this, perhaps she wouldn’t be in politics now.
Search
Archive Calendar
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | |
Archives
Categories
- A Government That Can Force You to Buy Health Insurance Can Make You Do Anything (3)
- a protein wisdom philosophy primer (3)
- academics (25)
- armadillo (8)
- Friday Fiction 100 Word Challenge (51)
- from the protein wisdom conceptual series (136)
- identity politics (33)
- If Republicans Win the Senate in 2014 (1)
- in which celebraties comment on current events (67)
- language / intentionalism (88)
- legal (6)
- My brief conversations with inanimate objects (130)
- NSA / FISA (46)
- One Term to Serve, the 2012 Revival (6)
- Overheard in a Fallujah bunker (27)
- Poems from 196x, Revised by the Ghost of Richard Brauti (27)
- protein wisdom's DNC coverage (30)
- protein wisdom's RNC coverage (29)
- protein wisdom: the movie Lists (20)
- Provocateurism (16)
- real-time empirical observations (51)
- red pills found behind the sofa cushions (42)
- Scenes from my driveway (61)
- Talking back to 80s music (41)
- The Martha Stewart Chronicles (58)
- The protein wisdom interviews (10)
- The protein wisdom original poems (142)
- Uncategorized (20,046)
- Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance, abridged (34)
Recent Comments
- In The Mailbox: 02.28.23 (Afternoon Edition) : The Other McCain on Hey, longtime pw readers…
- In The Mailbox: 12.23.22 : The Other McCain on Patrick J. Carroll truly IS a sad, embittered psychopath
- Danger on Patrick J. Carroll might be a psychopath
- Danger on Patrick J. Carroll might be a psychopath
- In The Mailbox: 07.18.22 : The Other McCain on Patrick J. Carroll might be a psychopath
I once tried to trace to origin of the quip that “politics is show business for the ugly.” I got as far back as Jay Leno and Newt Gingrich, but I suspect it’s older than that.
I’m just begging for Serr to chop her with a tiara and bouquet, crying.
I’d drunk blog it, if I had anything here to drink.
If Hillary could win that, I’d have to change my sexual orientation. I already switched parties this month, that would be entirely too much excitement…
I am sick of this gender and race turning this into a celebrity type race reminds me too much of the Bush campaign. Edwards is the better candidate however, he is the minority in this race. He isn’t bought and paid for by the corporations and the lobbist and it shows as the news coverage which is mostly coporations is not giving him any coverage unless it’s bought and paid for. We need to change the system and put everyone on the same playing field so we don’t get a president that is bought and paid for. Look where that has gotten us.
Thanks for that . . . whatever, Laurie!
I still blame Ross Perot for infecting the world with Hillary.
reminds me too much of the Bush campaign.
When was the last time President Bush declared himself to be black, or a woman?
Edwards is the better candidate however, he is the minority in this race. He isn’t bought and paid for by the corporations and the lobbist and it shows as the news coverage which is mostly coporations is not giving him any coverage unless it’s bought and paid for. We need to change the system and put everyone on the same playing field so we don’t get a president that is bought and paid for.
Breathe. Deep breaths. Feel better? Good.
Why is being bought and paid for by the plaintiff’s or some do-gooder Leftist foundations alright? Do you really want someone who channels dead people sitting in the White House?
I bet Laurie used to be a Republican.
When is Edwards going to have the good sense to call it quits? He takes demagoguery to new heights. Fucking toad. But germane to the post, he is prettier than Hillary.
hillary is the best, obama is just in her way, he his very selfish because he knows that a vote for him is a vote for the republicans
Now you’re just trying to trick me.
I see from several threads that Dan is enjoying the referrals from CNN.
What’s that, Karl?
Somebody needs to explain the problems of too much consumer debt to Laurie, where are all the PaulBots when you need one?
By the way, Edwards is getting smoked in South Carolina, not looking good at all.
Yes Karl, I stumbled here from CNN. Won’t be coming back. Every time I think maybe, just maybe, our country has grown enough to evaluate people based on their ideas and intellect, not gender, then I see something like this blog. It’s pretty sad.
No, I’m not a supporter of Hillary Clinton and I’m not voting for her. But can’t you think of a real argument against her instead of bringing out the “women are meant for beauty contests” ridiculousness? You do realize that in making blogs like this you are galvanizing women to vote for her, don’t you?
I stumbled here from CNN. Won’t be coming back. Every time I think maybe, just maybe, our country has grown enough to evaluate people based on their ideas and intellect, not gender, then I see something like this blog. It’s pretty sad.
