... the perfect gifts, having the most eye-damaging house decorations on the block, or having a hairy old fat man in red underwear arrested for putting their child on his lap and whispering to them to tell him what they "really" want (strangely enough there are some parents out there who actually pay money each year to have this abuse inflicted upon their children). The whole idea of Santa Claus is one of the scariest I've come across and yet we embrace it. The entire story sounds like something you should threaten your kid with if he doesn't want to eat his veggies. As I understand it he's supposed to be a fat ma ...

... I find many parallels between women's experiences in the nineties with Betty Friedan's, in her essay: The Way We Were - 1949. She dealt with a society that expected women to fulfill certain roles. Those roles completely disregarded the needs of educated and motivated business women and scientific women. Actually, the subtle message that society gave was that the educated woman was actually selfish and evil. I remember in particular the searing effect on me, who once intended to be a psychologist, of a story in McCall's in December 1949 called "A Weekend with Daddy." A little girl who lives a lonely life with her m ...

... of a Greek man? No! The reason, they are two completely different languages. Now although parents and their kids speak the same language, parents don't understand that we tune out of English when we want. If we know something is going to be asked of us and we don't want to do it, we turn our brains into "Nag Mode." To define Nag Mode, is simple. Every syllable that comes out of the mouth of an adult is heard as ‘ nag.' For example: Adults say: "clean your room! ." Kids hear: "nag nag nag!" Adults say: "Stop watching television." Kids hear: "nag nag ...

... not working in the past, there are more reasons why books shouldn't be censored. First, if one can't read a book because it is censored, then he is losing some of his freedom. Imagine having to secretly get a copy of a book, just because the school deems it unfit. Also, how would the school decide if a book is safe to read. If a teacher finds a book to be trash, a student may the same book educational, and worth reading. Not only do the people reading the book lose freedom, but the writers lose the freedom to express what they are feeling. Some of the greatest pieces of writing have come from the heart, and i ...

... The extremities males endure to obtain female attention become overwhelming and incomprehensible to Thurber, consequently conflicting with the myth and construction of the ideal of masculinity. Thurber's frustrations with women are evident right from the start. He displaces male insubordination to the blueprint of nature and it's “complicated musical comedy.� (Rosengarten and Flick, 340) It's interesting that he attributes nature as a female creator and thus justifying the relationship that “ none of the females of any species she created cared very much for the males.� (p 340) Thurber compares the ...

... having beauty within. The sayings “beauty is in the eye of the beholder� and “beauty is only skin deep� come to mind when I think about just how much emphasis is placed on outer appearance. A major factor that has increased the percentage of overweight people in society is technology. This includes items such as elevators, escalators, garage-door openers, drive-in windows, and the remote control. It use to be that you would at least burn some calories by having to get up and turn the channel on the television, but thanks to technology it is now a push of a button. Just think, things have the possib ...

... of violence has steadily increased each year. Since 1994 violent programming on the major broadcast networks has increased 14% in primetime (Stern, 1998, p. 24). Television violence is a serious problem and there has to be something done to keep the violence at a respectable level. There are strong statistics about the amount of television watched by the public and the amount of violence that is shown on television. Such statistics highlight the potentially strong influence TV can have on those who watch it. It is believed that people learn by imitating what they see, and children are particularly receptive to ...

... women begin their assault on, what were at the time considered, male-only jobs. Fields such as teaching, preaching, medicine, and law were all jobs domenated by men. Women had made some progress in the work force before the 1850's. In the mid nineteenth century women were the majority for grade school teachers, up from the ten percent of elementary teachers, that were teachers in the colonial period. This can be largely attributed not to the fact that men were more accepting of the idea that women belonged in the work place, but rather men were drown to the higher paying and more socially appreciated managerial j ...

... together. Socialism is a stage of government usually leading up to communism. Government must first control businesses if it is to be considered a communist nation. Democratic socialists believe some government control is necessary to force people to become good citizens, but too much can lead to not enough freedoms. Socialism is seen as an efficient form of government. Capitalism, on the other hand, leads to unemployment, poverty, business cycles, and conflict between owners. Through socialism a nations wealth can be distributed more equally. Socialism is therefore based on cooperation rather than competition ...

... but their husband. In India, some people still have arranged marriages, certain Methodist men have three or more wives living in one household and in some parts of the world you are only allowed to bear one child. Most other cultures would find these practices outrageous and a violation of their freedom. However, there are still certain universal freedoms, like the right to voice your own opnion, to wear clothes of your choice and freedom to get a good education. Some of these things are so important that there is laws to enforce them. Like school for instance, you are legally required to attend regular classe ...