Letters to the Editor
Gwool
Published Letters: 366 Editor's Choice: 40
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Samer Old, Same Old
[Read the article: Boys club]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This seems to be the same old wheezy whine about disparate outcomes without really focusing on the difference choices made that lead to the different outcome.
The standard NOW mantra that women earn $0.70 on the dollar has been reasonably well debunked by others to render it useless, yet it still gets discussed. (That study relies on BLS stats that defines anyone working 32 hours as full time. It does not take into account years in the work force, only looking at age. Therefore in the first case, a woman CHOOSING to work reduced hours gets compared to someone working 40 hours. In the second case, a woman who left the work force for a number of years and came back gets compared salarywise to someone who stayed. In short, my 47 year old wife, now in her 3rd year as a teacher is compared to a 47 year-old male who has 25 years of experience rather than to a 25 year old male with 3 years of experience.)
All of this has been well documented in the past, and yet it remains ignored by those who bang the drum for female wage equity which means either one of two things: either they have an agenda or they simply suck at math. (That's a joke, don't go all feminazi about it, please.)
That annual NOW salary study does have one reasonable statistical benchmark which happens to be entry level salaries. That comes in at $0.92. Not perfect, not ideal, but a damn sight closer to parity than that which gets promoted to advance a cause. It's a far greater equality of OPPORTUNITY than those with the agenda would like us to believe.
If more women CHOOSE to opt out of a full time career for familial reasons, be it complete exit for a period of time or simply reduced hours or an "easier job" requiring less overtime and therefore retarding advancement opportunities, then that is not the fault of the evil male patriarchy. Biology is natural. If there's a great maternal pull to child rearing, then so be it.
Similarly, one needs to look at average career time for CEOs. Most will have 20 or more years of experience. In that regard parity through the ranks will take longer to achieve than parity at the entry level, right? (Think snake. Think mongoose.)
But, alas, the grass is always greener. As a male, I can look at this as women having more choices in life. Some can stay home full time. Some can split duty. Some can go full steam ahead in a career. In short, women have far greater choices at their disposal than men have. Greater choices mean, by definition, lower population across a broader number of categories.
Some of that has admittedly been economic, and those differences are narrowing. While still a distinct minority, more men are taking the "daddy track" while better paid mothers stay on the career track. Have this happen for another 20 years or so and the odds are there will be more female CEOs than there are today.
It simply is not valid to lament the inequitable OUTCOME without taking a serious look at the different CHOICES made from (increasingly) equal starting positions.
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How Stupid is this Bitch?
[Read the article: I'm a Brazilian girl -- why do I fall for French and Italian guys?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Let's see.
A guy shows up for two weeks, pounds her harder than the Iraqi desert, and then returns to his wife.
And she wonders how to keep it going?
Honey, you were used. You aided and abetted some dirtball committing adultry on his wife and then got thrown in the trash along with -- I Hope -- the condoms he used to put the wood to you.
How can anyone be so delusionally stupid to think there's some future there?
Hell, you should at least try to get paid for your services.
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Let Santa Be Santa
[Read the article: My 13-year-old still believes in Santa Claus]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Leave the kid alone. Let her believe for as long as she wants. I have four kids aged 18, 16, 14, and 8, and this is the last year of a believer in our house. The daughter has explained to her three older brothers how it simply isn't real. "A fat man coming down our chimney? Get real." was the way she explained it to her older brother home from college.
That depresses me in a way, as it is the last year of having a believer in the house. It just puts me one step closer to the eternal dirt nap.
Let the kid believe as long as she wants.
You might want to put her through her paces on the uses and practical applications of birth control, as a kid that naive could wind up pregnant, trying to sell you on the idea she is having a virgin birth.