THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - EQUALITY

Women already have equality under the Son; what women desire is for that equality to be made manifest under the sun.

HOW TO MAKE WOMEN EXERCISE

Don't blame me. Blame Doug.

DON'T WAIT TOO LONG!

Thanks to my niece on Facebook.

GOOD NEWS AMIDST THE BAD

From TPM:

The Obama administration announced on Monday that health insurance plans must cover birth control with no copays, among other reproductive health care services, as preventative care for women. The requirement will apply to health care plans beginning on or after August 1, 2012. The announcement comes just a month after Health and Human Services released a recommendation that sought to expand preventative services for women under Obama's health care law.

In addition to birth control, the expansion will cover breast pumps for nursing mothers, an annual "well-woman" physical, including screening for the virus that causes cervical cancer, HIV, and gestational diabetes, as well as counseling for domestic violence.

Too bad women have to wait a year for the coverage, but better late than never. These policies should not have had to be mandated by the federal government. If not to provide better health care for women, the insurance companies should have seen these policies as in their own self-interests to reduce overall costs in the long haul. Ah, but few business take the long view these days.

ANOTHER VIEW FROM THE INSIDE

From Maureen Dowd at the New York Times:

When I was in Saudi Arabia, I had tea and sweets with a group of educated and sophisticated young professional women.

I asked why they were not more upset about living in a country where women’s rights were strangled, an inbred and autocratic state more like an archaic men’s club than a modern nation. They told me, somewhat defensively, that the kingdom was moving at its own pace, glacial as that seemed to outsiders.

How could such spirited women, smart and successful on every other level, acquiesce in their own subordination?

I was puzzling over that one when it hit me: As a Catholic woman, I was doing the same thing.

I, too, belonged to an inbred and wealthy men’s club cloistered behind walls and disdaining modernity.

I, too, remained part of an autocratic society that repressed women and ignored their progress in the secular world.

I, too, rationalized as men in dresses allowed our religious kingdom to decay and to cling to outdated misogynistic rituals, blind to the benefits of welcoming women’s brains, talents and hearts into their ancient fraternity.

I may have to reverse my opinion of Maureen Dowd's writing in the NYT. For some time, I haven't liked a good many of her columns because her writing had become too flip, glib, and shallow to suit me, but this is the second excellent column in only a couple of weeks. Read the entire column. Maureen scores as she points out how the exclusion of women from the highest levels of authority causes dysfunction in the very structure of the Roman Catholic Church.

Unfortunately, I will no longer be able to read Maureen Dowd, when the NYT begins to levy a charge to read their online version.

Thanks to Ellie for the link.

DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME

A famous industrial efficiency expert concluded his lecture with a note of caution: "You don't want to try these techniques at home."

"Why not?" asked somebody from the audience.

"For years I watched my wife's routine at breakfast," the expert explained. "She made lots of trips between the refrigerator, stove, table, and cabinets, more often than not carrying only a single item at a time. One day I asked her, 'Hon, why don't you try carrying several things at once?'"

"Did it save time?" the person in the audience asked.

"Actually, yes," replied the expert. "Previously, it would take her twenty minutes to make breakfast. Now I do it in seven."


Thanks to Paul (A.), who is still despondent because I didn't use his April Fool's Day joke. I hope that my use of his joke here cheers him up.