Arnold blames the Moon

Our governor joked:

Schwarzenegger explained, "If we get rid of the moon, women, whose menstrual cycles are governed by the moon, will not get PMS. They will stop bitching and whining."

Before, he just complained about the girlie men.

More college girls than boys

Andy sends this Maine story:

In 1969, 4 million men and 2.9 million women were enrolled as undergraduates at colleges and universities across the country. By 2000, the number of male undergrads had risen 39 percent, to 5.6 million, but the number of female undergrads had leaped upward 157 percent, to 7.4 million. ...

There are 130,000 more women than men at public and private colleges in the region today, according to the New England Board of Higher Education, which addresses the issue in the April edition of its magazine The Connection.

The University of Maine System, which enrolls 74 percent of the state's public higher education students, has 21,480 women compared with 12,773 men. For the past 10 years at least, enrollment for women has exceeded that of men at all seven campuses. ...

Maine leads the nation in the low rate of men in higher education, according to a 2003 report by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University. The report indicated there were 154 women in college in Maine per 100 men, just below Delaware which had the next lowest rate with 151 women per 100 men. Utah, with 100 men for every 98 women, had the highest rate of college-going males to females.

Schools have become more favorable to girls than boys.

Environmental Heresies

MIT Technology Review says:

Environmental Heresies
By Stewart Brand May 2005

Over the next ten years, I predict, the mainstream of the environmental movement will reverse its opinion and activism in four major areas: population growth, urbani­zation, genetically engineered organisms, and nuclear power.

Reversals of this sort have occurred before. Wildfire went from universal menace in mid-20th century to honored natural force and forestry tool now, from “Only you can prevent forest fires!” to let-burn policies and prescribed fires for understory management.

I don't see environmentalists responding to scientific facts so readily.

Visual illusions

Check out these visual illusions. Excellent site.

Assault ban failed

The NY Times admits:

Despite dire predictions that the streets would be awash in military-style guns, the expiration of the decade-long assault weapons ban last September has not set off a sustained surge in the weapons' sales, gun makers and sellers say. It also has not caused any noticeable increase in gun crime in the past seven months, according to several metropolitan police departments.

The uneventful expiration of the assault weapons ban did not surprise gun owners, nor did it surprise some advocates of gun control.

The assault weapon ban was never really intended to have any significant effect on gun possession or crime. The anti-gun folks just wanted to pick out some guns that looked bad, and then make a symbolic political statement by banning them.

Younger generation opposed to same-sex marriage

A new Gallup poll says:

Some of the things which I thought especially interesting were the results which showed that younger people (18-29) support a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage by a 56/39 margin (so much for the concept that gay marriage proponents just have to wait until the younger generation grows up), while the demographic with the least support for an amendment is people 50-64 (ie, the cream of the Baby Boomer generation), who only support such an amendment by a 51/45 margin.

The poll shows that opposition to same-sex marriage is increasing.

Cockfighting worse than domestic violence

News from S. Carolina:

(Columbia) April 20, 2005 - The State House took up two pieces of legislation this week aimed at protecting two different groups. Up for debate was cracking down on gamecock fighting and protecting victims of domestic violence.

A bill protecting cocks passed through the House Judiciary Committee. Rep. John Graham Altman (R-Dist. 119-Charleston) was in favor of the gamecock bill, "I was all for that. Cockfighting reminds me of the Roman circus, coliseum."

A bill advocates say would protect victims against batterers was tabled, killing it for the year. Rep. Altman is on the committee that looked at the domestic violence bill, "I think this bill is probably drafted out of an abundance of ignorance."

I think that both should be de-criminalized.

Overweight people live longer

The health experts say that you are overweight if your BMI is over 25, and obese if it is over 30. Now it turns out that overweight people live the longest:

People who are overweight but not obese have a lower risk of death than those of normal weight, federal researchers are reporting today.

The researchers - statisticians and epidemiologists from the National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - also found that increased risk of death from obesity was seen for the most part in the extremely obese, a group constituting only 8 percent of Americans.

And being very thin, even though the thinness was longstanding and unlikely to stem from disease, caused a slight increase in the risk of death, the researchers said.

My BMI is 27. I think that my weight is ideal. Apparently people with my BMI live the longest. They need to adjust the BMI tables.

This is being reported as saying that overweight people live longer. My point is that athletic people have extra muscle mass, and get falsely classified as being overweight because the BMI tables do not distinguish between muscle and fat. Perhaps the conclusion should have been that athletic people live longer.

Here is the JAMA abstract.

American divorce rate is falling

This NY Times story says that stories about 50% divorce rates are exaggerated:

About 60 percent of all marriages that eventually end in divorce do so within the first 10 years, researchers say. If that continues to hold true, the divorce rate for college graduates who married between 1990 and 1994 would end up at only about 25 percent, compared to well over 50 percent for those without a four-year college degree.

It says that the overall divorce rate never reached 50%, and maybe it never will, in spite of common predictions. The article ends with this lame excuse:

Joshua R. Goldstein, associate professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton's Office of Population Research, said the loss of detailed government data, coming at a time when divorce rates were at their highest, might have distorted not only public perception, but people's behavior.

"Expectations of high divorce are in some ways self-fulfilling," he said. "That's a partial explanation for why rates went up in the 1970's."

As word gets out that rates have tempered or actually begun to fall, Dr. Goldstein added, "It could lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy in the other direction."

So this guy thinks that 1000s of couples got divorced because they thought that they were following a trend, and if they only knew that they were following the wrong trend, they would have stayed married. No wonder these folks are producing faulty statistics.

Marriage therapy doesn't work

The NY Times reports:

Each year, hundreds of thousands of couples go into counseling in an effort to save their troubled relationships.

But does marital therapy work? Not nearly as well as it should, researchers say. Two years after ending counseling, studies find, 25 percent of couples are worse off than they were when they started, and after four years, up to 38 percent are divorced.

... experts say many therapists lack the skills to work with couples who are in serious trouble.

I guess that the therapists blame all the failures on the other therapists who supposedly lack skills.

I wonder what percentage of couples are actually damaged by the therapy. Some couples see a therapist, get bad advice, act on the bad advice, and end up much worse off.

Snoop Dogg not going to Harvard

Harvard has disinvited a rap star:

Some Harvard students had objected to the appearance, citing lyrics on Snoop Dogg's latest album about slapping women to keep them under control.

In "R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece," the song "Can You Control Yo Hoe" includes the line "If she won't do what you say, why aren't you slapping her?"

Harvard has published Andrea Dworkin's nonsense.

Sex differences

John sends this Stanley Kurtz essay about sex differences.

There’s also a fourth possible view on the relations between sex and success—one that no one has systematically articulated to date. If those who assert biological differences between the sexes disagree about whether we can overcome them, the same might apply to those who assert the power of cultural differences. Even if we do provisionally hold that virtually all differences between men and women are cultural, might it not also be true that those differences are impossible to overcome? If so, it wouldn’t be “gender” but the feminist effort to eliminate it that is truly oppressive. This fourth view suggests that the very same cultural forces that make feminists desire androgyny may actually prevent us from achieving it. The cultural sources of “gender” difference, properly understood, would then inform us not that our gender identities are infinitely malleable but that they’re effectively impossible to change. ...

Chodorow hypothesizes that the differences between the sexes simply derive from the contingent circumstance that women happen to be the primary caretakers of children. The special, “feminine” empathy required for rearing children, she suggests, becomes indelibly associated in our minds with people who just physically happen to be female. ...

There are some interesting ideas here, but most of them don't hold water.

Andrea Dworkin dies

The Reason magazine blog says:

What's with all the posthumous adulation of loony feminist extraordinaire Andrea Dworkin? ...

Whatever her defenders may say, Dworkin was a relentless preacher of hatred toward men ...

Whatever her defenders say, Dworkin was anti-sex. No, she may not have ever written the actual words "All sex is rape" or "All sexual intercourse is rape." But she did extensively argue, in particular in the 1987 book, Intercourse, that (1) all heterosexual sex in our "patriarchal" society is coercive and degrading to women, and (2) sexual penetration may by its very nature doom women to inferiority and submission, and "may be immune to reform." A chapter from the book, filled with such insights as, "Intercourse is the pure, sterile, formal expression of men's contempt for women," can be found here.

Just another kooky feminist.

Michael Jackson will be acquitted

Here are my tentative conclusions from the Michael Jackson trial.

Jackson is a weirdo, but not a criminal.

I wouldn't send my kids to Neverland.

Jackson is surrounded by leeches and blackmailers.