No, I’m not a supporter of Hillary Clinton and I’m not voting for her. But can’t you think of a real argument against her instead of bringing out the “women are meant for beauty contests†ridiculousness?
Apparently, you did not bother to read much around here, or have the sense of humor God gave a 2×4. We have evaluated Hillary and Bill’s “ideas” ad nauseum, and found them wanting, unless your last name is Marx.
Perhaps you ought to look around a bit before hauling out the “You can’t think of a real argument” trope, Sally.
Not in South Carolina, apparently.
Sally, there are plenty of real arguments in these pages regarding Hillary that have nothing to do with her sex. I’m just performing some of the kind of rather groundless psychological speculation that lefties seem to love, regarding the pathological ambition of the Clintons.
Most of all, though, I said it to make people froth over the comparison of beauty pageants.
I thought Miss Indiana might win tonight. Her bolt-ons were a nice addition to the pageant.
Allow me to pop in and assert that this place can be rudely anti-femimist. The boys are a bit quick on the draw, but they’re not total dicks.
Thanks, cynn. That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said about me.
Awwwwwwwwwww, cynn. That was too nice. Thanks!
Sally, Sally, Sally. Hillary is disavowed here because of her ideas. Not because she’s a woman. But go ahead and live your “imagined” life. You people give me the creeps.
Protein Wisdom, galvanizer of teh women.
I’m not feeling it.
Hey we can be rudely anti-masculinist too! Just ask JHoward!
I’ll admit it. I am rudely anti-feminist. But then again, I am rudely anti-many ists. Identity politics just aren’t my bag, baby.
Oh, JHoward “ The biggest prig in the sex-negative universe. Attitude always good for laffs, but he does make some good points.
JD, the thing you’re forgetting is, everything bad in the universe can be traced back to Bush.
Negative campaigning? BUSH!
War? BUSH!
Terrorism? BUSH!
Extinction of the dinosaurs? BUSH!
Oh. Cynn. I’m blushing. Now run and get a cocktail. There’s a good girl.
Fair enough; I should have looked around first, and said “this post” not “this blog”. You have some very decent point in other posts. Sorry if I come across as humorless, but as a woman working in a field that is still not very accepting of women, I find “jokes” like this offensive on a very deep level.
“Most of all, though, I said it to make people froth over the comparison of beauty pageants.”
So I guess I’m helping you fulfill the post’s mission. ;)
Sally, as a woman working in a field that is still not very accepting of women, I find “jokes†like this offensive on a very deep level.
Men have dealt with all manner of hazing for millennia, and you can too. Worry not about perceptions of humorlessness. Believe me, there are women here that are far less humorless than you. ;-)
If you have concluded that Hillary Clinton would do a good job as President, vote for and support her, by all means. I think you’re insane and will work against you, but that’s how it’s supposed to go.
If you support Hillary! because “…it’s time we had a woman President!” you’re a fool, and I reserve the right to mock you (and Hillary!) in any way that comes to mind.
Regards,
Ric
“Sorry if I come across as humorless, but as a woman working in a field that is still not very accepting of women,..”
What field do you work in? I’m curious because my experience in the military some 15 years ago was very positive, and the military is about as male dominated as it’s possible to get in this world. My sister, on the other hand, encountered real sexual discrimination in graduate school that she couldn’t do anything about and consequently had to abandon her specialty in Physics and chose a different one.
(Sometimes it’s just dumb bad luck and happening to draw the short straw and the misogynist pig that goes with it, so I’d hesitate to make an over broad generalization.)
The guys here aren’t bad, most of them, so long as you don’t expect them to behave as if a lady is in the room. ;-)
Synova wrote, real sexual discrimination in graduate school that she couldn’t do anything about
What kind of sexual discrimination?
Oh, and don’t dis Miss America. Cheer on Miss Utah who has previously represented the United States of America and the US Army as a medic in the garden resort region of Afghanistan and who would like to continue to represent this fair country during the next year as Miss America. HooAH. (Or whatever the heck the correct shouty-thingy is for the Army. I never get those right.)
Her graduate adviser frequently said things like, “Marian, let the men work,” and such things. He was of the old school that felt that his holy mission was to weed out the unworthy so he wasn’t easy on the guys either, but he was seriously impossible with her and the whole department knew it. The other professors would whisper to her to let them know and they’d take her on in a second because they were ALL aware of this man’s behavior… but no one would stop it. He was the only one who she could specialize in acoustics for Physics so to change to someone else she had to study something else.
