Excuse Me, Mr. Thiel? I've Got A Bone to Pick.

Now I have to be honest and say that I'm a little unclear how to argue that women gaining the right to vote did NOT in fact bring ruin upon the United States. It's one of the stupidest things I've ever felt the need to argue, EVER. So before I continue maybe I should let you get up to speed, here

Now that you're as annoyed, mad, or just plain entertained as much as I was by the incredibly hilarious words spoken by one Mr. Thiel, let me get on with it.

I don't like to throw the term Jackass around very easily, I like to reserve it for people like Mr. Thiel who by all accounts appears to be the biggest Jackass in the world. And that says a lot, just watch FOX news for 5 minutes. We're full of Jackasses these days.

In Thiel's "essay" (and I use the term loosely) he says,

"The 1920s were the last decade in American history during which one could be genuinely optimistic about politics. Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women - two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians - have rendered the notion of "capitalist democracy" into an oxymoron."

This guy is one of the biggest Jackasses to open his mouth. I know that there will always be people like this. No matter what accomplishments women make in the coming years, or any discriminated group accomplishes in the future, there will always be ignorant, heartless, douche bags like Peter Thiel spewing hate.

So if I know and accept that, why does this guy Thiel and his rant bother me so much? Because he's knee deep into Facebook, a site that I use quite often. A site that A LOT of women use quite often. Is this the kind of guy we want as the face of a site that is supposed to welcome everyone? Don't think so. And as I found when I searched his name on Facebook, I'm not the only one.

"Take Nativist Peter Thiel OFF Facebook's Board of Directors" is the name of the group I found, because as it turns out he thinks immigrants suck too.

Man what a douche. Ok, rant over.

And I Don't Deserve Equal Pay, Because...

I have been crafting this post in my mind since yesterday but it wasn't until I clicked this picture of the girl that it really came to me. I want equal pay because my daughter deserves equal pay. There aren't a whole lot of things I can protect or shield my kids from as they grow older, but maybe, just maybe I can do something about this.

With your help we can ensure that the young girls who have yet to enter the workforce won't have to fight to get the same pay as a man. President Kennedy enacted the Equal Protection Act in 1963. At that time women made 59 cents to the dollar of men. Now, some 46 years later, we make 78 cents to the dollar. That's a 19 cent increase over 46 years. Give me a break.

I don't know about you, but I'm not about to wait another 46 years to close the gender gap. I want to close it now. And I want to close it for good.

The paycheck fairness act passed through the house and now awaits Senate approval. It will be a huge step in closing that gap. Not only will it offer incentives to companies who follow Equal Pay laws, but it will help strengthen the laws that already exist and increase penalties of violating those laws. Not to mention it will also make Equal Pay lawsuits easier to carry out as well as improve the collection process of related damages.

What can you do? Well first of all hit up the National Women's Law Center and they'll help you contact your Senators to demand that they support the Paycheck Fairness Act.

You can also head over to WomenCount (if you haven't already) and sign the sign the petition to help get a Presidential Commission on Women enacted so that we know that well have a watchdog making sure those Equal Pay laws are used.

The whole reason today is equal pay day is because this is the point in 2009 when the average woman’s wages finally catch up with those paid to the average man in 2008.

A little disturbing, right? That's why we need to make sure that our voices our heard and the Paycheck Fairness Act comes into law. So that way when my little girl enters the work force Equal Pay Day will be celebrated on December 31.

The City

Growing up in the bay area, though each and every city here has it's own unique personality, it's association with San Francisco is always claimed with pride. I grew up in the east bay area, and though that's a good 45 minutes from the city, really we always talked like it was just on the outskirts of SF.

It's an amazing & beautiful place and it's been far too long since I've been there. That's one of the reasons I'm so excited to be sitting on bart to go spend a day in the city.

We all like to have a place we can call ours. Whose culture and history we can claim as our own. I am still proud to call the bay area my home, and all the richness of it a part of me.

Posted with LifeCast

Take Me Out to the Ball Game...

I've always wondered exactly why women's baseball has never really achieved any real attention over the years. Women's basketball, tennis, even women's soccer have all had some decent press over the years, but not women's baseball. Having always been a lover of the game I never understood why women seemed to get the shaft of a game, well quite frankly of a game they we're pretty damn good at.

Now this thought has come even more so for me over the last few months since my son has begun playing T-Ball. Now up until 1973 girls were not allowed to play in Little League. Though it is still dominated by boys I see girls on almost every team in our league here. Which is good because it turns out, my daughter has an arm. I mean a pitching arm. At 4 she can already hit & throw the ball as good (if not better) than the boys on my son's team, and she still has a year before she's old enough to play.

But what happens if it is her calling? She plays baseball her entire childhood, knowing that she doesn't have a shot at ever playing in the majors. Well that plain sucks. We may still be a little ways off from seeing a woman in the White House, but hey at least women like Hilary Clinton are on the field!

With MLB, there might as well be a big sign out front the stadiums that say "No Girls Allowed." Well, they kind of did actually. In 1952 Major League Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick decided that women are not to play on major league teams, stating his 'purpose was to prevent teams from using women players as a publicity stunt.' Yea, thanks for the protection. Too bad he couldn't have made a similar rule about fashion magazines, but I digress.

Even the Olympics are getting with the times by adding Women's Baseball to the Bid to reinstate Baseball into the 2016 Olympic games. Women's Professional Baseball is taken pretty seriously in many other countries as well. Just not here.

Even after years of girls playing little league beside the boys and excelling in other ranks of baseball, in fact most people can say they've seen plenty of baseball players that are girls that can play just as good, if not better, then any man on a MLB field today. Yet here in the states, they still run into a brick wall when it comes to stepping out on to that Major League Field.

Well, MLB you better take note, I've got a girl here who can play ball. And in about 15 years her and I are going to be showing up and you damn well better have a uniform that fits.

Catching Butterflies and Lessons in Love

Yesterday my little girl went butterfly catching. She went with a neighbor, her son and of course my son. They went around the corner to the park where there has been a ton of butterflies due to migrating habits lately.

When they returned my daughter was so proud that she had caught one. There was this precious little butterfly in a little butterfly habitat with a few leaves and some flowers. She proudly showed it to everyone she could and we placed it on top of the bookshelf to keep it out of Blossom the cat's grasp.

I asked her if we were going to let it go, and she looked at me with her big blue eyes and said "NO Mommy! She's my butterfly." I figured we'd deal with it in a few days and let it go. This morning the first thing she did was take down the butterfly habitat and laid down on the floor next to it. She quietly whispered to the butterfly, "Hey girl, how was your night?" Needless to say, my daughter was attached.

Later in the day as I tried to round up my daughter for lunch, she refused to answer me. Which is not too out of the ordinary for my little Diva, so I went in search of her. I found her sitting quietly behind the couch downstairs beside our sliding glass door looking out into the backyard. Before I could tell her to come upstairs for lunch I saw the very crushed look she had on her face. AND the empty butterfly habitat beside her.

I asked her what happened and where her butterfly was. With big tears streaming down she pointed outside where I saw the leaves and flowers on the back patio. "I let her go home, and now I miss her!" She said as she ran to me and burst into a hyper cry.

While part of me broke inside seeing her so sad, a bigger part of me swelled with love and pride. My daughter had just learned a life lesson that I could never explain or teach her. When you love something, set it free.

I ached for her, but told her how happy the butterfly was and how happy the butterfly's family was going to be to see her back home. Then we ate lunch, where she got a couple cookies for being so sweet to her butterfly.

4 years old and already she understands something about love that some adults never understand.

I love being a mom.