LizzyTish's Comments (29)

“Cute review. I wanted to check out this tour but my little one gave the idea a thorough thumbs down. What can I say? We're just Jonas people, apparently (well, they ARE awesome live).”

“OK...Not to be a Maher-like squealing fan, but Mr. Schaeffer...I CAN'T WAIT FOR YOUR NEXT BOOK! Squee! Thanks for all the great perspective over this last year.”

“Great piece.

Though for the record, while the Jonases are very sold out, my well-versed opinion is that they are actually >>> than Death Cab. LOL. Just to clarify where the analogy with the parties breaks down.”

“I am a big Jonas fan...isn't the overkill kind of already here? Their press this week has been abysmal. It's really too bad, I don't think they deserve it at all - towards their music or their personalities - but they can't seem to avoid press but for getting the worst kind. Strikes me as very unfair, but it's like an avalanche of popular adult opinion giving them thumbs down. Bummer.”

“Ooh...but you lost me in the beginning because the Jonas Brothers are so awesome. Everything else stinks, though. Agree.”

“So, so spot on, as usual.

I actually told myself that I would stop accepting the status quo of getting through the day to day after this election...and lo and behold in the weeks since I have found myself returning to church and developing my role in my community, and looking for a less cushy and more useful role in the workforce than the one I currently hold (going from a quiet, ineffective nonprofit into the urban public school system).

It's not so much that it feels imperative, it just feels like time.”

“It really depends...Waiting for the planets to align can be a waste of life.

I have a BA, work a decent creative office job with a salary that is not high, and it also happens to give me a flexible schedule that allows me to drop my daughter at kindergarten and be there when she gets home. It is ideal.

Of course, I am not climbing any ladders financially or even career-wise right now, but my main life focus is my child and those are sacrifices I have made consciously...we live a simple life which is enriched by enjoying the world together...We have food, make time for soccer and ballet for her, go to museums and concerts, travel a little, rent a lovely home with a yard in a sweet little city that doesn't require me to own a car...

I put a tiny bit away in savings, but I wouldn't trade motherhood for a healthier 401k...especially these days when that is increasingly meaningless. It depends what you value. For me, there is more to life than the material. Those things won't hold your hand on your deathbed.

P.S. I don't leech from the system and my kid is bright and caring and beloved by a large family (her dad is involved, pays support, though he lives out of town.) I don't hate men, and I am NOT teaching my daughter to hate them. We both hope to meet nice ones someday. :)”

“BRILLIANT!

I agree, the language still needs to be fixed on this...too scary/tempting.

But then we'd also get the feminist breakthrough so many yearned for! Forget Palin! LOL

Would we have to agree not to impeach or try them for war crimes?”

“Not true. The Democrats have merely not elected a hero of so-called feminist Dems. But for all women in the party, the Dems fervently support, with votes and lip service, the feminist agenda. Feminist goals are still being pursued and met, no matter who is one the ticket.

This is a fundamental distinction from the argument above, where LCRs are repudiated publicly by their party, and the stances of fiscal conservatism that kept them around are clearly a sham. They can't meet their goals that way.”

“Mr, Schaeffer, I can only pray that someone on the Obama team has your perspective.

Now that the campaign and the mood of the country has devolved into a culture/morality war, I would like to see Obama make a great speech addressing this. I think he needs to get the following points across (in no particular order):

A discussion of:

(1) his respect for the faithful of America.

(2) the importance of the separation of church and state (+ the inherent Constitutional protections of the faithful)

(3) the key faithful-baiting issues (abortion, gay marriage) with a clarification of his positions, past actions, and what about them is appropriate to legislate and what is not.

(4) how Republicans bait the religious with promises they have no intentions of fulfilling (with all of the ample support evidence which exists of this) and how this brings out the harshest extremism of faiths and POVS, wrongly allowing them to define our national dialogue.

(5) the progressive principles and how they are more in line with Judeo-Christian ethics (when compared to the fear-mongering, hatred, greed and violence that has come to typify the right-wing)

(6) the important role of churches as non-legislative, grassroots organizational entities.

He put race on the table, to beautiful effect.

It is time to put the religion on the table, so we can walk away with the best of it, and leave the fundamentalists of the right and left wing sputtering in our wake.”

“I am suddenly glad the Repubs have fought so hard to preserve our guns....because if McCain/Palin win this I might be tempted to take up arms in preparation for the coming social apocalypse.”

