@CS in AZ

Most of the people I know who do have kids, like many of my coworkers, do tend to limit their families to 1 to 3 children, mostly. I don’t know if that’s due to economic reasons or time/energy demands, or what.

It's all of that and then some.

Sounds like your friends who are parents are responsible parents, doing their best to do right by their children.

I salute them! And you, too, for recognizing that you aren't parent material!

#3.1

Speaking as a woman who has never wanted children, from as early as I can remember, I would lean toward agreeing with you. But, my older sister had 6, and she absolutely loved being pregnant and having babies. I can’t fathom why. I’ve certainly been told my whole life that I’m weird and “not normal” for my aversion to motherhood.

I do happen to have a number of women friends in my life who totally agree with me and are happily childless by choice. But, no doubt we are friends and hang out together in part because we all don’t have kids. Those of our friends who have had kids, we don’t see much because they don’t have time anymore. Most of the people I know who do have kids, like many of my coworkers, do tend to limit their families to 1 to 3 children, mostly. I don’t know if that’s due to economic reasons or time/energy demands, or what.

It’s definitely true that when women have access to birth control, birth rates drop. So it seems clear most women prefer to put limits on the number of babies they want to have, and relatively few want to produce very large families, if they have a say in it.

@CS in AZ

But it's interesting that society has conjured up the word "child-less" to describe women who do not have children.

Recently, I saw a very good documentary directed and produced by two Indian women on arranged marriages in India, titled "A Suitable Girl". Well worth the watch. It was a striking look at the lives of three women, their families, and how marriage is culturally defined. Speaking directly to the issue of societal "norms", the message that penetrates through this film is the intense pressure that culture and tradition places on women to conform. While the pressure to have a family is portrayed more vividly in this film than you would typically see here in the U.S., the expectation for women to get married and have children exists here as well. Notably in the common assumption that anyone who is older, unmarried, and child-free is either unhappy or unlucky, or worse.

More interestingly still is the attempt to convey this to people who cannot fathom a life lived any other way. And yet, if female self actualization is competing with the traditional duties of women who have a house to run, a husband to cater to, and children to raise, young women have got more than a few daunting challenges ahead of them to carve out a piece of their identity that belongs solely to themselves.

#3.1

Speaking as a woman who has never wanted children, from as early as I can remember, I would lean toward agreeing with you. But, my older sister had 6, and she absolutely loved being pregnant and having babies. I can’t fathom why. I’ve certainly been told my whole life that I’m weird and “not normal” for my aversion to motherhood.

I do happen to have a number of women friends in my life who totally agree with me and are happily childless by choice. But, no doubt we are friends and hang out together in part because we all don’t have kids. Those of our friends who have had kids, we don’t see much because they don’t have time anymore. Most of the people I know who do have kids, like many of my coworkers, do tend to limit their families to 1 to 3 children, mostly. I don’t know if that’s due to economic reasons or time/energy demands, or what.

It’s definitely true that when women have access to birth control, birth rates drop. So it seems clear most women prefer to put limits on the number of babies they want to have, and relatively few want to produce very large families, if they have a say in it.

@snoopydawg Not a big fan of Ike Eisenhower, but I don't think it's fair to compare Barack Obama to him. Obama is much more like Reagan.

#6.1

“Progressive” Obama: He’s Melting, He’s Melting

Beneath progressive pretentions, Barack Obama the national political phenomenon has never been anything other than a tool of the United States’ corporate and financial ruling class.

Over 9 million people lost their homes after the banks crashed the global economy and of course they looked to the newly elected "progressive" president for help. After all wasn't that why we elected him and not the corporate tool McCain? That's what we thought we elected. Instead we got the other corporate stooge who betrayed us in so many ways. Here's one ..

And answer to the lobbyist’s question came less the three years later: priceless. In his book Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President (2011), the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Suskind tells a remarkable story from March of 2009. Three months into Obama’s presidency, popular rage at Wall Street was intense and the leading financial institutions were weak and on the defensive. The nation’s financial elite had driven the nation and world’s economy into an epic meltdown in the period since Silverstein’s essay was published – and millions knew it. Having ridden into office partly on a wave of popular anger at the economic power elite’s staggering malfeasance, Obama called a meeting of the nation’s top thirteen financial executives at the White House. The banking titans came into the meeting full of dread only to leave pleased to learn that the new president was in their camp. For instead of standing up for those who had been harmed most by the crisis – workers, minorities, and the poor – Obama sided unequivocally with those who had caused the meltdown.

