The Blaisdell Blog

The evening of Monday, March 25, 1996 was crisply cold and clear.   It was quite late. With an early alarm and at least 10 hours of work ahead of me the next day what was I doing driving out of St. Louis toward the dark farm fields of rural Illinois?   The answer, of course, is love.   I love my husband and he loves astronomy.   We were going to see Comet Hyakutake, an interplanetary traveler who had taken everyone by surprise.   What I saw took my breath away.   Comet Hyakutake was brighter than most stars (magnitude zero on a scale where the smaller the number the brighter the object), with a coma larger than the moon.   Its tail covered 80 degrees of arc; you could not see it all without moving your eyes along its length.   Near the zenith, it was so close you could actually see it move against the star field!   It had a bluish-green color due to its emissions of diatomic carbon.   Celestial beauty does not come any rarer.    This unannounced visitor had not been near Eart

This week, two stories crossed paths in a way I couldn’t get out of my head.   First, the SAT exams recorded the sharpest decline in reading scores in four decades and, second, the New York Public Schools decided to widen the scope of their contraceptive program.             Let’s look first at the contraception issue.    The schools will not only provide birth control pills, on demand and in secret to girls as young as 14, but they will also provide the, “morning after” pill.   There was also serious talk about IUD implantation.   They actually had a doctor, with a straight face, talking about how, “dangerous” the pill was, which made the IUD ever so much more advantageous for these young girls.   I’m not going to discuss the issue of teen pregnancy and abortion.   What needs to be said on that subject has been said.   But, when schools talk about providing contraceptive, or abortive possibilities to these girls I want to ask a few questions. Since any girl under the age o

So the handbag designing business didn’t work out.   The guest speaking gigs fizzled.   Evidently, “Dancing With the Stars” hasn’t called either.   So Monica Lewinsky is writing the predictable, “tell all” memoir.   Never mind that Monica probably can’t compose a grammatically correct sentence if you spot her the noun and the verb, she thinks her thoughts on the subject plus a ghost writer will finally equal income.               Make no mistake; President Clinton behaved like a boar in rut.   But he’s a man.   I’ve said many times that while I love men, I just don’t understand them.   And we have all seen repeated evidence that a penis must be a heavy thing to carry around.   That doesn’t change the decisions that Monica Lewinsky made.   Nor does it change the fact that now, failing to marry well, she is hoping to make money off the salacious details of her affair.   Sweetie, that is more than a little slutty.             If women want equality (and we do) that means we have

I am a child of immigrants.   Three of my grandparents came to this country from Europe .   Even the grandfather whose family has been in North America since 1635 came from Great Britain .   It is part of the unique American character that we are the children of immigrants: restless, independent, risk taking people.   We have been made great by similar people from all over the world.   However, the current arguments about, “immigration” reform aren’t about immigrants at all.   The argument, as presented in cloaked and coded language, isn’t about reforming our laws toward legal immigrants.   It refers to the political elephant in the room: Latino illegal aliens, and those primarily from Mexico .   Not because their cause is just, but because Latino’s are a large voting demographic.    Liberals hate the term, “illegal alien.”   It is too accurate.   What is more, it is a term that they can turn to political advantage within a growing group of voters.   But changing the name of so

The Constitution is our anchor of stability in a turbulent world!   We can withstand a bad President and a petulant Congress (for the short term, at least) because our Constitution both guides and limits.   If someone asked me to provide proof of a loving God I would simply ask them how else so many geniuses in the matter of human governance could have been clustered together in the right time and place to create both our country and the means to govern it.    Our founding fathers had the vision to devise a way to not only govern themselves, but govern a country that they could not imagine, yet believed would prevail. The constitution of the United States is like a good parent.   It has allowed us to grow up as we have grown older, with the result that the United States of America is the oldest living democracy in the world.   The miracle of this document is that it lives, breathes and moves with the times.   The three branches of our government work together while standing al

