You know what kills me? When amazon recommends my own books to me, based on my ordering history:
Their algorithms know me so well, it’s scary.
Archive for February 2nd, 2010
Feb
02
2010
Blame the Victim
There’s an incredibly stupid study just out, which basically blames socially unskilled people for being bullied.
I was going to blog about it, but the nerds at Slashdot basically covered everything I wanted to say about it anyway.
(Plus, it’s not the shy/sensitive/bully-able people in the world who need to be taught how to take perspectives other than their own; nor is the victim’s supposed lack of the ability to see how his actions affect others the cause of any amount of childhood or adult bullying. On the contrary, it’s the bullies who need to be taught how their actions affect others. D’uh. Fucking d’uh.)
Feb
02
2010
No Hard Feelings
A woman who tied up a cheating lover and glued his penis to his stomach said Tuesday that she didn’t mean to hurt him and only overreacted because he was trying to contact her 12-year-old daughter….
Ziemann, a mother of six, acknowledged that she lured the 37-year-old man to a motel last July after the man’s wife contacted her and told her he was seeing other women.
First she tied the man up and blindfolded him under the guise of erotic play….
She told police she slapped the man in the face, cut off his underwear and used the [nail] glue to attach his penis to his stomach….
The judge acknowledged a possible double-standard with the sentencing. If the incident involved a man who committed similar acts against an unwilling woman, that man would doubtless face prison time, Judge Donald Poppy said.
But in this case the victim and his “bad behaviour” were partly to blame, he said.
The victim “started the ball rolling, philandering with others besides his wife, who was putting bread on the table and taking care of his children,” the judge said….
Outside the courthouse, as [the man] got into an SUV with his wife, he … acknowledged that his own actions contributed to the situation, and he said he had no hard feelings toward any of them.
Well, no—not with Tricky Dick glued to your stomach, you wouldn’t!
“Hard feelings,” indeed.
Feb
02
2010
Vanity Fair’s “New Hollywood” issue completely lacks diversity
Vanity Fair’s “New Hollywood” issue completely lacks diversity:
While we’d like to think celeb bible Vanity Fair puts a great deal of thought and planning into its annual “New Hollywood” issue, this year the editors really limited their scope when it came to choosing the next big stars. (Or perhaps they overemphasized the “Fair”? ) Every woman on its new cover is extremely thin and very, very white. Unless Vanity Fair considers one redhead to be diversity, we feel the need to cry foul.
Not only that, but do you realize that not a single one of those “very, very white” girls is retarded?
I can’t wait to hear what Rahm Emanuel and Sarah Palin have to say about that!
Feb
02
2010
Obama chief of staff’s ‘retarded’ insult brings fallout, Palin criticism
Obama chief of staff’s ‘retarded’ insult brings fallout, Palin criticism:
Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that [Rahm] Emanuel, exasperated upon learning that liberal special-interest groups were planning to run ads against conservative Democrats not supportive of health care reform, blasted the plan as “f——— retarded” over the summer. Naturally, some outrage ensued after Emanuel’s words came to light, with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin taking to her Facebook page to call on President Obama to fire him for what she saw as the equivalent of a racial slur….
In a post titled “Are You Capable of Decency, Rahm Emanuel?,” Palin wrote, “Just as we’d be appalled if any public figure of Rahm’s stature ever used the ‘N-word’ or other such inappropriate language, Rahm’s slur on all God’s children with cognitive and developmental disabilities—and the people who love them—is unacceptable,” adding, “it’s heartbreaking.”
Ah, to be a fucking retard—nay, a fucking retarded nigger—nay, a fucking retarded female nigger—now that the roses of political correctness are in full-bloom.
Fucking retards.
Feb
02
2010
Mooney Tunes
The new hosts of [the humanistic Center for Inquiry's] Point of Inquiry will be Chris Mooney, Karen Stollznow, and Robert Price. Mooney will be doing about half of the interviews….
Doing a heavily-edited interview with him could be dangerous. Even if he did not edit the recorded material unfairly, to put the interviewee in a bad light, he could make the interview a hostile experience. Sometimes, of course, we must all do hostile interviews, but that is not what Point of Inquiry is for….
Why is Mooney so dangerous? Because he opposes robust public criticism of religion, or at least of supposedly moderate religious viewpoints that are not fundamentalist in character. He opposes that kind of criticism even if it is civil and thoughtful. He is well known for his unfair and vitriolic attack on P.Z. Myers, in his book Unscientific America….
I have no idea what the CFI managers had in mind when they decided to employ someone with views like this—which are contrary to the CFI’s entire mission—and such a one-eyed approach to defending them.
My theory: They were just trying to get Ophelia Benson’s granny panties in a bunch.
I have no doubt it’s working. Heh. “The enemy of my feminist enemy,” etc.
Feb
02
2010
Women in Science
Likely results of applying reverse gender discrimination to science departments:
(1) Every woman who wants a science phd will get one, regardless of how marginal her talent or knowledge, so that the department’s female quota can be filled.
(2) Many qualified, talented men will be denied the same, simply because of their gender.
(3) Thus the overall quality of the science departments will drop as the criteria for selection become primarily gender- (and race-) based instead of on merits.
(4) Thus the competitiveness of US higher education and the US economy will suffer, with results that will only slowly become apparent over time.
(5) And finally, there will be a widespread feeling that a female scientist is not really competent and only got her job because she was female.
Easy to predict, simply because that’s exactly what’s already happened with blacks and minorities in other disciplines.
Ah, to be a black woman, now that female sexism and black racism are in vogue….
