# National Tartan Day



## fishertw (Jan 27, 2006)

April 6 is National Tartan Day in the US. There is a service at the National Cahedral iN DC that I've always wanted to attend. Maybe next year. Anyone on this forum ever attended?
I wear the Anderson Tartan. What's yours?


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

fishertw said:


> April 6 is National Tartan Day in the US.


What a pointless concept!


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## Snow Hill Pond (Aug 10, 2011)

Chouan said:


> What a pointless concept!


Can't be any worse than any of these:

https://www.wardipedia.org/65-point...ing_wp_cron=1397045835.6836879253387451171875

BTW, today is Winston Churchill Day! Happy WCD!


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

Snow Hill Pond said:


> Can't be any worse than any of these:
> 
> https://www.wardipedia.org/65-point...ing_wp_cron=1397045835.6836879253387451171875
> 
> BTW, today is Winston Churchill Day! Happy WCD!


Good one! I laughed until I stopped. 
I'd never heard of WCD until you mentioned it.


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## Snow Hill Pond (Aug 10, 2011)

Chouan said:


> Good one! I laughed until I stopped.
> I'd never heard of WCD until you mentioned it.


Actually, neither have I, and presumably we Americans celebrate it. The description ("Winston Churchill Day celebrates the day he was made an honorary US citizen") is priceless.


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## WouldaShoulda (Aug 5, 2009)

I'll stop buy the Embassy on my way home and offer a happy WCD salute on my way home!!










Heh, heh.


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## WouldaShoulda (Aug 5, 2009)

And how did we miss national equal pay day in the US??

Another day, another pander for Obama and Co.!!

Women make up nearly half of our Nation's workforce and are primary breadwinners in 4 in 10 American households with children under age 18. Yet from boardrooms to classrooms to factory floors, their talent and hard work are not reflected on the payroll. Today, *women still make only 77 cents to every man's dollar*, and the pay gap is even wider for women of color.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-pres...tial-proclamation-national-equal-pay-day-2014

Why does the White House still use these discredited figures??


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## Gurdon (Feb 7, 2005)

Chouan said:


> What a pointless concept!


Why is it pointless? As a settler society the US has citizens from many nations. There is considerable enthusiasm here for having and displaying connections to the "old country," whichever one it may be.

For a number of reasons, Scottish connections seem particularly appealing here, so it is not surprising that some of us might appreciate an opportunity to dress up in a kilt.

Cheers,
Gurdon


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## Gurdon (Feb 7, 2005)

WouldaShoulda said:


> And how did we miss national equal pay day in the US??
> 
> Another day, another pander for Obama and Co.!!
> 
> ...


What are the correct figures? What are your sources?

Gurdon


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

Gurdon said:


> Why is it pointless? As a settler society the US has citizens from many nations. There is considerable enthusiasm here for having and displaying connections to the "old country," whichever one it may be.
> 
> For a number of reasons, Scottish connections seem particularly appealing here, so it is not surprising that some of us might appreciate an opportunity to dress up in a kilt.
> 
> ...


If you feel the need to dress up in some kind of invented folklore uniform then, surely, you can do so whenever you like? As far as Scottish connections and pretensions are concerned, you've got Saint Andrew's Day for that, haven't you? It must be the kilt itself though, as Americans seem to wear kilts on Saint Patrick's day as well, and play Scottish bagpipes at the same time, when neither has any connection to Ireland!


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## WouldaShoulda (Aug 5, 2009)

Gurdon said:


> What are the correct figures? What are your sources?
> 
> Gurdon


June O'Neill, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office who has been a critic of the 77-cent statistic, has that the wage gap is affected by a number of factors, including that the average woman has less work experience than the average man and that more of the weeks worked by women are part-time rather than full-time. Women also tend to leave the work force for periods in order to raise children, seek jobs that may have more flexible hours but lower pay and choose careers that tend to have lower pay.
Indeed, BLS data show that women who do not get married have virtually no wage gap; they earn 96 cents for every dollar a man makes.


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## Snow Hill Pond (Aug 10, 2011)

WouldaShoulda said:


> And how did we miss national equal pay day in the US??


Opening a big can of worms with this one...


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## Shaver (May 2, 2012)

If any of you American chappies require a connection with the 'Old Country' there is a proper annual celebration due shortly - April 23rd.






Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead!

In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,
Have in these parts from morn till even fought
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry* 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George'!

*
Phew! That'll stir any drops of pure English blood that may yet be pumping in your veins.


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## WouldaShoulda (Aug 5, 2009)

Snow Hill Pond said:


> Opening a big can of worms with this one...


I didn't open it.

The White House did.

Now they can go suck on their ignorant and misleading tactics.

As President Obama prepares to unveil aimed at narrowing the between men and women, press secretary Jay Carney defended the fact that women at the White House earn, on average, 88 cents for every dollar that men do.


