The Incomplete Cynic

"It’s piracy’s fault. Don’t pirate. Don’t give Katherine Heigl a Lamborghini."

Tue, 08 May 2012 16:56:50 -0500

“It’s piracy’s fault. Don’t pirate. Don’t give Katherine Heigl a Lamborghini.”

- Movies Are Getting Shittier Because You Keep Stealing Them

"Here’s a curious fact about the French economy: The country has 2.4 times as many companies with 49..."

Tue, 08 May 2012 10:05:00 -0500

“Here’s a curious fact about the French economy: The country has 2.4 times as many companies with 49 employees as with 50. What difference does one employee make? Plenty, according to the French labor code. Once a company has at least 50 employees inside France, management must create three worker councils, introduce profit sharing, and submit restructuring plans to the councils if the company decides to fire workers for economic reasons.”

- Why France Has So Many 49-Employee Companies - Businessweek (via jeffmiller)

My favorite part:

Worker groups say the code itself isn’t the issue. “If the code is complicated, it’s because our society is complicated,” says Bernard Vivier, director of the Higher Institute of Labor in Paris, which studies labor relations for unions and companies. “Cars are much more complicated today than they were 40 years ago. Why shouldn’t the labor code be?”

antigovernmentextremist: satans-advocate: not one single...

Mon, 07 May 2012 11:52:41 -0500

antigovernmentextremist:

satans-advocate:

not one single mother fucker stood up to help her.

not one.

More power to her.

BAD ASS

wellroaredlion: Fact: College graduates of all majors earn more money throughout their lifetimes...

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:09:00 -0500

wellroaredlion:

Fact: College graduates of all majors earn more money throughout their lifetimes than those who do not possess a degree.

Fact: There is a correlation between education and happiness.

Question: Does graduating college make you smarter and better prepared to enter and succeed in the workforce, or are smart and prepared people more likely to graduate college, and therefore more likely to succeed?

It’s probably way more likely that because the people entering college are generally smarter and more capable than the general population - and those who graduate smarter and more capable still - that what you see is selection bias. Is it really a useful comparison? Not really. In one group you have 90% of the country’s smartest and most able people. In the other is the remaining 10%, plus everyone who wasn’t smart enough or a good enough student to get into (or get through) college, and most 1st generation immigrants. You seriously think we should compare the incomes of these two groups and attribute the difference only to a college degree?

"Again, if a male writer had written book after book arguing that women were evil creatures whose..."

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 14:20:31 -0500

“Again, if a male writer had written book after book arguing that women were evil creatures whose sole purpose in life is to sexually manipulate and destroy men, would we spend a lot of time quibbling over whether he actually used the phrase, “All women are whores”?”

- The Dworkin Whitewash - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

Mariska Hargitay: There Is No Excuse

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:24:40 -0500

Mariska Hargitay: There Is No Excuse:

Italy, 1992. A 45-year-old driving instructor picks up an 18-year-old girl for her first lesson, takes her to an isolated road, pulls her out of the car, wrestles her out of one leg of her jeans and rapes her. She courageously tells her parents. They help and support her in pressing charges, leading to the perpetrator’s arrest and prosecution. He is convicted of rape and sentenced to jail.

He appeals. The case reaches the Italian Supreme Court, which overturns his sentence and releases him. “Because the victim wore very, very tight jeans,” the Court notes in their decision, “she had to help him remove them, and by removing the jeans it was no longer rape but consensual sex.”

For people around the world appalled by the way criminal justice systems treat survivors of sexual assault, the judges’ words became a rallying cry. Within hours, the women in Italy’s Parliament organized a protest: they wore jeans to work. Not long after, California’s State Legislature wore jeans to their legislative session. And in April of 1999, during Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Peace Over Violence held the first official Denim Day in Los Angeles. Denim Day now spans the nation and has grown into a powerful national movement about sexual assault prevention and education. A movement committed to empowerment.

But today, on the eve of Denim Day 2012, the same pernicious myths, misconceptions and victim-blaming attitudes that motivated the first Denim Day persist. Experts agree that these myths contribute heavily to the stark realities of sexual violence in the United States: nearly one in five women will experience sexual assault in her lifetime; most rapes are never reported; and only an estimated 6% of perpetrators ever spend a day in jail.

