Thursday, March 31, 2022

What is a Woman, Really? Part II A Level Playing Field

 

Stepping back upon my soapbox for Part II of what it means to be a biological woman in 2022. Biological females have two ‘X’ chromosomes.  Biological males have  one ‘X’ and one ‘Y’ chromosome. To date scientists have been unable to alter this biological phenomenon for transgender individuals. Ultimately, this biological factor identifies one sex. Hormone treatment and surgery can, to a great extent, alter one’s appearance and physiological traits. However, I’ve not read any medical studies that have concluded a transgender woman can have functioning ovaries, Fallopian tubes, a uterus, and experience the monthly menstrual cycle, incubate a fetus and give birth. How many transgender women have spent s hours lying on the sofa with a heating pad while overdosing on extra strength Tylenol because of menstrual cramps? Or worried if it was safe to wear white pants? 

Women throughout history have been marginalized, ostracized, isolated, or considered evil temptresses. They’ve been stigmatized  as ‘unclean’ during monthly courses. Some religions requiring cleansing before returning to marital duties.

Women still have to be smarter, more attractive, better dressed, work harder, and overcome stereotypes to achieve promotions in many industries. 

No doubt the decision one makes to transition to another sec is a painful one filled with questions, doubt, confusion and awareness that they are going to experience discrimination from some unaware people. I admire anyone that seeks to be true to one’s self. But, those born with male chromosomes have different biological features that prevent transgender women from participating in womens competitive sports on a fair playing field.

Be all that you can be. But, think about fairness. Lia Thomas did not play fairly in collegiate swimming. Amy Schneider performed with excellence on a level playing field when she delivered an amazing performance on Jeopardy. Amy succeeded using her beautiful mind. Lia succeeded ungraciously using a man’s strength and physical prowess in a woman’s sport that requires physical strength, endurance and lung capacity. There is a difference.

FYI! We loved The Amy Show! 

Sunday, March 27, 2022

Movies to Watch Over & Over

 I grew up at a time when movies filled a huge entertainment hole. I did not live close enough to a venue for live theater. Instead, my dad would sit up with me into the wee hours of the morning while I watched classic films and dreamed of different worlds.

I’m a huge fan of classic movies and some modern flicks that celebrate triumph of the human spirit. I invite you to share with me movies that still speak to you, films you can watch over and over.

Just a few that make my list in no particular order:

The Help

Casablanca

The Thin Man

It Happened One Night

Four Weddings & A Funeral

Pretty Woman

Little Women

Psycho

West Side Story

12 Years A Slave

Moonlight

Apollo 13

Young Frankenstein 

Schindlers List

Silence of the Lambs

To Kill a Mockingbird 

Apocalypse Now

Raiders of the Losr Ark

The n The Heat of the Night

Pride & Prejudice

Fargo

Sunset Boulevard

Inherent The Wind

The Best Years of our Lives

Glory

Carmen Jones

Hidden Figures

Jezebel

Annie Hall

Rear Window

All About Eve

Dead Poets Society

The English Patient

Citizen Kane

The Seventh Seal

Das Boot

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

Ben Hur

Gaslight

The Maltese Falcon

Training Day

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Daughters of the Dust

Monty Python/ Holy Grail

Coming To America

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Autumn Sonata

So, this is my preliminary list on the day we are ignothe Academy Aawards to watch Hidden Figures yet again. 



Thursday, March 24, 2022

What is a Woman? Really? Part I

 Helen Reddy’s anthem, “ I Am Women”  which debuted in 1971 set the hearts of every woman and young girl looking for agency and a chance for equal opportunity in what was a man’s world hope and courage in what we hoped was a brave new world. 

While I can appreciate and readily accept transgender individuals in my sphere and will argue with my last breath for one to live his/her/their authentic lives, biology is what it is. And it is offensive to those of us who fought for acceptance to top universities, a chance to be hired for a job that was considered the purview of men, compete in fair sports events against other women, the right to apply for a mortgage without a husband or father as co-signer, get a credit card without a male co-signer, wear trousers, get a law degree, successfully run for political office, not be fired for aging, or just be accepted as an individual American with the same rights as men.

I was born in 1959. At that time women were expected to quit their jobs as teachers, nurses or secretaries after they married to take care of the house, husband and children. Divorce was unacceptable. Women could not have bank accounts. Unmarried women were pitied and considered ‘spinsters’. A woman without a husband was considered a lesser being. When young women went to university, it was be,Ives most were looking for a MRS degree. When I applied for my first adult job in 1980 I was a ‘quota’ hire. I was the first woman hired in Indianapolis, Indiana as an outside insurance claims adjuster by the now defunct Commercial Union Assurance Company. The men treated me as a pariah. The wives of adjusters wouldn’t let their husbands eat lunch with me….assuming that a single woman wanted to nab their husbands. The clerical support staff disliked me for trying to take a job from a man. The men took bets on how quickly they could get me to quit by treating me like a servant.

Think about it! This was 42 years ago- a near blip on the continuum of time. Women had been marginalized and treated as chattel for the entirety of humankind. So, yes! We deserve to enjoy what we’ve fought hard to achieve without having biological men marginalize us once again. 

Lia Thomas is  celebrating her true self. But she is doing so at the expense of biological women who deserve the chance to compete on a level playing field. And Thomas does so with absolutely no grace or self awareness. 

This is heinous. 

Thursday, March 17, 2022

Surviving Savannah by Patti Callahan ~ A Book Review


From the first lines I was mesmerized. I love historical fiction, Savannah, the early 19th Century, tales of shipwrecks and miracles of survival, the alternating time frames, triumph over tragedy and loss. This story has it all. And Ms. Callahan tells it beautifully. 

