The difference between Caroline Kennedy and Tim Geithner is not that one is a man and one is woman. That's complete Hogwash.
The difference was one was considered extremely knowledgeable for their position and essential to helping fix the economic crises, and has been working on the crises since it began and thus their knowledge can be undoubted.
The other has little to no relevant knowledge/experience, they lack the ability to say one good reason why they should be put into their desired position. Their skills (especially speaking) need polish at best, and they are completely lacking at worst.
But if people want to play the sexism card and cheapen it and themselves in the process (and ignore a more qualified women was chosen for the position) that's their choice. But there are better battles to pick.
@Tmoney02: I know -- I really, really know -- that I am entirely ignoring your point, but when I saw the word "Hogwash," with that capital H, I thought "Hogwarts," and I got the silliest grin over the notion of the White House as Hogwarts! And on a day of very few grins so far, I was grateful.
When are we going to find some people to replace the current crop of Wall-Street "money men" and get a designation of a person that had NOTHING to do with the fact that our economy is in the crapper due to poor risk management.
This guy does NOT need to be in teh Treshury, playin wit de moneez.
@RStewie: No, he doesn't but it's not my decision. I really wanted Sheila Bair. I would think that the whole tax thing would have made him not a good candidate. I do my own taxes and I can do them correctly. Why can't he? I just don't think Caroline Kennedy's issue was being a woman. Frankly, this is the first I really heard of her nanny issues. I just thought she didn't have the experience needed.
Susan Rice, if you manage to do anything, something about the GENOCIDE in Darfur, I'll love you forever. The Genocide Conventions were obviously one of the many international and national laws that your predecessors merely glimpsed at or pretended didn't exist.
We've failed to stop to every single genocide since the word's inception in the 1940s. Can we please break the cycle with Darfur? Pretty please?
@EkaterinaBallerina: Seriously, right? And maybe while she's at it, she can take a look at the Congo and see what's going on there?
I really hope she goes through with this. After eight years of focusing solely - and disastrously - on the Middle East, to see some attention paid to the fucked-up shit going down in Africa would be amazing.
John Paul II was also a major hypocrite. The man was credited for helping to bring the downfall of Communism in his native Poland, but he discouraged/squelched political involvement of the church in Africa and South America.
@amoureuse is a second class citizen: No, he wasn't. He saw Marxism (on which liberation theology drew very heavily) as an oppressive force, because where he came from it WAS an oppressive force. And he didn't want the church he led to get mixed up with it. Was he wrong about that? Did he make a mistake in assuming Eastern Europe = the rest of the world? Maybe ... but it wasn't hypocrisy.
@Princess Leela: well... he also sided with oppressive military dictatorships in south america, so i see where amoureuse is coming from. But i still maintain that JPII was a helluva lot more "christian" than ratzinger. it's all about perspective.
John Paul II supported Mobutu and his murderous dictatorship. Trust, Mobutu and MPR was an oppressive force.
At one point, the church became the voice of dissent in the DRC, had John Paul II not silenced it, I believe that Mobutu's regime wouldn't have lasted so long and we wouldn't currently be in the crap that we are now in.
he did more than "discourage/squelch political involvement of the church in South America." He had close relationships with its dictators and priests routinely visited concentration camps in central and south america to extract information, torture and even mock prisoners. Recently in Argentina, priest Christian Von Wernich, at the age of 69, was given a life sentence for his crimes.
OK, so you're a public figure, you have a major association with Federal or State government, and somehow you forget to vet your nanny or pay some taxes. How does that work exactly? Is that the same sort of brain damage that accounts for you being a Mayor or Governor who solicits prostitutes? Does drugs? Sells political appointments?
Greatest democracy on the planet, and we've left it in the hands of mental midgets.
@NefariousNewt: mental midgets? really? There are quite a few people in the US who pay their taxes on time, don't solicit prostitutes and follow every law to the letter. Most of these people are not brilliant economists.
This basically goes for anyone who can even afford a nanny. They are calleds accountant...they are good at math and tell you that you can't expense Jimmy Choos.
