"In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." –John 16:33

Year: 2014 Page 5 of 13

An article on the ignorance and evil of Marxist Feminism and Women’s Studies programs

There is little doubt that radical aspects of some stripes of feminism have done great damage to American society. There has been some pretty serious push-back against much of this ideology, not only by the likes of constitutional lawyer Phyllis Schlafly, but even by many avowed feminists intellectuals like Camille Paglia and Christiana Hoff Sommers. I ran into an incredible article titled Marxist Feminism’s Ruined Lives that starkly addresses this. It is on the evils of a particularly insidious variety of feminism called Marxist Feminism. This article is a must read for anyone with school age daughters. It was written by Mallory Millet, the sister of one of a radical feminist “intellectual” named Kate Millet who authored a notorious screed on feminism titled Sexual Politics.

Mallory spent years as an ex-pat in third world countries and it opened her eyes to the frivolity and evil of the Kate’s ideology. She was stunned when she finally returned to the United States and learned what Kate was doing.  The following is part of a prayer-like question and response heard by Mallory at a “consciousness-raising” event to which Kate invited her on her return to the United States:

“And how do we destroy the American Patriarch?” she replied.
“By taking away his power!”
“How do we do that?”
“By destroying monogamy!” they shouted.
“How can we destroy monogamy?”

Their answer left me dumbstruck, breathless, disbelieving my ears. Was I on planet earth? Who were these people?

“By promoting promiscuity, eroticism, prostitution and homosexuality!” they resounded.

Mallory thoughts on hearing this mantra are telling:

… I had seen factory workers and sex-slaves chained to walls.

How could they know? Asia is beyond our ken and, as they say, utterly inscrutable, and a kind of hell I never intended to revisit. I lived there, not junketed, not visited like sweet little tourists — I’d conducted households and tried to raise a child. I had outgrown the communism of my university days and was clumsily groping my way back to God.

How could twelve American women who were the most respectable types imaginable — clean and privileged graduates of esteemed institutions: Columbia, Radcliffe, Smith, Wellesley, Vassar; the uncle of one was Secretary of War under Franklin Roosevelt — plot such a thing? Most had advanced degrees and appeared cogent, bright, reasonable and good. How did these people rationally believe they could succeed with such vicious grandiosity? And why?

This article is a must read for anyone who has daughters heading off to college–especially to Women’s Studies programs. There is much to conclude from Mallory’s observations and she has many observations. One of the scariest one’s is this:

By the time Women’s Studies professors finish with your daughter, she will be a shell of the innocent girl you knew, who’s soon convinced that although she should be flopping down with every boy she fancies, she should not, by any means, get pregnant. And so, as a practitioner of promiscuity, she becomes a wizard of prevention techniques, especially abortion.

The goal of Women’s Liberation is to wear each female down to losing all empathy for boys, men or babies.

Please read the whole article.

Betty Blonde #168 – 03/09/2009
Betty Blonde #168
Click 
here or on the image to see full size strip.

Neil deGrasse Tyson and Cosmos

I have never been much of a fan of Mark Twain, but he came up with a pithy quote now and again. One of my favorites is apropos to a large category of pontifications emanating from celebrity “scientist” Neil deGrasse Tyson.

The trouble with the world is not that people know too little, but that they know so many things that ain’t so.

It is easy to be irritated by Tyson and not just because his style is so grating. Last week, Sean Davis over at the Federalist website calls out Tyson in a couple of articles titled Super Scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson Doesn’t Understand Statistics and Did Neil deGrasse Tyson Just Try to Justify Blatant Quote Fabrication? I especially liked the header text on the first article, “Bro, Do You Even Science?” and the subtitle on the second, “If Neil deGrasse Tyson is an honest broker, why do the facts in his stories keep changing.” These are a great pair of articles and I recommend you read them both. Here is a quote that captures their flavor (go to the original article to access the links in the quote):

So, contrary to what Tyson claimed about how nuanced and subtle and unique and contextual his presentation last week was, we have evidence that he’s been recycling the same tired trope and same non-existent quotes for years. Like this one, or this one, or this one, or this one, or this one, or this one, or this one. The most baffling aspect of the whole thing, though, is why he feels the need to manufacture proof of how journalists and politicians are bad at math. Of course they’re bad at math. Of course they’re not very bright at a whole host of things.

