Posted by
Dr. Scott on Friday, October 24, 2008 5:38:00 PM
Shauri and I are packing boxes tonight. We have had our house on the market for 6+ months, and decided to try renting it instead, and instantly got several bites. We had no idea the rental market was on the rise, but that would make sense with foreclosures higher. Anyway, we are moving tomorrow to Burlington, IA, where we'll be in a smaller home (1 fewer bedrooms, smaller bathroom, no basement, but ther is a storm cellar full of spiders!) and only 2 miles from my work (rather than 40mi). We're pretty excited.
At the same time, I'm also moving my office. My work has given me one about twice the size of my current one, and we'll be moving some of our furniture and a bookcase into it this weekend also. First I have to repaint it--someone with bad taste dabbed bright blue paint all over the walls in an absurd pattern.
As I was cleaning out the room, I came across the folder of my work public relations lady. Although it had a few clients' service plans in the beginning, the rest of the folder were campaigning materials for getting out the vote for Hillary on Iowa Caucus night. Suddenly a lot of things began to make sense. Remember my blog posts on National Children's Mental Health Awareness Week? Well those were an expanded version of a newsletter article that this same PR lady asked me to write. When I submitted it, she wrote back a stern warning that "This does not fit with the company mission" and that we needed to avoid "controversial topics." Since when was looking out for the mental health of children controversial? But now her response makes more sense--my criticism of DHS/CPS and child care must have hit a political nerve for her.
In this organization for political speech from the left to go forward unchecked, yet when it comes from the right, it is "controversial." People yuck it up about voting for Obama, how backward conservatives are, etc. in staff meetings as if they assumed we were all unanimous in our beliefs. In our lobby, Planned Parenthood materials are displayed prominently on the wall and on the magazine table, and a lady just told me a couple of hours ago that she was going to have Planned Parenthood at a women's support group (there were only 2 attending, so hopefully there wasn't much damage done). If I were to put out materials from Birthright, I wonder how long that would last? Or I wonder if the Boy Scouts of America would be welcome at a kids' support group?
It's been frustrating this election season to see the blatant bias; I think it is getting to me. That reminds me. Two days ago, I saw one of Orson Scott Cards columns titled, "Will the Last Honest Reported Turn the Lights On?" linked on the Drudge Report. I read it, and the next day noticed that Rush Limbaugh had picked up on it and had read it in its entirety on the air, and had also put the link on his website. Meridian Magazine, where the column appeared, was a bit overloaded that day. :) I tried to go back there and read it again, and it was very sloooow. So if you want to read it, head over to
http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2008-10-05-1.html where you can read his other essays also. He's a Democrat btw, but an honest one.
When I was at Meridian Magazine two days ago, I saw a banner ad for
beautifullymodest.com . Shauri and I had a fun time looking at the site last night, and were impressed by the opportunity they provide high school-aged girls to help design dresses and basically receive a fashion design internship. If I were a young lady who was into fashion, I would be all over that! Too bad there's nothing similar for guys, but really who is going to have an especially for guys modest clothing store?