@bansaiiiiii: Is Tim Geithner a "brilliant economist" ala Alan Greenspan? I frankly think we need new blood and new ideas. I don't think he'll do a half-bad job, but I also think he needs to accept that the old ways will no longer work.
As a independent contractor I can tell you that taxes mistake is easy to make. Paying quarterly and figuring out the right amount is a pay in the butt.
@nyc-caribbean-ragazza: Yeah, but, you aren't going to be in charge of the department that handles taxes. One would hope between a person in charge of it and an accountant they could get it correct one of those years. I don't know, it just seems weird. Maybe he's good at theory and not application.
The moves that the Pope has been making have been, to use the technical term, total bullshit. I can only hope that the Vatican's steep decline into irrelevance on the world stage keeps this from restarting a best forgotten era for the church. Which it only has itself to thank for, by choosing this backward old fart.
John Paul II did make fantastic strides; he was a thinker and a poet, and while I didn't always agree with him (and um, I don't have to 'cause I'm a Jew) I admired his beauty of thought and expression. If you ever want to read something very touching and meaningful, pick up some of his poetry. That was a man of God.
@SomeAuthorGirl: When your main reason for choosing someone as Pope is "he's probably gonna die soon anyway", you know something ain't right.
I know nothing about church doctrine, but the think I kept hearing from Catholics when he was chosen was like, they don't want another dynasty like JPII, so they've gotta choose someone really, really old so they can pick another one in a couple of years. WTF?
@Breamworthy: I think the idea is that they don't usually choose two young liberals in a row because things can move too fast change-wise. So there is often an older, more traditional pope in the middle. I don't think Benedict was expected to be this nutty though, more like "Oh he probably won't do too much."
@NefariousNewt: Indeed. He did so much to foster ties with other denominations, and I think Benedict has successfully rendered all of that work obsolete.
@NefariousNewt: Amen. Despite disagreeing with some of his views, that man was a shining example of the good Christianity brings to this world. Whether or not that was because he was a great man of faith, or simply a great man, or both, I don't know, but part of my respect for the Church died when he passed.
@dianersb: JP II was what kept me clinging to what faith in the Catholic church I had left. When he died and Benedict (Arnold) was elected, well that killed it for me.
@NefariousNewt: Yeah, I went through cathecism and all of that under JPII (and with a really awesome, liberal priest as guide), so the switch from that to B. Arnold is jarring and unpleasant. I think I'll be sitting out the whole church thing until I see improvements.
@dianersb: Over Christmas I was in St. Patrick's in NYC, and saw the plaque commemorating JP II's last visit there, and I hung my head. Frankly, since he passed, it really feels like there is no Pope. JP II was everywhere, always forging new relationships; Benedict seems to be wedded to the Vatican and is busy re-writing the Church.
@NefariousNewt: I think I heard at some point that JPII was the most travelled pope. So he literally was everywhere. Even when suffering from severe health problems he still travelled to see the people. If for nothing else that made him a great pope and a good leader of the church.
Over Christmas I was at a church in IL, and (during the children's mass) the priest expounded on how evil Santa was. DURING THE CHILDREN'S MASS. That sort of thing just boggles the mind.
I have to say, I think it was clear that Caroline Kennedy came into the process with a multitude of problems -- not least the lack of any kind of record of public service -- and was likely only being considered because of her name. I'm honestly not certain that we can hang the hat of sexism on this particular hook, this time around. Or, rather, I don't think that the two cases are comparable, and so we really can't know. If we get a woman with background and experience that are at all comparable to Geithner's and she gets hung out to dry for similar stupidity, that will be something very different.
But, I voted for a Governor who thinks that getting caught trying to sell a Senate seat is comparable to being imprisoned for 27 years on Robbins Island -- or assassinated. So. I'm not necessarily to be trusted.
@ellaesther: Look, name or not, Caroline Kennedy backed out when she realized what the job would entail. I'm sure part of her wanted to carry on the family legacy -- but her heart wasn't in it. No shame in that. Whatever other problems she may have had, we'll never know. Let's just let it go.
aaaannnddd reason number one zillion and one that I haven't darkened the door of my mother church in years...I know the Pope ain't the Church, but the astounding hypocricy of the Catholic establishment (please see pedophile priests, et. al.) makes taking a communion wafer akin to a crime against humanity. Jesus needs to come back and tear Rome a new one.