Proving that water is wet, however, should not be this difficult. All you need to do to prove that politicians are stupid is pay attention. Or, if that’s too hard, you can spend 5 seconds on Google. Likely fewer if you know what you’re doing.

Neil deGrasse Tyson’s participation in the Cosmos television series is bad enough that the Discovery Institute has felt compelled to engage with his prevarications or misrememberings or whatever they are. They started with a series of articles, but it has gotten so bad they have decided to write a book. It is really that bad and, based on history, this new Cosmos will most probably make it into the government school system just like the old one. This is another great reason to homeschool.

Betty Blonde #167 – 03/06/2009
Betty Blonde #167
Click 
here or on the image to see full size strip.

Lorena and I visit the Duke Ambulatory Surgery Center

(10:00 am) I flew back to Raleigh yesterday so I could be with Lorena to get three very impacted wisdom teeth removed. They will put her under to do the surgery. We were told it is a fairly routine procedure that will take about an hour. This is the first time we have had an event like this so there is a little bit of apprehension, but it is nothing like some of our dear friends who are currently going through more onerous procedures. We will keep you posted.

(11:00 amI just left Lorena with the anesthesiologist after speaking to the surgeon. He decided we should do this as a two step process so there will be at least one more surgery after this one. Because there is an issue with one of the teeth, the doctor will just take that one to maintain focus on the problem area and reserve the other two teeth and perform some repair on a second pass depending on what he finds. I am now outside in the waiting room. They will page me when it is over and are ready for me to go back in.

(11:30 am) My beeper just went off and I was the surgery had started, the first incision had been made and everything was going just fine.

(12:30 pm) Lorena is out of surgery. We will not know what happens until the material around the removed tooth can be evaluated. Lorena will need to have a bone graft (from the hip) to replace some of the material eaten away by the cyst. So, as soon as the information comes back, the surgeon will know how invasive the work needs to be, then we will schedule a second surgery and that should be it. She will need to go on a liquid diet (zero chewing) until the next surgery is complete. They will call me to be with Lorena in just a bit when she recovers from the anesthesia.

(2:20 pm) We are out and headed home. More in a bit.

(5:30 pm) At home after picking up prescriptions for pain and infection. We also stopped by Harris-Teeter to pick up a ton of excellent non-chew foods. We are now in waiting mode to find out when Grandma Conchita can get here and what the lab report says so we can learn about the next steps.

Betty Blonde #166 – 03/05/2009
Betty Blonde #166
Click 
here or on the image to see full size strip.

Unusual story/video about learning for its own sake

I do not want to give too much away about this video. It is SUCH an unusual video. It is about a choice to dive into the deep end of the pool and do something out of the mainstream in the name of learning–not in the name of formal school, in the name of learning. I want to make these kinds of choices about learning until the day that I die. A link to the article that goes along with the video is here.

Update:  Ruthie found this other great version of the story that has additional commentary and interview footage:

Betty Blonde #165 – 03/04/2009
Betty Blonde #165
Click 
here or on the image to see full size strip.

Should we move to Portland

Our last visit to Oregon gave us great pause about whether or not we should move back there. We have been gone for seven years now. We felt somewhat estranged from Oregon in general and Portland in particular. It has been difficult to put our finger on the reticence we feel about moving back, but it is definitely there. There are several smaller things that, on the surface might give us reason to prefer where we are now over Oregon. The reality is that, for us, they are minor considerations. The weather is a lot better in Raleigh–mild all year long (like Portland), but with many more days of sunshine.  The metropolitan area around Raleigh features three truly superior National Research Universities while Portland features a pretty good, not great, but pretty good Regional University.  All of the ones listed are better than any universities Oregon has to offer. There are lots of little things like that, but they are not the reasons that hold the most sway.

I am pretty sure both the culture in Oregon has shifted as have our cultural preferences. For all its hipness, Portland just seems more intolerant and coarse than other places where we have an opportunity live. I do not really believe the quality of writing or the truth of the content in the New York Times is very high, but they recently published an article about Portland titled Will Portland Always Be a Retirement Community for the Young?  It captures a view of a part of the Portland reality that rings true. The certainly did not capture the whole reality, the nuances of old Oregon culture being so divorced from contemporary Portland culture, it would be hard for anyone to understand. Still, it is quite a good article that I recommend to anyone considering a move to, not just Portland, but Oregon in general. The description of Portland in this article is probably quite attractive to many, but does a good job of explaining why we are not so interested in moving back.

