Posts Tagged ‘twitter’
Chelsea Clinton Pregnant — Why Is This News?
Chelsea Clinton pregnant. This was just announced. Why is this news? I mean, I know why it’s news. But why is it really news?
Here is NY1’s tweet about Chelsea’s announce:
Report now on NY1 RT @courtneycgross Chelsea Clinton expecting her first child later this year
— NY1 News (@NY1) April 17, 2014
Are the Clintons the new Kennedys? Definitely not, if only because there aren’t enough of them. There are/were a LOT of Kennedys, and Chelsea is an only child. I suppose she could be the start of a dynasty, but I have a feeling that that days of political dynasties are over.
I’ve always been fascinated by Chelsea Clinton. Bill Clinton was the first President I voted for, and I remember how Bill and Hillary tried very hard to keep her out of the spotlight. They succeeded for the most part, largely because she was so young, but also because this was before the explosion of social media made it more difficult for First Kids to have private lives. Then again, remember Amy Carter, daughter of President Jimmy Carter? She made headlines way back in 1977 for reading during a state dinner; Art Buchwald praised her, but she was the subject of much scorn… at the tender age of 9. I remember that one as well, albeit less vividly because I was younger.
My point is, it has to be weird to grow up in the White House. Sasha and Malia Obama seem to handle the role of First Daughters very well, perhaps in part because they are media savvy kids. Digital natives, if you will. And perhaps the White House press corps showed some restraint, although I can’t say that with total confidence. I can say that whenever I’ve seen the current Presidential daughters they appear to be happy, well-adjusted, and very normal. I’ll go out on a limb and attribute this to good parenting by the President and First Lady, as well as Michelle Obama’s mom, who moved into the White House to help out, which to me made a lot of sense. (Not sure if she’s still there.)
Back to Chelsea Clinton being pregnant. I guess it seems a little… sexist? Maybe? To make this a big news story?
You know what? I’m not sure why it bugs me. But it does. It isn’t the most egregious example of news that maybe shouldn’t be news.
Maybe it’s just that, as a parent, I have a general feeling of protectiveness when it comes to somebody’s child’s privacy. Not that Chelsea is a child. She is very much a public figure, and an adult. But I think that’s the root of my troubled mind here. Over-protective parent, even of someone else’s kid. Go figure.
Related articles (Note: These are offsite links; DaddyTips takes no responsibility for outside content)
Return Of The Son Of Tweets We Like Today
Here are more tweets that we like. At least today. By which we mean that we will probably still like these tweets tomorrow, but tomorrow there will be even MORE tweets.
Actually, there are 500 million tweets tweeted every day, according to this source. That’s a lot of tweeting! Who has time to read all those tweets? How many times can I use a variation of the word tweet in one post? Tweet tweet tweety tweet?
Anyway, here are a few we read today that we liked: Read more »
A Couple Of Tweets We’d Like To Share
Here are some tweets by other tweeters that we’d like to share with you.
First, something parenting-related, because DaddyTips is a parenting site, although we also write a lot of posts about superhero movies and comic books.
Shocking: The offspring of the world's most famous soccer player and a Spice Girl are ridiculously good looking http://t.co/r3KC4bRi7P
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) April 2, 2014
Next, a contest about The Muppets tweeted by Z, one of our favorite people.
I entered to win a trip to NYC in celebration of the #MuppetsMostWanted film http://t.co/UbckLbWI7y
— z. Smith (@zwriter) April 2, 2014
I have no idea what this is about but I like the title.
'Client List' Star Arrested After Art Festival Freak Out! http://t.co/1iczKq8r0v
— Renna Stonebridge (@RennaEchelon) April 2, 2014
And lastly, a tech tip for iPhone users.
How to put your iOS device into "night mode" and save yourself some eye strain http://t.co/wYdeiTlHZh
— CNET (@CNET) April 2, 2014
Related articles (Note: These are offsite links; DaddyTips takes no responsibility for outside content)
Neil Armstrong Says The World Needs Nerdy Engineers
In our ongoing effort to get more excited about space travel and all things space science-y, here is a video from Universe Today in which Neil Armstrong says the world needs more nerdy engineers.
Universe Today (UT… actually, I don’t want to use that abbreviation, people might think I’m talking about the University of Texas, or the state of Utah) is a very cool web site that I was recently turned on to by Lucas Gonze. It is something that I should read daily. I’m saying this publicly in order to shame myself into following through on that plan.
Also, this pic from the Universe Today twitter feed is all sorts of awesome.
Awesome! RT @kpcuk: ;) .-? / |? ?| ? ? | . ?| |[][][]| |F9?| |?? | S | | P | | -? | C? | E | | X? | |?? |?? /_/_
— Universe Today (@universetoday) April 1, 2014
Neil Armstrong: Why The World Needs ‘Nerdy Engineers’ (In Animated Form).
Related articles (Note: These are offsite links; DaddyTips takes no responsibility for outside content)
Boy Brings My Little Pony Backpack to School; Boy Gets Bullied; School Blames Backpack
It’s the same old story you’ve heard a thousand times before. Boy brings My Little Pony backpack to school. Boy gets bulled. School blames backpack, calling it a “trigger for bullying.” Story gets picked up by national media. Internet explodes.
Oh wait. The old story is “Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back.” This one is actually new. Sort of.
Bullying is a serious problem that is finally being taken seriously after countless years of being explained away by adults who would prefer to look the other way and/or actually didn’t/don’t give a crap about the kids who were/are being victimized by small-minded jerks.