All of his accusers have severe credibility problems.

I now think that Jackson will be acquitted.

Update: This David R. Usher essay says:

What does the postmodern WKKK have to do with Michael Jackson? Everything! When feminists left the KKK, they simply forgot the word “black”. In its place, they merely substituted the word “men”.

Credit counseling

Andy writes that the new federal bankruptcy law requires "credit counseling", whatever that is. It is now part of the law as 11 USC 106 and 111. Weird.

Fast times and sex toys

Sex studies are in the news. This study used a stopwatch on men. 1.8 minutes for 13% of them. Another study says 46% of American women own sex toys. No relation known.

Dying from low salt

This NY Times article says that athletes can die from a lack of salt:

The research involved 488 runners in the 2002 marathon. The runners gave blood samples before and after the race. While most were fine, 13 percent of them - or 62 - drank so much that they had hyponatremia, or abnormally low blood sodium levels. Three had levels so low that they were in danger of dying.

When I was a kid, athletes were commonly given salt pills during water breaks. The article fails to suggest or even mention this obvious remedy.

We've had many years of propaganda that salt is somehow unhealthy or harmful. Salt is a health issue for a small number of people on high blood pressure medication, but the vast majority of people can eat all the salt they want with no known ill effects.

Feminists against choice

It is funny how a bunch of junk science lawyers and feminists have been keeping silicone breast implants off the market. Their position seems to be that the implants are okay if the woman has a good reason (like reconstruction) but not otherwise. The anti-silicone feminists probably all call themselves "pro-choice", but they don't want women to be able to make their own choices about their breasts.

One of them is a lesbian

Bob sends this excerpt from the Dilbert Newsletter 60.0.

My nephew, a freshman in college, attended a meeting in his dorm in which everyone introduced themselves and shared some personal information to get acquainted. My nephew introduced himself and mentioned that he has two moms. An Induhvidual looked at him and said, in all seriousness, “So… does this mean that one of them is a lesbian?”

It sounds ridiculous, but the nephew does not have "two moms". He has one mom, and that mom is probably not even really a lesbian. She was probably married to his dad who turned into a man-hating feminist.

Stand Your Ground

John sends this news:

Florida's lawmakers have passed a bill to remove criminal penalties for anyone who shoots an attacker even if the shooter didn't first make an effort to escape.

The "Stand Your Ground" bill, which is expected to be signed by Gov. Jeb Bush, removes the "retreat if it is prudent" clause from state law, thus giving citizens the right to use deadly force - even when it may not be needed.

A man shouldn't have to flee his own home when an intruder invades.

Left-wing book banners

It is always amusing to hear left-wing law profs advocating censorship. I never hear right-wing academics wanting to ban books or anything like that. Here is Prof. Eric Muller wanting to ban a children's book that mentions Japan, Christianity, and Buddhism, and wanting to ban ban Michelle Malkin's excellent book on the WWII Japanese internment. It seems to me that people visiting a preserved internment camp might very well want to read a book that documents the reasons for the internment. Third graders might want to learn about Japanese cultural differences as well.

Bogus argument for gun control

For a long time, gun control advocates claimed that there was a consensus among legal experts that the Second Amendment does not describe an individual right to possess guns.

In reality, the vast majority of legal experts agree that the 2A does describe an individual right. It is so hard to find another view that the Joyce Foundation had to bribe law professors and censor those with accurate views. Here is the Bogus explanation:

We felt that, for a variety of reasons, the collective rights model was under represented in the debate, and wanted to give scholars an opportunity to enhance or further illuminate the collective rights position. Sometimes a more balanced debate is best served by an unbalanced symposium. I did not, therefore, invite anyone who I knew subscribed to the individual rights model.

Those are the words of appropriately named Prof. Carl Bogus.

Interrupting sex for phone calls

A user survey reported:

Fourteen percent of the world's cell phone users report that they have stopped in the middle of a sex act to answer a ringing wireless device, Ad Age reported. The highest incidence of cellular interruptus was found in Germany and Spain, where 22 percent of users interrupted sex to answer their cell phones; the lowest was in Italy, where only 7 percent reported doing so.

At least you know where you stand if your lover prefers a cell phone call.

Jane Fonda: shut up!

Jane Fonda still needs someone to tell her to shut up.

The phony Schiavo memo story

The Powerline blog has the story about the Terri Schiavo memo. The Wash Post reported:

Republican officials declared, in a memo that was supposed to be seen only by senators, that they believe the Schiavo case "is a great political issue" that could pay dividends with Christian conservatives, whose support is essential in midterm elections such as those coming up in 2006.

A one-page memo, distributed to Republican senators by party leaders, said the debate over Schiavo would appeal to the party's base, or core, supporters. The memo singled out Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who is up for reelection next year and is potentially vulnerable in a state President Bush won last year.

We now know that story is mostly a hoax, apparently perpetrated by Democratic Senator Tom Harkin or his staff. Republican officials did not declare anything, or send any memo to any Republican senators. There was a pro-Schiavo memo that was written by a Republican staffer that said:

This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue.

This is a great political issue, because Senator Nelson of Florida has already refused to become a cosponsor and this is a tough issue for Democrats.

These were routine talking points. The pro-lifers do believe that there should be an honest and open debate about life-and-death issues, and indeed excited about the Schiavo case drawing attention to issues of importance to them.

Polls on killing Terri Schiavo

Zogby says:

Polls leading up to the death of Terri Schiavo made it appear Americans had formed a consensus in favor of ending her life. However, a new Zogby poll with fairer questions shows the nation clearly supporting Terri and her parents and wanting to protect the lives of other disabled patients.

Malkin has more. 80% say that a disabled person should not be denied food and water. Another poll said that 75% thought that the government should stay out, and so they all presumably think that the government judge should never have issued the starvation order.

The Zogby poll still doesn't get to the heart of the matter. There is a reason why this case is controversial, and the polls don't really address it.

Wendy's finger story

San Diego paper says:

LAS VEGAS – The woman who claims she bit into a human finger while eating chili at a Wendy's restaurant has a history of filing lawsuits – including a claim against another fast-food restaurant in Nevada.

Anna Ayala, who hired a San Jose, Calif., attorney to represent her in the Wendy's case, has been involved in at least half a dozen legal battles in the San Francisco Bay area, according to more than a decade of court records.

They include the suit she brought against an ex-boss in 1998, seeking $500,000 for sexual harassment, and the 2000 case she filed against an auto dealership alleging the wheel fell off her car. That suit was dismissed after Ayala fired her lawyer, who said she had threatened him.

I am suspicious about whether this woman really got a finger in her chili. Food companies get a lot of bogus lawsuits from people like this woman.

15-year-old girls are not adults

The feministing blog says:

What lesson are we giving to teenage girls by telling them they have no right to make potentially life-changing decisions without a parent or judge being involved?

The teenagers are under the age of 16. The message is that they are not adults. We don't let children make life-changing decisions.

Only leftist works win prizes

Here are the Pulitzer nominees for editorial cartoons. See a pattern? They are all left-wing. Here are the photo nominees. Same story. No, I don't believe that only leftists are smart enough to draw cartoons or use cameras.

How marital therapy can be hazardous

Conventional wisdom says that those with marital problems are better off seeing some sort of marriage counselor or psychotherapist. The empirical evidence is rather weak, and I wouldn't be surprised if such therapy usually does more harm than good. Here is an essay on How therapy can be hazardous to your marital health.

Now I’m going to talk about the most common ways that therapists undermine marital commitment. And I want to underline again: I do this for a living. I train therapists, and I think that therapy can be enormously helpful in the right hands. There are four ways that therapists undermine marital commitment: incompetent therapists, neutral therapists, pathologizing therapists, and overtly undermining therapists.

And this is coming from a psychotherapist. He's may be doing harm also, and he may not realize it.

African wives don't say no

This is from a NY Times letter:

As a Nigerian psychiatrist and public-health physician who has worked with Nigerian women, I know that African men will not use condoms, not with prostitutes or girlfriends and definitely not with their wives - who, they believe, are their property.

An average African woman cannot say no to her husband: the consequences are a thorough beating or divorce, and most African women cannot afford divorce. Unlike their Western sisters, they would not be given child support. And with no social welfare services to assist them in caring for their children, they would become destitute. At the same time, their culture would blame them for not holding on to their husbands.

There is probably an army of Western do-gooders trying to convince the African women to say no to their husbands and walk out of their marriages, and to change the culture so that women will be held blameless.

