By Jonathan Miller, on Mon Nov 14, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET You aren’t going to believe this. I’m stuck in Israel, my passport’s stolen, and I need each of you to wire me $10,000 US$…
OK, this is not one of those posts.
Indeed, I landed in Tel Aviv yesterday, and I’m already having a fantastic experience.
Periodically, when I get back to my hotel room, I will post accounts of my travels this week in the Holy Land. Don’t expect a boring travelogue; I hope to share with you some unique insights, history lessons, geopolitical analysis, and maybe a few jokes.
So, please check in periodically. And if you really want to wire me some money…
By Grant Smith, RP Staff, on Fri Nov 11, 2011 at 3:00 PM ET
Thanksgiving Dinner will be 13% more expensive this year. [CNBC]
The ten worst pieces of “good” career advice. [Forbes]
Blackberry’s business problem. [CNN Money]
More secret Nixon tapes are released: his testimony before a grand jury. [New York Times]
By John Johnson, on Fri Nov 11, 2011 at 12:30 PM ET When I think of female empowerment, I can’t help but think of one of my most important responsibilities–being a Dad to Courtney, my 11 year old daughter. I don’t think any experience can make a man think about female empowerment more than having a soon to be teenage daughter.
I think about this a lot. How do I foster her growth and confidence? What can I do to give her the tools to face the challenges in the world? How do I relate to her interests which are different than mine?
One simple example: I love that Courtney loves math like I do. She also loves fashion , something I know nothing about. We have found common ground. I share geeky math tricks with her and help her with her homework. She has taught me to watch and even enjoy project runway. Last week, She even went with me last week to buy a new suit. She definitely understands fashion better than I do.
But we have intertwined our two interests to better relate to each other.
As she grows and our interests diverge, I hope I can continue to find ways to understand and empower her. Awareness of the challenge is a great first step.
By Mona Tailor, on Fri Nov 11, 2011 at 12:00 PM ET It’s amazing to see how far women have come in the last century: voting rights, moving into the world of work, while balancing motherhood, and even running for the highest office in the land, President. We have such amazing figures to inspire us: Eleanor Roosevelt, Jacqueline Kennedy, Indira Gandhi, Geraldine Ferraro, Hillary Clinton, and Condoleeza Rice, just to name a few politically inspiring ones.
In Indian culture, similar to many Asian cultures, parents, especially fathers always want a son. A daughter also causes excitement, but there is always the underlying thought that the girl will eventually get married, and will have to leave her parents’ household and take her husband’s name.
In Gujarat [the Indian state where my family originates] the woman takes her husband’s first name as her middle name and takes his last name. Any children born to them also share their father’s first name as their middle name. In essence, as a daughter the girl must listen to her father, and when she becomes a wife she must listen to her husband. In this culture and this setup, I come from a very remarkable group of women, who set their own rules.
My grandmother on my father’s side was a remarkable and strong woman. In 1933 when Mohandas Gandhi inspired Indians around the country to walk with him in the Salt March, my grandmother wanted to join their cause. Her mother-in-law was not happy with her decision, gravely concerned that she would ruin the family status and appearance in society by doing such a thing, threatening her to never return to the household. My grandmother stood her ground, she was part of the Salt March, and returned home to her family, regardless of what anyone thought. This was just one of her many strengths. After my grandfather died, she raised 5 children in rural India on her own, a remarkable feat on its own..
Read the rest of… Mona Tailor: Women’s Empowerment in the Hindu Culture
By Jonathan Miller, on Fri Nov 11, 2011 at 11:11 AM ET It’s 11:11:11 on 11/11/11, and I’m saluting my favorite veteran-hero, Jerry Wurmser.
Jerry flew 66 fighter-bomber missions over Europe during the final years of World War II. His earlier claim to fame is that he almost broke the sound barrier on June 9, 1944, at 6:05 p.m. over Salisbury, Maryland, and lived to tell about it. At 88 years young, he remains an active member of Lexington’s Jewish community, as well as a doting grandfather and great-grandfather.
Who are you saluting? Please comment below:
(And if you missed it, there’ll be another 11:11:11 in 12 hours, as long as you aren’t one of those international clock-ers!)
