1. Fair enough.

2. I'm not in favor of the takeover either. How much sense does it make to privatize profit and socialize losses like this? The fed either has to make them 100% state owned or dismantle them.

3. Madonna was a great leap forward for feminism?

4. Inefficient government programs? Yes. Still necessary? Yes.

on Palin; Female or no female, if she doesn't represent the views and ideals of a woman voting, the woman shouldn't vote for her. We aren't trying to push feminism or gender equality in this election..or should I say that we shouldn't push this. Just like we should push race equality. An election is about issues. Do you want to drill in ANWAR? If so, you would probably vote republican this year. Do you want to leave Iraq? Then you would probably vote democrat.

Madonna pushing the feminist movement? Does sex appeal= respect and equality? Is that what feminists want? Seriously? Madonna became a sex icon through her music and persona. Her successful career of that made her a respected woman, but I'm sure she is still sexually harassed because of the persona she created. Feminists don't want to have to make it based on 'sex sells', they want to be respected and treated equally because they do just as well as men. I do not see Madonna as an example because of HOW she became respected.

We have to remember that, yes, FDR created these social programs. Did we upkeep them over the years? Did we increase funding? ...apparently not as much as we should have. That is only part of what made these programs fail, the others being poor management and poor funds, not enough impact, etc... For example; a new house is beautiful and in great working condition. But if you bought that house (created the 'program') and then used the house over several decades without painting the walls, replacing the roof...doing the general upkeep (continued funding and improvements on programs), eventually that house will not be worth its value and no one will want it because it is old and was ignored for so long its useless.
So to recap; although the social programs were successful for a period of time, they have been severely ignored in terms of funding, improving and changing with the times so much that they are subsequently worth nothing.

So you're right, they are a waste of time. Lets just not do any social programs at all.

Dani:

Most of the contributors on Brazen are writing their own blogs too, but share their content with the Brazen community by syndicating their content to our site. It's a way to bring some of the best Gen-Y bloggers to one place to communicate, share ideas, network, etc.

We find our bloggers in a lot ways. Some come to us by filling out our Join application. Others, we go out and find. And some are recommended by other people in our community.

So to answer your question, our bloggers are free to write about whatever they want, and we wouldn't want it any other way. But at the same time, I'd like to think that everyone is having an impact on one another through who they connect with on the site.

Does that make sense? Feel free to email me if you'd like to know more.

ryanpaugh@brazencareerist.com

1) Agreed. No excuse for ignorance.
2) I think the takeover is a ridiculous idea. However, I think the utter lack of regulation led to widespread propagation of specious loans to people with little or no credit history and the subsequent financial crisis. Besides, if the government is going to spend $1 billion dollars bailing out someone, why not spend it on the taxpayers besides a corporation. The deal reeks of special interests.
3) Madonna as a great leap forward for feminism is a big stretch I think. As for the debate of Palin and her impact on feminism, I think that you have to consider a feminist icon if only for the controversy she stirs up. She is a mother of 5 in an executive government position who also holds some controversial views about abortion. While I don't think that having a right to an abortion is the only tenet in feminist ideology, I do think it speaks to the larger subject of women being able to other women having the right to control their bodies.
4. Government programs are a necessary evil. The free market while efficient for the proper distribution of goods and services is not effective in terms of equality of distribution.

@Milena
I hate to pick at one tiny little point that wasn't even in your original post, but this is something that really bothers me.
To be a woman and say you're not a feminist just doesn't seem right to me. If you believe in men and women having equal rights, you are a feminist. Maybe what you really mean is that you're not what some might call a "feminazi," or one of those fist-shaking, hairy-legged, bra-burning women. But if you believe that you should have rights and opportunities equal to those of your husband, then you are a feminist.

fem·i·nism /ˈfɛməˌnɪzəm/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[fem-uh-niz-uhm] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1. the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men.

@zak - interesting. I'd love to hear from the actual librarian.

@Vanessa -
1. To be honest, the ignorance doesn't really bother me, it's the righteousness. Even I was incredulous when I first heard...but skeptical.

2. A fascinating post on those special interests: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/07/top-senate-recipients-of-fanni.html

Supposedly, Fannie and Freddie (again, we shouldn't forget they were created and regulated by the government) were paying large sums to politicians in both parties, mostly those who sat on regulatory boards/committees. You didn't have to follow that nasty smell far, did you? Now, let's hope my source isn't fake! :)

3. I should have known the Madonna thing would come and bite me. What I like about Paglia's view is that she doesn't see Palin as a threat, even given her aspirations to overturn Roe v. Wade. How I see it? The amendment is unconstitutional and should be up to states. Paglia argues that the pro-choice camp needs to do more work on the ethical side of their argument, even though she is on the same side. I appreciate her honesty and candor.

4. I think some government programs achieve fairness and equality without taking freedoms away from others. When your consumption of a good doesn't decrease my consumption of a good, i.e., everyone consumes the same amount simultaneously, that is not evil. A perfect example is defense, rule of law and functioning courts, police, etc. Some people think that's where it should stop, and I can see their argument. I personally think we need to provide infrastructure and financial and medical assistance to the most poor (but not universal health care) ;)

Milena - I agree on your feminism commentary. It's so true that feminists are expected to jump on certain bandwagons. So are people who work for non-profits or community organizations.

I was at a community event as part of my job last week and everyone expected me to be thrilled to take a condom and sign up at the different pro-choice tables. They also made tons of jokes about Palin's remarks on Barack being a community organizer.

Anyway - you're right. I don't think it's possible to be accepted as a feminist without supporting pro-choice ideals.

#1. Absolutely. Faulty information and propaganda. Well said.

#2. There are many more facets to the failure and bankruptcy of the Mae siblings. A lot can be blamed on big finance in NYC that kept underwriting all of the loans and accepting them as legitimate. The more they were accepted the more than lenders wanted to give out. It was greed on top of greed. So yes, the regulation of the institutes may have been flawed in some aspects but its certainly only one piece of a very disfigured puzzle.

3. I can't agree even a little about Palin being a positive step for women. She's a woman with a down syndrome infant and 4 children (one of which is going to need help raising her own child), and she seems to think nothing of stepping into the media spotlight and taking a step back from her young family. And not to mention her hypocrisy regarding her pro-life stance. Making a press statement thanking the press for their support as bristol and the family have decided to keep the baby. Maybe its because I'm not a literature scholar, but I thought decision and choice meant the same thing? So her family and her daughter were able to make the choice to keep the baby, but she believes every other family shouldn't have the right to make that same choice. At least Hillary conducted herself with poise and intelligence.Clinton was someone women could look to for inspiration. There's no doubting hillary Clinton isn't an incredibly ambitious and intelligent woman. And she earned her place in the Senate as well as her place as nearly the Presidential candidate. She fought hard and took more bashing from the right than she deserved and still fought until the end. Sarah Palin didn't deserve the nomination. She's a nobody politician from a nobody state. She's hardly in any position to be running the country just because she's FROM the country. She got it the nomination because she's a woman and its obvious pandering. That's not a step forward for feminism. That's letting the men in the executive branches in gov't manipulate feminist ideals to win an election. Hardly a step forward.

And madonna is someone to look up to now, with her work ethic and longevity of career. But when she was sporting the pointy bra she was a sleeping with everyone in hollywood, male or female and essentially just whoring around. Should young women be looking up to Britney spears and lindsay Lohan these days?

#4. Its hard to fiscally balance social programs like welfare and social security when spending a billion dollars a day on a war and the entire country is essentially owned by the Chinese.