Things are a little different in Japan:

Like many Japanese women, Junko waited until her early 30s to get married. When she and her fiance, an employee of a well-known firm, decided to tie the knot, she set her sights on making a home, putting away some money and starting a family.

Fifteen years later, Junko and her husband are childless. It is not that they cannot have children; it is just that they have never had sex.

The sexless marriage is one of several reasons why experts fear Japan is on the verge of a demographic disaster. ...

The 200 women a year who seek help at a clinic in the Tokyo suburbs have not had sex with their husbands in up to 20 years, and some never, according to Kim Myong-gan, who runs the clinic. ...

A survey of 600 women found that 26% had not had sex with their husbands in the past year. ...

"The men love their companies; they live for work," Mr Kim said. "Men don't even think it is a problem if they don't have sex with their wives. They have pornography and the sex industry to take care of their needs, but their wives have nowhere to go. They just suffer in silence."

My mom says, "the American woman is the most fortunate creature to ever walk the face of the earth."

Just a number

A gigabyte of free email ought to be enough for me, Google wants to offer more than Yahoo:

Karen Mahon, a Yahoo spokeswoman, said, "For many e-mail users, anything beyond one gigabyte is just a number."

Marty Nemko

Marty Nemko has some good essays on men's issues and other subjects. I just heard him on the radio, and some women callers were enraged when he told the truth about sex discrimination. A lot of women cling to persecution myths that just are not justified by the statistics.

Evolving rats are ticklish

Here is more evolution news:

Even laboratory rats have been shown to chirp delightedly above the range of human hearing when wrestling with each other or being tickled by a keeper -- the same vocalizations they make before receiving morphine or having sex. ...

``Tickles are the key,'' he said. ``They open up a previously hidden world.''

Panksepp had studied play vocalizations in animals for years before it occurred to him that they might be an ancestral form of laughter.

``Then I went to the lab and tickled some rats. Tickled them gently around the nape of their necks. Wow!''

The tickling made the rats chirp happily -- ``as long as the animal's friendly toward you,'' he said. ``If not, you won't get a single chirp, just like a child that might be suspicious of an adult.''

Rats that were repeatedly tickled became socially bonded to the researchers and would seek out tickles. The researchers also found that rats would rather spend time with animals that chirp a lot than with those that don't.

Yeah, I tried that with my wife. Maybe the rats are evolving to be more like women.

Medicinal Marijuana on Trial

The NY Times reports:

Medical marijuana is now legal in 11 states, and bills to legalize it are pending in at least 7 more. The drug is also at the heart of a case being considered by the United States Supreme Court.

Yet there remains much confusion over whether marijuana in fact has any significant medical effect.

"People subjectively report benefits," said Dr. Joseph I. Sirven, an epilepsy specialist and associate professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Scottsdale, Ariz. "There's a whole Internet literature suggesting what a wonderful thing it is. But the reality is, we don't know."

In an editorial last year in the journal Neurology, Dr. Sirven pointed out that the best studies of marijuana's effects on humans have so far shown little objective evidence of benefit in patients with epilepsy or multiple sclerosis. And a growing body of research indicates that, at least in teenagers, heavy marijuana use over a period of years significantly increases the risk of developing psychosis and schizophrenia.

Here is a libertarian rebuttal, but the medical benefits are indeed dubious. Most of the people who want medical marijuana just want to get stoned.

I was recently with a woman who had the urge to smoke marijuana. "You don't smoke pot, do you?", she said. I said that I don't. She continued, "That's what I suspected. I can usually tell when people don't smoke pot."

My community is so overrun with pot-heads that I stick out if I don't smoke it.

Hundreds of sharks invade Florida

John sends this story about undreds of sharks invading Florida. No, it does not relate to the Terri Schiavo case.

Illegal aliens invade with stinky underwater robots

Engadget reports:

Wired has the story of how four students from Carl Hayden Community High School in Phoenix, Arizona, beat some of the best schools in the country, including MIT, to win the national underwater robot championship. The students, who are all undocumented Mexican immigrants, built their robot on the cheap in just three days, using PVC pipe, off-the-shelf electronics and a few tampons. Called “Stinky”, the bot can record sonar pings and retrieve objects 50 feet below the water’s surface. In addition to the top prize, the bot also ended up winning the design and technical writing awards.

This sounds like a set-up for April Fools or wetback jokes. Illegal aliens from Mexico building stinky underwater robots?! Why can't some of this ingenuity be applied towards building a better society in Mexico?

Lawmaker Wants Teachers In Hawaii Weighed For Obesity

Here is more anti-fat news:

HONOLULU -- A state lawmaker has suggested Hawaii's public schoolteachers be forced to weigh in as part of the fight against obesity in students, KITV in Honolulu reported.

State Rep. Rida Cabanilla introduced a resolution in the house requesting that the Board of Education establish an obesity database among public schoolteachers.

"You cannot keep a kid to a certain standard that you yourself is not willing to keep," Cabanilla said.

My local school would have to replace a bunch of teachers.

There will be new Sesame Street propaganda:

This season, Sesame Street is all about "Healthy Habits for Life." The new initiative will find each episode of the 36th season dealing with children's health issues. Powerful partners in the program include the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, PBS, The Parenting Group, YMCA of USA, the Ad Council and the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Nutrition, activity, and size acceptance are three key focuses.

So I guess the TV show will both tell the kids not to get fat, and also tell them that it is perfectly okay to be fat.

Red Light Cameras Are Dangerous

This Techdirt article says:

How many studies showing that red light cameras increase accidents does it take? Yet another study, this one from Ontario, Canada, represents the fourth major report concluding that there's an increase, not decrease in accidents where the technology is used. The control group in this study outperformed the camera intersections in every single category. Overall, fatal and injury rear-end collisions jumped 5%. In other words, red light cameras can kill. It's about time that the cameras are recognized for what they are -- a money-making scam.

People always claim to be surprised when some safety measure turns out to cause more accidents than it saves. They refuse to consider adverse ramifications of some do-gooder measure.

There is also a serious safety debate about where car drivers should hold their hands on the steering wheel. Conventional wisdom has always been that the 10 and 2 o'clock positions are best. Now some people recommend the 8-and-4 technique because they say that you'll be safer in case the airbag inflates. Another view is that it is best to just keep one hand on the wheel.

Sterilizing fat people

This article

Beginning last November, the city of San Francisco began a program whereupon clinically obese men between the ages of 18 and 55 could undergo a procedure whereupon approximately 1/2 an inch is removed from each vas and the ends are sealed - commonly referred to as a vasectomy - completely free of charge. The overwhelming turnout led the State of California to follow suit, and now California is the first state in the Union to offer state-funded vasectomies to men who have been diagnosed as obese.

News to me. I would have expected more controversy.

Update: The story is a hoax. The other silly fat stories about schoolteachers and Sesame Street appear to be valid.

Lack of third world shrinks

This NY Times essay reports:

One thing is clear. Even before strife ripped these societies apart, many of them had pitiful mental health systems. According to the W.H.O., most developing countries have fewer than 1 psychiatrist per 100,000 people; in rural areas, the gap is even larger. The entire country of Rwanda has only one psychiatrist. (The United States has about 14 psychiatrists per every 100,000 people; England has about 4 per 100,000.)

If only we could export our shrinks to Rwanda, maybe everybody would be better off.

The author has also coauthored a new book, One Nation Under Therapy: How the Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance, that argues that the pervasiveness of therapeutic thinking and practice in American life provides not healing catharsis but enervating psychic drag and evasion of responsibility.

Lawyers may not have souls

Rush Limbaugh just said:

He may not even have a soul. He's a lawyer!

He was talking about the Terri Schiavo case.

First, they came for the dogs

Here is news from Germany:

They're ready to employ high-tech methods to crack down on a public plague -- doggy doo.

The advisory council for a Dresden city district received resounding support for a proposal to take saliva samples from all local dogs.

Modern DNA analysis techniques would then be used to locate the dogs responsible for the offending piles, so that their owners can be punished for neglecting to poop and scoop.

Don't punish the owners -- just shoot the dogs.

The food pyramid and science

This op-ed (also here) says:

They're going to change our nutritional guidelines again -- flip-flop the pyramid, or make it a wheel, or a ...

Well, I have an idea for the new, improved icon. Make it the shape of a cookie jar or a Starbucks mug, but don't just tell me what I must eat or what I can't swallow if I want to live to be 100. Instead, also tell me how much of the really good stuff I can chow down without seriously endangering my health.

And I do mean seriously. I know red wine is on the OK list, and that is good news because it happens to be my vino of choice. But how many margaritas before I'm on the endangered species list? ...