To discover that the Pulaski was a real steamship that sank and that some of the characters are loosely based on real people made it all the more intriguing. Now, I’m starting to research the real story based upon first person accounts. 

One of the best books I’ve read in a long time. 

A big thank you to Bookbrowse.com and Netgalley for a courtesy copy in exchange for an honest review.

Monday, March 14, 2022

The New Oil Crisis - Did Biden Forget the Gas Lines of the 1970’s?



Apparently Joe Biden has forgotten the gas lines of the 1970’s when America was dependent on OPEC for fossil fuels and we were faced with the Iran hostage crisis. No doubt it is a convenient lapse of memory based upon his apparent need to keep the members of the  squad, who weren’t alive during the ‘70’s, in his corner. Or, more likely, dementia. 



Whether one loved or hated a Donald Trump, he guided the USA into energy independence. The first thing Biden did after his inauguration was to crush energy independence in a misguided effort to enact green energy legislation on an accelerated trajectory. Apparently, Biden and his climate change activists have either ignored or really have no appreciation of the actual American geographical landscape. Really, Will alternative energy really be effective for transportation in Texas, Wyoming, Montana or Alaska? Not in my lifetime. Those who lead the charge for green energy do not depend on their vehicles for commuting or basic travel. 

While Kamala Harris can express excitement over funding for electric school busses, how well will that work in rural areas? What about those of us who commute hours and 60 + miles for work? I personally do not want to risk my life traveling on a green airliner for a 15 hour flight from San Francisco to Tokyo. It is not as if one can charge a jet in mid flight. 


Now, thanks to the Biden energy debacle, we are once again dependent on foreign oil and natural gas. Instead of energy independence. Biden is begging despots to increase production so that we can import and support corrupt regimes. 

Really! I agree that planning for alternative energy sources is a noble goal. But it won’t happen overnight. Think Texas during the big freeze of 2021 when windmills froze solid.

Idiocy. Pandering. Shortsightedness. A blind eye to reality. Dementia. Take your pick. Apparently, Biden & Company do not understand that people won’t return to city offices if it costs an arm & a keg to commute. 

Sunday, March 13, 2022

~The Tragedy in Ukraine Should Not Be Allowed To Continue~

 


After WWII there was a global belief that such carnage must never be allowed to happen again. yet good people stand by and watch the atrocities on television, YouTube, iPhone and satellite image  unfold minute by minute, missile by missile, bomb by bomb, attack by attack and bullet by bullet as people are massacred and towns are destroyed by war criminals. It has happened in Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, the Balkans, Vietnam, China, Israel,  Georgia, and Chechnya in my lifetime. This wasn’t supposed to be possible. Humans were to have learned after WWII that killing on a massive scale violates every international law. But, the political realities result in handwringing,  moral outrage, ineffective sanctions and juggling political expediency over what is right.



One would have thought that 160 years after Alexander Gardner published the first photographs of battlefield dead in the aftermath of Antietam in 1862, that humankind would have developed strategies to avoid such bloodshed. But, that has not happened. Today the world watches helplessly, with disgust, as Russia attacks a sovereign nation that is not a part of NATO while governments twiddle their thumbs and make excuses for failure to do what is necessary to support the people of Ukraine. 

How can anybody with any sense of morality allow this to continue! Ukraine is a free country with a democratic ly elected government, peopled with individuals who grew up without the specter of totalitarianism governing every facet of life. Think! If it can happen to Ukraine, where people were living a month ago just as we do in the USA, it can happen anywhere. 

Of upmost concern, a recent poll of American citizens revealed that many young Americans would refuse to take up arms to defend the homeland should something similar happen here. Wow!  Biden and his ‘green new deal’ cronies should hide in shame. I guess ‘never again’ was just a slogan. 



Friday, March 4, 2022

Sanction Russian Oil Now! Do Not Abandon Ukraine

                 

When bad men combine, the good must associate: else they combine, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle~ Edmund Burke

I am appalled and embarrassed by the response of the Western World. Yes, I understand the reluctance to impose a no fly zone over Ukraine. But, my thoughts of the horrendous acts of Hitler come to mind. People turned a blind eye to the genocide and criminal acts of Hitler and his acolytes until war came to Pearl Harbor. Every military strategist believes that Putin will not hesitate to use illegal weapons to subjugate a democratic nation. 

We watch, with heavy hearts, as Putin bombs a peaceful democratic nation filled with a free people who lived as we Americans live just a few weeks ago. Yet, all Biden, his climate mad progressives, and Western European nations really appear to care about is the continued importation of Russian oil. Yes, petrol is getting more expensive. But, I would bet that most westerners would prefer to drive less, fly less and turn down the heat in their offices and homes than watch with horror that is televised live as the brave Ukrainian people barricade themselves, hide underground, fight without sufficient arms, and listen to President Zelenky’s  pleas for help.

The US has engaged in stupid wars in the past with the philosophical belief that Communists should not encroach on other lands. Examples: Korea and Vietnam. Those countries did not have the critical geopolitical place that Ukraine holds in the modern world. The fact that John Kerry is more concerned about climate change than an illegal invasion of a European sovereign nation says horrible things about our current government priorities. 

I am angry. I have more respect for Zelensky and the German chancellor than any figurehead in Washington. And the idiocy of a Kamala Harris makes me cringe.

Send planes. Establish a humanitarian no fly zone. Offer Russian soldiers amnesty in the West to defect. Do something other than wring your hands, speak platitudes, and apologize for being weak. Call Putin’s bluff.