Thanks for that link. I hadn't seen it before but I think it pretty much covered everything we touched on last night. And thanks for the introspection.

After her comment about men and ad hominem attacks it was particularly interesting to see how Evan (whoever he is) characterized his disagreement on why Helen wasn't called on in Bush's last presser.

Her reason: Bush feared a tough question on Gaza.

Evan's response: Naw, Helen, you're just an emotional gusher.

That's a pretty common experience for women who put forth opinions of substance that are uncomfortable to the powerful and it was a sad, but not surprising (to me), coda to a substantial interview.

Actually you're the one who missed something in that exchange. This is the sentence omooex was responding to:

Arabs, prior to the discovery of oil were Bedouins roaming the desert and their aptitude for math or logical reasoning was almost non-existent.

Change a few words and maybe you'll understand:

Arab --> women

discovery of oil --> women's lib

Bedouins --> housewives roaming their kitchens

Or not, since "understanding" really isn't your shtick.

Suit yourself. But don't misrepresent what actually happened in order to gratuitously tell omooex to stfu about a topic he has demonstrated more knowledge of than you.

And when one of you ever ask me, "where is the bathroom?" I have to shout for fucks sake don't use the bath use the round porcelain can thing you find in corner,Purleese!!!

from someone who calls fries 'chips' and asses 'bums'.

When you start talking about all the 'nappies' used by Congress, then you might have a point. ;-}

I knew the georgetown courses were satire, and was using them that way, as well.

Me too. But with the difficulties the Onion's had over the past eight years can you blame mere lay people for mistaking satire for reality?

Or was that irony? I sometimes get them confused. ;-}

My peeps on one side come from the hills of Appalachia and Kentucky and you're correct that they aren't that different than other folk.

The difficulties in teaching math there aren't a result of lack of intelligence, it's more lack of educational opportunity.

Though her parents lived in a one-room dirt-floored shack, my mother was the first in her family, and the only one in her generation, to get a college degree. She's 70 years old and, like Helen, she's still doing what she loves and does best. In her case, nursing.

I get my demure and retiring demeanor largely from her. ;-}

Mission commander, Astronaut John Smith, described looking at Earth once his feet touched the surface of Mars. "I was looking at this amazing spherical shape far off in the distance and thought to myself:I came from there, and now I am in a different world". We at NPR can't confirm the validity of Astronaut Smith's description of what he saw. A spokesman for the Flat Earth Society denied that Earth is spherical and called John Smith a liar. We at NPR don't actually know what Astronaut Smith had actually seen and take no position in this controversy.

Simile photo of NPR heading for and then falling off the edge of the earth.

Also at signature

http://www.counterknowledge.com/images/flat_earth.jpg

According to your very flawed vision. To others A.A. got it just right.

Only that we are mostly Scot-Irish.

We now have plenty of educational opportunity and many take great advantage of the opportunities. I personally know of one public high school up there that has sent many boys and girls on to the best schools in the nation. Unfortunately, the culture seems to not yet fully support the idea of higher education, at least not in the highest reaches of the hills.

There is a host of reasons for this; all of which would be off topic today.

That's a pretty common experience for women who put forth opinions of substance that are uncomfortable

I KNOW that, but its not always something I REALIZE. Anyway, I'm glad we had that discussion, it changed my viewpoint.

I realize the comment originated with macgupta but just to set the record straight, the Arabs didn't invent algebra and algorithms, the people who did were Central Asians from the Persian empire imported to work in the brain trusts in Baghdad by the Caliphate. And they were expounding and building on the system they'd learned from the Indians, and Al Khwarizmi's treatise says so. The Arabs spread it.

The Arabs did have an absolutely world changing invention, though, they invented the university.

I would like to echo "Something Stinks" earlier observation regarding former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney's imprisonment.

I can report, that at this time of writing, "Cynthia McKinney" does not appear on the CNN homepage, whereas "Michael Jackson" appears in more than a dozen distinct links.

Wasn't piracy a big deal just a little while ago when a cargo ship captain was held hostage? Surely a former congresswoman deserves some attention when a boat she was traveling on was commandeered in international waters?

Interestingly, that item is not even to be found on Haaretz's front page. I read it yesterday on Google news, there's a very tiny article in the NYT that buries McKinney in the lede. It just seems to be not big news when a foreign power imprisons one of our ex-legislators.

"[...]

Chances are, we’ll never really know how Pelton managed to bungle so badly. But let’s use this incident to understand the notion of “manufactured consent.”

Beyond that, let’s use this incident to understand your nation’s long, near-lunatic non-discussion of health care reform. The long, near-lunatic non-discussion to which career liberals have given consent.

Let’s make sure we understand who would have been at that dinner:

Lally Weymouth, patrician publisher of the Post.

Jim Cooper, the red-state Democrat (Tennessee) who played a large, leading role in defeating the Clinton health plan.

Kaiser Permanente, one of the insurance giants which wants to undermine Obama’s health plan.

Kaiser Permanente’s checkbook.

Presumably, Ceci Connolly, the Post’s top reporter on health care.

Darlings, everyone would have been there! Everyone who’s anyone in undermining real health reform. [...]"