@valhalla_i_am_coming: Yup. I disassociated myself from the Catholic Church a looooong time ago, and the only reason I've been near one since is for a wedding or a funeral.
Caroline Kennedy did not have to bow out of the race merely because of tax and nanny issues. How about her terrible performance in public, her thin resume, and the perception that the only reason she was being considered was nepotism?
In addition, the rumors about her affair may be true. Personally, I don't care about that, but a lot of people would.
@1.1.1.: Seconded. I really can't get up in arms about the Kennedy thing because I don't think her bowing out was only because of tax and nanny rumors. I think she was totally unqualified for the position, unlike Geithner, and probably had a whole bunch of people who made her snap to it and realize what she was getting herself into. To say that the only difference with the Gethner/Kennedy situations is gender is ludicrous.
@1.1.1.: how about the fact that she releases every and all statements through a spokesman? um, yeah. not very senatorial because, y'know, as a senator, you have to actually speak and speak on the record, live, into a microphone.
if you are going to run for office or be considered to be appointed for public office, you have to have a large, large percentage of transparency, and caroline kennedy didn't have it.
@1.1.1.: Agreed. She was a terrible candidate, and buying that her nanny issues were the reason she wasn't appointed is taking a very shallow look at the whole situation. She has no experience. She is horrible at public speaking. She had no ideas, stance or platform to speak of. She basically just showed up and said: "Here I am - give me the job." Bah.
@1.1.1.: Agree. She did not have the experience to win the contested senate race and for a lot of the commentators, most people where like, "why now" get involved in politics.
@1.1.1.: Or perhaps the original comparison made by Megan was inapt, and a number of people pointed out more substantive issues than what was between her legs. This isn't to say that sexism wasn't an issue, but unlike what Megan said, it certainly wasn't the ONLY issue.
@Kater Tot: Really? There was a part where I used the word "only"? Oh, wait, there wasn't. I was far from a defender of Kennedy, and I've been unhappy with Geithner since he suggested Obama get rid of Bair at the FDIC. But Paterson's own people leaked the nanny/tax stuff on Kennedy to explain and/or force her withdrawal because it then wouldn't be tenable for her to stay in the appointment race, and the US Senate just said those same problems aren't at issue for Geithner. That's what's know as a double standard, in my book, whether their qualifications are comparable, which I didn't say they were.
@LaFemme: Yeah. I'm kind of like, whatever bout the Caroline Kennedy thing because I didn't think she had any real experience at all. Geithner, while not my favorite choice, does have experience. If Caroline Kennedy wants a Senate seat I think she should have to run for it. I prefer the appointment of someone who has experience until the election. And a woman was appointed to that seat. Not sure what I think of her ideas, but I don't really think it was a gender issue here.
The "rehabilitation" of these disgusting Holocaust deniers is even more infuriating because Benedict is simultaneously threatening to excommunicate people like Father Ray Bourgeois, founder of School of the Americas Watch and lifelong peace activist, for daring to bless the ordination of a woman. Holocaust denying = rehabilitated! Acknowledging that women are capable of spiritual authority = exiled! (The ordained women, of course, were "automatically" excommunicated). [www.nytimes.com]
Catholic Church, I seriously, seriously, seriously wish I could quite your sorry ass.
@J.D.Regent: According to teh Bible, wimmin are never adequite spiritual role models.
I've always been fascinated with the roles the Catholic Church traditionally played in stifling women, i.e. the way the Church (in general) defaults to Mary Magdalene as the ultimate sinner-woman, and yet, she was not the titular sinner woman in most of the stories they have attributed to her. See also-denial over her gnostic gospel (however strange) and general reticence to consider her a disciple of Christ.
I realize that not all Catholic churches (including my own) believe this, but the hierarchy has played some very interesting and very damning roles in history.
