Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
Elsewhere in the news, Danica Patrick once again is being celebrated for doing something lots of guys have already done. But props to her anyway.
The Blog That Nobody Reads continues to look forward to the day when we start honoring women and treating them as equals…by reserving a special level of applause for the ladies who do things nobody did before…denied to the “first woman” this “first woman” that types. Inventing the windshield wipers, that’s a good example. You say to yourself “gee whiz I wonder what GUY invented the windshield wiper” and you do your research…you find out…ta-da! It’s a chick. And your friends are all, like, holy moley I didn’t know a woman invented windshield wipers. Then they tell everybody they know.
That is the right way to honor womens’ achievement. The “Danica Problem” works in reverse. When guys have been doing something for years, and a woman finally comes along and does it and you’re hanging streamers and throwing confetti about it, it’s like saying “Hey pals, stop the clock the waiting is over…a woman finally stepped up and did it.” It’s like admitting they can’t really beat the guys at anything, so we might as well celebrate them for simply being.
In fact, if it isn’t something miraculous…like peeing their own name in the snow, or inseminating someone, or some other thing women aren’t supposed to be able to do — it’s a huge non-event, when you think about it. I mean, a woman was bound to do it someday right? Why celebrate it then? You had doubts that a woman would ever step up and do what common sense tells you some woman, somewhere, ought to have been able to do?
So I see two tiers to this “first woman” stuff. Danica is — decidedly — on the lower one, since her specialty is in doing things guys have done before. It’s an important distinction to make. Maybe not politically correct, and maybe not complimentary to her. But it’s valid and true.
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Hey, at least she’s pretty.
- Tom The Impaler | 04/20/2008 @ 12:40As discussed before, there’s no doubting the lady is easy on the eyes.
- mkfreeberg | 04/20/2008 @ 12:44This reminds me of one: the only person to have received a Nobel prize in two different scientific fields.
Any guesses?
- Allen L | 04/20/2008 @ 15:54Truly treating women as equals suggests not even recognizing gender. Thus, we should say the person who invented windshield wipers was Mary Anderson. Saying that a woman invented windshield wipers implies there’s something special about the invention because of the female-ness of the person who did the inventing. To “honor womens’ achievement” with no implications of paternalism means that we should simply honor achievement. Making a bigger deal about an achievement – be it windshield wipers or Nobel prizes – because someone is a chick, black, cripple, or any other protected category just shows the white man is still in charge.
But getting rid of the “lower-tier” is a good first step to getting rid of the tiresome inconsistency of “everyone’s equal, but look at me and treat me better because of my [insert arbitrary physical characteristic here]!”
- js | 04/29/2008 @ 15:15