Don't Gel Too Soon

JUST READ THIS - SARAH PALIN BY MOM-101 ON MOMOCRATS

I really want to quote this (not long at all) post by the wonderful Liz of MOM-101 but it would spoil the surprise.  You have to read it yourself.  You'll know what I'm talking about when get to it.  She's always great, but this is... well.... does off the charts cover it?

Blogging Boomer Carnival #84

Well the Blogging Boomers have returned after a Labor Day respite and we are loaded with remarkable new content.  It's all housed over at John Agno's So Baby Boomer.   There are plenty of political links, but also some interesting perspectives on retirements and aging, spiritual retreats,religious belief, marriage and the 5-th birthday of AARP.  So don't miss it.

BLOGGING BOOMERS CARNIVAL #80 - LOTS OF GREAT STUFF

This week our Blogging Boomers carnival makes its way to Fabulous After Forty - and fabulous it is: earthquakes, divorces, the bossy AARP, marriage, the Paycheck Fairness Act and more - and all in one place!  Take a look.

BLOG THE RECESSION

The economy's slow, even on the Internet, so one of my favorite (and most audacious) bloggers, "Motherhood Uncensored," has come up with a solution: blog the recession.  Here's how she explains it:  "The premise is simple. If you read blogs, then for the month of August, make the "pledge" to click through from your feed reader. No obligation to leave a hilarious comment or send a long stalkerish email (although both, within reason, are always lovely). Just click through to the blog (not on ads unless you are so led) and if you're feeling generous, click around to their older posts.   Just those extra page views can make a big difference for bloggers who could really use the help, or in my case, where page views don't matter so much, a big fat ego boost."

So while you're on hold, or just kind of wandering, do a good deed and click around a bit.

BlogHer, Bella, Books and Us Women

Two weeks ago I spent the weekend with 1,000 remarkable women.  You know where; the Web has been full of posts and tweets and messages about BlogHer, the women bloggers conference.  Since its founding, BlogHer has held four conferences, and I've been to three of them.  For those three years I've wondered at the strength and power of both the gathering and each woman, most far younger than I, who is part of it.  Audacious and rambunctious, honest and gifted, they are far beyond where I was at their age.  I've always known that all of us, sisters from the 70's and 80's and 90's, scratched and kicked and pulled and fought to move our lives, and those of the women around us, forward.  In many ways, we made a difference.  I'm proud of that.

Today though I was reminded of a real heroine, one whose star lit the way for much of what we did, in a wonderful piece in The Women's Review of Books: Ruth Rosen's review of  Bella Abzug: How One Tough Broad from the Bronx Fought Jim Crow and Joe McCarthy, Pissed Off Jimmy Carter, Battled for the Rights of Women and Workers, ... Planet, and Shook Up Politics Along the Way--an oral history of the life of Bella Abzug.  Among other things, Ruth says:

She fought for the rights of union workers and African Americans, protested the use of the atomic bomb and the Vietnam War, waged endless battles to advance women’s rights, and spent the last years of her life promoting environmentalism and human rights.
When she plunged into the women’s movement during the late 1960s, Abzug infused feminism with her fierce, strategic, take-no-prisoners spirit. As Geraldine Ferraro reminds us,
She didn’t knock lightly on the door. She didn’t even push it open or batter it down. She took it off the hinges forever! So that those of us who came after could walk through!

And with a bow to Bella and so many others, walk through we have.  It's tough to pass the stories 'I walked six miles to school in the snow' fogey.   Younger women, though, would find courage to fight their own battles in Bella’s story and in many of our own."

For me, Bella was a brave, untamed beacon of defiance and energy. Her story, and ours, laid the ground for these determined, gifted "blogger generation" women. I would so love to be able to tell them about her - and about all of us, just so they could know the solidarity, the battles, the anger and the hope.  And why seeing them all together, hugging, laughing and raising hell, makes me so damned happy.  And that Bella would have loved them.

BloggingBoomers Carnival #78

Divorce, marriage, coffee, retirement -- you name it and, this week, it's probably floating around someplace among the posts at Blogging Boomers Carnival #78.  See for yourself.

OVER ALREADY: BLOGHER '08

This photo was taken at the closing plenary of BlogHer08 and I've barely covered the event at all.  There are so many moments I'd love to tell you about: readings by bloggers whose words hold incredible power; one by one they reveal intimate moments of sadness and joy, anger and hilarity.  The words, drawn from their posts, are the clearest evidence of the power of this institution, not yet five years old and already a gigantic force for good in the lives of the women who have come here.  So many more.

We're all on our way home now;  to Austin and Sacramento and Virginia and Manhattan and Minneapois, energized for another year, ready to write and comment and commit ourselves to that which we create.  From these two days we've learned about traffic and writing, activism and art, gender and age tribalism, friendship, sisterhood and the joys of San Francisco.  What we gain here informs the rest of our year: makes us wiser and funnier and more determined.  And really, whatever I would have written had it not been for Sabbath obligations and general exhaustion boils down to that.  So thanks Elisa and Jory and Lisa (and Jill and Mary Margaret and Kristen and Asha and Erin and Sarah and Devra and Jill and Kari and Beth and Tekla and Catherine and the other Catherine and Morra and Nicole and Liz and Kelly and Jen and Julie ) and all the other beautiful bloggers who, when we're all together, raise the roof of whatever building we happen to be in, and also - every one of our spirits and our hearts.

