http://causeandeffectworld.com/blog1 getting to the bottom of things... Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:54:23 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en ...says a 78-year old Albanian woman who made an oath of celibacy in return for the right to live and rule her family as a man. "Back then, it was better to be a man because, before, a woman and an animal were considered the same thing," says Keqi, who has ... http://causeandeffectworld.com/blog1/2008/06/26/i-think-today-it-would-be-fun-to-be-a-woman/ I love it. This is the best campaign advice I've seen - Tony Horwitz says Obama should take up smoking to win over the Clinton blue-collar voters, citing these stats: Americans who make between $24,000 and $36,000 a year smoke at twice the rate of those earning $90,000 or more. ... http://causeandeffectworld.com/blog1/2008/06/26/obama-and-his-inner-smoker/ As David Brooks sez today, Obama is not the 'liberal goo-goo' that Republicans are trying to paint, described by Brooks here: God, Republicans are saps. They think that they’re running against some academic liberal who wouldn’t wear flag pins on his lapel, whose wife isn’t proud of America and who went ... http://causeandeffectworld.com/blog1/2008/06/20/obama-is-no-effete-elite/ Jim Webb was on the cover of Parade Magazine on May 18, 2008. That morning I said to my husband, "Webb is going to be Obama's veep." Why? Because he's a man's man. I mean, just look at this picture: What Hillary lovin', McCain supportin' voter can ... http://causeandeffectworld.com/blog1/2008/06/19/jim-webb-a-mans-man/ Well, it's all over for white girls. Sigh. With Michelle Obama soon to be the next first lady, with her great looks, sense of style, and great speaking ability; white women just pale in comparison. And, here it begins... Italian Vogue's new issue features black women ... http://causeandeffectworld.com/blog1/2008/06/19/african-is-the-new-black/ We went into Iraq largely due to representations on the part of an 'operative' codenamed Curveball that Saddam Hussein was in possession of weapons of mass destruction - the mushroom cloud possibility.  Right?  That's the story. Now I understand that intelligence is rarely cut and tried.  You gather a lot of ... http://causeandeffectworld.com/blog1/2008/06/18/this-is-the-infamous-curveball-you-have-got-to-be-kidding/ It's been a while since I've written here (so many issues, so little time), but this caught my eye and made me laugh... "The campaign of Barack Obama has had to rebut, not once but several times, the wild rumors that his wife Michelle used an insulting term for white people ... http://causeandeffectworld.com/blog1/2008/06/17/what-black-people-call-white-people/ Today's sad news about the fatal plane crash in Honduras takes me back to my landing there many years ago on a flight from Costa Rica. Flying a passenger airplane into Toncontin Airport in Honduras is about as exciting a landing as I've had the opportunity to experience. Planes have ... http://causeandeffectworld.com/blog1/2008/06/01/fatal-plane-crash-in-honduras-yikes-ive-been-there/ As a child of German heritage growing up in the United States, the most significant moral question for me was, had I been an adult in Germany under Hitler, would I have had the courage to hide Jews in my attic?  Clearly, most Germans simply went on with their lives, ... http://causeandeffectworld.com/blog1/2008/05/21/moral-failure-on-our-watch-3/ So glad that we have one grown-up running for President - Obama has come out against repealing the federal gas tax. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/opinion/30friedman.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin And some think he's the lightweight.  Don't think so. http://causeandeffectworld.com/blog1/2008/05/10/gas-tax-and-grown-ups/