I don't really like talking about my flair...

Excerpt from my latest column in the magazine I edit:

How many pieces of flair do you have? What are your favorites? Do you even know what a piece of flair is?

Pieces of Flair are the latest application on Facebook (a social networking site). Here’s the online description:

“Show off your interests with Pieces of Flair for your profile! Describe yourself with buttons. Send them to friends as gifts. Browse through our growing collection. If you don't find what you want, it's easy to make your own! Track how popular your creations become as they spread from friend to friend all over Facebook!”

This sounds very exciting to a teenager or a college student, or, I admit, even to a young professional like me. But, as I began sifting through all the different buttons with their unique phrases and designs, I caught myself wondering, what does describe me and my interests? How can I narrow that down to several buttons?

Most of the buttons say, “I love shoes,” “I love frogs,” “swimmers rule” or include movie quotes. There are buttons with different pictures of actors and actresses, singers, athletes and brand names. All designed to fit specific interests and to help the user display a broad picture of themselves so their friends can know more about them.

Am I really only about shoes, sports and my favorite movie catchphrases? Is that what I want people to see about me? What if I died and the only thing left were my Pieces of Flair? That doesn’t really describe my life, or at least I hope not. To truly know someone, you need to make a connection with them and get beyond the flair.

When voting for a candidate for office, don’t just latch onto the catchphrases and the media sound bites. Delve into their policy statements and their voting records. When reading about the numbers of women choosing an abortion, don’t assume that they made an informed decision, volunteer for a pregnancy care center and find out what’s really going on in their lives and offer them an option for life. When a strip club sets up shop in your small town, don’t assume that the goings-on are legal, go find out if you can fight for your community.

We need to get beyond the statistics and the news and get involved. Will you join me?

PA Primary Today

Don't forget to vote!

The Things that Divide Us

In today's political climate you hear a lot about the evil of divisiveness. We need unity and change, not arguments and disagreements. Let's all hold hands and chant or something...*note sarcasm*

This theme of divisiveness has been used recently to attack the "religious right" who bring up those polarizing issues of abortion and "same-sex marriage." How dare they introduce legislation that makes people feel uncomfortable, bring up topics in conversation where people passionately disagree. That's not loving. That's not compassionate. This Sunday's Patriot-News featured an op-ed by the president of Messiah College talking about their forum they held with presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

"The Compassion Forum is an important step forward to broaden the religious-political dialogue. The time has come for people of faith to expand the dialogue beyond a few limited issues and include morally significant concerns such as the global AIDS epidemic, domestic and international poverty, climate change, abortion, genocide in Darfur, human rights and torture."

Mrs. Phipps said their forum was going to be hospitable and gracious, not hostile and divisive. Good deal. EXCEPT, do we really believe that abortion and homosexuality are the only issues people disagree on? Let's talk about each of these topics mentioned in the quote above:

• global AIDS epidemic-
  
• side one: throw money at the problem, give them condoms and comprehensive sex education.
  
• side two: abstinence education, encouraging strong families. Very divisive. We have had debate on this very issue in Congress within the past few weeks.
• domestic and international poverty-
  
• side one: forgive all international debt and add more welfare programs and free handouts for poor Americans.
  
• side two: support beginning democracies and good money management, and domestically, focus on incentives to work and get out of poverty. Another passionate debate in the U.S.
• climate change-
  
• Wait, there are two sides to this issue? I thought we all agreed on this. Yeah, we don't. There are a large number of scientists who disagree with the whole global warming scare. This issue is so divisive that the pro-side chooses to act like the other side doesn't even exist!
• genocide in Darfur- I actually don't know two sides to this one, but I am sure there are.
• human rights-
  
• side one: right to abortion and right to marry anyone you want.
  
• side two: not everything is a right. Yikes, they kind of stumbled into very divisive waters here including the ones they wanted to avoid...(note: I was not at the forum so I don't know what this topic covered).
• torture-
  
• side one: waterboarding is evil.
  
• side two: we love Jack Bauer and waterboarding is A-ok. Pretty divisive. Did you see the protests in DC?

Why did I point all this out? Just to show you, my readers, that almost every issue is divisive. It's not a bad word. Yes, we should be polite and hospitable, but that doesn't mean not disagreeing and never telling someone that they are wrong. It's called public discourse. When people complain about divisiveness, it means they want you to just shut up and go along with what they think. Don't let them bully you.

Please leave comments.

There's a whole lot more!

I've seen some mass emails go by and some shout outs to Pennsylvania Republicans to switch their party registration to Democrat so they can vote for Obama or Hillary. I think that's a bad idea.

I have six reasons why you should keep your registration unchanged:
1. State Attorney General
2. State Auditor General
3. State Treasurer
4. Representative in Congress
5. State Senator (odd-numbered districts)
6. State Representative

If you change your registration to Democrat, then you cannot vote for these races on the Republican ticket. Some of these races might be contested. Do you want to have a say for who represents the Republican party, which aligns more with conservative views than the Dems? Then don't change your registration. And if you're registered as an Independent...well then your opinion doesn't matter a whole lot since you shut yourself out.

Just remember that there's a whole lot more to this election than just a presidential candidate.

Obama - Bipartisan?

No. Obama is the most liberal senator. While in the Illinois state senate, he voted against the Born Alive Infants Protection Act that prohibited anyone from killing an infant that had survived an abortion. His comments speak for themselves:

"How could someone possibly justify such a vote? In March 2001, Obama was the sole speaker in opposition to the bill on the floor of the Illinois Senate. He said: "We're saying they are persons entitled to the kinds of protections provided to a child, a 9-month child delivered to term. I mean, it would essentially bar abortions, because the equal-protection clause does not allow somebody to kill a child." So according to Obama, "they," babies who survive abortions or any other preterm newborns, should be permitted to be killed because giving legal protection to preterm newborns would have the effect of banning all abortions."

Read the rest here.

Oscars = Depressing

Michael Medved gets it right in his latest blog post on Townhall.com. Why did the Oscars tank?

"...in Hollywood’s Golden Age, we looked on celebrities with admiration and envy; today, we often see them with contempt and pity. The scandal-obsessed, non-stop, cable-and-internet Britney-Lindsay-Paris culture focuses on broken lives and self-destructive decadence. Like passing a car wreck, it’s sometimes hard to look away, but if we have other choices for entertainment and escape than dwelling in this dysfunctional world, we generally take them."

How true.

Nature's Quality Control

Maggie Gallagher's latest column on Townhall.com:

"My own position on sperm donation is considered beyond the pale. Ideally, before a man becomes a father he ought to be able to persuade some woman to marry him. But consider this an absolute minimum: A man who wants to be a father ought to be able to find some actual live woman who wants to have sex with him. Call it nature's quality control."