Glenn Beck’s  rally which hijacked Martin Luther King’s speech anniversary – a fact which he called “divine providence” (the poor man doesn’t know how to read a calendar) – creates a convenient excuses for me to criticize something that has long been a peeve of mine: the way that people, especially conservatives, only talk about “returning to values” that arbitrarily privilege them.  (If certain obnoxious men hadn’t used this for centuries to explain why women should stay disempowered, it would bother me less.)       

Of course it’s obvious they would do this, I just want them to admit that their time-machine-trek might not be so great for everyone involved.  I, for instance, would hate to go all the way back to, say…2009 in Saudi Arabia, where I couldn’t vote, drive or leave the country.  I’d much prefer to step back to a nice village in Turkey 10,000 years ago when it seems women were at least equally empowered as men (Stanford Magazine said it, not me) and where, in all probability, we lived to ripe old ages.  Or take me to live with the Lakota (aka Sioux Indians).  I really like the way the teepee and everything else belonged to the women.  Of course I’d want to be there a few centuries before white people came and killed them off.  (more…)

Every once in a while, I’m on the guy’s side in a fight.  Like when women insist a man should put the toilet seat down.  I have no comment.  Since I’ve always lived with more men than women, I can’t see how one can argue that the seemingly-arbitrary down is better.  So I try not to say anything, lest I undermine my sisters.  

But in this case I have to admit: if I were Donald Bren I’d be pissed (article here).  Of course one has to be careful basing an opinion off of what the press reports, but the net of it is this: billionaire Donald Bren’s ex girlfriend  - one of many, apparently – and her two kids Christie and David have been trying to win $400,000 a month in child support.  That’s right: a month.  Each kid wants almost $5 million a year from a father who seems to have been more of a sperm donor than anything else.  The children are now 18 and 22.  The fight has been going on for 7 years, but it really doesn’t sound like they were starving: according to his side he’s already given them over $9 million.  That seems adequate to raise 50 children, much less two.  And her lawyers agree that he did pay $10,000 a month per child in child support for many years.  And let’s remember: Jennifer McKay Gold was never even his wife.    

David and Christie are kids for crying out loud!  Barely past puberty!  Who knows how to spend that much money?  If I were the judge I tell them to get jobs and come back in ten years and tell me what they learned about earning money.  I’d ask whether they think it’s really fair to forcibly take it away from a guy who never planned on having them in the first place.  

Child support laws are supposed to protect innocent children from financial neglect.  We don’t want them to starve or be forced to live on welfare simply because one of their parents refuses to contribute.  Clearly, at $10K per kid per month, starvation in this case was never a hazard they faced.  In fact Donald Bren’s mega-million dollar drama highlights two huge problems with the current system.   (more…)

They Could Have Just Said, “Fat”
Today I read an Associated Press story about how the Austrians are excitedly celebrating the discovery of one of the oldest figurines every unburied. It is called the Venus of Willendorf, it was discovered near Vienna, and it is estimated to be 25,000 years old. Most of us have seen pictures of it, since it was uncovered in 1908, but it has only been available for public view since 1998. It is a mere four inches high. Here is what it looks like: (more…)