BlogHer CEO Lisa Stone is going to conduct a live podcast interview with Carly Fiorina on Friday. Ms. Fiorina is the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, and now she's stumping for John McCain's campaign. BlogHer is actively soliciting questions to ask the McCain camp in the interview. Head over there and be heard!
Really, this isn't turning into a Miley Cyrus blog. I don't plan to bring it up again.
I'm still not entirely pleased I was put in the position of having to explain this situation to my kids. But motherhood is generally all about being put into sticky situations, for one reason or another, and I tried to make the best of it.
The talk, actually, went quite well. We discussed how people can get carried away to the point of making horribly bad decisions. We talked about how money and fame will never buy good judgment (and usually seems to produce the opposite). We talked about how poor choices bring heartache today, tomorrow and even years from now.
I really felt like they got it. They're shocked and disappointed--and that breaks my heart--but it's not an entirely bad thing for tweens to see, front and center, the consequences of bad judgment. And it's not entirely a bad thing that I got to teach my kids how to process this situation using our family's filter, not the world's.
Teachable moments sometimes appear in the strangest places. A conversation that I dreaded turned out to be very fruitful.
In the meantime? I'm praying for Miley and her family, and my kids are too. We all should.
I am so absolutely furious, I could spit nails.
Perhaps you've seen the news breaking all over the internet, that Miley Cyrus has posed topless in Vanity Fair magazine. Here are the details from the New York Times:
Some parents reacted with outrage over the weekend when the television program “Entertainment Tonight” began showing commercials promoting a scoop: Ms. Cyrus, the star of the wholesome Disney Channel blockbuster “Hannah Montana,” had posed topless, albeit with her chest covered, for the Vanity Fair photographer, Annie Leibovitz.
I don't fault Miley for this. I know I wasn't always making the best choices at age 15. But her parents should have known better. The New York Times reports that her dad was on the set when the photos were taken.
Can you, as a parent, imagine any circumstances in which you'd let your 15-year-old undress for a photographer?
I'm furious because these parents (and Disney, and Vanity Fair) have exploited a child. Since when have topless photos of a minor been acceptable?
I'm more furious because they have now put me, as a parent, in the position of having to discuss topless photos with my sons (this WILL be discussed on the playground, you can be sure of it, and I want my kids to hear my perspective first). Thanks so much for that, Billy Ray, and Vanity Fair, and Disney.
And, if I'm honest, I'm mad at myself for what I might have done to enable this situation. I've been so relieved about the Hannah Montana show as an upbeat, wholesome alternative to some other entertainment, that maybe I've bought into it too much. I've voiced concern at the same time I bought my kids tickets to the movie. I feel creeped out myself, that I've somehow contributed to the exploitation of this child.
So we'll be having an upleasant conversation in our house tonight, about modesty and decision-making and growing up too fast. I'll be making a hard choice myself, as to whether I withhold an otherwise quality show from kids' viewing.
And I will breathe a prayer for Miley, smack dab in the middle of a firestorm not of her making.
I'd really be interested to hear your thoughts about this, particularly about how (or if) you plan to address this with your kids.
From Britain's Sky News:
Military officials have defended a decision to allow Prince William to land his Royal Air Force helicopter in girlfriend Kate Middleton's garden.
"Helicopter bases continually seek permission from land owners to use their fields and there are only two fields permanently available in Hampshire. Opportunities to use alternatives are therefore regularly seized."
He landed his helicopter. In her backyard! The piece goes on to state that
"No one got on or off the aircraft. This was very much a routine training sortie that achieved essential training objectives."
Ri-i-i-ight.
But it's so terribly romantic I can hardly stand it.
...I'm posting on teaching my kids about presidential elections. (And shhhh....you can also find out who I'm voting for! Or "for whom I'm voting". Or whatever.)
Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably seen more than you ever wanted to know about NY Governor Eliot Spitzer's transgressions this week. And you probably also saw that yesterday the identity of his call-girl "friend" was released.
And I know, that young woman broke the law. She's totally responsible for her actions. And I know, the media are jadedly scoffing about how she'll capitalize on her 15 minutes of fame.
Yet when I see her picture, posted suggestively for all the world to see, the only thing I can think of is that this is someone's daughter. Her life may have been a rough one, but surely somebody, somewhere, once held her chubby toddler hand and read her a book. Someone cut her sandwiches in half. Someone hoped for the best for her. And I suspect that this isn't what they had in mind.
I just can't stop thinking about that. It makes my heart hurt.
...it's SUPER TUESDAY!
I voted. Did you?
This morning I was listening to some political talk radio, and the boys asked me what I was listening to. I explained it was big day for our country, sort of the official start of the presidential election.
(Let's just pause for a moment of eye-rolling at the idea that the election is only just now starting, and let us wail and gnash and our teeth together at the thought of the lovely mud-slinging that lies ahead in the next ten months. Anyway, back to the post.)
I went on to tell the boys that today is the Iowa caucus.
"What's an Iowa caucus?" Adam asked, but before I could answer, he said, "'because it kind of sounds like a bug."
"Or a flavor of ice cream," offered Stephen.
"Or maybe a new teen band," Adam continued.
Thus concludes your civics lesson for today, courtesy of the Dryer boys. You Iowans get out there and do the rest of us proud. And tell those politicians the rest of us said to play nice.