@pandorasmittens: I actually disagree. Of course JPII was a nice guy and all, but I was never a fan. Fucking Theology of the Body? Gross. Shaking his finger at Romero? I truly hope that was a joke but I doubt it. And don't forget he was the one who loved and raised up Benedict, made him Defender of the Faith or whatever.
@J.D.Regent: Ugh. You sound like me. There are plenty of awesome, liberal, thoughtful priests out there that make being a Catholic/going to church great (like most of the Jesuits I went to school with), but then things like this make me want to disassociate with the whole institution.
@J.D.Regent: Yes, I agree. Even though JPII was progressive on some issues he was still very conservative and his treatment of the regimes in Latin America was abhorrent. And good point that Ratz was helped up the Vatican ladder by JP.
@pandorasmittens: Don't forget that all of the woman-hate was started hundreds of years ago by men who never actually met women aside from their mothers, and even then only when they were little kids.
The Catholic church has some seriously fucked-up ideas about women and sexuality in its theology. I'm glad to know that the overwhelming majority of Catholics I know agree with me on this.
@whynotshesaid: have you looked at any of the materials from Catholics for a Free Choice? Before ultrasounds the church didn't even believe this whole life begins at conception crap. They thought it began at quickening (when the woman can feel the first kick) which, conveniently, depends on the WOMANs perceptions, not some man with a machine. I really believe all the bizarre (contemporary) theology on gender is a byzantine way of backing up their obviously untenable, non-biblically or traditionally based positions on women priests, birth control, abortion, and compulsory heterosexuality. It's all twentieth century panic. I have never in my life encountered an institution so terrified by womens power (based in reproductive [hello GODLIKE] power], and I am usually not one of those touchy feely women are powerful feminists.
I've always wondered how it's even possible that someone could deny the Holocaust. I've tried to read up on the "facts" that allegedly support denial, but still come up empty-handed. These people must have the world's strongest denial mechanisms.
@pandorasmittens: people claim that the moon landing didn't happen, that jim morrison is alive and living in an apartment over a quick chek somewhere in new jersey...it's amazing how many things people can claim didn't happen.
don't even get me started on the whole armenian genocide thing.
@rednrowdy: Are there people that that didn't happen too? Good lord! Do you know that it was because of THAT genocide that the word even came into existence? Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jew who lost most of his family in the Holocaust but survived himself, created the word genocide after learning about the Armenian genocide. After witnessing the Holocaust firsthand, he wanted a universal word to describe the massacres.
It's just so sad because Pope John Paul II went out of his way to reach out to Jewish people and otherwise spoke very candidly about suffering under the Nazi regime.
@bluebears: I am all for some JP2 love. let's not forget that he was a part of the Catholic church in Poland during WWII that turned a blind eye towards to holocaust, but he defied the church to do some underground anti-nazi work and house Jews and fight anti-semetic policies. And I think he was the one who declared that a respect and understanding of Jewish people and tradition become church doctrine.
So sad that this stupid new pope is destroying all that.
@bluebears: Exactly, because he witnessed it with his own eyes in occupied Poland -- while across the border his successor was joining the Hitler Youth ("no big deal! it was like the Boy Scouts! everyone was doing it!").
@Princess Leela: Seriously. My grandma is super-Catholic (rosaries every morning, pics of JPII from when he visited our island, etc). She says that Pope Ratz is an a-hole that's seemingly not inspired by the guy upstairs.
@Hazel: The Vatican turned a blind eye to the Holocaust, but not the church on whole. I visited a concentration camp on the French-German border were the majority of prisoners were Catholic or Protestant priests. Hitler abhorred religion. The pope that turned a blind eye had another agenda and was obviously a wolf in sheep's clothing.
@Hazel: The whole Catholic Church/Holocaust thing is actually way more complicated than that. Hitler's Pope came out about 10 years ago and basically said that the Pope was in bed with the Nazis, 10 years on its pretty clear that book was a total cock-up. Even the author has admitted that he was wrong about a lot of things. Did the Vatican do what it could have? No. But did it turn a blind eye? No. [en.wikipedia.org]
01/27/09
The difference was one was considered extremely knowledgeable for their position and essential to helping fix the economic crises, and has been working on the crises since it began and thus their knowledge can be undoubted.