JEWISH BLOG CARNIVAL- TRY IT OUT

I am now a member of a Blog Carnival called Haveil Havalim, a community of Jewish bloggers submitting posts of interest to the community interested in Jewish issues.  Today's link, my first appearance, is called Daled Amos.  You'll find it interesting, I think.  And if you want to know what the words mean, read this, written by the founder.  Meanwhile, take a look.

BLOGGING BABY BOOMERS CARNIVAL #77 : Holiday Inns, Senior Moments and the Movies

Well I'm "it" this week - the blog carnival gang has landed on my doorstep, and what wonderful gifts they've left!

Since we're blogging boomers we'll start with John Agno of So Baby Boomer, who's thinking about video games this week:   Aging boomers are turning to video games to keep their wits agile....because they are worried about too many senior moments.

The always original Wesley Hein reminds us that "Hollywood has made good use of the struggles of middle age."  With that in mind, on LifeTwo  he has compiled a list of Top Ten Midlife Crisis Movies.

Rhea Pearlman of The (recently highly complimented) Boomer Chronicles is thinking real estate and makes an irritating discovery:   There's a stigma to being middle-aged and renting.

On the aging theme, Nora Ephron may hate her neck, but she never met the two creators of Fabulous over Forty. Did you know that wearing the wrong style of necklace can really age you?  They'll tell you which of this season's accessories are in or out.

Perfect for summer: I Remember JFK's Ron Enderland's meditations on summer vacations past :  "Ah, life on the road circa 1967. Where would we spend the night? Would dad pull an all-nighter and get us somewhere early in the morning? That was known to happen. Or would we stay at a nice, clean, cheap, joyless motel without a pool?  Or, would dad, feeling flush after a particularly profitable week fixing diesel trucks in his garage, spring for the ultimate experience in lodging? That would, of course, be the Holiday Inn!"

In other very exciting news, the ultra-cool, innovative, trend watching company PSFK has listed Gen Plus and The Boomer Chronicles in their list of “Boomer Blogs to Follow”.  Janet Wendy has the full list posted and a link to PSFK to get a peek at the latest in trend.

 Ann at Contemporary Retirement couldn't help smiling in recognition when she read Autobiography in Five Short Chapters by Portia Nelson.  See if it rings any bells for you.

Meanwhile, Midlife Crisis Queen asks "Do you ever wonder if you're headed for a midlife crisis?" then answers with the warning signs.

"Who says divorce is the answer when things get rough?" asks Dina.  "There may be a better way to solve things."  She's got some thoughts over at This Marriage Thing.

And, even though it's just below here - here's my cranky Boomer post about the John McCain "love" commercial.  Don't hate me if you disagree - I couldn't help it.

 

SHUT UP AND SING: CATCHING UP WITH THE DIXIE CHICKS AND WORRYING ABOUT THE ELECTION

Have you seen  this movie?  I sat in bed watching it early Sunday morning on cable and was just blown away.  It's one of the saddest, scariest, most moving American documentaries I've seen in a long time.  That's no surprise, since it was directed by  Barbara Kopple, who made Harlan County USA - the landmark documentary about coal mine union battles in Kentucky.

What happened to the Dixie Chicks is infuriating: performing in London just before the start of the Iraq war, lead singer Natalie Maines (married, by the way, to HEROES star Adrian Pasdar,) told the crowd "Just so you know, we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas."  The scene is included in this preview.

As I watched the film, seeing the rage and cruelty that emerged in the response to this one sentence,  my first thought was, "Oh my God, what does this mean for Barack Obama?"  The people who went after the Dixie chicks were nowhere near a sense of respect for the First Amendment - and sounded like they would be particularly vulnerable to "elitist" or racist accusations against a candidate.  If you remember the exit polls in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania you'll recall that many respondents just about acknowledged that they would not vote for Senator Obama simply because of his race.  Am I unfair to wonder if many of those people are the same ones booing and even threatening Maines' life?  Still "out there" in larger numbers than we wish?  Look at these figures:

In Pennsylvania exit polls on primary day, 14% of voters said that race one one of several important factors. Fifty-five percent of those were Clinton voters and 45% Obama voters. When asked race was “important” 19% said yes – 59% of them Clinton voters; when asked if race was a factor in their decision, 12% said yes. In this group, 76% were white Clinton voters.

In West Virginia, when asked race was “important” to their decision, 22% said yes –82% of them Clinton voters; when asked if race was a factor in their decision, 21% said yes. In this group, 84% were white Clinton voters.

Finally, Ohio. There, when asked race was “important” to their decision, 20% said yes--  59% of them Clinton voters; when asked if race was a factor in their decision, 14% said yes. In this group, 59% were Clinton voters. (the racial breakdown was not available here.)   

Please understand - I don't know if I'm right.  I'm not alleging racial bias in all those who rose up to burn Dixie Chicks CDs and threaten country stations with boycotts if they "ever played one of their songs again"  - but I do suspect they could be more vulnerable to campaigns run in an uglier vein - just as they responded to this one.  It's worrying me.