There is a third rail of Republican politics and I am about to jump right on it with both of my size 7, 4-inch, white satin heels (no need not to dress up for a tough job).    What prompted this was an article about the Values Voter Summit this weekend.   There was concern, on the part of the assorted activists, that Romney wasn’t beating President Obama in the polls.   “If Romney loses this election, the party really needs to do some soul-searching.” was the quote from a participant at the summit.   I agree, but think this statement means something totally different to me than to him.   I am a life long Republican, not an issues voter.   I am a Goldwater Republican.   For me it is all about economics and personal freedom, constrained only by the gentle guidance of the Constitution.   For a host of reasons I want Romney to win.   Those reasons include taxes and monetary issues, a foreign policy that rewards our friends more than our enemies, a philosophy of personal responsibil

On Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1979, Adolph Dubs was kidnapped by militant members of an anti-Soviet Afghan political movement.   He was held in room 117 of the Kabul Hotel while accusations and demands were passed back and forth.   The Carter Administration asked the Afghans to continue negotiations.   The Afghan government, operating as lackeys of the Soviets, ignored Carter and opened fire.   Ambassador Dubs was killed in the crossfire.   That was thirty years ago.   Now, history repeats itself. On Tuesday, another American ambassador, Chris Stevens, was killed in Libya by the usual pusillanimous pigs.   It appears that the attack which killed him was well coordinated, planned and executed with precision.   I have no idea what our proper response should be.   I am suffering from serious Mideast fatigue.   The Islamic world is stuck in a 21 st Century Inquisition, finding Satan and heretics at every turn; sure they are the only moral authority.    There has been some e

I had slept in, taken my morning walk late and was just making my first cup of coffee when my daughter called me.   “Mom,” her urgent voice said, “I saw the plane fly into the tower.   I saw it, Mom!   I was watching the television in the break room and that plane just flew into the second tower.”   That is how I learned that our country was under attack.   America began its emotionally tumultuous day— Pearl Harbor laid out before our eyes.   My husband and I are in the habit of having a glass of wine with dinner and toasting to any small, significant or touching thing that happens during our day.   That night, as I raised my glass, we both quietly spoke the words that were uppermost in our minds, “To the United States of America.”                 Of all the lessons that can be taken from that day, one of the least discussed and most poignant is what happened to St. Paul ’s Episcopal Chapel, located less than 100 yards from Ground Zero.   St. Paul ’s dates back to 1766.  

The Chicago teachers are on strike.   I know this sorry territory from the ground up.             I was a teacher/principal/college professor for 30+ years.   As far as education goes, I consider myself a, “lifer.”   While in the classroom I was active in the local chapter of the National Education Association.   [While the NEA hates to call itself a union, if you waddle like a duck, quack like a duck, swim like a duck and hang around in the pond with other ducks, you are probably a duck.]   I was a building rep, grievance rep, the token Republican on their PAC, and co-chair of the negotiations committee.   I was a picket captain through three strikes.   Missouri was a, “meet and confer” state.   That means we met with the board at their pleasure.   They did not need to discuss anything with us, but they did because, as a group, we were hard to turn down.                I am not opposed to unions.   I see unions as a needed counter balance to the power of management.   

How much money do you make?   That is one of the two questions that my mother said should not only never be asked, they should absolutely never be answered.   The other question was, “For whom did you vote?”   Mom didn’t mince words when asked either of these questions.   It was none of your business.   So, in deference to Mom, I am asking the original question only in its rhetorical form.   If you ask most people how wealthy they are, they will usually say, “…middle class.”   Here are some guidelines.   Less than $32,395        bottom 50% of Americans    who pay    2.25% of total tax burden Over          $32,395       top        50% of Americans     who pay 97.75% of total tax burden Over          $66,193       top        25% of Americans     who pay 87.30% of total tax burden Over         $112, 124     top        10% of Americans     who pay 70.47% of total tax burden Over         $154,643      top          5% of Americans      who pay 58.66% of total tax burd