She is trying to be funny, but she has a good point. Most nutritional advice is very unscientific because it doesn't give limits and consequences. Nutritionists often say that a candy bar is bad food because it has "empty calories". In fact, there is hardly any scientific evidence that such food is bad in any way if it is part of a balanced diet.

I ate lunch with a friend yesterday, and he badmouthed one kind of food because it has a lot of protein, and then another kind of food because it was fatty, and finally a third kind of food because it has carbohydrates! What else is there? The ideal diet has fat, protein, and carbohydrates, and no food can possibly be bad just because it is fatty or surgary.

Another friend was shocked that a school was serving Burger King whoppers for lunch. Whoppers are actually quite nutritious and beneficial. I don't know any scientific evidence that any other food is better.

There is a small percentage of the population (maybe 5%) that has adverse health consequences from eating cholesterol, and other small percentages that are advised to avoid salt or sugar or other common foods. But for most people, these foods are fine.

A scientific food pyramid would not just list ideal foods. It would describe a range of foods that can be eaten while still maintaining optimal health, even if that range includes candy bars, vodka, donuts, etc.

Would stem cells save Shiavo?

A few months ago, Democrats and others were promoting stem cell research as a sure source of miracle cures for various victims of brain and spinal cord damage. I think that it is funny how all those people are so quiet about Terri Shiavo. Nobody wants to keep her alive long enough to get a cloned fetal tissue treatment.

Majority of shootings use guns

Here is the predictable gun control rant:

The shooting at Red Lake High School is the latest mass murder-suicide to occur in the United States and follows, by less than two weeks, a murder- suicide at a Wisconsin hotel that resulted in eight dead. These shootings, like the vast majority of such incidents, were perpetrated with a gun.

Yes, most of these shootings use guns!

The Minnesota student used police-issued guns that he stole from his grandfather. It happened on an indian reservation. The school security guard was unarmed. Exactly how would additional gun control laws have helped?

Worst jobs in history

This site claims to have the worst jobs in history.

Princeton wants kids with green hair

John sends this rant against the feminist, leftist, divorced, atheist Princeton Univ. president:

Despite a Prince poll taken shortly before the 2004 election that showed 62% of students supported Kerry versus 24% for Bush, Tilghman believes that Princeton needs more students with (in her words) “green hair.”

She makes the Clinton Democrat Harvard president seem like a clear-thinking right-winger.

Heteronormative scandal at Harvard

Cathy Young writes:

Here's a sample of what Pinkett Smith said, as recounted by The Harvard Crimson:

''Women, you can have it all -- a loving man, devoted husband, loving children, a fabulous career. We are a new generation of women. We got to set a new standard of rules around here. To my men, open your mind, open your eyes to new ideas. Be open."

On March 2, The Harvard Crimson reported that some members of the Harvard Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Supporters Alliance had been offended by the speech and were calling for an apology from the foundation. ...

''Some of the content was extremely heteronormative, and made BGLTSA members feel uncomfortable."

It is a sad day when someone has to apologize for being heteronormative.

Males have better spatial cognition

Sci. American says:

The researchers had the monkeys track the location of food hidden under 18 identical covers on a tray and found that young adult male monkeys performed the best at the task.

Resarchers are trying to close the gender gap in rhesus monkeys.

Mistake by female guard

The big strong Atlanta judge-killer was able to steal his gun from a careless female guard, and now this picture shows him being escorted to jail by a female cop!

The whole story is strange. I am still waiting for an explanation as to why he got a hung jury in his first trial.

Fred Reed quotes

Here are some gems from Fred Reed:

Without men, civilization would last until the oil needed changing.

The potty problem has reared its genderishly inequitable head for years in the mascara military. You just get in trouble for talking about it. Consider urinals and the Army. They were never a problem, because men regard the entire earth as a urinal in waiting. The side of the road, the middle of the road, a tree, the ocean -- they don't discriminate. The way feminists see oppression everywhere, men see urinals. It's a design feature.

Check out his essays. Some of them are excellent. Funny and insightful.

The Blank Slate

Harvard prof. Steven Pinker discusses scientific evidence of sex differences, and says:

At some point in the history of the modern women's movement, the belief that men and women are psychologically indistinguishable became sacred. The reasons are understandable: Women really had been held back by bogus claims of essential differences. Now anyone who so much as raises the question of innate sex differences is seen as "not getting it" when it comes to equality between the sexes. The tragedy is that this mentality of taboo needlessly puts a laudable cause on a collision course with the findings of science and the spirit of free inquiry.

He wrote a thick book on The Blank Slate, even though much of it should be obvious to anyone but a feminist or a politically correct liberal. There is an overwhelming scientific consensus that the mind is not a blank slate at birth.

Women's movement and crime

The San Jose paper has this letter:

DA clarifies comments on women and crime

In a discussion of jail statistics at a county board subcommittee meeting, I noted the increased ratio of women to men in jail parallels what is seen in other jurisdictions, and this also parallels the successes of the women's movement (Internal Affairs, Feb. 27).

I should have emphasized at the same time that the women's movement is responsible for substantially reducing our overall crime rate and that females still constitute a relatively small percentage of inmates.

George Kennedy
Santa Clara County District Attorney
San Jose

No doubt some feminists in his office made him write this letter, but how has the women's movement affected our overall crime rate?

Two ways come to mind. Feminism has dramatically increased the divorce rate, as women were encouraged to walk out of marriages and raise children without fathers. Those children frequently grow up to be criminals.

On the other hand, feminism has also radically increased the abortion rate, and there are studies showing a resulting decline in the crime rate. Apparently the women who get abortions are less likely to be good mothers, and many of those kids would have grown up to be criminals.

It is not obvious to me which effect is greater, or whether there are other significant effects as well. What did the DA mean?

Playground insults banned

Here is news from London teachers:

Sexist insults are to be banned from the playground.

Teachers are warned today that words such as "slag" and "slut" lead to boys feeling superior to girls and make domestic violence seem more acceptable.

The NUT lists unacceptable insults including "lezzie", "pro" and "your mum's a whore". ...

Boys should be challenged if they are heard directing such terms at girls. It is considered equally unacceptable for girls to aim such insults at one another. Teachers' leaders said such language is common in secondary schools and even among older children at primaries.

While some schools already take a strict line on sexist name-calling, others are more lenient.

The acronym NUT stands for the National Union of Teachers.

The Declaration forbids happy women

Thanks to Michael Medved for pointing out this
Samantha Sharac column in a Mass. college paper:

Can Virginia Woolf's proclamation, "as a woman I have no country" apply in our contemporary American society? ...

The "rationale" of biological determinism is also responsible for the historic subordination of women. "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" among women are impossible in the United States. The Declaration of Independence forbids it as well as many advocates who rely on biological determinism as the correct guide path of women and men. ...

Following this logic, why aren't there more public outcries for men to work primarily as fathers? If men are biologically equipped to help create a life, then why are the majority of men working outside of the home? ...

The common view that women are more emotional and men are more rational has not been substantiated.

It is safe to say that most men are more rational than this columnist.

Ms-information

Here are sites refuting common feminist pseudo-scholarship and Ms-information.

Warren Farrell has a new book on the pay gap between men and women. A lot of conventional wisdom is wrong.

Women also commit domestic violence

Here is a summary of research on domestic violence:

Over 100 studies have examined the extent of DV [domestic violence] in developed countries such as the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia. These studies have reached a consistent conclusion: men and women are equally likely to engage in partner aggression. ...

Overall, the results from these surveys of over 12,000 persons in nine non-Western countries are generally consistent with the findings in Western societies: men and women are equally likely to commit partner aggression. ...

Psychologist John Archer reviewed and analyzed 552 DV reports from around the world. His study represents the most rigorous summary ever conducted of the domestic violence literature. His article, published in the Psychological Bulletin in 2000, reached this conclusion:

“Women were slightly more likely than men to use one or more acts of physical aggression and to use such acts more frequently.”

Most people seem to assume that men are primarily at fault.

Soccer stars at six-fold risk of brain damage

John sends this story:

[Health India]: London,Feb.24 : A survey covering 7000 soccer pros in Italy reveals that football players are six times more prone to fatal brain diseases than others, as they repeatedly use their heads to knock the ball.

Top footballers like Don Rovie was one of those who was hit by a motor neuron disease after retiring from the field. The disease has already proved fatal in the cases of Middlesbrough's Willie Maddren and Derby's Rob Hindmarch.

