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Women are making strides, actually not strides, leaps and bounds. It would seem that since women won the right to vote in 1920 there wouldn’t be anything left for us to conquer. I mean, that was almost 90 years ago. By now, women should have done everything and have a presence everywhere.

Women have been the first at a lot of things throughout history. Here are just a few of the big moments:

1925 Nellie Tayloe Ross became the first woman governor
1932 Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic
1934 Lettie Pate Whitehead became the first woman to serve as director of a major corporation
1960 Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to break the sound barrier
in 1965 Patsy Takemoto Mink was the first Asian-American to be elected to Congress
1972 Sally Jean Priesand was the first woman rabbi in the U.S.
1981 Sandra Day O’Connor was the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court
1985 Wilma Mankiller was the first woman to became the chief of the Cherokee Nation
1990 Dr. Antonia Novello becomes the first Hispanic woman and woman to be U.S. Surgeon General
1992 Carol Moseley-Braun is the first African American woman elected to the U.S. Senate….and the list goes on.

However, after almost 90 years since women’s suffrage, is there really that much women haven’t done? Is the glass ceiling still that low? The answer to these questions is, yes. And because the answer is yes, women are still making history and being the first, especially in the past two years.

It was announced today that Ann E. Dunwoody would be the first woman four-star general in the U.S. military. Today, at a ceremony at the Pentagon she will be awarded her fourth star. This is huge! This a huge honor, especially since women weren’t permitted to serve in the military until decades into the twentieth century.

Remember the big story just two years ago that Katie Couric would be the first solo female anchor of a national evening news show, CBS Evening News? I think she is doing great!

Another big event (2007) was when Nancy Pelosi became the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives. This is one of the top positions in our political system and we have a woman in control!In 2007, Drew Gilpin Faust became the first woman president of Harvard University in the school’s 371-year history. Wow.

Hillary Clinton has been a lot of firsts, the First Lady, the first First Lady to be elected to the U.S. Senate, and this year the first woman to win a presidential primary. She was so close to running our country it was unbelievable!

Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, was the first woman to run for Vice President on the Republican ticket.

It is hard to fathom that women haven’t done everything, I mean we are all suppose to be equal! I wonder how long it will be until there is nothing left to be the first at?

Make it Rain! The Bailout Passes The Senate

Lauren - University of Michigan — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 01:43:00 +0000

It’s official, kids. The Senate passed the bailout plan tonight! It took three long hours of debate (which any sorority girl can tell you is nothing compared to rush), but the Senate voted in favor of the newly adapted bailout plan that will cost a wee bit more than the original $700 billion dollars. All we have to do now is wait for it to slide into the House…and hopefully pass there…

I am no economist so I can’t tell you exactly what is gonna happen next, but it looks like we won’t have to stock up on the canned goods for now!

So get out there and celebrate the fact that the stock market isn’t crashing, your student loans are still available and all that money you have in the bank is safe for another keg.

Detroit Symphany Makes Robot’s Dream Come True, CA Grants Same-Sex Couples Right to Wed, (and more!)

ccandysuzie — Fri, 16 May 2008 21:30:46 +0000

Drum roll please…

It’s the news with Kandy Korrespondent! (wild applause) anyways:

The California Supreme Court has overturned the state’s same-sex marriage ban by a vote of 3-4 stating that gay unions must be given the “respect and dignity of marriage” and that same-sex couples should be permitted to wed. Governor Schwartzenagger said on Thursday that he will respect the court’s ruling. Meanwhile, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told reporters that he will gladly officiate at same-sex weddings.

This ruling is the first to apply arguments typically used with regards to the protection of gender and racial rights to the issue of same-sex marriage.

In Other News:

On Thursday, the House of Representatives voted 149-141 against giving the Pentagon an additional $162.5 billion to keep fighting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through mid-2009. Most significantly, 132 Republicans voted “present”– neither yes nor no. Such numbers are revelatory of the widening gap between the Bush administration and the rest of the GOP.

Earlier this week, Congress voted in favor of ordering the Bush administration to stop depositing oil in the national reserve for the remainder of this year. The Senate voted 97 to 1 while the House voted 385 to 25. No one denies the fact that this move is anything other than a quick fix to placate constituents. The US Energy Information Administration predicts that this move will only take at most 5 cents off the per gallon price.

In related news, according to a MasterCard Advisors report, American consumers have decreased their demand for gasoline by 1% so far this year.

As you may remember from Econ 101, gas is considered an inflexible good—meaning that demand will not fluctuate with rising prices. So for total American consumer demand to drop by 1% is totally in violation of this principle.

The death toll following the May 3rd cyclone in Myanmar is now 78,000 with 56,000 still missing. During the past week, several aid planes have been allowed to land in the country but for most members of the population, help remains far off. The military junta government insists on retaining control over distribution—a task for which they are ill prepared—the country only has five working helicopters. The government has also refused international offers to send in search-and-rescue teams and disaster responders.

And Now for Something Completely Different…

Robots take over yet another part of the music industry! A 4 ft 3in tall robot named Asimo conducted the Detroit Symphony this past week in their performance of “The Impossible Dream”. Asimo was built by Honda and designed to mimic the motions of the orchestra’s education director. According to the musicians what the robot lacked in communicability it made up in its fluidity and human-like conducting motions.

That’s the News!