The Blaisdell Blog

One of the nice things about being married to a member of the other political party is that it teaches you the importance of moderation, restraint and a sense of humor.   It also brings into crystalline clarity the differences in how we think.   We had a rich chance to view that difference this past week when Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute wrote an op-ed for the New York Times postulating that it would be a good thing if we offered voters a chance to win a million dollar lottery if they actually voted.                Ornstein’s argument is that if we get more people voting it would water down the strength of each party’s base extremists and give us a more moderate government.   Ornstein gives Australia as an example of a place where you are fined (about $15) for not voting with the result that Australia has a 90% voter turnout as opposed to the 50%-60% which is the best we get in ...

Both Mitt Romney and Warren Buffett pay their entire tax bill to the United States Government.   Because their income is derived from dividends instead of wages they pay at the highest rate allowed for capital gains, 15%.   If you don’t like the rate either of these men paid, change the law!   It won’t affect me at all; I am living solely on my teacher retirement.               Every time Democrats rail against, “wealthy” Republicans in general and Mitt Romney in particular I want to do two things: throw up and vote Republican.   These same Democrats don’t mind every union member, movie star, athlete or any other member of their pampered constituency getting a raise, whether or not it is based on merit.   Evidently it is okay for everyone to make money except Republicans.               Since when is being rich a bad thing?   If you are m...

One hundred years ago, the RMS Titanic, an, “unsinkable” ship went to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean , taking 1500 people to their deaths.    The ship was built to be the final word in luxury and modern opulence.   Yet she made her money in transporting hundreds of immigrants in steerage class.   Catering to the wealthy, the Titanic sought to muscle through on style and hubris instead of substance and careful planning.   It didn’t work.   Four days into the crossing and 600 miles south of Newfoundland , the Titanic hit an iceberg, flooding five of the sixteen, “watertight” compartments.   The supposedly unsinkable ship went down in two and a half hours.   Most of those who died did not drown, but died of hypothermia in the freezing water.   A few miles from the Titanic, and in a good position to save most, if not all of the passengers, was the S. S. California.   This ship had sent the Titanic its first warning of icebergs and shut do...

Hilary Rosen is an idiot.   She is also an angry, bitter and nervous woman who allowed a moment of personal vexation to expose her mean spirit.   I used to be a lot like her; but I got better.   I come from a long line of women who worked outside the home.   I spent 30+ years in education.   My mother was the head accountant for the City and County of Denver and later Stapleton International Airport .   Her mother was a farmer’s wife (now there is a full-time, “stay at home” job) but she also was the bookkeeper for the local creamery.   All of my children have professional jobs, my sisters worked and most of the women I know worked.   We were also wives and mothers.               There were many times in my life when I felt—as Ms. Rosen does—resentment and envy toward the stay-at-home Moms in my neighborhood.   They weren’t getting up at 5:30 to get themselves ready for work wi...

Mona Charen is a great columnist.   In her April 3, 2012 column, “If Obama Had a Son” she weaves good research into a solid commentary on problems in the Black community. “…thousands of young blacks are killed every year by other blacks without provoking…outrage…” “…African-Americans, with 12.6 percent of the nation's population, account for 50 percent of the murder victims…” “Among blacks, 72 percent of births are to unmarried women…only 31 percent of couples are married…” “…85 percent of youths in prison come from fatherless homes, as do 80 percent of rapists, 71 percent of high school dropouts, and 63 percent of teen suicides.” “In The Atlantic Monthly, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead wrote that the ‘relationship (between single-parent families and crime) is so strong that controlling for family configuration erases the relationship between race and crime and between low income and crime . This conclusion shows up time and again in ...

I read The Hunger Games last week.   The books are well written, but I could not accept the major premise.   I could not envision a society—even a future one—so corrupt and totalitarian that it would entertain the masses by pitting its children in televised combats to the death.   How could the people allow such a regime to maintain power?   But the notion kept rolling around in the back of my head, and I started to connect some very uncomfortable dots.   There is the voyeuristic Survivor.   There is a society that continuously shortens, negates and cheapens its children’s childhood.   And then, in the book, there is the insistent message on the part of the government’s mouthpieces that unthinkable behavior is normal, right and, in fact, righteous!   The violent deaths of and by these children are made to sound so very mainstream!   Words have power.                Then, bei...