We are still in the throes of making a decision. We know we have to move West both for family and work. We are just happy that Raleigh, North Carolina is such an awesome place to live while we work through it.

Betty Blonde #164 – 03/03/2009
Betty Blonde #164
Click 
here or on the image to see full size strip.

Feliz Cumpleaños México and Vanesa!

Luis Leonardo y Fanny -- Dia de Independencia 2014Today is Independence Day in Mexico. Our Luis Leonardo and Fanny (nephew and niece) dressed up to celebrate a school yesterday. Just as important is that Lorena’s best buddy, Vanesa, from our days in Florida celebrates her birthday on the same day. ¡Viva México!

Software Thursday at the Raven


While my family might think I spend ALL my time working when I am in Prescott, it is not entirely true. This video WAS taken while I was at work. Every Thursday (the day is actually malleable–sometimes it falls on Friday) is called “Software Thursday” and we spend it eating dinner and talking shop at a place called the Raven. If we hang around long enough, there is live music and sometimes it is pretty good.

Betty Blonde #163 – 03/02/2009
Betty Blonde #163
Click 
here or on the image to see full size strip.

Now that I actually have something to write…

That often hear refrain that “getting old is not for the faint of heart” is coming home to roost. I have good stuff backed up and no time to write about it. Dental issues, health issues (nothing serious), travel, work, and kids (even though they are now both over 2000 miles away) have conspired to cause me to put up placeholder posts talking about about things that require now thought and little time. I never thought I would write about my health complaints, but now that I am a little older and it is about MY health issues, it seems like a much worthier topic than when someone else was complaining. So, what you get today, is pretty much nothing because I can write fast. Still, there is good stuff going on so I will look forward to the (very soon) time when I have time to write something thoughtful.

Betty Blonde #162 – 02/27/2009
Betty Blonde #162
Click 
here or on the image to see full size strip.

After much travel…

We are finally home. I worked in Prescott and Portland for two weeks with a church convention in between at Boring, Oregon. Lorena flew out to Seattle to drive down to with Kelly and Christian flew up from Tempe for the convention, too. We all ran like crazy the whole time, now, finally, we are all back to home and work at a little saner pace. We will all continue to travel some through the end of the year, but then Lorena plans to go back to college with about a half or three-quarters load so she finish up. Our house is still on the market, but the buying season is pretty much over and we are not sure if we want to sell anyway. At least now we will have time to reflect on that to figure out what we are supposed to do. I am going to start trying to get together with my regular lunch buddies, Troy, Igor and a few others.

Kelly and Christian are hard at it now in their schoolwork. Both of them have fairly large projects that, hopefully will lead to refereed journal articles. I have a possible new volunteer project with an old buddy of mine from UTEP who is now a college professor in Electrical Engineering at New Mexico Tech. It would be fun if I could contribute to something there.

Betty Blonde #161 – 02/26/2009
Betty Blonde #161
Click 
here or on the image to see full size strip.

Christian’s birthday present and Lorena gets started

Christian's BS Applied Math diplomaChristian starts his last year as a teenager today. A couple of days ago he received the final piece of paper from his time at NCSU. There is no longer any official connection to NCSU. He is officially and completely graduated. I get to run down to Tempe today after work to bring him the computer he purchased with part of his ASU grant. The computer he bought for NCSU died a couple of months ago and he has been limping along with an ASUS tablet/laptop that is awesome, but not really powerful enough for his current work.

Lorena heads down to Wake Tech Community College today to figure out exactly what she needs to do to finish her degree. She is not very far away and we have had such joy with higher education in North Carolina it seems like a shame no one is affiliated there any longer. It will be good to remain in that world for a few more semesters. We will be able to get all those great student discounts for a little while longer.

Betty Blonde #160 – 02/25/2009
Betty Blonde #160
Click 
here or on the image to see full size strip.

One of my favorite feminists: Christina Hoff Sommers

The really odd part about all this is that I actually have more than one favorite feminist. Unlike many feminists, Christina Hoff Sommers tries to get her facts right and calls to account those who do not. Here is one of her great quotes about a textbook author who refused to get her facts right:

“Law students will now be treated to another round of Elvis sightings parading as scholarship.”[citation]

Now she has published a list of feminists myths at the Time (normally liberal rag) website. It is titled 5 Feminist Myths That Will Not Die and is a must read for those who, like most of us, are regularly harangued with feminist canards.