Medical researchers, however, believe the main reason behind the outbreak of such ailments might be repeatedly heading. Expert Dr Adriano Chio said the average age for the start of the disease in footballers was 41, 20 years earlier than usual.

Remember that the next time you hear about soccer moms.

Man Sleeps Through Police Standoff

Here is what can happen if you tell your niece that you have a shotgun at home for self-defense:

Joe Persinger was the most surprised man in town when he woke up from his sleep Tuesday night. A day after streets were blocked and the EPD SWAT Team deployed, we ask if that response was appropriate. Persinger said, "I'm 5'11" and I weigh about 165, 170 pounds. I'm not John Dillinger."

Persinger switches between emotions. He sometimes laughs about what he lived through, but he's also angry that the Evansville Police SWAT Team woke him up.

Persinger said, "I was surprised and shocked, and thought it was the biggest bunch of bull I'd ever heard in my life. I mean, it was completely and totally ridiculous."

About half of all American households have guns.

Punitive child support enforcement

John sends this NY Times story on punitive child support enforcement:

Donald Gardner owes $119,846 in back child support to his former wife, but there is little chance he will pay it soon - or ever.

After failing to pay support for his two children for much of the early 1990's because he felt the payments were too high, Mr. Gardner broke 27 bones in a car accident in 1997. Being in and out of hospitals for three years left him penniless, and when he tried to return to work he found that the state had suspended his driver's license because of his accumulated child support debt.

That prevented him from going back to work as an interstate truck driver.

"I've decided that I'd like to get this behind me and pay the support," said Mr. Gardner, 47, who now lives in a homeless shelter in Harlem, "but if I can't drive I can't pay. It is like a Catch-22." ...

About 70 percent of the debt is owed by men who earn $10,000 a year or less, or have no recorded wage earnings at all, according to the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement. Less than 4 percent is owed by men with incomes of more than $40,000.

And the poorer men are getting caught in a vicious circle. Their debts have become obstacles to getting licenses for jobs to help them produce wages to pay down the debts.

Recent research by the Urban Institute, a think tank in Washington, found that aggressive collection of debts played a crucial role in pushing low-income black men ages 25 to 34 out of lawful employment, the opposite effect policy makers might have desired.

I think that it is exactly the effect that the policy makers wanted. They are all in favor of throwing low-income black men in debtors prisons. There is no other explanation for their policies.

Mr. Gardner, for example, said he had been to court to get his driver's license back on the condition that he started paying his former wife. But the court would not agree to the arrangement, he said, because it could not locate his wife.

"In theory you are supposed to be able to go into court and you are supposed to be able to get modifications," Ms. Holtzman said. "But in reality, there are a lot of judges who are sick and tired of dads who haven't paid child support. They don't want to hear you had a drug problem or were in prison. They just want the money and they don't even care if you can't pay it."

Remember, these child support obligations are to moms and welfare agencies, and there is no requirement that any of it be spent on children.

Fox hunting banned

Fox hunting is now illegal in Britain, so now they can hunt humans instead:

It's fox hunting, minus the fox. In a drag hunt, a field master leads a team on horseback, guided by foxhounds on the trail of an animal scent. A huntsman manages the dogs with the help of his assistants, the whippers-in. But instead of tracking and then killing a live fox, the hounds follow a dragsman—an ordinary (if athletic) human who runs ahead of the pack daubing the trail with artificial scent.

The scent is made from animal droppings or human urine, aniseed, and fixative. The dragsman pulls it along in a bag to create a cross-country trail (or "dragline") of a few miles that includes natural barriers and jumps for the horses. When the pack catches up with him, the dogs get some biscuits, and the hunt begins anew. A typical day of drag hunting takes only a few hours, whereas a fox hunt—in which hounds are liable to find a scent, lose it, and find it again—can take all day.

Foxes are usually considered pests. It is bizarre that British think that hunting humans is somehow better.

The Powerline blog reports on civil disobedience.

Feminist lizards take the male out of the picture

Mike asks whether there is any empirical evidence for lesbianism. The closest I could find is this account of Fake Sex in Virgin Whiptail Lizards:

Only females exist in several species of the lizards of the genus Cnemidophorus, which might seem like a problem when it comes time to propagate the species. The females don’t need the males though, they reproduce by parthenogenesis, a form of reproduction in which an unfertilized egg develops into a new individual. So basically, the females don’t need the males; they just produce clones of themselves as a form of reproduction. Despite the fact that it is unnecessary and futile to attempt copulation with each other, the lizards still like to try, and occasionally one of the females will start to “act like a male” by attempting to copulate with another female. The lizards evolved from a sexual species and the behavior to copulate like a male -- to engage in fake sex -- is a vestigial behavior; that is, a behavior present in a species, but is expressed in an imperfect form, which in this case, is useless.

The item is no. 3 on a science site's top 10 vestigial organs. No, it does not try to relate the feminist lizards to human beings.

Why men fall asleep after sex

Here is new research on the obvious:

'As frustrating as it is for most women that their male partners just roll over and fall asleep after sex, men aren't entirely to blame,' said Dr Neil Stanley, director of sleep at the University of Surrey.

'Humans are the only animals in which sleep and sex are linked and while often seen as just a poor excuse, there are scientific reasons why men feel tired after sex. ...

Not everyone nods off after sex. The survey found 48 per cent of men had actually fallen asleep during the act itself.

A mere 11 per cent of women admitted being guilty of this.

A key word is "admitted". Surveys also show that women lie about sex more.

The pills don't work

Reuters reports:

A New Jersey man has filed a false advertising lawsuit against a maker of herbal penis enlargement pills, alleging the medicine does not fulfil its promises, the plaintiff's lawyer says.

The makers probably figured that their dissatisfied customers would be too embarrassed to complain. I wonder whether the plaintiff's shortcomings are detailed in the court papers.

More Aircraft Laser Incidents Pinned on Gay Club-Goers

The Swift Report blog says:

FBI agents have traced another airline laser incident to a gay nightclub, this one in Dallas, TX. Last year, after pilots began complaining of laser beams penetrating their cockpits, investigators linked the green beams to gay nightclubs around the country, where laser wielders use the green rays to shine a light on club ‘hotties.’

The red lasers are cheaper and more readily available; I am surprised that the gay clubs use green lasers. The green lasers are more dangerous to aircraft.

Men don't have a regular problem

These union women want menstrual leave:

Unions say they are negotiating a landmark industrial relations claim to allow women to take extra sick leave for menstrual pain.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) says some women have particularly bad periods and are genuinely forced to call in sick.

As part of negotiations for a new enterprise bargaining agreement at Toyota, the union has asked for women to be allowed 12 paid days menstrual leave a year. ...

"We believe that they shouldn't be disadvantaged against men that don't have a regular problem once a month."

I think that the women should be happy that they are paid the same as men.

Victims Gone Wild

The local paper prepares us for Valentines Day.

How Feminism Has Messed Up Relationships
By Amy Alkon

"IN SEDUCTION, the rapist often bothers to buy a bottle of wine," proclaimed radical feminist Andrea Dworkin in 1976. If you're a woman born 20 years ago, you probably don't even recognize Dworkin's name. Yet, there's a good chance you've had some seriously frustrating dates with her unwitting progeny: the guy who waits until date three or four—not to grab you, throw you up against the wall and suck face—but to politely inquire, "May I kiss you?"

Equal pay for equal work? It's a beautiful thing. Equal opportunity? Thrilled to have it. We women owe an enormous debt to Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and all who followed in their footsteps, fighting the righteous fight against sex-based discrimination.

Unfortunately, in the late '70s and early '80s, feminism got hijacked by a small but vocal gang of Victims Gone Wild.

I am glad to see someone recognize that men and women are different, even in liberal California. You can read more from the same columnist here.

It's stupid and it stinks

An elementary school installed a sound meter:

The stoplight is mounted on the lunchroom wall and goes from green to yellow, flashes, and then turns red.

When the light turns red, the lunchroom stays dark and youngsters have to stay silent until the Talk Light resets and turns green again.

"The ones who continue to talk have to write 50 times: 'I will not talk during lights out,' " said Renee Johnson, a lunchroom supervisor.

Not everyone is cheering. Fourth-grader Ethan Stiles recently grumbled as the light turned red just after he sat down to eat his lunch.

"It's stupid and it stinks," he said.

I would recommend hiring that fourth grader to evaluation the school's zero-tolerance policies.

