Archive for 2018
October 12, 2018
SPENGLER: The Stock Market on the Orient Express. “Everybody did it in Agatha Christie’s novel Murder on the Orient Express, and the same problem bedevils the U.S. stock market today. A dozen co-conspirators killed the victim in the Christie novel. Here are a dozen factors that bedevil the stock market…”
Click on over.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, SEXISM EDITION: Professor who hears Title IX cases deletes ‘frat boy’ tweet, locks account after College Fix inquiry.
Flashback: Bros Are People Too: Title IX enforcers need to fix the toxic environment they have created for men.
References to “testosterone poisoning” should be avoided. This variant on “toxic masculinity” identifies a particular hormone (stereotypically identified with men, though in fact women produce testosterone too, and suffer problems if it’s too low) as poisonous. Again, this is simply a statement of naked gender prejudice whose expression is likely to make students who identify as male feel uncomfortable, unappreciated, and stigmatized. In addition, of course, those students who are transitioning from female to male require regular injections of testosterone to maintain their new gender identity. The term “testosterone poisoning” might make them feel that they are going to their physicians to be injected with poison. This sort of hormone-shaming is not okay.
“Frat boy.” As historians of discrimination know, the term “boy” was used to diminish African-American males during the Jim Crow era. Applying it to members of fraternities — who may, after all, be of any race — is a similar effort to diminish. It is offensive and deeply insensitive to the Greek campus community and should be avoided.
Rape-gendering. It’s racist to pretend that African Americans commit the majority of rapes in America. In the Jim Crow era, exaggerated fears of rape were pinned on black men as a way of perpetuating white privilege.
Likewise, it’s sexist — and in light of data from the Centers for Disease Control showing rough equality here, it’s scientifically inaccurate — to pretend that sexual coercion on campus is strictly, or even largely, a male-on-female phenomenon. Discussions of sexual assault that assume a male perpetrator and a female victim, or the use of phrases like “Teach men not to rape,” constitute the gendering of a crime that is in fact committed by people of all genders. That is not okay.
“Bro.” This is a disrespectful term used to stereotype young males as stupid and superficial. It should be avoided. It is also inappropriate as a form of one-on-one address to male students, unless you are actually their brother.
I hope that members of university communities nationwide will take this advice to heart.
Not so much, I guess.
THAT SEEMS LIKE A LOT: Interior Dept. disciplined 1,500 employees for misconduct.
The employees, both full-time staff and probationary appointees, have either been removed, reprimanded or suspended, according to the email sent by Interior Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt.
Bernhardt provided the update to follow up on Secretary Ryan Zinke’s promise to crack down on what the department called “the widespread and pervasive culture of harassment and discrimination” in a news release last year. The initial effort focused on harassment in the National Park Service, but since then, the department has taken steps to combat harassment throughout the department. The 1,500 employees come from all parts of the department as well.
Zinke announced plans to combat harassment in the National Park Service last October, a week after The New York Times published the first story detailing allegations of sexual assault and harassment from Harvey Weinstein, igniting the national #MeToo movement.
A National Park Service Work Environment Survey from 2017 found that 10.4% of service employees had experienced sexual harassment, and 38.7% employees reported experiencing some form of harassment in the past year alone, according to the initial release.
Is every federal department this bad?
RUN, HILLARY, RUN! Another losing presidential candidacy is the best way she can serve her country.
Does she have to spell it out for you, America? Hillary Clinton wants you to beg her to run for president in 2020. On behalf of America, I am answering. Hillary Rodham Clinton, I beg you: Please run again.
Hillary Clinton is precisely the candidate the Democratic party needs. And the Democratic party she represents is exactly the one the country needs: foolhardy, inept, dismissive of reality, blind to appearances, deaf to lessons, alien to the heartland, and contemptuous of the voters. The longer Hillary Clinton remains the Democrats’ idea of a standard-bearer, the better off the country will be. She should run in 2020. And in 2024. And forever.
Forever is a mighty long time.
