Finding Balance in San Francisco

Batman and the Sunrise

Much to the boys' delight, it recently rained here in San Francisco. This gave our boys and excellent opportunity to don their new Batman raincoats (complete with capes). Here they are, posing, on our back deck:

At the end of that day, Quinn said "the trick with these boots is that you have to walk on your toes."  Upon further questioning and examination, turns out the boots are 2 sizes too small. Quinn's take: "wherever I go, wherever my heels hurt."  Santa may need to bring some new rain boots for the Mighty Quinn.

On another note (but also on our back deck), since the time change we've been waking up with the sun most mornings.  Walking out onto the back deck to see the sunrise has developed into a lovely morning ritual- a refreshing and inspiring way to start the day. 

And lastly, welcome home to my cousin Adam, who is a medic in the military and who has been over in Afghanistan. It's been a brutal past couple of months, with his unit losing several men. We are all so very proud of him and relieved to have him back home, if only for a few weeks. Adam's on the left in the photo below:

We think and pray for you often, Adam.  Thank you for your service to our country.

Bloggers beware- new FTC rules

Yesterday, the FTC published final changes to its Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, specifically addressing paid bloggers and paid-per-Tweet services. 

Companies, bloggers and other "word of mouth" marketers must disclose any "material connections" (e.g., payments, receipt of merchandise, receipt of service) to consumers.  Because "paid endorsement" is no longer just cash, it might be easy to find yourself afoul of the new rules.

So just beware that if you're blogging or Tweeting and you've received something in return (even free drinks), you may need to disclose that in order to stay in the clear.  These rules are new and will need to be worked through, but someone is going to be made an example of by the regulators. 

 

Hopefully that somebody isn't you.

Historic Day for Women and Latinos

Congratulations to Sonia Sotomayor, who was confirmed to the Supreme Court today.

The 68 to 31 Senate floor vote was an important milestone for Hispanics and women, and Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor will inspire Latinos and women for years to come. No Democrat voted against her, and nine Republicans for her.

The judge will be officially sworn in as the 111th justice and the first nominated by a Democrat in 15 years on Saturday at the Supreme Court- but the president won’t be there. Rather, he will preside at an official ceremony with Judge Sotomayor on Wednesday at the White House.

Obama praised the Senate's vote as "breaking another barrier and moving us yet another step closer to a more perfect union."

Ledbetter Strikes Back

Change is in the air.

On Tuesday January 6th, the 111th Congress was called into session.  A few days later, the U.S. House passed fair pay legislation: two bills that will help ensure equal pay for equal work.  The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act are now headed to the Senate.  Hopefully fair pay will be some of the first pieces of legislation that Obama signs into law.

Both of the fair pay bills were passed in the House last Congress, but were blocked by Senate Republicans.  I blogged about that Senate vote this past April, here.  The Ledbetter bill failed in the U.S. Senate by just 3 votes last time it came up.

I also blogged here about the original Supreme Court decision, Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber, that started the ball rolling on this much-needed legislation.  The court ruled against Ledbetter in a case she filed against Goodyear for paying her 40 percent less than men in similar jobs.  The decision rolled back years of precedent and made it much harder for women to challenge pay discrimination in court.  Since then, notes the Wall Street Journal, courts around the country have gone far beyond the facts of that case and cited it as a reason for rejecting lawsuits claiming discrimination based on race, sex, age and disability.

Women still earn only 78 cents for every dollar earned by a man, and this wage disparity costs women, and their families, anywhere from $400,000 to $2 million in lost wages over a lifetime.  In the words of Speaker Nancy Pelosi,

"Despite much progress, the struggle for equality in the workplace is far from over. More than 40 years after the passage of the Equal Pay Act and Title VI, women continue to be paid less for doing the same job as their male colleagues.  

Speaker Pelosi even wrote a blog on for MomsRising.org about why it was important to have fair pay be among the first bills to pass through the new Congress.

As a senator, Obama was a co-sponsor of a bill to overturn the Ledbetter decision.  In the final presidential debate, notes the New York Times, he said he would appoint judges who understood the struggles of “real-world folks” like Ms. Ledbetter.  Obama describes the bill as part of a broader effort by his incoming administration to “update the social contract,” reinvigorate civil rights and close the pay gap between men and women.

On that note, I can't believe that we're less than a week away from Bush and the axis of evil team being shown the door.  I've waited for this day for 8 long years and will be toasting to the promise of Obama and smart power next Tuesday.

To fall back or not to fall back? Is it even a question?

Daylight Savings Time ends Sunday, November 2, and we can all "fall back" into bed for another hour of sleep if we want.  Well... those of us without kids may be able to do that, anyway.  I'm sure my own kids won't recognize the legitimacy of Daylight Savings Time.

Actually, my kids are in decent company on that score.  Many people intensely dislike Daylight Saving Time, and it's been fraught with controversy since its inception.

The history (and more history here) of Daylight Savings Time is kind of interesting... who knew that it's the brainchild of our own Benjamin Franklin and that they used to change the clocks 8 times a year? 

Ol' Benjie said that “if people adjusted their schedules to earlier in the day during summer months, when day length is longest, an immense sum of tallow and wax could be saved by the ‘economy of using sunshine rather than candles.’” A couple-a Scientists from the University of California, Santa Barbara turned Wall Street authors recently came out against Daylight Savings Time, arguing that Mr. Franklin was wrong, and that DST actually leads to an increase in residential electricity demand (in Indiana, anyway).  So much for Franklin's wax theory.

According to Webexhibits.org, depite all the grumblings about DST, most of the world (except for countries around the Equator) has implemented DST at one point or another.  Today, approximately 70 countries utilize Daylight Saving Time in at least a portion of the country. Japan, India, and China are the only major industrialized countries that do not observe some form of daylight saving.

Another interesting tidbit from Webexhibits: mort than 70 percent of Americans rise before 7:00 a.m.  Is that really true?

Also, pedestrians beware!  Recent research indicates that pedestrian fatalities from cars soar at 6:00 p.m. during the weeks after clocks are set back in the fall. Walkers are three times as likely to be hit and killed by cars right after the switch than in the month before DST ends. This research corroborates a 2001 study by researchers at the University of Michigan, which found that 65 pedestrians were killed by car crashes in the week before DST ended, and 227 pedestrians were killed in the week following the end of DST.

Good thing Halloween is this week.