“My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks,” Obama said. “You guys have an acute public relations problem that’s turning into a political problem. And I want to help…I’m not here to go after you. I’m protecting you…I’m going to shield you from congressional and public anger.” For the banking elite, who had destroyed untold millions of jobs, there was, as Suskind puts it, “Nothing to worry about. Whereas [President Franklin Delano] Roosevelt had [during the Great Depression] pushed for tough, viciously opposed reforms of Wall Street and famously said ‘I welcome their hate,’ Obama was saying ‘How can I help?’” As one leading banker told Suskind, “The sense of everyone after the meeting was relief. The president had us at a moment of real vulnerability.

It's simply amazing how so many people still see him as the second coming of FDR. He's not man enough to shine FDR' s boots!

@ggersh Good for him. (The author, not Obama).

#6.1

it's just hard to be adequately critical of Barack Obama.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/ian-berman/when-you-say-you-miss-presiden...

When You Say You Miss President Obama . . .
IAN BERMAN·SUNDAY, MAY 7, 2017
Do you mean his bombing 7 Muslim countries?
Do you mean the terror he caused from his drones buzzing over so many foreign lands?
Do you mean the failed state he created in Libya?
Do you mean lying about about Assad’s use of chemical weapons or the $12 billion spent on regime change from 2014-2017 alone in Syria?
Do you mean his support for Saudi Arabia’s destruction of Yemen?

Do you mean not condemning the coup in Egypt and providing aid thereafter in violation of U.S. Law?
Do you mean how his approval of the Honduran coup led to rampant crime and murder?
Do you mean supporting the coup in Ukraine and the Neo-Nazi Svoboda who provided the muscle for it?

Do you mean initiating the plans to spend $1 trillion on modernizing the nuclear triad?
Do you mean not prosecuting the war crime of invading Iraq without defensive justification?
Do you mean dismissing the prosecution of torture?
Do you mean the erosion of civil liberties while letting the NSA, FBI and CIA run wild?

Do you mean signing the NDAA which allows the military to hold an American citizen without charge or legal representation under the Executive’s determination as a terrorist?
Do you mean the reauthorization of the Patriot Act?

Do you mean the assassination of American citizens without Due Process?
Do you mean the repeal of decades-old Smith-Mundt Act allowing for the government to disseminate propaganda in the USA and towards American citizens?
Do you mean prosecuting whistle blowers instead of following up on their exposes? Like when whistle blowers such as Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, Julian Asange, Bill Binney, John Kirakou were deemed criminals and not patriots?
Do you mean “Obama’s disappointing record on free speech,” including his 7 year prosecution of “two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist James Risen,” “who helped reveal Bush's program of warrantless wiretapping?”
Do you mean the continued militarization of the police?

Do you mean nominating a cabinet almost entirely chosen by Citigroup?

Do you mean the way he provided $16 TRILLION of low or no cost capital to essentially bankrupt companies during the financial crisis?
Do you mean NOT prosecuting Wall Street executives who defrauded mortgage backed investors of billions, laundered drug money and rigged the $400 - $800 Trillion LIBOR index?
Do you mean having a "Green President" who was actually globally neutral with all the fossil fuel projects supported around the world, including the Sec. State's export of fracking to 30 countries?
Do you mean giving BP a permit to drill in the Arctic after destroying the Gulf of Mexico?
Do you meant negotiating the TPP in secret (as it thankfully failed)?
Do you mean standing idly by while protestors were doused with water cannons in freezing temperatures at Standing Rock?
Do you mean giving $400 billion a year to the healthcost © and pharmaceutical industries while dismissing single payer and public option on the first day of raising the issue?
Do you mean signing HR 933 protecting companies like Monsanto from having to label their genetically-modified food (after campaigning on the right to know)?
Do you mean the continuation of essentially all income gains going to the top 10% of income earners and an unprecedented 95% of income gains going to the top 1% of earners?
Do you mean making permanent the taxation of investment income (which is especially applicable to the 0.1%) at lower rates than middle class wages?
Do you mean deporting over 5.4 million undocumented immigrants?
Do you mean failing to close Guantanomo Bay?
Do you mean changing U.S. policy to detain women and children seeking asylum and giving Corrections Corp. of America a $1 billion no-bid contract to do so?
Do you mean his not removing cannabis from Schedule 1 Controlled Substances?
I would say he earned the $65 million for his book deal. The 0.1% and their industries made fortunes with him in office.
- - - - - -
Ian Berman is an entrepreneur and former corporate banker at leading global banks in New York City. He now focuses on renewable energy, financial advisory services and writing about representative government, equitable public policies and ending American militarism and Israel’s continuing colonization of Palestine. He is the Co-Founder of Palestine 365, the Ongoing Oppression and its predecessor, Palestine 365, on Facebook.
© 2017. All rights reserved.