I wear jeans to work almost every day, but if I didn’t, I’m pretty sure I’d throw some on to participate in Denim Day. I’m not much of an activist, but I think this is a pretty righteous cause.

Birth Rape: Why is This Happening in Our Hospitals? | Parenting - Yahoo! Shine

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:19:54 -0500

Birth Rape: Why is This Happening in Our Hospitals? | Parenting - Yahoo! Shine:

And then the worse imaginable form of mistrust I have read in a while happened…

As soon as I reached the OR, the staff began prepping me for surgery. I stated that I did NOT want a c-section. I demanded to see my husband and stated that IF I was to receive a c-section my DH & I would make that decision together. I was told that my husband was on his way. I was also told that my baby needed more oxygen & I was told to breathe deeply in a new mask because it had a better seal on my face (the oxygen I was breathing before was thru a smaller mask). The new mask wasn’t oxygen, I was gassed against my will. I am unaware of what was done to me from the time I was gassed up until I awoke in recovery. I am assuming that I only had a c-section. Any further details have not been shared with me.

Not only was she lied to, but she was put under general anesthesia without consent. Alone, with no support from her husband, not knowing what was going on. One minute thinking she was getting some oxygen, and then the next thing she knows she is waking up in the recovery room after major surgery she never consented to!

The only way to describe this is “fucked up”. I have no other words. I’m sure I’d have more if I waited a bit, but this kind of story just speaks for itself, right?

Also fucked up: the first thread of comments is an argument over whether it was ok to use “rape” in the headline.

What do you politically identify as?

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:53:29 -0500

Honestly, I don’t. Maybe libertarian, maybe conservative…definitely not liberal.

I’m too socially conservative to fit in at all with most of the libertarians I know, including those who I follow. But since I’m not interested in seeing the government enforce that conservatism, my conservative friends (mostly Christians) don’t like my politics either.

I guess I’m somewhere in the unnamed overlap in a Venn diagram of conservative and libertarian ideas. In the end, I don’t really care what you call it, as long as you don’t call it “liberal”. Or “progressive”.

Silly Libertarians: A Response

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 10:44:00 -0500

politicalprof:

So the blogger who (partially) inspired my post yesterday has responded. You can read his piece for yourself here. You, of course, will draw whatever conclusions you will. For my part, his claim that things like clean water, clean air and clean food are only “supposed” goods not necessarily worth making cross-generational commitments to ensure pretty much exposes the uselessness of libertarianism as an actual plan for social action, as opposed to a tool of social and political criticism.

Just fyi—

I’ve read this whole thread…starting with the post that inspired your initial response. After taking it all in, it’s pretty clear that, in this argument, you’re losing badly and know it. I can’t think of any other way to explain the blatant misdirection and dishonesty.

From your use of exceptions (infants and psychopaths) to disprove the rule (sound-minded adults) of the inviolability of self-ownership, to your quoting of the word “supposed” above (a word which doesn’t even appear in LA Liberty’s response), you refused on all counts to engage with his ideas.

You suggest that because he believes no one should be forced into cross-generational commitments, that he is against them in principle; that he believes that “commitment[s] beyond…one-to-one agreement” are unnecessary. You ignored the responses to your argument and decide instead to disparage him for something he didn’t even say.

Also, I can’t help but point out that shortly after saying that “a blanket statement ‘never’ is, well, silly,” you say that you’ve “never, ever heard a libertarian even vaguely hint at an” alternative to coerced cross-generational participation. An assertion that is both silly and shocking, since I, in the course of my varied careers in food service, ministry, graphic design, and web development, have encountered a number of specific and general alternatives; how is it that in the course of your study and teaching of Politics and Government you haven’t?

Howard Foster: The Disappointing Supreme Court Argument

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:02:00 -0500

Howard Foster: The Disappointing Supreme Court Argument:

The liberal justices’ questioning reveals a desire to let Congress enact laws that “affect” interstate commerce to do good things for the country. But this was not the intent of the Commerce Clause. The Constitution limited the powers of Congress to pass laws to specific subjects it enumerated in Art. I. There is no general power to take care of poor people needing health care. The Constitution leaves that lawmaking up to the states, which have almost unlimited legislative powers. Justice Breyer, for example, lectured his colleagues about the reality that everyone will “get sick” and need health care. That, in his view, justifies the enactment of the law. But missing from that analysis is any support in the Constitution for such legislation.

