The Democrats don’t have the Wimmins’ vote all locked up?

I think you girls are overreacting

How can that be??  I thought the Republicans went to war on us and everything so that we’d *have* to go running to the Democrats for shelter.  What’s that you say?  Women aren’t doing well in this little Depression and Obama deliberately ignored their employment situation in order to cater to the men?  Or could it be that the confirmed reports that women in the Obama White House said they were working in a “hostile working environment” have made women distrustful of Obama?  It got so bad they had to take their complaints to Valerie Jarrett who set up a dinner between them and the president where he patted them on the head and did nothing.  IIRC, Jarrett arranged baby showers and chicks’ nights, just the kind of thing to make them feel important and that their expertise was valued while the president took the guys on golf outings where the real work got done.

Oh, wait, the NYTimes article says it’s *single* women who are the most ambivalent about Obama.  Well, I can vouch for that.  If you’re a single mom and you lose your job, there’s not a whole lot you can fall back on.  You’re pretty much left to the tattered social safety net.  Um, we’d much rather have jobs, preferably in our old professions, not as the flag bearers on some road construction crew.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just not what we have years of experience doing.  But unfortunately, the money to boost employment went to construction projects because we didn’t want to upset the mens folk.  And anyway, according to Christina Romer, Obama’s chief economic advisor who was roundly ignored by the all guys all the time White House, the amount of money to fund employment projects was woefully inadequate.  Romer suggested that a paltry $100 billion would go a long way to put millions of Americans back to work but Obama ignored her.  And besides, Obama didn’t ask for enough money in the regular fiscal stimulus package so, you know, tough noogies ladies.  Why aren’t you married??

Speaking of married women, I worked with several who were the primary breadwinners for their houses.  Yep, their husbands had part time jobs, at best.  It really sucked for those women when they lost their technically and educationally demanding STEM jobs, forcing their families into a panic situation.  Of course, this happens to men whose wives don’t work as well but in their case, the road back to employment is easier.  Men benefit from the old boys’ network and guys just help guys, know what I mean?  I’m sure you do.

So, there you go.  Democrats are not pulling the ladies in like they were hoping.  Republicans are alienating them as well.  They think women are getting unnecessarily bent out of shape over the whole abortion and contraception stuff.  You can almost hear Republicans rolling their eyes.  It sounds just like the Democrats rolling their eyes over womens’ economic issues.

Both parties deserve to lose this year.

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Ahhh, this is more pleasant.  Patricia McBride and Mikail Barishnikov dance Tchaikovsky with choreography by Ballanchine. (McBride was a Ballanchine dancer, Barishnikov was not but he’s brilliant here anyway)  It’s so hard to find good Ballanchine choreography on youtube I’d almost forgotten how deliciously light it is.  Ballanchine is known for quick, technical footwork.  This ballet doesn’t have a whole lot of that but there’s still more of a modern edge to it.  I can remember the first time I saw an ABT ballet after being soaked in Ballanchine for years and thinking that ABT was slow and involved a lot more posing and acting.  Ballanchine got rid of a lot of grace notes and got down to the business of movement.

Here’s the recent Bolshoi version of the same pas.  It’s just different.  The extension is grander and it’s absolutely lovely but the last variation seems a lot less dangerous and thrilling as far as I’m concerned.

If you’re motivated, you can sync the ballets and watch them together.  Then, you’ll see that you can fake a lot of dancing with loveliness.