Obama hits women hard economically

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Shirley Scoville

President Barack Obama’s failed economic policies and strategies have hit women hard, according to numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“The Obama Administration has brought hard times to American women. Under President Obama, more women have struggled to find work than at any other time in recorded history,” Mitt Romney says on his website, mittromney.com.

Romney says “Current Employment Statistics” he accessed on April 6 show “Women account for 92.3 percent of the jobs lost under Obama.”

Additionally, Romney says, “What president has the worst record on female labor force participation? Barack Obama. Turning the clock back 20 years on American women.” Romney backs up his observation with the BLS “Current Population Survey” that “Under Obama, the number of unemployed women has increased by 858,000.”

Economic issues are the basis for everything. Women struggle as they look for work to provide for themselves and their families. They struggle as they watch family members suffer with unemployment. Moreover, if they are stay-at-home moms, they manage household economic losses that do not include pursuits of employment.

On top of that, stay-at-home moms may feel guilty for not contributing with comments like those from Democratic consultant Hilary Rosen. She jabbed at Ann Romney on national television that she “never worked a day in her life” as a stay-at-home mom raising five boys.

Aside from the ridiculuous charges to which Ann Romney held her own well, Rosen and others need a reminder of the economic value of stay-at-home moms. I offer only a part of that reminder here.

“Child care, transportation, cleaning, cooking and other household duties are all important, expensive tasks, the replacement value of which is often severely underestimated,” Pamela Yip said in 2006 in “Full-time parenting impacts finances.”

She added, “An analysis by Salary.com found that today’s 5.4 million stay-at-home moms would earn $131,471 in annual salary, including overtime pay, if they were doing the same work for an employer.”

While Obama made a statement supporting stay-at-home moms and their hard work of raising children, he has failed them and all women with his poor economic policies, mass spending and increases in the national debt by trillions of dollars.

As a stay-at-home mom and grandma, I agree with Mitt Romney. He says, “We have the moral responsibility not to spend more than we take in.” This thinking will bode well for the U.S. and women on the front lines of the economic battles.

Posted in Economics, President Obama, Women | 2 Comments

Airport security is still scary

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Shirley Scoville

Airport security is scary despite TSA changes.

The Transportation Security Administration softened guidelines for passengers 12 and younger in November. In March, passengers over 75 in select lanes at four airports can keep on their shoes and light jackets, and no pat-downs are required.

Yet airport security still causes fear.

Take a woman traveling alone on a one-way ticket without baggage. Suddenly she is flagged as a terrorist risk. This happened to me. Agents pulled me aside and detained me for a long time while they hand-searched my scanned carry-ons and scrutinized and chemically scanned my film camera for explosives. They almost opened my camera and ruined my film. Their big discovery was I had glycerin on my camera from my hand lotion.

My experience pales in comparison to two passengers traveling separately in their 80s at New York’s Kennedy Airport in November. One was made to remove a back brace so it could be scanned. The other was made by two female screeners to drop her sweat pants so they could examine her colostomy bag.

Stories like these grip travelers. They do not know what horrors they will face. Those in wheelchairs could be struggling to walk through the scanners instead of having TSA agents grope their genital and breast areas through their clothing. Others are concerned about the invasive rays and images of the scanners themselves. Still others wait to put on incontinence protection or hidden medical devices so as not to be stopped by TSA agents.

I understand the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. brought on tighter airport security, but the TSA itself is terrorizing the flying public. Rebellion at airports is less reported now. It is not because travelers feel less outraged. It is because travelers feel trapped when driving is out of the question.

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Obama’s audacious healthcare hypocrisy

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Shirley Scoville

With audacious hypocrisy, government provides physical therapy, wheelchairs and other medical services only by medical necessity while President Obama mandates unlimited birth control for women.

Oral contraceptives can be prescribed as a medical necessity for a variety of women’s health conditions, including excessive uterine bleeding. Additionally, surgical procedures like hysterectomies and uterine ablations, which also have the effect of preventing conception, can be medically necessary. I have no argument with government paying for their use under those conditions.

So, what should be the requirements before government pays for oral contraceptives or IUDs? When should government pay for gynelogical procedures or surgeries for women? Let us look at how government determines when to pay for physical therapy and wheelchairs as we answer these questions.

No one gets a personal trainer or trips to the gym at the expense of government. Doctors prescribe physical therapy services with treatment goals in mind. Once those goals have been reached, patients are left to use a self-directed program at home or elsewhere at their own expense.

With wheelchairs, government pays claims when the chairs are needed to get the patient from bed to bath to food. Nothing beyond this basic perimeter is supported. This means government does not support trips to the grocery store, community events, church and recreation outside the narrow pathway.

The obvious answer is that government pays for birth control measures only when claims are because of medical necessity. Government should apply medical necessity equally. No one gets government to pay for an undiagnosed condition with no added benefits over a self-directed, home program. Likewise, government should not pay for women to meet their recreational interests.

I get it. Obama wants the single women’s vote. I get it, too, that he does not care whether he tramples religious freedom in his re-election quest by mandating religious health providers offer birth control to their employees.