I’m really confused by this column from Huffington Post. All of their commentary is proudly partisan, but Foster seems genuinely interested in the Constitutional question, and not at all in support of the mandate’s constitutionality. Is he the token conservative on the blog?

"And so if we can all be subject to economic mandates merely because everyone is “already in..."

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 10:48:14 -0500

“And so if we can all be subject to economic mandates merely because everyone is “already in the market,” then the Constitution’s limits on federal power are meaningless. We’re all in the market for transportation, so why not a mandate to buy an American car the next time the automobile industry is in crisis? Diet and exercise have a greater effect on taxpayer spending on health care than rates of ownership of health-insurance policies, so why not a broccoli or gym-membership mandate?”

- Obamacare Premise Is Just Wrong | Ilya Shapiro | Cato Institute: Commentary

What college ought to be about

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:43:59 -0600

This is what I’m saying…

But what about the [insert field here] mission of [same field here] departments? They’re not vocational schools! It shouldn’t be their job to train people to work in industry. That’s for community colleges and government retraining programs for displaced workers, they will tell you. They’re supposed to be giving students the fundamental tools to live their lives, not preparing them for their first weeks on the job. Right?

The Perils of JavaSchools - Joel Spolsky

Universities ought not be concerned with giving students ‘real world skills’ or ‘job competence’…that’s someone else’s job. They ought to be concerned with identifying bright and capable students, and pushing them to expand their minds, become intellectually flexible, and (God help me for using this phrase…) think outside the box.

My major problem with this graph is that the scale for the...

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:44:09 -0600

My major problem with this graph is that the scale for the unemployment rate is covers 9%, while the scale for participation covers 3%. The drop in participation should appear 1/3 the size that it’s shown here. It’s bad enough in reality…why try to deceive?

rncresearch:

The Missing Worker And Their Effect On The Unemployment Rate

Read more HERE.

"School Choice: It’s not a conservative issue or a liberal issue, Republican or Democrat. Ensuring..."

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:57:11 -0600

“School Choice: It’s not a conservative issue or a liberal issue, Republican or Democrat. Ensuring that our children have the best education possible is an American issue, and it’s one that the country should get behind.”

- Celebrating School Choice Week. (via theheritagefoundation)

"The study followed 1,600 college students on Facebook, but eventually drew on the activities of 200..."

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:42:58 -0600

“The study followed 1,600 college students on Facebook, but eventually drew on the activities of 200 for the results. What they found was that many of the online friends shared an interest in the same books, movies or music. But their shared interests weren’t the result of peer influence, it was the reason people became friends in the first place.”

- Internet and Website Design - All About the Internet and Websites

Do you think women deserve less than men?

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 22:15:55 -0600

Sorry I’ve been out of town for several days, in a land without interwebs…

I assume this is in response to my comments on the recent HuffPo article, “The Penis Mom.” It’s an odd question, really. First, I’m pretty surprised that someone could come to the impression that I think women are somehow less valuable than men. I don’t post much about feminism or women’s issues. That makes sense, though, because I’m a single man.

What I do post is almost entirely influenced by my desire to see my daughter grow up with positive messages around her. So I’ve posted about media treatment of teenage girls who try to sail around the world, crazy parents who hide their kids gender for years, and toys that send a message similar to the email in “The Penis Mom” article. I’m pretty clear about how I feel about those messages.

Aside from that, this question isn’t particularly useful. It’s much too broad, and it’s only intent seems to be to put me on the defensive. Instead I have questions of my own.

Less of what? Less violence? Sure. Less responsibility? No.

What do you mean by “deserve”? Does anyone “deserve” anything? (I’m inclined to think not). If people do deserve things, how is that determined? If no one deserves anything, is it possible for women to deserve less than men?

I have more specific questions. For instance, violence against women is a big political deal. Laws and programs and education. Why isn’t there laws and programs and education about violence against men? It seems a large segment of the population thinks men deserve less safety than women.

