What is the greatest achievement of a woman?

Which woman? No, seriously, greatest is a relative and subjective term. Your greatest may be different from mine or hers. None the less, some women have achieved some remarkable things. Several women have been elected to head of government positions such as Kim Campbell of Canada, Golda Meir of Israel, Indira Ghandi of India, and Margaret Thatcher of the United Kingdom. Other women have become head of government through succession or intrigue. England’s power and world influence increased greatly during the reign of Elizabeth I. The state of Virginia is named for her. Catherine the Great of Russia increased the size of the Russian Empire more than any other ruler. She divided and gave away an entire country in the process (the partition of Poland).

Several women have won the Noble Prize and not just in the Peace and Literature categories, which are cool enough. Several women have won the Noble Prize in Science categories including Marie Curie who won it twice; one for physics and one for chemistry.

Joan of Arc was a heroic and brilliant teenage military commander who became a saint. Eva Peron won the undying love of her nation. Mary raised a loving son and became queen of heaven. Mahalia Jackson became the greatest gospel singer of all time, sang at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy and the funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr., and mentored a young family friend named Aretha Franklin.

One of my favorites, though, is Belva Lockwood (see picture above) of Royalton, New York. Belva Lockwood was the first women to run for president of the United States. There is evidence that she even received some votes in the electoral college. And she ran twice, in 1884 and 1888; more than 30 years before women won the right to vote in the United States. She was also the first woman to practice law before the Supreme Court of the United States and in the federal courts. Also remarkable was that she began her legal education in her thirties as a widowed mother after already having a career as an educator. As preceptress (i.e., principal) of the Lockport Union School in Lockport, New York in the 1850s she did radical things like institute public speaking and gymnastics classes for girls. She encouraged girls to engage in regular physical activity just as she did. Belva Lockwood believed in and tirelessly worked for equal rights for everyone and for universal peace. Those are ideas that were way ahead of their time in the nineteenth century and still sound pretty progressive and good today.

Has any American president ever killed anybody?

Sure, most of them have. Many American presidents served in active duty military prior to becoming president, some heroically. Presumably they killed the enemy themselves or the people in their command killed the enemy. The president is commander-in-chief of the United States military so war time presidents were ultimately responsible for many deaths both American and enemy.

Several presidents served as state governors prior to becoming president. Capital punishment has been the rule rather than the exception in most states for most of American history. The governor signs the death warrant allowing prisoners convicted of capital crimes to be executed.

However, I'll bet the spirit of this question has to do with a more personal type of killing. Two presidents fit this bill. Andrew Jackson challenged a man who had insulted Jackson's wife to a duel and killed him. Grover Cleveland, while serving as sheriff of Erie County New York personally hanged two condemned criminals. He refused to delegate the distasteful task to a subordinate.

What else is wrong with privatization of government functions?

Nibble on this: Take this to its logical conclusion – every dollar spent by the federal government for every one of its functions goes to private sector contractors that provide the actual service. The cabinet, the National Security Council, the Office of Management and Budget, and all of the rest would be paid consultants rather than government employees answering to the president. Air traffic control, Homeland Security, Medicare, et cetera would be provided by contractors working under agreements crafted by attorneys at law firms under retainer by the president. If one, or all, of them cut corners or provides poor service the president would have to sue them. The American people would have to wait for and depend on the courts for any remedy. And if the private companies refuse to acquiesce to judgments against them no one could do anything about it.

If that isn’t scary enough consider privatization of the armed forces. Mercenary armies from America and maybe elsewhere would protect the American people in exchange for money from the American treasury (which would be administered by certified public accountant firms). Such armies would have no accountability to the American people. Higher bidders competing for their business would be a constant threat to the security and independence of the American people.

The neoconservative ideal of privatizing all government functions is parasitic, short-sighted, and anti-American. It would amount to killing the goose that laid the golden eggs. That goose being the American economy, American society, and the American people.