“Thank you, Mr. Schaeffer...for consistently making me prouder of the nuance to the Evangelical background of parents childhoods and relatives, from which they ran and taught us to be ashamed. it makes me so proud to know there are real thinkers like you, who can help us find the common ground of all those of us who mean well.

I am pretty liberal, and I do community work...and when I began (doing the national service Obama strongly advocates for the organization of which Michelle Obama once helmed a chapter, Public Allies) I was struck by the population of the room - well-educated, hardcore liberal kids seeking to work in the community and improve society, and evangelical kids looking to do....EXACTLY THE SAME THING.

We need to tear down the wall between us, realize there is fallibility in issues on both sides, and move forward already, hand in hand.”

“Right on.

And while we're at it, let's not forget how well Bush the Younger's business and gubernatorial "executive experience" have gotten us, too!”

“I just joined the PTA last week, as my daughter just started kindergarten. So you all go ahead...I'll be ready for the Executive Branch in 2016!!”

“A-frigging-men.

They can have all the guns and track suits and babies they want....just someone please keep them away from our White House.

Palins, kindly get off our lawn!”

“As a feminist and a mother, with a motherhood friendly job (ie. flexible and low-paying argh!) I could not agree more!”

“YUM-O!!

That is some delicious diplomacy. ;)”

“Yeah, doofy attempt at self-deprecating humor.

And for the record...I see white women and black women like this all the time...but then, I do live in Delaware, maybe we are ahead of the game? It felt like it today!

Go Bidens! Great family.”

“Tasteful response, Mrs. Hilton - kudos and thanks.”

“over on gawker the consensus was a badly decomposed dog (ie. boxer or pug)”

“Erin -

Love this column!

I have dealt with the consideration of abortion in my past - I thought I ought to get one as a default position without giving it much thought, and the legal limitations as I observed (I hasn't reached that term, but it was in view) were very useful to me in assessing the medical realities I could not have previously understood as a 23 year old. The mental issues of pregnant women are absolutely important, but late term abortion is physically risky to the living woman, the most important player. There are other procedures which are similarly restricted for our benefit (for men too), not meant to bar us from our free will.

Anyway, I really enjoyed your "marriage" observation...I think it is so true. Now that we're far enough away from monarchies, I think perhaps we can develop this new sort of politics where we the people don't sit back quietly observing once we put our selected leaders in their offices.

Obama is a good man, but he is a politician and rabid strategist, not a softie. I believe he is a feminist, but he is a Presidential candidate. Feminists are not the only citizens of this country, and he is obligated to address the desires and concerns of ALL Americans for the general, and as President. He was speaking to the left-of-center among us, during the primary.

Go back and read his Blueprint for Change. His fundamental platforms have not changed.”

“I am with you...I read it daily. That was truly an embarrassing wake up call in some sense. I always had a strong sense that the writers were much like my own friends when I lived in NYC (smart, funny, stylish, but more than anything CLUELESS), but seeing it is, in fact, disturbing. We talk a lot about men extending their adolescence; here is the female flip side...”

“Hey, I read their blog regularly...but I'd bet that at least one of them is a product of the PRIVATE school system. When I think of "our" system, I think public. Though maybe if they'd been through that, they'd have had a reality check.”

“I definitely see your point. I'd be interested to know your feelings on television watching?

We don't have cable at my house, but we do use computers. My daughter (almost 5) is allowed to use it, after asking, to visit her favorite websites (PlayhouseDisney and PBSKids). I have no problem with it. If anything, it feels more productive than her TV time ever did (she still watches DVDs). She gets less of it but, I think, feels more fulfilled by it, it's less passive.”

“As a youngish (28) single mom of a 4 year old, this is an issue I've considered, of course. But all I need to remind me of how to do right by my family (primarily myself and daughter) is the example of my mother (divorced when I was 5 - NEVER dated) and that of my daughter's paternal grandparents (serial daters who uprooted and traumatized their children with their behavior). The difference between the stability I feel in the world versus the instability my daughter's father feels is palpable.

Things will happen as they may with relationships, but I don't intend to pursue dating until my daughter is considerably more independent (this could be the age of 18! or later!). I consider it part of the decision I made when I chose to have my daughter and raise her as a single parent. To me, parenting is incompatible with dating in the happy hour sense.

There are more fulfilling ways to fill your life than sex, until you find the right person and are sure about them before committing and bringing them too much into your kids' life (or certainly sleeping with them!)”