In the end, it’s not really possible to answer your question. But I’ll leave you with this verbally unfortunate, but logically useful, proposition: men and women are not equal, but equivalent. In a mathematical sense, equal means identical, whereas equivalent is closer to equal in measure or value, but different in form. With men and women, the differences are many, but always the same value.

Karen Mangiacotti: The Penis Mom

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:01:42 -0600

Karen Mangiacotti: The Penis Mom:

It all started way back in early November, when my 13-year-old’s teacher sent an email to parents saying they were doing a little Pumpkin Chunkin’ — this is a very cool physics project where the kids launch pumpkins with a trébuchet. Awesome. Except the email asked for help setting up the trébuchet. Help from dads. That’s right, dads. Are there any strong dads who can help? So if you know me, you know I’m cautious. I sat down at my computer to check the facts, first looking at the calendar to see what year we were in — yep, still 2011. So with time-travel ruled out, we were only left with the possibility that we had somehow slipped into an alternate universe, one where teachers have giant balls. Balls clearly big enough to toss such gender-biased questions out into the wind without concern for where they might land. And thus began my verbal rant. I am uncertain how long it lasted, however when I finally came up for air my husband/editor had made dinner, cleaned up, and put the kids to bed.

At that point, I sat down to respond to the email.

Dear teachers and parents:

Are you guys seriously only asking for Dads?

Is lifting done with a penis?

Thoughtfully yours,

- Karen

[…]

Parents were horrified. Who knew this might happen? Not us. OK, we probably knew — but seriously? Asking exclusively for dads to help is offensive on so many levels to me. I am freakishly strong and could mount a trébuchet with the best of them [Editor’s note: Um, honey, you don’t actually mount a trébuchet]. As someone who was a single mom for a good long time, I take issue with the assumption that every home has a dad to contribute. But most of all, I resent the message we are giving to our daughters that because of their gender, they are unwelcome to participate in physical tasks — that they are not strong enough and that only a man qualifies. I resent the message to all our children that we judge the value of contribution based on sex and not competence. What the hell year is this? I better double-check that.

Still 2011.

So, I received a slap-on-the-wrist email about how correspondence should be g-rated because some of the students are on the email list. I was slightly confused by this because, in my mind, “penis” is g-rated. Honestly, I would love to have been more colorful — but that would have been inappropriate. I was also slightly confused because it seemed perfectly OK with everyone to send socially regressive requests out that diminish our girl’s sense of worth, but they are now circling the wagons because I used the word penis? To thirteen-year-olds? Really?

I have a general distaste of feminism, but I’m totally onboard with this sentiment.

coeus: If only, if only.

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:05:34 -0600

coeus:

If only, if only.

"After all, Race to the Top — a competition that has states vie for federal funds by promising to..."

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 15:19:29 -0600

“After all, Race to the Top — a competition that has states vie for federal funds by promising to implement reforms championed by the Education Department — does, in fact, extend NCLB’s obsession with standardized testing. How? By requiring that teacher evaluation be in part measured by the scores students get on these exams. There is no concrete evidence that any of the Race to the Top reforms actually improve student achievement, but when has education policy paid attention to research?”

- Jon Stewart takes on Obama’s school reform — again - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

"Women have a right to drink. We have a right to drink as much as we want and we have a right to..."

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:28:25 -0600

“Women have a right to drink. We have a right to drink as much as we want and we have a right to drink as much as we want without being raped. But just as we warn each other that certain neighborhoods are safer in daylight than others, why is it that some feminist activists have a tough time warning other women that women who drink — but not to the point of being intoxicated — will in fact be safer from a variety of crimes, including being mugged, than women who drink to extremes? Why is saying that out loud without fear of retribution not an option for any of us who identify as feminists, or anyone else who doesn’t want to be vilified? I’m not advocating that we become a society who never drinks. But we should work towards being a society where people — of both genders — are both encouraged and educated to drink responsibly.”

- Keli Goff: Why Are Feminists Afraid to Admit the Connection Between Alcohol and Rape?

This might be the first time I’ve ever agreed with Keli Goff.