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Fri Nov 11, 2011 at 9:15 AM ET The Board of Trustees has let go of Joe Paterno. Legal proceedings are most likely already in motion and will continue for the foreseeable future. Individuals and families have been scarred by the events at Penn St. With that said, where does the historic Penn St. football program go from here? Much of that is up to Tom Bradley. [ESPN]
By Artur Davis, on Fri Nov 11, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET
We never stop fretting over race and politics, largely because neither side of the political divide will let the subject go. Most Democrats I know are convinced that Barack Obama’s struggles are related partly to his race and anxieties over the rise of a multi-cultural power base. The accusations that Herman Cain harassed or aggressively propositioned at least four white women have stirred a new tempest, with conservative defenders of Cain suspecting race is at the bottom of the uproar, and liberals assuming that in the words of one pundit, “the layer of black sexuality” is what will kill off Cain with Republicans
Powerful stuff in a climate that was supposed to be “post-racial”. It’s a vexing enough subject that absurdities are flourishing on both sides: attributing Obama’s slide to race rather than the economy ignores the color-blindness descendants of Confederate soldiers displayed In Virginia and North Carolina in voting for Obama in 2008, or for that matter, the 50% plus approval ratings Obama enjoyed in Alabama and Mississippi in the spring of 09. Is the theory that they just didn’t look hard enough at Obama’s photos? Similarly, asserting that Cain is in a predicament because of race assumes Mitt Romney would get a pass if it was discovered that multiple women at Bain Capital had accused him of harassment and that Bain had paid money to resolve the claims.
There are obvious straw-men at work here who are pretty easy to knock down. I generally agree with Ross Douthat of the New York Times, a smart, thoughtful center right columnist, who writes this week that in politics, “race matters, but ideology matters much, much more.” But I do find myself agreeing with one argument in circulation and it is worth addressing because it will matter long after Cain is done and collecting lecture fees.
Yes, Cain does inspire a special kind of loathing on the left for reasons that have something to do with his skin color. Full disclosure: I’ve been through a few of these fires, as the only black congressman who opposed Obamacare, as the rare African American politician who supports voter ID laws. I’ve seen it up close–there is a predisposition in some liberal circles to think that a black politician who deviates from the liberal line is “inauthentic” and dishonest, that he is deceptively trying to curry favor with white conservatives at the expense of his own. There is also a perverse kind of resentment that the “strategy” may work, that a black who can win conservative support can cut in line and therefore advance more quickly, that such a candidate will be spared the need to court certain power-brokers.
Read the rest of… Artur Davis: What the Cain Scandal Reveals About Race & Politics
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Thu Nov 10, 2011 at 3:00 PM ET
IBM recently named Virginia Rometty as its new CEO, making her the first female CEO in the company’s history. [NY Times]
Check out this incredibly touching video that shows science and technology allowing a 29-year-old woman who was born deaf to hear for the first time in her life. [YouTube]
Do you remember the Women’s World Cup this past Summer? The U.S. women’s team had a thrilling run making it to the finals before losing to Japan. Did you know that the finals game broke the record on Twitter for most tweets per second? It generated more than the announcement of the death of Osama bin Laden. [Huffington Post]
While women have made strides in Silicon Valley and the tech world, there is still progress to be made. [Washington Post]
“Scholarship Sponsorships for Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Announced by the Anita Borg Institute” [The Wall Street Journal]
By Grant Smith, RP Staff, on Thu Nov 10, 2011 at 1:30 PM ET
Gender, race and ideology in modern politics. [New York Times]
Another GOP debate takes place tonight, and Herman Cain will be in attendance. [CNBC]
Two of Herman Cain’s accusers are planning a joint news conference. [Washington Post]
The Oscar Awards appear to be in crisis with Eddie Murphy’s resignation as host. [Deadline.com]
By Stephanie Doctrow, RP Staff, on Thu Nov 10, 2011 at 12:30 PM ET I flipped through my reporter’s notebook, looking over my notes from the weekend’s journalism conference as I waited for my next session to start. I had been looking forward to the upcoming session since I got my program, a seminar on time management for magazine editors. As the speaker took the stage, I put down my Starbucks and got my pen and paper ready.
The session quickly took an unexpected turn. The speaker addressed the room full of student editors, leaders at their respective publications, in a condescending manner. Instead of discussing tips for time management, he went into a tirade about the things young journalists do that irritated him.
“Now ladies, here’s something that you all do that really isn’t good,” he said. I did a double take, noticing that all the student editors in the session with me were female.
“You should never bring more than one bag into an interview or a meeting with an editor. It’s unprofessional. And I know how you ladies are.”
Excuse me? I thought. Number one, who takes multiple bags to an interview? Number two, why did you feel the need to point that out?
Read the rest of… Stephanie Doctrow: Sexism in Journalism
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