Hi Synova,
Actually, like your sister I’m also a researcher in the physical sciences-at the interface of chemistry and physics, in my case. In general, I haven’t seen many problems in chemistry these days, but physics is often another matter entirely. I agree with you about the hit or miss aspect-sometimes gender is no issue, and sometimes it is a big issue. Happily, the situation has changed drastically compared to 20 or 40 years ago, so I’m optimistic about the direction things are going.
Yeah. She’d say, “He’s 70 and runs marathons. He’s not going to drop over dead any time soon.”
Still, even running marathons he can’t live forever.
Synova wrote, “but he was seriously impossible with her and the whole department knew it. The other professors would whisper to her to let them know and they’d take her on in a second because they were ALL aware of this man’s behavior…”
I’ve personally seen this stuff too. I’m in a math program, and I had problems with females in the department who sought to “improve the representation of women” in the sciences. It was grade inflation and the like, skewing grade curves but still hard to prove. But in one case we discovered that females students were getting test questions in advance from a female professor.
I’m just surprised because all I’ve ever seen is women getting special treatment in the sciences. I suppose that’s why we shouldn’t give unqualified trust to anecdotal experience.
Jeff, even if they were trying to make up for what they saw as discrimination that simply doesn’t help. Obviously. What it does is undermine the accomplishments of the female students.
It’s okay to be encouraging, particularly if someone is unfairly being given a hard time, but an unoffical “affirmative action” program is going to have the same results as an official one. People aren’t going to trust that those benefiting from it are actually performing up to snuff. Which is terribly unfair to those who *are*.
If my sister ever got anything other than offers to be her adviser instead of this other guy, she never mentioned it. I think she’d have been offended if someone implied she couldn’t do the work.
Jeff, that sounds like you definitely had a bad situation in your department. Cheating shouldn’t be justified by anything! And targeted grade inflation, as Synova pointed out, undermines whoever you are trying to “help” in the long term.
I think you are right to be wary-anecdotal evidence can certainly be used to justify pretty much anything. I’ve also seen instances where the gender discrimination was against men (one of my former male labmates is trying to deal with this kind of problem right now, actually). I’ve just seen a lot more cases were things went against women. What I usually go by when trying to determine if the problems are in my head or not the statistics on gender differences as you go up the educational ladder. In terms of people who stay in academics, there is a lot of female drop-off as you go from undergraduate to graduate to post-doc to faculty positions. And it varies a lot by field. My anecdotes would stay that there are a lot more problems in physics than chemistry and the respective numbers of women in those two fields follows this as well.
Of course there are some quite valid arguments about how fast you can reasonably expect change, especially when you start talking about faculty representation. But this doesn’t explain to me the differences between fields in the sciences.
Statistics don’t tell you why, though.
My sister got her MS in Physics and is now teaching general science at a University because what she’d need to do to advance to a PhD or research was not acceptable to her. The rules weren’t different for her than they were for men, but her choice was not to take on the repeated moves or series of internships that would be required. Had she been single she may have done so. She chose her family. But different priorities aren’t the only thing that may contribute to different numbers or numbers dropping off at higher levels.
There is also no reason to think that men and women, all else being equal, will chose the same interests in the same proportions. I don’t know if the percentage of women in the military, for example, will ever be a whole lot higher than it is now. I really *really* liked military life (and still chose staying home with children over it) but that’s no reason to think that other women would like it at all. The percentage of women in the military is something like 10% (or at least it’s 10% deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan) and maybe, just maybe, that’s because the rest of the women just don’t find the idea appealing.
Some of us even like watching football, for entirely inexplicable reasons. I mean, football? But far more men enjoy football than women. Maybe that’s because more men than women find organized sports entertaining and meaningful. (Which isn’t an entirely random example since unequal representation in professional sports is often expressed as problematic gender inequality. I happen to think it just means that women have better things to do.)
Meanwhile (unless I’ve heard wrong) law and medical schools now have more women than men.
Synova and Sally, just as an aside — it is very refreshing to encounter calm, reasonable discussion about these issues. Thanks.
When I was a Chippendale, I couldn’t count how may times I had to say “Lady, the plumb bag stays put”, or “I can’t finish dancing to ‘Rock You Like a Hurricane’ with your finger in my butt ma’am” whenever the Association of Physical Science Researchers was in town for their annual boondoggle.
Remember ladies, there’s a person behind those leather headbands and knee-high moccasins.
The absolute worst sexism I’ve ever encountered was in grad school, and before I went there I used to hang out with heavy metal band guys.