The other has little to no relevant knowledge/experience, they lack the ability to say one good reason why they should be put into their desired position. Their skills (especially speaking) need polish at best, and they are completely lacking at worst.
But if people want to play the sexism card and cheapen it and themselves in the process (and ignore a more qualified women was chosen for the position) that's their choice. But there are better battles to pick.
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This guy does NOT need to be in teh Treshury, playin wit de moneez.
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We've failed to stop to every single genocide since the word's inception in the 1940s. Can we please break the cycle with Darfur? Pretty please?
01/27/09
I really hope she goes through with this. After eight years of focusing solely - and disastrously - on the Middle East, to see some attention paid to the fucked-up shit going down in Africa would be amazing.
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>[www.country-data.com]<
John Paul II supported Mobutu and his murderous dictatorship. Trust, Mobutu and MPR was an oppressive force.
At one point, the church became the voice of dissent in the DRC, had John Paul II not silenced it, I believe that Mobutu's regime wouldn't have lasted so long and we wouldn't currently be in the crap that we are now in.
01/27/09
he did more than "discourage/squelch political involvement of the church in South America." He had close relationships with its dictators and priests routinely visited concentration camps in central and south america to extract information, torture and even mock prisoners. Recently in Argentina, priest Christian Von Wernich, at the age of 69, was given a life sentence for his crimes.
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Greatest democracy on the planet, and we've left it in the hands of mental midgets.
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This basically goes for anyone who can even afford a nanny. They are calleds accountant...they are good at math and tell you that you can't expense Jimmy Choos.
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As a independent contractor I can tell you that taxes mistake is easy to make. Paying quarterly and figuring out the right amount is a pay in the butt.
I agree with basaii
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John Paul II did make fantastic strides; he was a thinker and a poet, and while I didn't always agree with him (and um, I don't have to 'cause I'm a Jew) I admired his beauty of thought and expression. If you ever want to read something very touching and meaningful, pick up some of his poetry. That was a man of God.
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I know nothing about church doctrine, but the think I kept hearing from Catholics when he was chosen was like, they don't want another dynasty like JPII, so they've gotta choose someone really, really old so they can pick another one in a couple of years. WTF?
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Over Christmas I was at a church in IL, and (during the children's mass) the priest expounded on how evil Santa was. DURING THE CHILDREN'S MASS. That sort of thing just boggles the mind.
01/27/09
But, I voted for a Governor who thinks that getting caught trying to sell a Senate seat is comparable to being imprisoned for 27 years on Robbins Island -- or assassinated. So. I'm not necessarily to be trusted.
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In addition, the rumors about her affair may be true. Personally, I don't care about that, but a lot of people would.
She was no Kimba Wood.
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if you are going to run for office or be considered to be appointed for public office, you have to have a large, large percentage of transparency, and caroline kennedy didn't have it.
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Thanks. That was the kind of completely inapt comparison that allows people to dismiss complaints of sexism as trivial.
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Catholic Church, I seriously, seriously, seriously wish I could quite your sorry ass.
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I've always been fascinated with the roles the Catholic Church traditionally played in stifling women, i.e. the way the Church (in general) defaults to Mary Magdalene as the ultimate sinner-woman, and yet, she was not the titular sinner woman in most of the stories they have attributed to her. See also-denial over her gnostic gospel (however strange) and general reticence to consider her a disciple of Christ.
I realize that not all Catholic churches (including my own) believe this, but the hierarchy has played some very interesting and very damning roles in history.
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In fact, I am friending you now on account of the Theology of the Body and Romero remarks. :)
01/27/09
Sigh.
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The Catholic church has some seriously fucked-up ideas about women and sexuality in its theology. I'm glad to know that the overwhelming majority of Catholics I know agree with me on this.
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don't even get me started on the whole armenian genocide thing.
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So sad that this stupid new pope is destroying all that.
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Ugh. Cardinal Rat, YOU'RE NOT MY POPE.
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[en.wikipedia.org]