Witch-doctor’s spell backfired, says transvestite

Here is some news from Africa:

A transvestite who is being prosecuted after winning medals and titles in women's athletics events has blamed a witch-doctor's faulty spell.
A Bulawayo court heard that Samukaliso Sithole, a Zimbabwean who competed in domestic and regional competitions for women, was actually a man. Sithole faces charges of psychological offence, reported the state-run Herald newspaper.
Prosecutors allege Sithole offended the dignity and sexuality of a woman who befriended him, confided in him and felt comfortable being naked around him, while believing him to be female.
Sithole was identified to her as a man by an acquaintance when he was among a group of women preparing to travel by train to an athletics meeting. Sithole tried to sprint away but was caught, and police supervised a medical exam. ...
The world athletics body no longer conducts gender determination tests, and the Olympic movement ceased these in 1999. The International Olympic Committee legally recognises transsexuals provided hormone therapy ceased at least two years ago.

I didn't know that the Olympics allows transsexuals to compete as women.

Hate Messages on Google Site Draw Concern

A NY Times article expresses concerns that people on private, invitation only, web sites might express some politically incorrect views, and that such private sentiments might be illegal in some other countries:

Under Brazilian law, it is a crime to practice, induce or incite discrimination or prejudice on the grounds of race, color, ethnicity, religion or national origin. If convicted, offenders could serve two to five years in prison, in addition to paying a sizable fine.

"The U.S. is pretty unusual providing the broad protection we do to hate speech," said Professor Sunstein. In "South America, Europe - Google could have problems with many other jurisdictions."

Mr. Santos, the author of a book on hate crimes in Brazil, is targeting "all the communities that use racist and discriminatory terms on the site www.orkut.com," according to documents he filed in court. Because Brazilian law does not include discrimination based on sexuality in its criminal code, those behind sites like "I Hate Transvestites" would not face criminal charges.

Free speech means letting people express their views.

Fatherphobia

This new column says:

The threat to the right of children to be raised in mother-father homes comes not only from gay adoptions. It also comes from the fatherphobia of family courts that deprive children of their fathers. ...

Despite an extended string of U.S. Supreme Court decisions upholding the fundamental right of parents to the care, custody and control of their children (reaffirmed in a 2000 case), and despite a very high standard that the government must meet in order to terminate parental legal rights, fathers are routinely denied due process when it comes to determining child custody after divorce.

Family courts use a highly subjective rule called the best interest of the child as recommended by court-appointed child-custody evaluators or psychotherapists. There is no requirement that they have any first-hand experience with raising children, and they are allowed to use their own personal prejudices to overrule the parents.

Homeowners can kill burglars in self-defence

Good news for Brits:

Homeowners who confront burglars were told by the Government yesterday that they were entitled to kill in self-defence - and use guns and knives - to protect their family and property.

They were reassured that they will not be prosecuted if they acted "honestly and instinctively" against intruders in the heat of the moment.

Previously, some British homeowners were jailed for acting in self-defense.

Cambodian dog story

This Cambodian man had to choose between his newlywed 20-year-old wife and his dog.

The wife became even more upset when the man confessed he loved the dog more than her, district police chief Tuon Dorn told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa from Kampot province, about 140km southeast of the capital.

"When we arrived, the husband told us, yes, of course he did it. But as police, we could only solve the problem of his wife then wanting a divorce. We cannot solve the problem of his relationship with his dog, because under Cambodian law it is not strictly illegal," Tuon Dorn said.

"It is amazing, but this husband is not crazy. It seems he is a passionate human being who looked at a dog, and the more he looked, the more passionate he became."

Media man bashing

This NY Times article says:

Men Are Becoming the Ad Target of the Gender Sneer
By COURTNEY KANE
Published: January 28, 2005

Are today's men incompetent, bumbling idiots? Judging by portrayals in some advertising, the answer seems to be yes - much to the dismay of some men. ...

[The ad] campaigns portray[] men in general, and husbands and fathers in particular, as objects of ridicule, pity or even scorn. Among them are ads for Bud Light, Domino's, Hummer, T-Mobile and Verizon.

The "man as a dope" imagery has gathered momentum over the last decade, and critics say that it has spiraled out of control. It is nearly impossible, they say, to watch commercials or read ads without seeing helpless, hapless men.

In the campaigns, which the critics consider misandry (the opposite of misogyny), men act like buffoons, ogling cars and women; are likened to dogs, especially in beer and pizza ads; and bungle every possible household task. Most marketers presenting incompetent, silly male characters say their campaigns provide a harmless comedic insight into the male mentality while also appealing to women. But men who describe themselves as rights activists are increasingly speaking out against the ads as a form of male-bashing, especially when the ads disparage the roles that fathers play in their children's lives.

It is not just the ads. TV sitcoms overwhelmingly portray men as fools and dopes, and women are the only ones who have any sense.

Attacking Summers

This Slate article whines about people who said that Harvard Pres. Larry Summers was raising legitimate issues. It says, "no one is talking about achieving 50-50 representation", but then goes on to blast Summers because Harvard has not hired women in sufficient numbers. I guess it is looking for some sort of quota. Furthermore, it accuses:

The chairwoman of the sociology department has told the New York Times that after a meeting with Summers about this issue many female faculty had left feeling he did not understand their concerns.

Add that to the list of differences between men and women. Female employees cannot do their jobs unless they feel that their bosses understand their concerns.

Autistics do not read People magazine

This story says:

"One of the main problems in people with autism is that they don't find it very motivating to look at other individuals," Platt said. "And even when they do, they can't seem to assess information about that individual's importance, intentions or expressions."

So autism researchers have figured out how to train monkeys to trade juice for pictures of the rear ends of high-ranking monkeys. The next step is to drug the monkeys to mimic autism. The hope is to explain why autistics do not subscribe to People magazine.

Who ever decided that it is normal to want to read People magazine?

Injured back while sneezing

Sammy Sosa is not so popular among Chicago Cub fans, and is now being traded:

But Sosa was suspended in 2003 for using a corked bat, and he batted .253 last season, slumping to 35 homers and 80 runs batted in, his lowest totals since the strike-shortened 1994 season. He landed on the disabled list after injuring his back while sneezing.

Huhh? One of the great power hitters of all time was sidelined by sneezing?! I missed that story.

Paul Busa's recovered memory

Paul R. Shanley, the notorious Boston priest who wore long hair, challenged the Church teachings on homosexuality, attended NAMBLA meetings, and supposedly molested dozens of schoolboys, is now on trial. The prosecution is down to one witness against him, and that man has holes in his story. He appears to have suddenly and mysteriously remembered being abused in 1983 at the age of 6, just in time to collect a $500k settlement.

The accuser's name is Paul Busa. I am not sure why the mainstream news media is refusing to name him. He is 27 years old, and he has been in the news for a couple of years. The name of Shanley's other main accuser, Greg Ford, has been reported many times. If I were a juror, I'd be wondering why Ford and all the others who got big payoffs are not testifying at Shanley's trial.

I am very skeptical about prosecutions based on recovered memory from childhood. I believe that the evidence is that such memories are very unreliable.

The accusations against Shanley rely on a psychological theory called dissociated or repressed memory. It holds that the mind can submerge the most traumatic memories in some walled-off place, where they remain unaltered and retrievable in exact detail by a triggering event or therapy. The idea comes from Freud's early work, and is one which he ultimately rejected. It was reformulated in some feminist psychotherapeutic circles beginning in the 1970s, and reached its apex in the 1980s and early '90s, when children, prodded by therapists, began reciting "memories" of satanic ritual abuses committed at their day care centers. Many people went to prison as a result of those stories. Most of those convictions have since been reversed; others continue to be fought. Yet the theory persists. Daniel Brown, a psychotherapist who testified to the grand jury in Shanley's case, argues that "material that is too intense may not be able to be consciously processed and so may become unconscious and amnesic."

Other experts, however, reject the notion that highly traumatic memories can be spontaneously repressed and recovered. One of Ford's first therapists, Robert Azrak, testified in a deposition that "there is no scientific basis" for the type of recovered memories described in this case. As Richard McNally, a clinical and experimental psychologist at Harvard and the author of Remembering Trauma, pointed out, "There is just no mechanism in the mind for keeping the door shut to traumatic memory. The more times a particular type of event happens, the harder it may be to distinguish one incident from another, but that doesn't mean people fail to remember the entire set of events." Remembering trauma, McNally said, "is crucial to evolutionary development; if you've been threatened, you better remember if you want to survive." That was as true for cavemen as it is for the contemporary child who, once burned, learns to avoid a hot stove.

Such testimony should not be allowed in court. It is just Freudian nonsense.