The country awaits court rulings on Obama’s birth control mandate and the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of Obamacare. Yet, it is clear now Obama does not value religious freedom, individual responsibility and equal application of medical necessity. People like me with these values will not vote for Obama in November.

Posted in Health care reform, President Obama | 3 Comments

Valentine’s Day for more than couples

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Shirley Scoville

Valentine’s Day when I was in elementary school was all about the actual valentines. No candy. No extras. What mattered was the names on the back of “Be My Valentine.” Giving valentines didn’t stop after school either. Children rang doorbells in the evening and ran so they wouldn’t get caught (though I don’t know why because they signed the cards). It was fun.

My pre-school brother felt a little left out, however. He ran to the door with the rest of us, but none of the valentines were for him. My younger sister and I saw this and devised an inclusive plan we hoped would cheer him up: We’d anonymously give him valentines. He’d get to race to the door, find his name on the back and carry the valentines around like we were doing.

Since we didn’t have any other valentines besides the ones we were given at school, my little sister and I found valentines from classmates that were signed in pencil. We erased the names carefully and completely before writing his name on the back. We slipped out the back door, rang the bell at the front door then ran back inside through the back door. Our little brother was excited! And, he only wondered for a moment who sent them. It was so fun!

The hype I hear about Valentine’s Day today is all about couples having the most romantic evening with the perfect setting, gifts, flowers and much more. Some singles have responded by calling the day “Single Awareness Day” in hopes of changing the focus. They are right to do so.

Valentine’s Day is about much more than couples. It’s about a young couple I know hoping their first child will be born today, Valentine’s Day. They didn’t seem to mind a bit that celebrating the baby’s birthday in the future would most likely include family, parents, cousins, children, and laughing and celebrating.

Valentine’s Day is about love, commitment, inspirations, wives, husbands and eternal marriage. It’s about cherishing and forgiving. It’s about holding hands even when those hands are wrinkled and weak. It’s about my children remembering the fun of “Kiss Me” on conversation hearts. And, yes, it also can be about romance and intimacy in varying degrees with marriage being the best place for the most intimate relations.

Nevertheless, let’s not lose sight of the fact that if Valentine’s Day were just for couples, we’d better ban elementary school children from giving valentines to classmates. They’re way too young for that.

Posted in Valentine's Day | Leave a comment

BVSD snow day news poorly disseminated

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Shirley Scoville

Yesterday’s forecast of a heavy snowstorm undoubtedly left most Boulder Valley School District students excited about the possibility of a snow day. They might have been thinking of playing in the snow, sleeping, watching movies, and engaging in other relaxing activities.

However, I doubt any thought the day would have started like it did with one or more phone calls to parents from the district at 4:30 a.m.!

In previous years, snow days were announced over media outlets in the evening if the storm had already hit hard or early in the morning. All parents and students needed to do once they woke up were to watch TV or to listen to the radio. This year, the district might have posted a notice on its website, but I saw no evidence of a school closure on TV or radio until after 7 a.m.

One mother posted to her friends on facebook: “I sure needed a snow day today! But to interrupt my sleep at 4:30 a.m., now that is cruel! The district needs to get their act together.”

Another mother posted, “A 4:30 a.m. automated call from the school district really does suck the joy out of a snow day. Finally fell back to sleep and the principal of the middle school added insult to injury by sending out ANOTHER phone message. We get it! There’s no school!!!”

The criticisms stacked up as snow continued to fall. A third mother said she got “not only a call on the home phone, but two automated calls to my cell phone as well!….they really couldn’t have made that decision at 10:00 last night when every other school district had already decided to close??? I wouldn’t have minded that call any time before midnight.” Despite the sleep interruption, she added a positive spin: “At least I can take a nap today….in between the movies, that is! Looking forward to a[n] easy, lazy day…”

It’s great this mother could take a nap, but it was so unnecessary for the BVSD to interrupt anyone’s sleep with the news of a snow day, particularly not at 4:30 a.m.!

Posted in BVSD | Leave a comment

Obama’s ‘economic fairness’ plan all wrong

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Shirley Scoville

President Obama declared in his State of the Union address Tuesday night that “economic fairness” for all Americans is the “definitive issue of our time.”

Obama would have done well to follow with encouragement for all Americans to work hard and advance their own dreams economically and otherwise through their individual focus, talents and abilities. America is the land of opportunity where the American Dream can be achieved by all. There is no zero sum where some have to fail so others can succeed. No slice of the pie takes away from another.

Instead, Obama said the free market system eroded “the basic American promise” of opportunity. Obama sees our American economic system as the problem. While he talked of all Americans getting a fair shot, their fair share and playing by the same set of rules, he sounded like he was talking about playing ball at recess in elementary school.

Unfortunately, Obama was talking about the economy, and his plan is just plain wrong. It was wrong historically from the country’s roots. It is wrong now. Under it, Americans will get more government, more economic regulations, more spending, and, of course, more taxation. And, in a stroke of envy, the wealthy will be taxed more as the deep pockets needed to be equalized in “economic fairness.”

Though Americans are equal under the law, individual efforts must be allowed to produce unequal outcomes. In reality, that is the American Dream.

