. Great, compelling dish. His interest in court cases and crime took root because of his daughter Dominique’s murder (and the short sentence given her boyfriend/killer). (Sidebar: My husband knew the man who killed Dunne’s daughter Dominique. They worked together many years ago. Which is a whole other weird tale of someone who can seem normal and then so thoroughly snap.)

Dunne will be Farrah to Ted Kennedy’s MJ though. The next week will be be dominated by Ted Kennedy’s passing. And of course it makes me think how his brothers would have lived to be gray-haired elder statesman as well if only…
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Creative Commons License photo credit: bradleygee

When I was eating up the Michael Jackson coverage I could simply say to Vivien, “He was a famous singer,”  and she got that that was somehow special or important. Today when Vivien came home and was wanting my attention and I said, “But Vivien, one minute. Ted Kennedy died. He was a senator; his brother was a president.” I didn’t say, “His family was iconic, tragic, troubled, great, and we all wanted to be invited to the Compound.”  I don’t think she would have gotten that.

I don’t think she knows what a Senator is.

But she has to learn one day.

More Than Half of the Sky

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For anyone who missed the NY Times Sunday magazine, boy, was it an eye opener. Nicholas Kristof, who I love following on Twitter, and his wife Sheryl WuDunn have written a book called Half of the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. In it, they say human rights for women is the paramount moral challenge of this century. Here is the excerpt they had in the magazine. Now, they aren’t talking about Title IX or maternity leave. All important things, but they are writing about the need to address the severe brutality and even murder that women and young girls face in many developing nations.
burqua4
Creative Commons License photo credit: annrkiszt

A lot of the horrors I have read before, but there are still more doozies. Awful. And some of the solutions are so easy, micro-lending. It’s very humbling to read their work. I was raised a feminist, but it’s easy to go about life and not deal with how horribly women are treated in many parts of the world. There is growing recognition that if you improve the lot of women you improve the society at large. That’s why I say it’s MORE than half the sky. Also, in the essay, they say men of the developing nation they don’t spend money as wisely as women do. If a women gets $5 she will buy a mosquito tent so her babies don’t get malaria; they guy uses the $5 for drink.

The whole magazine had great stuff, including a good article by Lisa Belkin (who guests on Momversation with me) about how in the days of suffrage, wealthy women did not support women (I would guess it was because they didn’t control the purse strings), but now wealthy women are supporting women’s causes.

I’m going to investigate the best way to effect change in this regard… knowing I’m distracted, selfish, and have a short attention span. Maybe finding a place to donate to a micro-lending organization. Let me know if you have any ideas.

A Grievous Loss

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I don’t know if this is news outside of Los Angeles, but it’s a story that has a lot of meaning in our home.

A very nice 17 year old girl was killed Friday. She went to the same school members of my family go to, so it seems a little closer to us, even though I didn’t know Lily Burk. But one thing I have learned of late is when you read about something bad in the paper that something bad happened to someone, it really has. I know that seems obvious, but when I read bad things, sad, hard things I think I try to think of ways in which they don’t affect me. To try to keep me safe. Like, “Well, I wouldn’t have gone hang gliding in a rainstorm.”  Or, “Well maybe they got some insurance money for their house in the hurricane zone.”

Being a victim of the Madoff thing taught me that. And I certainly can’t detach from this story. She was only a few miles from where we live, it was broad daylight when some piece of shit abducted her to try to get some money.  Her body was found the next day.

She is an only child and the pain her parents are in is unimaginable. My sister said today she couldn’t sleep last night for thinking of their pain. Mark and I did sleep, but when we would wake they were the first the thing we thought of. It’s too scary, too sad.

How would one ever get past this? Really, why would one? A death is hard in of itself, but their child was murdered. A National Merit Scholar, she had the lead in the school play, she was somebody. There are no words, and I can’t help but personalize it. I can’t but think, “How do you keep your children safe?”  She was driving errands in what is reported to be the the third safest city in America (NYC and San Jose are ahead). She wasn’t a solider who died saving others. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

All that love and care her parents lavished on her. The joy she brought them… ah, I ‘m sorry I’m not funny today. Another day… but my heart is heavy for this family and terrified for my own.