Update: (Feb. 7) Shanley was convicted on all 4 counts. Shanley did not testify, and it appears that his lawyer put on a weak defense.

Unwed father rights

John writes:

This is the second libertarian feminist to take up the cause of this "biological father." Wendy McElroy wrote a similar column a week ago. PS strongly disagrees. She supports the right of an unwed mother to put her child up for adoption without notifying the "father" who, in her view, should have no rights.

Cathy Young says:

In the end, our society sends men quite a mixed message. If your partner gets pregnant and decides to keep the baby, you're liable for 18 years of child support, whether or not you want to be a father. If she doesn't want to be a mother, she can give your child to strangers and there isn't much you can do. Then we complain that men don't take parenthood seriously enough.

I do think that the rights and responsibilities of fatherhood should be linked to marriage. The columnists do have a point in that it is unjust for unwed fathers to have responsibilities, but not rights.

Prof murders baby and gets honored with a memorial

Villanova University plans to honor Mine Ener's work with a memorial student lounge in the university library:

Ener killed her 6-month-old daughter and committed suicide in a Minnesota jail. ...

"It was a sad and tragic situation. She was depressed, but she did murder her daughter," Hoffman said Wednesday. "It isn't the kind of thing you want to remember on a Catholic campus." ...

Ener, 38, went into the bathroom at 9 a.m. one morning and fatally slit the infant's throat with a knife from the kitchen, because, she told police, she wanted to give the baby relief. Less than a month later, Ener put a trash bag over her head and committed suicide in prison.

New tables, lamps and an oriental rug _ a nod to Ener's area of study _ will be dedicated to her memory Thursday morning in a corner of the Falvey Library student lounge. A plaque already hanging on the wall lists Ener's department, her years at Villanova and an epitaph: "Scholar, Teacher, Mentor, Friend."

I don't see any memorials to any murderers who are men.

Lesbian college chief is upset

The new UC Santa Cruz chancellor Denice Dee Denton is all upset about Larry Summers remarks, and this article explains why. She managed to hire her lesbian lover in a phony $192,000 per year job.

Slandering a woman's virtuous reputation

The Chicago Tribune reports:

The Seattle Democrat is sponsoring a bill to repeal a 1909 Washington state law that makes "slander of a woman" a crime.

It isn't that Kohl-Welles, a women's studies lecturer at the University of Washington, wants to hear women slandered. But she believes the law is a relic of a time when men put women on a pedestal but denied them basic rights.

"This is one of those old laws that is really irrelevant now," said Kohl-Welles, adding that it almost surely violates the state and federal Constitutions.

The statute prohibits "false or defamatory words or language which shall injure or impair" the virtuous and chaste reputation of any female over 12. The law does say it is OK to slander a "common prostitute."

This is yet another feminist attempt to have women treated like common prostitutes.

National 'No Name-Calling' Week

Here is another goofy school trend:

NEW YORK (AP) -- Middle schools across the United States will observe "No Name-Calling Week" starting Monday.

The program, now in its second year, takes aim at insults of all kinds, whether they are based on a child's appearance, background or behavior.

It has the backing of the Girl Scouts of America and Amnesty International, but a handful of conservative critics have zeroed in on references to harassment based on sexual orientation.

"No Name-Calling Week" was developed by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, which is seeking to ensure that schools safely accommodate students of all sexual orientations.

The group said it's unsure how many schools will participate in this week's event, but says 5,100 educators from 36 states have registered, up from 4,000 last year.

I think that a little name-calling is healthy.

Family ruined by suspected Shaken Baby Syndrome

Bob sends this Greenville Ohio horror story:

Prosecutor says boy may have died from genetic disease, not abuse

Associated Press

GREENVILLE, Ohio - A woman plans to seek custody of two children taken from her and put up for adoption now that a prosecutor says their brother may have died from a rare genetic disease - and not child abuse.

However, the length of time since the adoptions occurred could make the mother's efforts futile, a legal expert said.

The Darke County prosecutor said he is closing the homicide investigation into the death of 5-year-old Daniel Crow Jr. because of the disease.

Prosecutor Richard Howell told the Dayton Daily News in an interview Jan. 11 that Daniel's parents "deserve some exoneration. It shouldn't be held over their heads. ... I can't prove he was even abused, let alone who did it."

Despite many such prosecutions, I believe that there is considerable doubt whether Shaken Baby Syndrome even exists.

Harvard prez says women can't hack it

Joe sends this Boston Globe story:

The president of Harvard University, Lawrence H. Summers, sparked an uproar at an academic conference Friday when he said that innate differences between men and women might be one reason fewer women succeed in science and math careers. Summers also questioned how much of a role discrimination plays in the dearth of female professors in science and engineering at elite universities. ...

However, the problem of women in academia is one that Summers is confronting in his role as university president. The percentage of tenured job offers made to women by the university's Faculty of Arts and Sciences has dropped dramatically since Summers took office, prompting vigorous complaints from many of Harvard's senior female professors...

He offered three possible explanations, in declining order of importance, for the small number of women in high-level positions in science and engineering. The first was the reluctance or inability of women who have children to work 80-hour weeks.

The second point was that fewer girls than boys have top scores on science and math tests in late high school years. ...

In his talk, according to several participants, Summers also used as an example one of his daughters, who as a child was given two trucks in an effort at gender-neutral parenting. Yet she treated them almost like dolls, naming one of them "daddy truck," and one "baby truck."

The iSteve blog adds:

I think it's highly relevant to this that one of Summer's first accomplishments at Harvard was hiring away MIT's superstar evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker.

I don't know what Pinker thinks about this, but he is adamant that there is a scientific consensus that these sorts of innate genetic differences exists. That's the way evolution works, he says.

Update: Here is a Saletan column on the subject. Here is Charles Murray in the NY Times.

FORTY-SIX years ago, in "The Two Cultures," C. P. Snow famously warned of the dangers when communication breaks down between the sciences and the humanities. The reaction to remarks by Lawrence Summers, the president of Harvard, about the differences between men and women was yet another sign of a breakdown that takes Snow's worries to a new level: the wholesale denial that certain bodies of scientific knowledge exist.

I don't think that there is any communication breakdown. It sounds like Summers communicated quite clearly. The Boston Globe reported:

Nancy Hopkins, a biologist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, walked out on Summers' talk, saying later that if she hadn't left, ''I would've either blacked out or thrown up."

It sounds like she understood him, but behaved like a stereotypical woman who cannot face the truth.

England criminalizes smacking children

The BBC reports:

Parents in England and Wales who smack children so hard it leaves a mark will face up to five years in jail under new laws in force from Saturday.

Mild smacking is allowed under a "reasonable chastisement" defence against common assault.

But any punishment which causes visible bruising, grazes, scratches, minor swellings or cuts can face action.

This didn't satisfy the anti-spanking zealots. One of them said, "Defining acceptable ways to hit children should become a thing of the past. It should be just as wrong to hit a child as it is to hit an adult."

This is from a country that doesn't believe in self-defense against home invaders. The academic studies have failed to show any harm to mild spanking, and most American parents believe that spanking is necessary.

Was the feminist movement a cruel hoax?

A Maureen Dowd column in the NY Times says:

A second study, which was by researchers at four British universities and reported last week, suggested that smart men with demanding jobs would rather have old-fashioned wives, like their mums, than equals. The study found that a high I.Q. hampers a woman's chance to get married, while it is a plus for men. The prospect for marriage increased by 35 percent for guys for each 16-point increase in I.Q.; for women, there is a 40 percent drop for each 16-point rise.

So was the feminist movement some sort of cruel hoax?

The feminist movement did not change anyone's IQ, so I guess she means that it suckered smart women into developing attitudes and habits that made them undesirable to men.

She may be correct. Many feminists have attitude problems that make it hard to visualize them having happy marriages. I think that most men are happy to marry an equal if she really is an equal, but are not eager to marry a feminazi with equality delusions.

All family groups agree

This Family News story says:

Phyllis Schlafly, founder of the pro-family Eagle Forum, said she hopes lawmakers will also look to Ohio, whose state marriage amendment is considered the strongest in the nation.

"It not only protects marriage," she explained, "but it protects us from the Legislature or the courts pretending that they have a substitute for marriage and giving same-sex couples all the rights and benefits of marriage even though they don't give them the name."

There will be disagreements within the pro-family camp when the final draft is submitted­specifically over the issue of civil unions­but Tom McClusky, director of government relations for the Family Research Council, predicted everyone will be onboard.

