Letters to the Editor
blunderdog
Published Letters: 509 Editor's Choice: 10
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Can't Wait 'til It Ends...
[Read the article: Genital mutilation: Good news, and bad]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]But the reason it's happening is pretty obvious. It is the same reason MGM is still happening in the USA.
80% of people are resistant to change--neophobes. These are the folks who'd still be throwing virgins into the volcanoes if brief moments of rationality hadn't accomplished some positive changes over the millennia.
20% of people are enthusiastic about change--neophiles. These are the folks who'd consider a plan to dig tunnels into volcanoes to pop 'em like pimples if it might prevent them from destroying neighboring cities.
20% of the population isn't enough people to "enforce" widespread change in societal/cultural practices dating back thousands of years.
This has a lot to do with most of our current barbarity as a species--it's not that we haven't learned better, it's that most folks just don't want to try something different.
To echo another post: snipping the clitoral hood off and removing the foreskin are pretty close to perfect medical equivalents. There's a lot worse done to some girls, of course. But the two procedures are certainly comparable.
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Who is this for?
[Read the article: Rabbit Bites: Look at those carrots ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]n/t
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@ bfree4me, to Elaborate
[Read the article: Is Star Simpson's "fake bomb" just an art jacket?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Word to the wise, if you are bored in an airport, bring an etch a sketch, read a good book, bring a drawing pad, soduko for pity sake, but leave the playdough and circuitboard playsets at home."
Etch a sketch, yes. Fine.
Good book, fine unless it's a Koran. (DON'T bring one of those!)
Drawing pad--a bit dicey--may be fine, but if you're drawing planes or hallways or the inside of the airport, you could be planning your future attacks. I'd scratch that one for good measure.
Sudoku--fine, as long as it's in the original book or newspaper. If you cut or tear out a single puzzle, you could be working out terrist codes which tell you exactly when to jump up and scream "Allah Akbar!"
Play-doh, actually, can be OK, but only in the hands/mouth of an infant.
Maybe the TSA should be distributing this kind of information to people who visit airports. It would make us all safer.
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Sorry, I didn't mean to sound critical
[Read the article: Rabbit Bites: Look at those carrots ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I was just wondering if there was some kind of in-joke I wasn't getting--like a specific show, or characters who are commonly known to people who are pop-culture savvy or something.
(I did get it with the melon and all.)
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Can't Wait...
[Read the article: Stop! Freeze! Put down that boob! ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...to hear Bill Maher comment on THIS!
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Leftychris
[Read the article: Softer software for women]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Similarly, studies of IQ have shown that male and female average IQ distributions differ significantly. Females tend to cluster more in the central distribution, with fewer on the upper and lower extremes, while males have a flatter distribution with more variability, which means there are fewer males clustered in the middle, and disproportionately MORE at the extremes."
Yeah, man, it's that half a gene we get compared to women. (Not kidding, here.) Male populations almost universally contain more "outliers," no matter *what* characteristic you choose to examine.
That said, I think you brought a good bit of baggage with you to the discussion today.
"Many radfems, OTOH, have denounced such studies, but their criticisms have always been very selective, focusing almost exclusively on the claim that there tend to be more male geniuses than female. SEXISM!! MISOGYNY!! they scream."
See what I mean?