Posted in President Obama | Leave a comment

Happy New Year

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Shirley Scoville

As 2011 comes to a close, I’ll be among those celebrating and rejoicing its departure and welcoming in 2012. While 2011 had much to offer, it also brought challenges I hope aren’t repeated in 2012. Despite my personal challenges, however, I am grateful. It’s a privilege and a blessing to live in the United States of America, in my community and in my neighborhood.

Hope, that’s the operative word here. I have hope. I hope we as a human race make better choices than we did in 2011. I hope we are more Christ-like and more humane. I hope we select better leaders for our country and that leaders choose paths to freedom and strength.

Let’t make 2012 much better than 2011! Happy New Year!

Posted in Hope | Leave a comment

Required community service is forced labor

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Shirley Scoville

First posted March 10, 2009, on my blog before the Camera’s system changed and still worth sharing for whenever this idea raises its ugly head:

Next year, Rona Wilensky, the principal at New Vista, will require students at the school to complete community service to graduate. She dictates community service for all students much like a judge or jury would require it of criminals.

I agree with Helayne Jones, BVSD School Board president when she said, “I think that having compulsory community service gets away from the spirit of what community service is.” The school board should stick with Jones’ thought for the rest of the BVSD students. Required community service is simply forced labor.

Back in the early 1990s the school board wanted to change graduation requirements to include a slightly more rigorous academic preparation like a little more English or American history. The result was such an uproar you’d think students were being forced to march 50 miles through a blizzard in below 0 temperatures. The biggest complainers were parents and teachers.

This year one parent appealed to the school board to require community service for all BVSD students. One parent! She should do her homework before approaching the board. What is good for her children isn’t necessarily good for all. I’d love it if everyone was required to take a religion class, an ethics class and three years of a foreign language. In their off hours, I’d like everyone to take piano lessons and sing in a choir, too.

Any move by the school board to require community service for graduation is all about social engineering. And just because Obama approves of community service doesn’t mean our local school board members have to act like his minions.

Volunteerism is a matter of heart. If forced to complete it, students or criminals can be given an opportunity for their hearts to absorb some good there. However, it is just as likely or even more so that the good will escape them because it is forced. They will simply fulfill their required hours.

Posted in BVSD | Leave a comment

BVSD must protect against excessive heat

Posted on October 13, 2011 by Shirley Scoville

The Boulder Valley School Board wisely rejected a proposal on Tuesday night that would have delayed school starting by only four days next fall. Parental concerns about unbearable classroom heat in August were valid. Teachers unwilling to move their professional days to before school starts may be less so. However, four days simply is not enough of a change.

In the 1980s and 1990s, school started after Labor Day most of the time. September’s first days were often warm for fall clothes, so students dressed accordingly. To think students did any differently this year is ridiculous when school began Aug. 15 and temperatures outside reached 98 degrees.

The purported reason for increasingly early starts and their intrusion into time with family is to allow students to take semester finals before Christmas break. Thus, students wouldn’t have tests hanging over their heads during the break. However, when school started after Labor Day, students had plenty of time to get back into their studies before finals. A big plus, too, was schools weren’t too hot.

Instead of adjusting the calendar only four days, the school board should do the smart thing for learning and for the health of children. It should direct future calendar committees to have school start no earlier than the last Monday in August. The preference would be after Labor Day.

If the board is unwilling to do that, it should call “snow days” or “inclement weather days” when temperatures outside climb to make classrooms stifling without air-conditioning. Heat stressed children don’t learn well, and they risk heat exhaustion and heat stroke as well.

The school board protects students against freezing temperatures, snow and ice. It must do the same for students against excessive heat.

Posted in BVSD | 1 Comment

Obama should have told the children

Posted on September 30, 2011 by Shirley Scoville

President Obama’s back-to-school speech on Sept. 28 to the nation’s children covered what many educators and parents say themselves. Obama said students should “discover new passions,” study hard, do their homework, get to bed early so they can wake up on time, and acquire the skills to pursue their passions.

Despite the fact that Obama’s little chat for the third year in a row took kids away from their studies in school to hear him, I cannot argue with the messages he gave. However, with his smiling face time before U.S. children, he failed to tell them some hard facts.

A college education does not guarantee you a job nor does it prevent you from losing one. Students do graduate from college with thousands of dollars of debt and yet do not find jobs. Our nation’s current unemployment rate is 9.1 percent. To make matters worse, many U.S. companies outsource jobs overseas. The result is that no matter how smart Americans are, no matter how much they pursue their newly discovered passions, many of the jobs don’t exist here at home or they cannot get them.

In addition to jobs, the president should have told the children the impact his policies make on the national debt of over $14 trillion. Then, Obama should have talked about the U.S. debt held by foreign countries, particularly China and the trade deficit. The children deserve to know how much they are already in debt and the likelihood of them passing on debt to their children.

Then, if the president was still smiling, which he shouldn’t have been, Obama should have brought up with the children the nation’s liabilities of social security, Medicare, prescription drugs and Obamacare. The rest of us would have liked to have heard that speech as well.

Posted in Political speech, President Obama | 1 Comment