Ten years ago, this story might not have made national news. Twenty years ago it absolutely would have been ignored. The kid would be called a fag, a queer, gay, been beaten up, and his school would have done nothing to stop it.
In this particular case, school officials decided that the way to solve the problem was to tell the boy to stop carrying around his ‘My Little Pony’ backpack. Get something more butch, like Spider-Man. (I made that part up; as far as I know no one offered him any specific backpack suggestions.)
In general, the Internet hive mind is horrified by the notion of blaming the backpack. But school officials are not wrong that the backpack makes the kid an easy target for bullies.
What is wrong is the way they handled the situation. Telling the boy that the solution is to leave the backpack at home sends the message that being different is a bad thing, and that if you are different it’s OK for people to taunt you and beat you up. This is especially important because we are talking about a very young kid. He’s only nine and already equates colors with gender; he was pleasantly surprised to find a blue ‘Pony’ backpack because “most of the [‘My Little Pony’] toys are girly,” he told a reporter from People magazine.
The behavior “triggered” by the backpack is indeed bullying in the truest sense of the word. According to the article on People.com, kids at school were “taking it a little too far, with punching me, pushing me down, calling me horrible names, stuff that really shouldn’t happen.” That’s remarkably articulate for a 9-year-old. It also makes me cry man tears. The school has to stop the behavior immediately. Focusing on the backpack is wrong.
The boy’s mother is quoted thusly: “Saying a lunchbox is a trigger for bullying is like saying a short skirt is a trigger for rape. It’s flawed logic, it doesn’t make any sense.” I respectfully disagree with her. A lunchbox, in this case a backpack, is in fact the trigger for the bullying. Bullies see backpack. Bullies commence bullying. That doesn’t mean the school handled the situation appropriately. But we should stop saying things are “like rape” because the only thing that is “like rape” is rape. (I have no wish to knock the mother of the bullied boy. Note that I’m not using either her name or his.) There’s no need to compare bullying to something else in order to make it more terrible. Her son is/was being beaten up at school. Why? It doesn’t matter. He should be able to go to school and feel safe, actually be safe. The bullies should be punished immediately. Suspensions, expulsions if the bullying continues. Any parent of a bully who tries to defend their child’s behavior is flat out wrong.
The article on People.com has a link at the end that I won’t click because I know it will only make me more sad.
RELATED: 11-Year-Old Boy Attempts Suicide After Being Bullied for My Little Pony Passion (People.com)
That’s where it goes if you keep blaming the victim. The victim is the 9-year-old boy, not his backpack.
Since the word bullying has become a bit watered down — Justin Bieber claims that when people call him names on Twitter that’s “bullying”, which is bullshit — maybe we should start calling the behavior what it would be called if these were adults.
Assault and battery.
Grayson Bruce Prohibited from Bringing ‘My Little Pony’ Backpack to School : People.com.
Related articles (Note: These are offsite links; DaddyTips takes no responsibility for outside content)
Buy Whit Honea’s Book Now
Whit Honea has a new book out called The Parents’ Phrase Book. You should go buy it now.
Why should you go buy Whit Honea’s new book? I don’t recall giving you permission to ask for a reason. But I will give you one anyway. In fact, I will give you three. Read more »
Happy Chanukah And a Jewish NFL Player
DaddyTips wishes everyone a Happy Chanukah, and also offers these Tweets from and about a Jewish NFL player, the New England Patriots‘ Julian Edelman. Also some videos showing that the dude can play.
Edelman had a big week for the Pats this past week, accounting for two of the team’s touchdowns. We should have predicted this because we dropped him in our fantasy football league. (Sorry Mr. Edelman, it’s nothing personal. Or maybe we shouldn’t apologize. Any player we drop in fantasy football tends to be successful on the field immediately after said droppage. Not that we think we control the sports universe or anything. It’s just something we’ve noticed.)
#Killinit RT @solongrachel: @Edelman11 @DannyAmendola @RobGronkowski my laptop background makes me so happy pic.twitter.com/pPr13iSAWz
— Julian Edelman (@Edelman11) November 26, 2013
Moving away from Edelman’s real football success (and our fantasy football failures), here is a tweet from the Patriots’ wide receiver, who spent some time being charitable recently.
Just had a great time giving out #thanksgiving baskets at the #goodwill in Boston. Unbelievable experience.
— Julian Edelman (@Edelman11) November 27, 2013
And here are two tweets that Mr. Edelman re-tweeted, including one in which Happy Chanukah wishes are offered.
Wishing both @wbpfk_bosstown & @edelman11 along with my other tweeps who celebrate a very Happy Hanukah http://t.co/bQ6Zi1NAmb
— Jan (@NEPatsFan_11) November 27, 2013
@Edelman11 how about a RT for ur biggest "little" fan in Chicago: Gabriel!!! He wants to dive in the end zone too! pic.twitter.com/gwhXCGvqfq
— Dennis Rose (@dennisrose25) November 26, 2013
There aren’t a ton of Jewish NFL players, not because of a conspiracy or anything, there simply aren’t a lot of Jewish football players in general as far as we know.
Edelman, for what it’s worth, is a player that we’ve always liked. Plays well, plays hard, gets the job done. Here is a video of Edelman returning a punt 94 yards for a touchdown back in 2011.
And here is a video of Edelman blocking, delivering a rather serious hit to an opposing player.
Makes me want to watch some football. Oh! Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! Chanukah being so frickin’ early this year just became more OK.
Happy Chanukah from DaddyTips!
See also:
DaddyDeals (Chanukah starts tonight but there are eight nights, so you’ve got shopping time if you need it)