NORTH KOREAN DENUCLEARIZATION UPDATE:
South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Friday North Korea understands the need to give up its existing nuclear weapons to achieve complete denuclearization and says it will do so. The only remaining questions are when and how, he added.
“North Korea promised complete denuclearization. It said it will give up nukes for economic development. (It) promised that it has no reason whatsoever to possess nukes while facing difficulties, such as sanctions, as long as the safety of their regime is guaranteed,” Moon said in an interview with Britain’s BBC news.
MORE:
Moon said the complete denuclearization that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un promised included giving up existing weapons when asked.
“Complete denuclearization that Chairman Kim Jong-un says starts from not staging additional nuclear tests or nuclear missile tests and goes to dismantling facilities that produce nuclear weapons and develop missiles,” the president said, according to a script of the interview released by his office Cheong Wa Dae.
“And it includes everything else, such as getting rid of existing nuclear weapons and nuclear materials,” he added.
Stay tuned.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI EDITION: Kavanaugh flyers torn down, students threatened with violence.
A NEW POST FROM THE DAY JOB:“Hey, Alexa!” Artificial Intelligence & the Lightbulb That Listens
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Caused by climate change? “In the midst of this disaster, The Guardian runs this headline: ‘Victims of Hurricane Michael voted for climate deniers.’ The article’s description: ‘Elections have consequences. Denying science has consequences. And we are reaping what we sow’.”
LEAVING SAN DIEGO: The USS Montgomery goes to sea.
HEALTH: Growing number of U.S. children not vaccinated against any disease.
An estimated 100,000 young children have not had a vaccination against any of the 14 diseases for which shots are recommended, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Thursday.
“This is pretty concerning. It’s something we need to understand better — and reduce,” said the CDC’s Dr. Amanda Cohn.
Most young children — 70 percent — have had all their shots. The new estimate is based on finding that, in 2017, 1.3 percent of the children born in 2015 were completely unvaccinated. That’s up from the 0.9 percent seen in an earlier similar assessment of the kids born in 2011. A 2001 survey with a different methodology suggested the proportion was in the neighborhood of 0.3 percent.
Young children are especially vulnerable to complications from vaccine-preventable diseases, some of which can be fatal.
Flashback: Rich People in Hollywood Aren’t Vaccinating Their Children.
How many belong to the “Party of Science” or the “Reality-Based Community?”
LEFTY WOMEN SHOCKED TO ENCOUNTER LIBERAL MEN who are tired of angry #MeToo feminism. “I’m frustrated and embarrassed, my boyfriend of three years said to me, with how worked up you are.”
THAT’S OKAY, WEST VIRGINIA VOTERS ARE BIG ON YACHTS: Manchin’s Failure to Report $700K D.C. Yacht Sparks Call for Probe From Watchdog: Manchin lives on yacht while in D.C.
THEY STILL THINK THEY HAVEN’T RUN OUT OF OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY: Cash-strapped Venezuela sets new wages for oil workers as protests simmer.
BLACKBURN WAS MAKING THIS ARGUMENT BEFORE KAVANAUGH, BUT I IMAGINE IT HAS MORE RESONANCE NOW: Bredesen Campaigners: He’s Promising Voters “Kavanaugh,” But He’ll Give Them “Schumer.”
WELL, GOOD: Turkey Is Expected to Release American Pastor on Friday.
Mr. Brunson, who has been held since 2016, is due to appear in court near the coastal town of Izmir, where a judge is expected to drop some charges and, at most, sentence him to time already served, these people said. One person said Mr. Brunson also could be released on technical grounds.
In any case, he is expected to be handed back his passport and put on a plane to the U.S., the people said—an outcome people close to him said they would consider a victory.
Officials on both sides urged caution, warning a previous deal between Turkey and the U.S. for Mr. Brunson’s release had collapsed at the last minute.
His release could help improve relations between President Trump and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at a sensitive time in bilateral relations, as Ankara is seeking Washington’s support to confront Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of a journalist in Istanbul.
I had been assured that Trump’s blustering style would make this kind of trust-building measure impossible.
