Speed Blogging, Mon 9/16/2013: On Women

Note:  Not all these are from the last few days.First, the Taliban in Afghanistan is waging a physical war against women in the public sector, by killing female police officers, by burning down girls' schools, of course, and by killing other women who have used their voices.  These moves serve deeper desires to keep women restricted to the home and to make sure that women don't vote, for example.Second, good news about teenage pregnancy rates in the US.  They are falling, and the most likely cause seems to be an increased use of...

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The Language Of The Class Wars

Here's what is interesting about the newest round of battles in the American class wars:  As the haves are truly beating down the have-nots, the language the henchmen and henchwomen of the haves is strengthening, becoming cruder, more accusing, more totalizing and more objectified.Why that would be the case beats me.  After all, they are winning, soundly, the haves.  Just look at the most recent evidence:The top 10 percent of earners took more than half of the country’s total income in 2012, the highest level recorded since the government...

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Friday Echidne Thoughts

This blog is still the gateway drug to feminism, the bowl of dry-scientific-granola-with-a-sprinkling of cyanide and I'm still worse than a thousand Hitlers and far too much a goody-two-shoes.Whether there's any usefulness in that I don't know.  But as long as I have some fun!This mood is linked to one of my favorite Finnish poems, by Aaro Hellaakoski, Hauen Laulu (The Pike's Song).  It's wonderful in Finnish but not really translatable, at least by me.  The gist, in English:From its wet homethe pike climbed the treeto singWhen through...

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Bullying Beats Anti-Bullying Programs?

That's what I read here: Anti-bullying initiatives have become standard at schools across the country, but a new UT Arlington study finds that students attending those schools may be more likely to be a victim of bullying than children at schools without such programs. The findings run counter to the common perception that bullying prevention programs can help protect kids from repeated harassment or physical and emotional attacks."One possible reason for this is that the students who are victimizing their peers have learned the...

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Yellen vs. Summers As A Metaphor

Atrios posted on the nomination of the next chief of Federal Reserve.  The forerunners have been defined as Lawrence Summers and Janet Yellen.  Summers looks to be the one the president prefers.The big difference between the two is in gender.  Yellen has ladybits, Summers has talked about the ladybits in the past, wondering about the role of biology in women's lesser presence in the STEM field.  So the choice between two professionals also lends itself to all sorts other choices, a murky underground where things slither and...

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Those Discouraged Young Men Who Live in Their Parents' Basement

Something interesting from Pew Research on the possibility that young men are now so discouraged and effeminate because of feminism that they just live at home with their parents.  Probably in their basement, watching pron and playing computer games..If that sounds odd to you, rest assured that I 'm not making the arguments up.  They are common among the end-of-men lot and crop up pretty regularly in the media.Imagine my great surprise, then when I read this from Pew Research:In 2012, Millennial males (40%) were more likely to live at...

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Silly Stuff

Good book names:Caressing the Hedgehog.  This would be a good name for a book about trying to be a social helper.My Life As An Old Man.  I want to write that one, just because.The Makers And The Takers.  This right-wing slogan can be turned around niftily.  For instance, who makes those delicious gourmet dinners at high-faluting restaurants and who eats them?  Or those yachts.  Who makes them and who sails them.   Who cleans those toilet and who uses them? That one could give us a whole library of books.Ready,...

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