"One hundred percent of the family groups agree that something needs to be done," he said, "and ultimately it will be deduced that we need to pass a marriage amendment."

No, it doesn't protect marriage from its main attacker -- the family courts.

Bush admits no WMD

In the evening news at 11:03 pm, the San Jose bay area NBC TV station said:

Turning now to the war in Iraq, the Bush administration admitted today its main reason for going to war was not justified. After searching every weapons site in Iraq, 1500 military and weapons specialists determined Saddam Hussein did not have any weapons of mass destruction.

Now that would be news, if true. But here is the White House press conference, and McClellan didn't say that at all. He merely acknowledged that Pres. Bush said in October that no WMD had been found, that the main reasons for war are as valid as ever, and that no WMD have been found since then.

Playing footsie at Harvard

The NY Times reports on some scientific research:

In another, psychologists at Harvard found that they could increase the attraction between male and female strangers simply by encouraging them to play footsie as part of a lab experiment.

This would be obvious to anyone but a Harvard psychologist.

Children Made Fatherless By Family Courts

A Phyllis Schlafly column on how family courts attack fathers:

One of the best-kept secrets in American society today is that two-thirds of divorces are now sought by wives, not husbands. The feminist movement has taught wives that they can seek "liberation" by walking out on the marriage contract and marital duties and still reap the benefits of marriage, i.e., their children and his money.

Some 80 percent of divorces are involuntary, over the objections of one spouse. Very few of these divorces involve grounds such as desertion, adultery, or abuse.

We urgently need a comprehensive study of how many family court decisions deprive fathers of their parental rights, and deprive children of their fathers, when that awesome punishment is not based on any finding of fault. Information is difficult to gather because most of what family courts do is not available to public scrutiny.

How many children are separated by judicial fiat from involuntarily divorced fathers who have done nothing wrong? How many children are separated from their fathers because of questionable child abuse accusations without any evidentiary hearing or due process of law?

The answer is many millions of children. There are actually many books and articles on the subject.

Brian writes:

Thank you Ms. Schlafly for your article. You stated that "[w]e urgently need a comprehensive study of how many family court decisions deprive fathers of their parental rights, and deprive children of their fathers, when that awesome punishment is not based on any finding of fault." Please allow me to respectfully disagree with you on this point. A study, no matter how comprehensive, is not material. A right is a right is a right, no matter what any "study" says. If all of the religious leaders of the world did a study which proved that individuals were not properly practicing their faith, as I'm betting you know, that would not mean that the state could (legally) create laws that would encourage proper practice.

The "public" has been so dumbed-down about rights, and relies instead on "studies" by purported "experts." So, I would suggest to you that the last thing we need is a study. What we need is the U.S. Supreme Court to recognize our cases and stand behind their countless decisions that parenting is a fundamental right that cannot be infringed upon without a compelling state interest. It is the ONLY thing that matters. Though I doubt they will hear me, I'm working on it (as many others are). You can find more information at www.loveisearned.com. My best to you and your children.

Brian is right. The advantage of the study is just to document and publicize the damage that the courts are doing. Many people naively assume that the courts are acting in the interests of the children.

Adulterous wife denied divorce

Here is an LA Times story about an adulterous wife who vindictively sent her husband to prison on dubious charges, got a wholly unnecessary restraining order against him, demanded custody of their 2 small children, got pregnant with another man, went on welfare to become a public parasite, misled her divorce court judge, and now she is generating public sympathy from the news media. Seattle Superior Court Judge Paul A. Bastine denied Shawnna J. Hughes' divorce petition because Washingtion state law presumes the imprisoned husband to be the father, and the state may want to sue him for welfare reimbursement.

There are so many things wrong here that I won't try to explain them.

Very few Christians are really fundamentalists

Here is a NY Times article that acknowledges that not all right-wing American Christians are fundamentalists.

"If I were to buy stock in global Christianity, I would buy it in Pentecostalism," said Martin E. Marty, professor emeritus of the history of Christianity at the University of Chicago Divinity School and a coauthor of a study of fundamentalist movements. "I would not buy it in fundamentalism."

After the American presidential election in November, some liberal commentators warned that the nation was on the verge of a takeover by Christian "fundamentalists."

But in the United States today, most of the Protestants who make up what some call the Christian right are not fundamentalists, who are more prone to create separatist enclaves, but evangelicals, who engage the culture and share their faith.

And of course most American Christians are either mainline Protestants or Catholics, and they aren't fundamentalists either.

Child murderer gets new trial

Judges seem to have a lot of tolerance for mothers, no matter how bad the behavior. Andrea Yates murdered 5 of her kids, and was convicted by a jury for 3 of the murders, but an appellate court has just ordered a new trial:

The Texas First Court of Appeals ruled that the conviction should be reversed because an expert witness for the state, Dr. Park Dietz, presented false testimony when he said Yates may have been influenced by an episode of the "Law & Order" television program. No such episode had ever aired.

Yates, now 40, apparently was a fan of the show and watched regularly.

Men get railroaded all the time based on inaccurate and speculative testimony from govt experts, and no one cares.

If a witness did indeed mischaracterize a TV episode, then the time to object should have been during the trial.

John writes:

I'm with Andy on this one. False testimony by a government expert witness should be sufficient to require a new trial for both Martha Stewart and Andrea Yates. There can be no doubt that, in each case, the false testimony was critical to the jury's conviction.

No one ever explained what was [Yates's] motive. Until that question is answered, yes there definitely is a real question of her guilt.

Yes, this crime is worse because it was rational and lacked insanity. (Alternate link here.)

These were not "honest mistakes." They were not mere inadvertent "inaccuracies." They were pivotal, decisive, intentional, and deliberate. They went to the heart of the case against these two women, supplying a missing link in the case against them.

Without the false testimony of these two experts, the government's case was insufficient and both women should have been acquitted.

No, that is not the law. It is not a crime for a physician to do an abortion (with the woman's consent), and your article quoted a Michigan criminal law prof as saying that this recent incident was not a crime under Michigan law either.

Mothers murder their kids in the USA much more than fathers do. Your message just illustrate the bias that makes excuses for mothers murdering their kids, while wanting to criminalize men's behavior that law profs say is completely legal.

Abortion provider distributes defective condoms

Consumers Reports magazine now tests condoms for reliability, and ranked them:

Planned Parenthood model worst performer A melon-colored model distributed by Planned Parenthood performed the worst, bursting during a test in which the latex condoms were filled with air.

Abortion is Planned Parenthood's main source of revenue.

Ode to the Nice Guys

Read this rant about nice guys.

Gunfight stories

Read Handguns magazine for What Really Happens In A Gunfight. Along with practical advice, it tells this story:

The most dramatic wound that I ever personally saw involved a woman who was shot in the head by a .357 Magnum. I was a patrol deputy and responded to a public housing project on the report of a shooting. I arrived at the same time as the medic crew and found a white female sitting on the sofa with a dimpled hole in her forehead.

There was a similar wound on the back of her head. As I spoke to her at the scene (to find out who shot her, not to further my personal research) I was told that she had been in an argument with her live-in boyfriend when he picked up a snub-nosed .357 revolver and shot her in the forehead. She advised that her head, "Slammed back and I fell back onto the sofa. I have been sitting here ever since. I have a big head ache." It later turned out that the 158-grain jacketed semi-wadcutter bullet used in the shooting had spilt the lobes of her brain finer than any surgeon could have hoped to. The bullet left a hole in the rear of her skull, which was patched in some way. This victim was released from the hospital and then refused to testify against her boyfriend. ("I still love him.") He was prosecuted anyway. This incident remains one of the strangest things that I have ever seen.

H suggests: 38 Special 158-grain lead hollow-point; 9mm +P+ jacketed hollow-point; .40 155- and 165-grain jacketed hollow-point; .45 ACP hollow-points; .223 55 grain FMJ and hollow-point; 12 gauge 00 buckshot; and 12 gauge rifled slugs.

British teens on the pill

The BBC lists 2004 stories you might have missed, and includes this:

96. One in four 16- and 17-year-old girls in the UK is on the contraceptive pill - more than ever before.

I've wondered why European teenage pregnancy rates aren't higher. I guess this is the explanation.

Haitian zombies

This article outlines how to make a zombie.

In real life, the zombies come from the Caribbean island of Haiti. They are a person who has been almost-killed, and then later raised from the almost-dead by a voodoo priest, to be used as slave labour for the rest of their miserable life. Zombies can move, eat, hear and speak, but they have no memory and no insight into their condition. There have been legends about zombies for centuries, but it was only in 1980 that a real-life case was documented.