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## WouldaShoulda (Aug 5, 2009)

Want More??

https://www.aei-ideas.org/2013/04/t...nal-fatality-day-will-occur-on-april-17-2023/

Every year, the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) publicizes its "Equal Pay Day" to bring public attention to the gender pay gap. This year, "Equal Pay Day" occurs today, April 9, and represents how far into 2013 the average woman would supposedly have to continue working to earn the same income that the average man earned last year. Inspired by Equal Pay Day, in 2010 I introduced "*Equal Occupational Fatality Day*" to bring public attention to the huge gender disparity in work-related deaths every year in the United States. "*Equal Occupational Fatality Day*" tells us how many _years_ into the future women would have to work before they would experience the same number of occupational fatalities that occurred in the previous year for men.
Based on the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data on workplace fatalities for 2011 (and assuming those fatality data will be similar in 2012), an "*Equal Occupational Fatality Day*" can be calculated. As in previous years, the chart above shows the significant gender disparity in workplace fatalities: 4,234 men died on the job (92% of the total) in 2011 compared to only 375 women (8% of the total). The "gender occupational fatality gap" in 2011 was considerable - more than 11 men died on the job for every woman who died while working.
Based on the BLS data, the next "*Equal Occupational Fatality Day*" will occur more than ten years from now - on April 17, 2023. That date symbolizes how far into the future women will be able to continue working before they experience the same estimated loss of life that men experienced in 2012 from work-related deaths. Because women tend to work in safer occupations than men on average, they have the advantage of being able to work for more than a decade longer than men before they experience the same number of male occupational fatalities in a single year.

*Here's a question for the NCPE*: Closing the "gender pay gap" could only be achieved by closing the "occupational fatality gap." Would achieving the goal of pay equity really be worth the loss of life for thousands of additional women each year who would die in work-related accidents?


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## Snow Hill Pond (Aug 10, 2011)

WouldaShoulda said:


> I didn't open it.
> 
> The White House did.
> 
> ...


I agree that the President is being disingenuous, but I don't think we should fall into his trap. By even arguing the point that there is or isn't a gender wage gap, one argues a point where no one will be persuaded to change his/her mind. And he is left making an argument that (although possibly correct) is too nuanced for the average person to understand.

Instead of arguing about a gender wage gap, I would argue that the real wage gap is between those who have the CA Jones to demand more and those who are passive about their careers. It's not men vs women. There are plenty of underpaid men who do the same job as another man or for that matter another woman. The higher paid individual is the one who has the guts to demand what they are worth (or the chutzpah to demand more than what they are worth). I like that argument better, since it doesn't argue that a class of people should be treated differently, but rather that each individual should be responsible to manage his/her career so that they are paid fairly.

It's almost as simple as this: If you think you deserve a raise, ask for it. If the answer is no, then live with it or walk out the door and look for somthing better.


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## WouldaShoulda (Aug 5, 2009)

Snow Hill Pond said:


> It's almost as simple as this: If you think you deserve a raise, ask for it. If the answer is no, then live with it or walk out the door and look for somthing better.


I honestly don't find that argument more compelling or politically expedient!!

Wait until he digs up the income by race gap again.

Oh, boy!!


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## Snow Hill Pond (Aug 10, 2011)

WouldaShoulda said:


> I honestly don't find that argument more compelling or politically expedient!!
> 
> Wait until he digs up the income by race gap again.
> 
> Oh, boy!!


Wasn't trying to be compelling or politically expedient, just truthful. My bad...


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## WouldaShoulda (Aug 5, 2009)

See how far THAT gets you!!


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## Snow Hill Pond (Aug 10, 2011)

WouldaShoulda said:


> See how far THAT gets you!!


I'm just tired of the evil President knowingly presenting lies as wedge issues. Come on, does he really think that everyone in America was born last night?


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

Shaver said:


> If any of you American chappies require a connection with the 'Old Country' there is a proper annual celebration due shortly - April 23rd.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Curious that English heritage seems to be less than enthusiastically celebrated in the US, yet anybody with a vaguely Scottish name seems, apparently, to want to dress up in an invented "heritage" uniform at every opportunity and celebrate their common feeling of something or other.


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## Shaver (May 2, 2012)

^ Hoots! I dinnae ken, must be frae all they boggin McDonalds the wee scunners scran mibbe?


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## justonemore (Jul 2, 2009)

Chouan said:


> Curious that English heritage seems to be less than enthusiastically celebrated in the US, yet anybody with a vaguely Scottish name seems, apparently, to want to dress up in an invented "heritage" uniform at every opportunity and celebrate their common feeling of something or other.


Well the Americans are rather fond of making up holidays aren't they? Kwanza comes to mind as one of the more recent additions but..Presidents day. Arbor day. Labor day. Earth day. Groundhog day. Flag day. Patriot day. Martin Luther King .mémorial day. Veteran's day. Thanksgiving.etc. etc.

Of course we can't forget those still in practice from the old country. Christmas. Halloween. St. Valentine's. etc.

Any excuse for a party. lol.

The funniest thing is that the U.S. is one of the few countries where there are no paid holidays.


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## justonemore (Jul 2, 2009)

Shaver said:


> ^ Hoots! I dinnae ken, must be frae all they boggin McDonalds the wee scunners scran mibbe?


I've noticed that McDonald's is hardly shunned here in Europe. In 2 generations or so we'll be having the same problems with obesity & the issues that accompany it.


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

We've got those problems now. The curse of cheap low quality food.


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