I think you said it very well and I appreciate your personal examples. Thanks.

Joan would probably want to make clear that she is not claiming women have it harder than black people. I think she is trying to make the point that the reason she, Joan W, is sad is because it now seems clear to her (after that "poll") that women have a harder time running for president than do black men. Joan feels sad because...of....that......fact? hmmm....

I still tend to believe that Joan is a performance artist and is soon to write a brilliant essay that justifies her recent performances. She is smart and I simply don't yet believe that she takes a poll like that to be helpful in understanding our current cultural positions, not to mention the quesstions related to why such a poll would be relavent to those of us hungrily participating in this particular contest. Joan is going to shock us all so powerfully that I expect the comments section will remain empty for about a week after she lays it down!

But don't you see, dear Tom, that Joan W. is only saying that now- due to the poll- we know that women have more prejudice against them than black men when running for president. It is a rather humble poll considering the radical truth it reveals. This poll did not prove to Joan that women recieve more prejudice in general than do black men. No, no; Joan learned from this piece of science that the reason Hilary is being spoken of more unkindly than Barack is because she is a woman who happens to be running for president. I can't wait for Joan to give this nugget of wisdom further analysis and see what else (other than her sadness) she pulls out of it.

There has also been some recent science done that shows that, due to sexism, Hilary is probably more inclined to make aggressive gestures towards war than Barack. As a woman Hilary is under more pressure to show that she is strong and will more often error in that direction. We all know that wars can begin by the most subtle missteps early on in the interaction. If science is now telling us that Hiliary may more likly lead us into a war because of sexism, who do we pull for, the woman or the science. I'll try to find the link. I'm only slightly kidding. But I am kidding somewhat here.

Yea, sarcastic. But I can't find my follow up in which I told you that...hmmm....I'm glad you found it but hate to think it got dropped and now my unclear post is just hanging out there like an old summer sock...oh well...

I can appreciate your fondness for the old ways of science, back when we used to try our best to look at the relationships between conclusion and premise and all that borning stuff...

Tom, Joan is attempting to get you ready for the new Science. The New Science is quick and personal. You feel it and then you say it and THEN- and ONLY then- you find evidence for it.

It does call into question whether Joan felt the sadness before interpreting the poll or after...I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that she knows more about that magnificent little gem of Truth and that is why she was willing to put herself through the sadness. I'm also expecting that she will tell us what else she knows about this poll so that we can scientifcally join her in the emotional response.

I was reading your dialog about why Clinton is a more realistic choice (like her being the only one offering universal health care). Isn't Nader also insisting it be an immediate vote for universal health care? I don't think he believes it should happen in steps. I might be wrong.

I polled my office and a few friends and they all agree that Joan has secretly retracted her opinion on this matter. It makes me sad that she won't share her retraction, but at least we know now how Joan feels. My friends say that Joan has since thought about the logic she used to come to such a surprising conclusion (in what she wrote) and she sees that it doesn't add up. They also say that Joan is ready to start writing about issues that are pivital to the upcoming election and that require the use of her find tuned brain.

Anyway, I thought this was the perfect place to share these polling results. It's cool doing it like this.

By the way, strange as it may sound, Joan really is rooting for Obama....Her blogs are due to that whole inversion to the "left" thing that Chomsky writes about.