Betty Blonde #159 – 02/24/2009
Betty Blonde #159
Click 
here or on the image to see full size strip.

Holy Cow! The kids’ buddy makes the news. NCSU does it again.

The kid's friend is the second from the leftI am starting to believe Kelly’s and Christian’s hyperbole–North Carolina State University might be the best undergraduate institution in the world. Leave to the Chicks on the Right to give it just the right spin in this article on their website. Four guys at NCSU invented a fingernail polish that changes color when it comes into contact with what is commonly known as a “date rape drug.” Kelly and Christian have a good friend with whom they hung out every day in the NCSU undergraduate math lounge.  How cool is that, NCSU has an undergraduate math lounge. This buddy’s brother is also a friend of the kids and the second guy from the right in the photo that accompanies this post.

Betty Blonde #158 – 02/23/2009
Betty Blonde #158
Click 
here or on the image to see full size strip.

Bacon dish — Who said there is nothing new under the sun?

Bacon dish maker from Ollie'sMy buddy Troy posted this picture on Facebook. He took it a store called Ollie’s. He has raved about Ollie’s before, but until now, I really had no compelling reason to go. It looks like I have been wasting time. I should have visited Ollie’s a long time ago. Troy’s only reservation about this obviously essential cooking item was the following:

I don’t know why they didn’t show a salad in the bacon bowl?! Would be much more attractive to dieters that way.

I think I have to agree with Troy. My thinking is that it might finally give me a good reason to actually eat a salad. I know this is an item a lot of people really need (particularly thinking of my cousin Merle in Klamath Falls), but probably do not even know that it exists. So I am putting this photo up here as a public service. If you cannot make your way to Ollie’s, I have found a place where you can get it on line here.

Betty Blonde #157 – 02/20/2009
Betty Blonde #157
Click 
here or on the image to see full size strip.

Are our kids smart? Are yours?

We have tried to avoid making claims about the intelligence of our children. Partly that is because it is so grating to hear parents and grandparents state that their children and grandchildren are super-intelligent based on how soon they learned to say the alphabet, read, or memorize poetry. Mostly, though, it is because our kids had to work very hard at their learning. Some concepts that might have come easily to a gifted few required extended hard work from them. These periods of extended hard work came every semester and it is no different now that they are in graduate school.  Measures of intelligence are fairly controversial and seem to pit people against each other much more than any benefit derived from insights about why their intelligence is what it is.

That is why I was very grateful to read what I believe to be a brilliant and true blog post by Salman Khan of the famous Khan Academy. His belief, backed by a growing body of research, is that a mindset that embraces rather than avoids the struggle and failure required to fight through hard material is more conducive to learning than just about anything else. I highly recommend you read the whole thing. This is a belief I have long held–it is hard, but worth it to learn hard stuff. A corollary to all this is that intelligence is not fixed. He has (of course!) a great little video that goes with the article to illustrate his point. Here is a quote from the article to whet your appetite. Please read the whole thing.

[Dr. Carol Dweck] has found that most people adhere to one of two mindsets: fixed or growth. Fixed mindsets mistakenly believe that people are either smart or not, that intelligence is fixed by genes. People with growth mindsets correctly believe that capability and intelligence can be grown through effort, struggle and failure. Dweck found that those with a fixed mindset tended to focus their effort on tasks where they had a high likelihood of success and avoided tasks where they may have had to struggle, which limited their learning. People with a growth mindset, however, embraced challenges, and understood that tenacity and effort could change their learning outcomes. As you can imagine, this correlated with the latter group more actively pushing themselves and growing intellectually.

The good news is that mindsets can be taught; they’re malleable.

Betty Blonde #156 – 02/19/2009
Betty Blonde #156
Click 
here or on the image to see full size strip.

Is average intelligence rising or falling in the world?

The Bell Curve, Intelligence and Class Structure in American LifeThe subject of intelligence is fascinating to me. Our family has worked hard to do well in school and we have had some success, but we have no illusions about the idea that we are super intelligent. My peers at work are generally a lot smarter than I; the only reason I get to play in their sandbox is because I have worked in the field longer than the vast bulk of them and have picked up a lot of tricks. Experience is the great equalizer. Charles Murray and Richard Hernnstein wrote a controversial book about it titled The Bell Curve about the impact of race and culture on measured intelligence. My take on that was that if culture has an effect on intelligence, maybe work ethic and dedication to lifetime learning might shove my kids up the intelligence curve a little and make their lives better.
The other day, while reading one of my favorite blogs, down in the comments I saw a reference to an something called the Flynn Effect. Wikipedia describes it this way:

The Flynn effect is the substantial and long-sustained increase in both fluid and crystallized intelligence test scores measured in many parts of the world from roughly 1930 to the present day.