@ggersh

lest we forget what he was and still is.

legacy. never let it go.

"I was good at killing folks." - B. Obama

#6.1

it's just hard to be adequately critical of Barack Obama.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/ian-berman/when-you-say-you-miss-presiden...

When You Say You Miss President Obama . . .
IAN BERMAN·SUNDAY, MAY 7, 2017
Do you mean his bombing 7 Muslim countries?
Do you mean the terror he caused from his drones buzzing over so many foreign lands?
Do you mean the failed state he created in Libya?
Do you mean lying about about Assad’s use of chemical weapons or the $12 billion spent on regime change from 2014-2017 alone in Syria?
Do you mean his support for Saudi Arabia’s destruction of Yemen?

Do you mean not condemning the coup in Egypt and providing aid thereafter in violation of U.S. Law?
Do you mean how his approval of the Honduran coup led to rampant crime and murder?
Do you mean supporting the coup in Ukraine and the Neo-Nazi Svoboda who provided the muscle for it?

Do you mean initiating the plans to spend $1 trillion on modernizing the nuclear triad?
Do you mean not prosecuting the war crime of invading Iraq without defensive justification?
Do you mean dismissing the prosecution of torture?
Do you mean the erosion of civil liberties while letting the NSA, FBI and CIA run wild?

Do you mean signing the NDAA which allows the military to hold an American citizen without charge or legal representation under the Executive’s determination as a terrorist?
Do you mean the reauthorization of the Patriot Act?

Do you mean the assassination of American citizens without Due Process?
Do you mean the repeal of decades-old Smith-Mundt Act allowing for the government to disseminate propaganda in the USA and towards American citizens?
Do you mean prosecuting whistle blowers instead of following up on their exposes? Like when whistle blowers such as Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, Julian Asange, Bill Binney, John Kirakou were deemed criminals and not patriots?
Do you mean “Obama’s disappointing record on free speech,” including his 7 year prosecution of “two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist James Risen,” “who helped reveal Bush's program of warrantless wiretapping?”
Do you mean the continued militarization of the police?

Do you mean nominating a cabinet almost entirely chosen by Citigroup?

Do you mean the way he provided $16 TRILLION of low or no cost capital to essentially bankrupt companies during the financial crisis?
Do you mean NOT prosecuting Wall Street executives who defrauded mortgage backed investors of billions, laundered drug money and rigged the $400 - $800 Trillion LIBOR index?
Do you mean having a "Green President" who was actually globally neutral with all the fossil fuel projects supported around the world, including the Sec. State's export of fracking to 30 countries?
Do you mean giving BP a permit to drill in the Arctic after destroying the Gulf of Mexico?
Do you meant negotiating the TPP in secret (as it thankfully failed)?
Do you mean standing idly by while protestors were doused with water cannons in freezing temperatures at Standing Rock?
Do you mean giving $400 billion a year to the healthcost © and pharmaceutical industries while dismissing single payer and public option on the first day of raising the issue?
Do you mean signing HR 933 protecting companies like Monsanto from having to label their genetically-modified food (after campaigning on the right to know)?
Do you mean the continuation of essentially all income gains going to the top 10% of income earners and an unprecedented 95% of income gains going to the top 1% of earners?
Do you mean making permanent the taxation of investment income (which is especially applicable to the 0.1%) at lower rates than middle class wages?
Do you mean deporting over 5.4 million undocumented immigrants?
Do you mean failing to close Guantanomo Bay?
Do you mean changing U.S. policy to detain women and children seeking asylum and giving Corrections Corp. of America a $1 billion no-bid contract to do so?
Do you mean his not removing cannabis from Schedule 1 Controlled Substances?
I would say he earned the $65 million for his book deal. The 0.1% and their industries made fortunes with him in office.
- - - - - -
Ian Berman is an entrepreneur and former corporate banker at leading global banks in New York City. He now focuses on renewable energy, financial advisory services and writing about representative government, equitable public policies and ending American militarism and Israel’s continuing colonization of Palestine. He is the Co-Founder of Palestine 365, the Ongoing Oppression and its predecessor, Palestine 365, on Facebook.
© 2017. All rights reserved.