Wikipedia does a pretty good job of describing the effect and it makes good sense, but that very same day I ran into this article that says that with the rise in population, intelligence falls. This article has several more references that back up the idea that idea that intelligence is on the decline and for more reasons than just an increase in population. I am kind of not sure what to think about the whole thing. Probably a good mindset to have on all this is to do something about the things over which I have control–teach my kids a strong work ethic and the importance of lifelong learning.

Betty Blonde #155 – 02/18/2009
Betty Blonde #155
Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Karl on Samos, Greece

Karl on Samos, GreeceI have an old friend who has recently retired and moved from Oregon to the island of Samos in Greece. He has started a blog that usually includes a lot of pictures. He writes very well on a plethora of topics, too. He has always been a history buff, especially with respect to the ancient near east as well as Greece and Turkey. I have started visiting the site daily. His most recent excursion was to the Isle of Patmos. I stole the picture of a local market on his island from his blog. To suggest that I am a little envious would be a vast understatement.

Betty Blonde #154 – 02/17/2009
Betty Blonde #154
Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Christian’s Honors certificate arrives

Christian's Math Honors certificateChristian went through graduation last fall, but was required to take a summer class to finish his Mathematics Honors requirements. He did that and so his final NCSU transcript is now complete. Here is his Honors certificate along with a nice medal that came with it. His official diploma will arrive in the mail sometime before early October. In addition to the Honors designation, his transcripts and, eventually, his diploma show that he graduates Summa Cum Laude. His first technical project for his PhD started this week and classes start next week, so he really is diving into higher academic life. Probably the best sign of that was the big chunk of fees they unexpectedly took out of his first scholarship check. It that is not academia, I do not know what is.

Betty Blonde #153 – 02/16/2009
Betty Blonde #153
Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

I wish this did not ring true – “Packaged” arrest in Mexico

Mexico is such a great country with so many great people it is hard to read articles like this.  It is about an infamous narco-trafficker who got arrested, not after a long and arduous effort by law enforcement agents to find a bad guy, but because it finally became politically expedient. If it really is true, taking the guy off the street probably does nothing with respect to putting a dent in the drug traffic. It all makes me believe maybe the previous Mexican was a pretty good guy, trying to do the right thing and getting hard push-back from the bad guys. Meanwhile, lots of our friends and family down in Mexico suffer as a result. Everyone is touched by it. Mexico is a beautiful and prosperous place, full of opportunity, with lots of good and friendly people. It could be so much more than the level of corruption currently allows.

Betty Blonde #152 – 02/13/2009
Betty Blonde #152
Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

How to be a great waitress: Is this a great model for how to act in ALL of life or what?

For technical reasons that have to do with the fact that I switched to Opera from Firefox because the people at Firefox are overtly anti-Christian, I missed a great post by the Numbers Guy that came out in the Wall Street Journal a few days ago. The article, Tips for More Tips: Waitresses Who Draw Smiley Faces Make More Money, is about some things that waitresses (notice I did not use the politically correct “waitpersons”) can do to maximize their tips. I read the article and REALLY liked it. It dawned on me that the advice given to waitresses to earn more tips, if done sincerely, can be encapsulated in the advice Jesus gave to “do onto others as you would have them do unto you.” This is not the advice to not do unto others those things you would not want to do unto yourself, but the more active version that requires one to take the initiative to good rather than NOT take action to avoid evil (although that is good, too). Do things that are nice. It is a uniquely Christian admonition. Here are three of my favorites (visit the article to see the rest):

  • Tell customers that good weather is on the way
  • Touch customers briefly on the arm or shoulder
  • Write “Thank You” on the check

Betty Blonde #151 – 02/12/2009
Betty Blonde #151
Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

The Educational Scarlet A: American

*** Removed, see note in comments ***

To be re-written soon.

Betty Blonde #150 – 02/11/2009

Betty Blonde #150
Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Page 5 of 13

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén