text:
September 6, 2011
"Feminism is all about taking control away from the individual woman..."
Says Instapundit, ceding to some feminists the power to define feminism in leftist terms. I wouldn't do that. I mean, I understand his point, but why not fight over what feminism really is or should be? We could claim that real feminism demands individual empowerment.
This reminds me of that set of essays in Slate: "Who Gets To Be a Feminist?" Perhaps I'm contradicting what I wrote there, but I don't accept "feminism" and "feminist" becoming pejoratives. I would rather say that's not good feminism than the feminists are hurting women. If they are hurting women, they are not promoting feminism as it should be. And I think they would agree with that abstract proposition: if it's hurting women, it's not what feminism should be.
102 comments:
- TWM said...
Modern feminism is just socialism with a vagina.
- TWM said...
Oh, and hooters. Sometimes really nice ones.
- t-man said...
... I don't accept "communism" and "communist" becoming pejoratives. I would rather say that's not good communism than the communistst are hurting workers. If they are hurting workers, they are not promoting communism as it should be. And I think they would agree with that abstract proposition: if it's hurting workers, it's not what communism should be.
Abstract ideology, meet reality.
- John M Auston said...
Isn't 'feminism' just the first step on the slippery slope of identity politics?
1. We are all human beings
2. We are male and female human beings (in comes feminism)
3. We are human male and female members of a particular Ethnicity.
4. Religions
5. Sexual Orientations
6. Age
7. Marital status
8. Weight
- Curious George said...
I think I'm gonna start the masculist movement. Seems there could be some nice coin to be made.
- ndspinelli said...
I abide the feminism of Camille Paglia.
- raf said...
...if it's hurting women, it's not what feminism should be.
Of course they would agree, as long as you are talking about real women, not people like Sarah Palin.
- lyssalovelyredhead said...
I found that article really interesting, but felt conflicted about it. Overall, I completely agree that many holdings of "feminism" are infantalizing to women. (For example, I've expressed here many times that arguing that abortion is necessary so we have "choice" is absurd, because it presupposes that we have no choice, or ability to understand and manage/accept risks, before the child is conceived.)
All that said, as a blanket policy, I can certainly see the argument for mandatory arrests on domestic charges. The calls come over and over again from the same homes, and the police simply are not able to sort out which cases are serious and which are not. Additionally, in true cases of abuse, there is too great a threat of the abuser (note the non-sex-specific language) threatening/coercing the abusee into dropping the charges. In other words, I guess, if you're calling the police to solve your dispute, you are, by the act's very nature, saying that this is something that is out of my control and I need someone else to take over here. (Note that I'm in no way suggesting that there are no other issues related to men getting the short end of the stick in DV cases, nor am I suggesting that this blanket policy is not unfair in some circumstances, only that it is (probably- I'd have to research it to say for sure) the best for the greater number of circumstances.)
- Lyssa
- EDH said...
I would rather say that's not good feminism than the feminists are hurting women. If they are hurting women, they are not promoting feminism as it should be. And I think they would agree with that abstract proposition: if it's hurting women, it's not what feminism should be.
Sure, but while you gals are egaged in that intellectual discussion of what might hurt women, where does a man go to get his reputation back, you know, in real life?
- MarkG said...
Women are a majority of voters. They have the power to make nearly every elected official female. They also have an extremely strong personal influence on boys and men. What is the purpose of feminism? Why does it even exist?
- Fred4Pres said...
Feminism that is focused on empowering individuals to be treated equally is a good thing and has mostly acheived its goals.
Feminism that is about treating women as some sort of collective that is bad.
- Shouting Thomas said...
Why do you concern yourself with this crap, Althouse?
You were born upper middle class and you're rich.
What's the bitch?
- Ann Althouse said...
"You were born upper middle class and you're rich."
Neither statement is true.
- lyssalovelyredhead said...
Shouting T, why do you think that every post that Althouse puts out is a complaint? I saw nothing in her post that could be interpreted as anything more than, "This is interesting; let's discuss it." (Incidentally, this is my understanding of the intent of 90% of her posts generally, and it's why this is my favorite blog.)
- Lyssa
- pm317 said...
""Feminism is all about taking control away from the individual woman...""
I don't think this sort of thinking is intentional but some believe there is strength in numbers and therefore group them and talk about their downtrodden state.
On the other hand the case in point for the confused muddle that is American feminism was Hillary's candidacy in 2008 and how some women thought they were much too evolved just because they deluded themselves into thinking 'not this woman' when in fact they were duped by the marketing campaign for 'shiny' penny that was Obama. They failed to see the bigger picture in electing a woman. An event of that magnitude has to happen to say we have arrived. A woman with Obama's resume would have been laughed out of the race and Democrats lost big on their feminism shtick. Because the first woman president more and more looks like a Republican. The irony in that is so thick for lefty women that they will rue the day they passed on Hillary.
- Shouting Thomas said...
Neither statement is true.
These things are relative, Althouse.
Yes, in comparison to the vast majority of your fellow Baby Boomers, both statements are true.
And, lyssa, the problem here is penetrating the lie that is feminist history. If you accept the lie as a pre-condition for your discussion, the entire discussion becomes a lie.
- Shouting Thomas said...
Oh, well, I don't begrudge you your success, and I appreciate the work you do on the blog, Althouse.
- Quayle said...
The facts support Instapundit.
Ann's definition of what Feminism is or shoudl be, while nice in theory, doesn't at all match the facts and results on the ground.
The facts show that in America feminism has benefited educated and rich women to the severe detriment of the poor and uneducated women.
The burdens created by feminism's wholesale changes to our social standards and expectations have fallen disproportionately on these poor women.
I see this repeatedly from watching the outcomes of pro bono divorces I've done for legal aid.
Thanks for feminism, the man is no longer expected by society to be the bread winner - to support the woman in any way. She can get her own damn job, for which feminism won her "the freedom and right."
Plus, under the tenants of the sexual revolution, significantly supported by the sexual empowerment argument of feminism, the man is not condemned by society when he leaves and takes up with another woman, nor is that other woman condemned for being a home wrecker. That's female sexual empowerment.
And the result is that poor, uneducated mothers are "free" to get a job while trying to take care of the kids with no help from dad. And society is perfectly fine with it all.
She's alone but by damn, she's free to get a job and try to homewreck herself another man. (How long will he stay?)
These women's situations are a 24 by 7 hell. They get no breaks, have no vacations, and very little rest. They are tired all the time with no end in sight.
But boy, those educated rich feminists that go on TV and spout the progress of women in America sure have nice lunches in Manhattan and vacations in Paris, don't they.
- Tim said...
"I understand his point, but why not fight over what feminism really is or should be? We could claim that real feminism demands individual empowerment."
Oh, it's much too late for that. That game was lost when feminism sprung from Leftist politics. It's like arguing that "real labor unions demand free markets."
As if...
- Hagar said...
You can claim whatever you want to, but the fact is that in the contemporary conciousness "feminist" is synonymous with "fem-Nazi."
And as far as I can think at the moment, none of the outstanding women achievers of this world have ever been "feminists."
- lyssalovelyredhead said...
And, lyssa, the problem here is penetrating the lie that is feminist history. If you accept the lie as a pre-condition for your discussion, the entire discussion becomes a lie.
You're being ridiculous and avoiding my question. Althouse has told no lies in this post, nor has she relied on any real or supposed history here. I'll ask again: Why do you interpret her expression of interest as a complaint?
- Lyssa
- Salamandyr said...
The problem with "feminism" is the same as the problem with "white separatist", or "black pride". No matter what you might mean by it, no matter how laudatory, the word is still exclusionary by its very construction.
- Peter said...
A political movement is what it does. It is not the idealistic speeches that matter (all political movements produce idealistic speeches). It is not about the idealists it attracts (all political movements attract idealists). It is what it actually does.
Is it defined by a bland definition that says it's about improving the opportunities available to girls and women? Or is it about dishonesty like the "women earn xx cents for doing the same work," or the various lies surrounding domestic violence?
Is feminism defined by (for example)interpretations of Title X that create proportionality by cutting men's sports? Or is it defined by "a woman would never lie about [whatever]" rhetoric?
When feminists insist on equality, is that equality of opportunity or equality of result? If women in the aggregate chose to work fewer hours per week or demand flex time, or select careers that pay less (e.g., psychiatry instead of surgery) or have more intermittant connection to labor markets and more focus on matters that are not work related (children, usually), is it feminism's duty to demand that pay be equalized with those who have made different choices?
Feminism is defined by what it does (or what's done in its name, as it has no definitive central authority). So, is that more positive than negative?
- pm317 said...
@Althouse We could claim that real feminism demands individual empowerment.
How much more individual empowerment do you demand when the richest and most enlightened nation elects a man for president when a woman with his resume would have been laughed out of the race?
- Shouting Thomas said...
lyssa, I don't know how to make it any more clear to you.
Feminism is based on the false assumption that there is, or ever has been, a need for feminism.
Can I make it any clearer?
- TWM said...
"Yes, in comparison to the vast majority of your fellow Baby Boomers, both statements are true."
Shouting Thomas is correct, considering how much rich has been dumbed-down by Barry you are rich Ann.
Of course, pretty soon anyone making enough to have to pay any taxes at all these days is rich.
- GulfofMexico said...
- This comment has been removed by the author.
- edutcher said...
I always got a laugh out of the idea that someone like Margaret Thatcher wasn't a woman because she was a Conservative.
Feminism may not be a pejorative, as such (although that may only be due to Hate Speech laws), but a great many people turn off when they hear the word.
- GulfofMexico said...
The word and concept of "feminism" are now damaged goods. Time to think of a new word to fit the definition Prof. Althouse offered up.
- lyssalovelyredhead said...
Feminism is based on the false assumption that there is, or ever has been, a need for feminism.
Can I make it any clearer?
Yes, you could explain how that assertion in any way supports the idea that Althouse's post could in any way be interpreted as a complaint. Or you could just admit that you simply make up things about Althouse and her posts for some odd reason, and try to actually think about the issues before you post in the future.
- Lyssa
- Scott M said...
if it's hurting women, it's not what feminism should be
Does that include what's good for women in general, but possibly not for the individual woman?
- TWM said...
"but a great many people turn off when they hear the word."
True. I know if a buddy ever asked me to come with him to meet some feminists for drinks, I'd quickly schedule a root canal instead.
- Scott M said...
@TWM lol
Time to think of a new word to fit the definition Prof. Althouse offered up.
Naw. We just need a new "wave". Maybe one that doesn't spit on women making the choice to be stay-home mothers? That would be refreshing.
- Scott M said...
I abide the feminism of Camille Paglia.
Ditto. I find Paglia to be one of the most balanced writers on issues related to this one. In fact, one of the most fair articles I've ever read on the topic of abortion led me directly to AA's blog for my first visit.
- Shouting Thomas said...
Let's try this again, lyssa.
Both you and Althouse are women. You keep arguing that women as a class have a bitch. To me, this looks like a scam to advance your own self-interests, while painting yourself with a halo.
For the past 50 years, every governmental, academic and corporate entity in the U.S. has openly published its determination to give women quota preference. You and Althouse have been able to claim that quota preference.
I'm a white hetero man... the punitive subject of that quota system. My entire working careers has played out under that punitive quota system.
And, yet, I have no class interest to espouse, and I can only argue my individual self-interest.
Both you and Althouse were born to families with some financial assets and a tradition of education. I was born in a shotgun shack to a family that considered college education a far off dream.
Who has the bigger bitch here? Why do you (and Althouse) get to bitch about your class interests, and I am stuck solely arguing my self-interest?
You and Althouse look, to me, like you're playing out a scam.
- Shouting Thomas said...
Feel free, lyssa, to once again ignore what I said, and give me a completely irrelevant answer.
That's to be expected.
- edutcher said...
Feminism has always been the Ladies' ('scuse me, Womyn's) Auxiliary of the Radical Left.
To make what Ann wants work, you need to destroy it down to the foundation and start building on a clean piece of land.
GulfofMexico said...
The word and concept of "feminism" are now damaged goods. Time to think of a new word to fit the definition Prof. Althouse offered up.
- granmary said...
Feminism was, is, & always will be bullshit. just as unions only recognize union members as workers, so do feminists only recognize themselves as women. All leftists live in an alternate universe that only includes like-minded "victim" class groups.
- lyssalovelyredhead said...
Both you and Althouse are women. You keep arguing that women as a class have a bitch.
Bullshit. I have never argued anything of the sort. I've not seen Althouse argue anything of the sort. Again with the making things up.
You and Althouse have been able to claim that quota preference.
I have never encountered or claimed any quota preference. You have no evidence that I have ever encountered any quota preference. (I have no idea re: Althouse, and I don't consider that any of my business.)
I'm a white hetero man... the punitive subject of that quota system. My entire working careers has played out under that punitive quota system.
And, yet, I have no class interest to espouse, and I can only argue my individual self-interest.
You just argued a class interest. I have never argued a class interest, yet you seem obsessed with the idea that I and Althouse are arguing class interests and that you are not. Again with the making things up.
Both you and Althouse were born to families with some financial assets and a tradition of education. I was born in a shotgun shack to a family that considered college education a far off dream.
My father was a cab driver when I was born. I was the first in my family to go to college. Again with the making things up.
Who has the bigger bitch here? Why do you (and Althouse) get to bitch about your class interests, and I am stuck solely arguing my self-interest?
You and Althouse look, to me, like you're playing out a scam.
Again, I have expressed no complaints (but for complaints about you making things up), nor have I in any way argued against your "self-interest" (but for arguing against your apparent interest in making things up). You have been reading this blog long enough that if you don't know that I in no way identify with liberal "feminism" then you're truely stupid. Or you are, again, just making things up.
I asked you a simple question: What was the complaint in Althouse's post? Where in Althouse's post did she say that she or anyone had been wronged? You cannot provide an answer. If you want to complain about liberal "feminism", be my guest- there's plenty to complain about. But you don't help anyone's case when you just make things up.
- Lyssa
- Dust Bunny Queen said...
- This comment has been removed by the author.
- Dust Bunny Queen said...
Feminism and Feminist became pejoratives when the leftist elite women, who look down on the rest of the women living in 'flyover country' took over the movement.
When the movement became the lap dog of one political party and became the slavering tool of the pro abortion groups at the expense of representing ALL women....feminism became a pejorative.
Instead of recognizing that all women do not have the exact same mindset or goal and in representing a small portion of women and eliminating anyone who didn't pass the litmus test of the Coastal elites, the movement doomed itself.
- Dust Bunny Queen said...
Feminism is based on the false assumption that there is, or ever has been, a need for feminism.
I don't think that is necessarily true. In the beginning, in our WABAC machine, there was a big inequality in the way that women were treated in the workplace and in the types of jobs that were available to women.
I'm not talking about construction type jobs or forcing women into jobs that are obviously geared to the physical demands of biology that dictate that men occupy those positions. Things like women could be bank tellers, but never ever aspire to being a loan officer or even branch manager.
There was a need for feminist awareness of such issues and a rectification of the problem. However it doesn't mean that you should level the playing field by making it more difficult for men to succeed.
I think the problem with Feminism is the same thing as the Leftist/Progressives. They think that everything is a zero sum game.
If someone is making money or rich, it is because they have 'taken the money' from someone else.
They think that if women are not doing well or don't have power, it must be that they should "take the power" from men, who must be hogging all the power.
Success and freedom are not zero sum conditions. You can't create equality by suppressing someone else. You can't create wealth by robbing the sudcessful.
- bagoh20 said...
Feminists use "women" like Hoffa uses "workers".
"We could claim that real feminism demands individual empowerment."
I think that's just called "freedom".
If you need to know what sex a person is before you care about their freedom, then that's called "sexist".
- lyssalovelyredhead said...
Well said, DBQ (on both posts). As to whether there was ever a need for feminism, certainly it's silly to say that there was not- to look at my own profession, there was a time that women were not able to be lawyers, and I doubt that even Shouting T would say that things should have stayed that way. (I assume that the same could be said for DBQ's financial planning profession.) But, if there are certain aspects of law practice (well, some specialities of law practice- it's a diverse field) that men are, in general, better suited for and more successful at (I would guess that would be things that are high-risk/high reward, the punishingly long hours associated with some practices, etc.), that's fine, too.
Doesn't mean that men and women shouldn't get an equal opportunity to show that they can do these things (as some men are not suited for them, either), but there are some "feminists" who want to level the playing field so that those that would be successful at that cannot get the opportunity- that's wrong, and it's issues like that that have caused feminism to have a negative connotation.
- Lyssa
- Shouting Thomas said...
Doesn't mean that men and women shouldn't get an equal opportunity to show that they can do these things (as some men are not suited for them, either), but there are some "feminists" who want to level the playing field so that those that would be successful at that cannot get the opportunity- that's wrong, and it's issues like that that have caused feminism to have a negative connotation.
Well, you'll have to speak for yourself, lyssa.
The negative connotation for me is those quota preferences that you get over me.
- Stephen K. said...
You two are arguing two different things. Glenn is saying what feminism is, you want to talk about what it should be. Shouldn't you know what a thing is before you talk about what it should be?
- Amy Schley said...
I'm a woman, and I hate that quota system you're bitching about. Why? Because those who don't benefit from them (like yourself) belittle my own accomplishments. Sure, I *may* have been accepted to an engineering college with a 70/30 m/f split because of my XX chromosome. But to assume that means that you also assume that I couldn't have gotten in on merit, a claim that ignores my 32 ACT/3.3 GPA. Sure, I *may* have been part of a quota system to help my law school not be 55/45 m/f, but that would also assume my 164 LSAT/ 3.3 GPA would have been insufficient for a man at my second tier law school.
I may have a "class interest" in a quota system that benefits me, but I also have an individual interest in not having my accomplishments denigrated because some victim of the quota system focuses his ire on the system and not his own inadequacies and failings.
- LordSomber said...
People will always argue about the definition of their "ism" because everyone has a different definition for it.
It's not always easy to avoid labels. But labeling this one as "statist" leaves little room for ambiguity.
- Scott M said...
I may have a "class interest" in a quota system that benefits me, but I also have an individual interest in not having my accomplishments denigrated because some victim of the quota system focuses his ire on the system and not his own inadequacies and failings.
Logically, it would seem that a beneficiary of a quota system would have a hard time defending any accomplishments in the face of someone with similar accomplishments that did not benefit, or could not benefit (see those with XY chromosomes).
In other words, if you want to show a bunch of peers an accomplishment devoid of name/sex/whatever and have it judged on its own merit, that's fine, well, and good. The problem is that you're expecting equal respect from peers that *may* have had to work extra hard to achieve like success because they *may* not have had the avenues of opportunity you did.
Don't you think a little ire is warranted? Just a smidgeon?
- Amy Schley said...
I will buy that some prejudice, conscious or un, may influence one's grade.
But do you think the computers grading standardized tests mark wrong answers right because I've got tits?
Those scores are accomplishments that had nothing to do with the evil quotas, and a man with those scores (that's 95th and 90th percentile, respectively) would have been accepted just as easily (I know that for a fact on the first one, as they accepted my husband too.)
Yes, there is a quota system in place that benefits mediocre women over mediocre men. But mediocre people never go far anyway. You want to succeed, you actually have to work at it.
- Scott M said...
But do you think the computers grading standardized tests mark wrong answers right because I've got tits?
Nope. Can we see said tits? I only mention it because you think it's important. I'm not one for internet porn, but I'll certain take a peek.
We're not talking about 90th and 95th percentiles, though, are we? We're talking about the line that's drawn for one group, say 80th percentile, where nobody lower gets in, while another group can be lowered down to 75th and still be accepted. Granted, we're talking in generalities, but I'm suggesting that, in general, quotas will make the non-protected look askance at the protected no matter what rational is used.
As far as mediocre never going very far, I can only assume that the sky in your world is a different color. Mediocre, for far too long, has been held up as just peachy. Do they reach the board room? Probably not. Do they infest middle-management and middle-class workers? Surely.
- gutless said...
If women didn't have vaginas who would listen to them?
- Scott M said...
If women didn't have vaginas who would listen to them?
Please send me a link with video of a talking vagina.
- Dust Bunny Queen said...
if you want to show a bunch of peers an accomplishment devoid of name/sex/whatever and have it judged on its own merit, that's fine, well, and good. The problem is that you're expecting equal respect from peers that *may* have had to work extra hard to achieve like success because they *may* not have had the avenues of opportunity you did.
I was also in Amy's position (somewhat) of being a woman in what is perceived to be a man's field.
I did it BEFORE there were quotas or affirmative action for women. However, when the firm that I was working for at the time came up with the bright idea of 'diversity training' and 'equality in hiring' (aka quotas to hire women and minorities for the brokerage positions), all it did was to create animosity and anger.
Animosity from the male brokers who up until then had accepted the few females that existed in the industry based on our own merit.
Anger from both males and females for being subjected to such stupid distractions from our jobs.
Anger on the part of the existing women brokers because now it diminished our previous accomplishments and made us look weak. As if we couldn't do it on our own. Plus it brought in completely unqualified women just because they were women which just reaffirmed the weak concept.
Anger on the part of the male brokers who saw (rightly) that women and minorities were being given special treatment at the expense of better brokers.
The joke was to be on the top of the hiring heap, you needed to be a black, female, with a hairlip and clubfoot.
The program was a crashing failure. But sure made management feel good and comply with the stupid rules from on high.
- Kirby Olson said...
Marxism, which is the foundation of feminism, posits a new class called the party, which speaks in the name of the workers, although it needn't be composed of workers, and usually isn't. Feminism has inherited the structural problem from Marxism. Marx himself recognized the problem, but never addressed it coherently. Instapundit is right. All movements based on Marxism hurt the people they pretend to speak for precisely by eliding them from the political process. I'd give citations and notes, but am on the fly.
- Youngblood said...
Then it developed sort of teeth-like little raspy in-curving hooks and started eating. She thought this was cute at first and built an act around it, but the vagina would eat its way through her pants and start talking on the street, shouting out it wanted equal rights. It would get drunk, too, and have crying jags nobody loved it and it wanted to be kissed same as any other mouth. Finally it talked all the time day and night, you could hear her for blocks screaming at it to shut up, and beating it with her fist, and sticking candles up it, but nothing did any good and the vagina said to her: "It's you who will shut up in the end. Not me. Because we dont need you around here any more. I can talk and eat and fuck."
(With apologies to William S. Burroughs.)
- Scott M said...
Marx himself recognized the problem, but never addressed it coherently.
Yeah, some expansion on this would be appreciated.
- John said...
Why is it always about women?
It is really about domestic violence. Women are about as likely to be the perpetrators against their male partner as men against women.
The big difference is that women are more likely to use a weapon or a club to even the odds.
Another big difference is that we think violence by women against their husbands is funny and not deserving of opprobrium. Remember Maggie always bopping Jiggs with a rolling pin? Mr Dither's wife beating him with her umbrella? Weezy bashing Snuffy Smith with a frying pan? Andy Capp's wife whaling on him with her pocketbook?
That is from the *FUNNY* pages.
If a battered man calls the cops on his wife, the police are likely to do nothing or worse.
Gay women and gay men are also as likely to commit violence against their partners as men against women.
It ain't about violence against women. It is about domestic violence. It is about people who live together beating each other up.
John Henry
- John said...
Speaking of women and the left, I am remonded of what Stokely Carmichael (I think) once said.
He was asked his views on what the position of women in the movement should be. His answer?
John Henry
- Lucien said...
Ann might have a "No True Scotsman" problem with folks referred to as feminists, although, admittedly, just about anyone can call themselves a feminist.
@ John's reference to Stokely Carmichael's quote (as to which, someone once remarkee "I hope he meant 'supine'")made me wonder how this thread might connect with yesterday's about Jane Fonda.
- ricpic said...
I recently read a story about an engaged couple who were eating in a restaurant when suddenly the young man choked to death on something that got lodged and couldn't be dislodged and the first reaction of his fiancee, or rather the first thing that burst out of her mouth was "How could he do this to me?!" I didn't find those words particularly shocking. Not coming from a woman. Had the situation been reversed they would be shocking indeed. Her immediate reaction goes to the heart of a fundamental difference between the sexes - their very different psychological makeups - and goes a long way toward explaining feminism.
- David said...
If feminism has become a pejorative, there are quite a few self described feminists who should be taking responsibility.
- Peter said...
Affirmative action in the private sector acts somewhat like a hidden tax.
Because the cost of an EEOC lawsuit can be ruinous, companies seek safe harbors. Of course, there are no safe harbors. But, if your numbers don't look good, you're an inviting target. And so, in any company where the numbers are not as they "should" be, there will be a not-so-subtle thumb on the scale, favoring some and disfavoring others.
Part of the ire is that this only goes one way. A law firm with "too many" female partners is not a target; one with "too many" males is. The number of women in engineering is a problem; the number of women in nursing is not. And so it goes.
And, the numbers are seldom as proportional as they're supposed to be, because even in the absence of discrimination men and women tend to make different life choices with different trade-offs- with women more frequently opting for less risk/more security, and more balance with outside-of-work life. Not all- but statistically significant numbers.
The net effect of affirmative action in the private sector then is to promote the less productive over the more productive, for the purpose of making the numbers. This surely makes a company less competitive. While it may not be a problem for a company with only domestic competition, it's more serious with those competing globally.
And (of course) it's seldom a problem for the non-elected government sector, as it seldom has to compete.
- James said...
I think you've failed to address the underlying issue of whether should we give two shits about terminologically redeeming feminism.
Yes, there is a quota system in place that benefits mediocre women over mediocre men. But mediocre people never go far anyway. You want to succeed, you actually have to work at it.
Is the second sentence supposed to soften the first? Or is sexism only bad when it affects safe targets?
- Scott M said...
If that's not a real word, by God, it should be.
- roesch-voltaire said...
Just before I clicked on the Althouse blog, I was reading over a list put out by Women in Science & Engineering Leadership Institute and the accomplishments are impressive. Major research grants in the millions, teaching awards, and Guggenheim Fellow-- to name just a few. And I suspect most of these women consider themselves "feminist," and I know a few have worked on projects to bring more females into the STEM field. These accomplished women and their efforts seems to be about encouraging individual women, and that I think has been the best part of the movement--
- John said...
Speaking of women in engineering, I find an awful lot of them in my travels around over the past 20 years.
My daughter is a Chemical Engineer. When she graduated in '98 the majority of the engineering class (all disciplines) was women. I think it was 65-75%.
The dean remarked on it with pride in his commencement address.
This was university of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez.
I might also point out that as an Hispanic, a woman, an engineer and esp a ChE, my daughter was golden for job prospects. Being a straight A honor student didn't hurt, either.
She was heavily recruited in her senior year. By January, she had 4 firm offers at salaries that made my head swim. DuPont told her they would make an offer but could not do so til March.
They all flew her up to the states for plant visits and interviews and wined and dined her very well.
She finally signed up with BP in Joliet and was treated extremely well there. She never felt any problem with being a woman in the job.
Since many of the shift workers were Mexican, there was some friendly ethnic razzing eg; she speaks Spanish funny. Never a problem, though.
John Henry
- John said...
For the record, the women engineers I have worked with over the years generally seem to be as competent and capable as male engineers.
As incompetent and incapable too, in some cases.
John Henry
- Beldar said...
I'm a feminist. I have two sons and two daughters, and I don't want to see any of them denied any opportunity based on their gender. That simple statement fully embraces — and fully describes the proper outside scope of — legitimate feminism.
I agree with you, Prof. Althouse, that there are lots of proposals and arguments that are supposedly asserted on behalf of equal rights and equal opportunities for women which turn out to promote different goals entirely, sometimes including anti-feminist goals.
I also think feminism has already won, for all practical purposes and on a macroscopic level, throughout the United States and most of the civilized world. So I won't be at the barricades anytime soon.
- Squid said...
Tell us, R-V, how your feminist engineer acquaintances feel about being told they're not capable of making the decision not to bring up their husbands on criminal charges, in the event that they have a quarrel that draws the attention of the authorities.
(In my experience, engineers of either sex have little patience for political whiners. There's a vast gulf between self-made women who look out for themselves and their acquaintances, versus their Angry Studies counterparts who care far more about grant money and publishing than they do about progress for their 'sisters.')
- Kirby Olson said...
After 1989, you'd think that communist and socialist thought would have died in the American academy. But Stalinism has never fully died in the Anglophone academy, or within feminist ranks. Feminism is in fact Stalinism in Skirts as the philosopher Annie Le Brun put it in her book, Vagit-Prop. However, that is only one track of feminism. Ann Althouse is a feminist and certainly isn't going along with that -- and there are many others. They have to face Amanda Marcotte and other psychotic Red Guard factions who aren't aware of where their thought has been: but if feminism has a future -- it's Althouse, not Marcotte.
- Beldar said...
@ Kirby Olsen: Feminism isn't a branch of Marxism. To think that, you have to badly understand one or the other. In all likelihood, what you're referring to is something other than a desire that neither men nor women be denied opportunities based on their sex. But feminism need not, and ought not, include any element of "class warfare" at all.
- roesch-voltaire said...
Kirby so Mary Wollstonecraft who published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792 was a Marxist? And Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 was Marxist inspired? Really a great example of how ideological blinders cause one to twist and ignore history.
- Scott M said...
I'm a feminist. I have two sons and two daughters, and I don't want to see any of them denied any opportunity based on their gender. That simple statement fully embraces — and fully describes the proper outside scope of — legitimate feminism.
That's all well and good, in theory, but it ignores that there are differences in gender that specifically impact employment. This has been and probably always will be one of my biggest complaints about "legitimate feminism". There's simply too much equality of outcome, even if that outcome is only to provide the opportunity as ironic as that sounds, when, wait for it...men and women have specific and easily identifiable, innate differences.
The examples of this are legion. Where feminism fell down involved ignoring them.
- roesch-voltaire said...
Squid that is a red herring, I am not the one who made an ignorant claim of what feminism is all about, but only tried to recuse what feminist have been about by highlighting the accomplishments of some against the cheap propaganda mill.
- James said...
R.V., why do women and men need different inspiration? Can't a woman inspire men? Can't a man inspire women? Are people in general, and women in particular, too stupid to see someone as a role model unless their genitals match up?
- raf said...
Going back forty-some years, when I was staffing a project, I would accept a woman almost sight-unseen. Women in this industry were rare back then and the fact that they were there at all testified to their competence. By the end of my 12 years there, that had completely flipped. By then, any woman candidate had to be seriously interviewed as the chances were very good that she had been hired with marginal skills, such as not being able to write computer code. The feminist movement which institutionalized the quota hire arguably benefited individual (unqualified) women but disadvantaged women as a class.
- John said...
Raf said:
The feminist movement which institutionalized the quota hire arguably benefited individual (unqualified) women but disadvantaged women as a class.
That is the horribly corrosive effect that affirmative action as practiced generally has. No woman, black or other minority can ever be certain that they got the job, promotion or whatever because they were the best choice. They will always have that tiny voice of doubt eating away at their brain.
In many cases they may not even be conscious of it but it is there nontheless.
A horrible, horrible thing to do to any human being.
It is one of the reasons I refused to let my daughter work for me when she graduated. If she had, she would never know whether she was successful because she is my daughter or because she is really good at what she does.
Now I have another problem. She is way overqualified for anything I could offer. That is a good problem, though
John Henry
- Kirby Olson said...
@Beldar, of course feminism has used Marxism as a justification and exemplar for its politics. In SdB's Second Sex, she says as much in the introduction. Instead of thinking about class, of course, it uses gender. But the argument is that gender is also a class divide (in many cases, or across the board).
Have you ever read The Second Sex? SdB was a Maoist-feminist linked to Sartre. SdB championed Mao's revolution in China.
The Second Sex is the Bible of the feminist movement in America. Read that book. It's pretty good.
- Dust Bunny Queen said...
In my experience, engineers of either sex have little patience for political whiners. There's a vast gulf between self-made women who look out for themselves and their acquaintances, versus their Angry Studies counterparts who care far more about grant money and publishing than they do about progress for their 'sisters
@ Squid. That is a very astute observation.
Women who are in the practical/business/productive side have little time for the type of feminism that is the bread and butter of the political/grievance type of feminists.
Not in engineering myself, but having been in a financial industry that deals with numbers,facts and requires logical thinking (as well as relationships with clients), I have no patience for the whining victim-hood type of feminism.
- jamboree said...
- This comment has been removed by the author.
- Orwell46 said...
Early on, by the late 70s, feminism, though lovely in ideal, had turned into tribal politics with a tribe of gals fighting against their enemies an imagined tribe of men.
Tribalism is irrational and powerful, and the enemy of individual rights. It's what western civilization gradually came to transcend over the centuries.
The philosophy professor whose name I forget wrote a book "Who Stole Feminism?" and her answer was the right one: the Marxist academics had stolen feminism. Fairness feminism was defeated by marxist tribe-feminism.
Feminism, as operated by its professional types, became a vicious "women on top" movement, whose motto though never stated was about half an inch under the surface of all they did: "Women are good, glorious, sexy and dominant...thrilling angels of domination...who sometimes need rescue by us manly butch gals...and males are subhuman garbage subject for jailing, castration, bankruptcy and kidnapping of children. You did not hear us say this."
Yes, feminism should not be this way. But if you haven't noticed, Ann, the professional feminists are not having debates where they listen to the opposition and discuss how feminism ought to be defined. Jackbooted, they mean to ride you, using every power of government they can steal, borrow or coopt--not have discussions.
- Shouting Thomas said...
A preposterous post, and equally preposterous responses.
Let's examine the fruitcake assumptions.
1. I'm a whining loser if I'm pissed off at quotas that are designed to limit and punish me. Jesus! I don't even know how to respond to this bullshit.
2. Women need a political/social self-esteem movement. I don't really know how to respond to this bullshit either. I know that you all seem to think it's self-evident that this is essential, but I can't quite understand why.
What's with the weeping and wailing over the plight of women?
Answer: It's a bad habit reinforced for 50 years of idiot propaganda. That habit is so foolish that Althouse, who has a position of power, more money than she can spend and incredibly financial and job security can keep bitching.
Folks, it's all foolish romanticism about women. It's time to stop this nonsense.
Looked, I've raised two daughters who both have professional careers. I don't have any particular complaint about how my financial and employment career has worked out.
You're flailing away at a non-existent problem. Feminism is meaningless, pointless, unnecessary crap.
- Eileen said...
But Beldar (@2:24), that was my father's attitude regarding me and my sisters as well (I'm 50) -- and his father's before him (my dad was one of 10, 7 of them girls,who all grew up to be college-educated women, born between 1910 and 1932). My one grandmother left Ireland on her own at age 18 (100 years ago this week!), to find a better life for herself here in this country. My other grandmother ran the custodial department for a large steel corporation. For at least 3 generations, there has been no hint in my own family that being a woman was ever anything "less than," and each of our personal goals and dreams were worth every ounce of our fathers' support, and our successes an enduring source of pride. This personal history makes me somewhat sympathetic to ST's claim that there was never really a 'need' for feminism.
This is not to say that women did not need to fight for the right to vote, or that within the culture there has been no bias in favor of men where earning power and political/corporate stature are concerned. This is the area that feminism has targeted, and I think it has been largely successful in opening up this kind of opportunity to women.
Feminism has focused almost exclusively on two goals: (1) increase female financial and political power; and (2) eliminate the impact of the potential for motherhood as a damper to that success.
This has morphed into, among other things, the idea that motherhood is by definition *less* meaningful than a paid career; abortion rights are *necessary* for equality; and affordable childcare is a *right*, not simply a consideration toward the decision to work. (Not to mention the idea that men are not necessary to a woman's success or personal satisfaction.)
It is not about individual women having the power to choose their own destinies based on their personal abilities, hopes, desires and values.
It's about paving the way for those women who would define themselves in terms of financial and political power to be able to do so without the strictures imposed by traditional female roles, and the attendant guilt and/or conflict those roles (and their stereotypes)could impose.
Traditional female roles, therefore, must be destroyed. It's the only way.
*That's* feminism today.
- Kirby Olson said...
@Orwell56 -- Christina Hoff Sommers: One of the very rare non-Marxist feminist philosophers. she's about as popular in feminist quarters as Sakharov was in the Kremlin.
- Geoff Matthews said...
So who gets to determine what harms women?
And, if it only harms those kind of women, is it still feminism?
- virgil xenophon said...
"A horrible, horrible thing to do to any human being."
Yes, my wife, the RN was a "twofer" as a Louisiana Creole and a woman. She opened the first Burn Unit in the State of Louisiana at Charity Hosp in 1973 at age of 25. She ordered all the equip, wrote all the protocols, trained not only the RNs but all the Residents & Interns as well. ONLY SHE had power of ruling on admission and was on call 24/7. She later was a DON at a 500 bed Hosp by age 27 and held several prestigious positions early in her career. Yet my Father, (I came to find out) who, as a coach had championed the black athlete in the 50s, early 60s, before it was PC to do so, assumed she had attained her positions at such a young age mainly because of affirmative action because he had been soured by his own university hiring a very unqualified replacement for his position as Head Tennis Coach when he retired (a twofer--a black female.)
That a Hall-of-Fame Coach could so sour on hiring/promoting women and blacks because of bad affirmative-action hires to such an extent that it blinded him to the intelligence, leadership and professional accomplishments of his own daughter-in-law is more a sad commentary of the poisonous, cancerous, effects that affirmative action, feminism, and the quota system have, than on any short-comings in his powers of analysis.
- Milwaukee said...
What I have observed about gender and race is that White Men help women and minorities. When Women and Minorities get into positions of power they too help Women and Minorities. I need to take some time and do a survey on posted data. I do believe each and every Roman Catholic Archdiocese in this country has a position of a person who is in charge of that dioceses schools. My casual observation is that if a man is in charge, his underlings will be a mixture of men and women. If a woman is in charge, all or nearly all, of the underlings will be women. Maybe some minority men are allowed to hang out. This is data I can collect by systematically visiting each archdiocese web site.
My brother once worked for a major tele-com, and was forced to be a member of their union. His observation was that the vast majority of the management of departments was by either Black or Hispanic females. If a Black (or Hispanic) female took charge of a predominantly Hispanic (or Black) department, that department would soon acquire the color of the manager. That can not be good for business or for employees.
Once upon a time it was more common to see an elementary school with a male principal and almost all female teachers. I suspect there is a reason a male leads differently than females do, which is beyond my understanding other to just observe.
Modern feminist seem to be rather bully-like. I further suspect that men treat each other with greater respect than women treat each other.
A previous commenter noted that the prosecutor who was detailed with investigating the "assault" by Bradley as a woman with 12 of 14 underlings being women.
- Milwaukee said...
My sad tale is that I married too young and too far away from home, friends and family. After we had been married a while, my now ex- told how her sorority at college had voted on the order in which the graduating girls would marry. Obviously the girl whose wedding was planned for two weeks after graduation was #1 on the list. My ex- was last on the list. The two girls who were last on the list, were the first two married after the #1 on the list got married. I must wonder if part of her need to marry so quickly was a chance to show up those other girls. I do suspect she was jealous of her older sister, who had had many boyfriends. I refer to those people as "girls" as this sounds just incredibly immature. But they prided themselves on being feminist. They referred to unpopped popcorn kernels as "career women" instead of as "old maids".
We were married in another country. Part of the wedding license asked for the bride's condition. She snapped to attention at that, thinking it was inquiring whether she was barren or with child. It merely wanted to know if she was widowed, divorced or a spinster.
- Milwaukee said...
Something else I would like to investigate is fire-fighter deaths in co-ed firefighting units. I would bet when the time comes to do the dirty dangerous work, men do and women let the men go forward. Are the death rates for male and female fire fighters the same? What variables need to be controlled for in those numbers?
- Ken Green said...
If one simply reads the writing of the founders of the feminist movement, and what is taught in gender studies classes, one can see that "feminism" was always the false-front of a female-supremacy movement, based on the idea that women are innately superior to men.
"Feminism" was the tame version for the gullible masses to swallow, based on a series of big lies regarding domestic violence, workplace harassment, girls "self-esteem," the "wage gap," "patriarchal oppression," women's "impoverishment" by marriage; men's "abandonment" of wives for younger women, and more.
The goal of the supremacy movement was to usher in a society based on total female dominance, where (wealthy, white) women control all property, have supreme status under law, have total control over male sexuality and fertility, and live as pampered goddesses served by male laborers.
The women who blindly accepted the big lies and voted for the perverse legal system that is now routinely destroying the family were the "useful idiots" of the supremacy movement.
For some of these women, who tacitly hit the "yes" button for a thousand feminist initiatives to say "Well, but that's not the feminism I voted for," is far too little, and far too late.
This world of family breakdown, men skipping college, marriage, and fatherhood, the runaway narcissism of women who dress their 6 years olds as prostitutes...this is the world women voted for, in overwhelming numbers.
- William said...
Many interesting posts in this thread. Here's my grumpy insight: I have never seen a woman work on a truck in private cartage or for an asbestos removal team. I have never heard of a feminist bemoaning this fact. (I do remember that there were several suits to mandate that the NYC Dept of Sanitation hire female workers--such are the pay and benefits of city workers.) Women want to break through the glass ceiling but have less interest in integrating the dirt basement.....Re feminists and Marxism: When the Bolshies first took over Russia, they claimed that they were governing on behalf of the industrial proleteriat. One problem with that was the fact that Russia, at the time, was overwhelmingly an agricultural society. Some 85% of all workers were in agriculture. Although the Bolshies knew very little about industrial management, it was their ignorance of agriculture that was truly stunning. They starved the peasants in order to advance the interests of the proleteriat. Russians needed things like, say, food far more than they needed a luxury subway system in Moscow. But they got the subway system with chandeliers, and Marxists worldwide rejoiced in their wisdom......I think feminists are to women what Bolsheviks are to workers. They advance the interests of an invented, ideological class at the expense of ordinary women. They can parse the difference between Anita Hill and Monica Lewinsky with a very fine blade indeed. The vanguard of the feminist class are women like Hillary and Anita. Others must perish so that the dream can be reality.
- Amy Schley said...
Yes, there is a quota system in place that benefits mediocre women over mediocre men. But mediocre people never go far anyway. You want to succeed, you actually have to work at it.
Is the second sentence supposed to soften the first? Or is sexism only bad when it affects safe targets?
The second sentence is to point out that if someone's career is screwed because they are on the wrong side of a quota system, they weren't going to do very well for themselves without the quota system either.
Yes, men may have to do that little bit better to get past the quota. And women have to do that little bit better so men don't think they got the job just because they are women.
Which ties back to my first comment about hating the quota system.
- Blue@9 said...
Feminism and Feminist became pejoratives when the leftist elite women, who look down on the rest of the women living in 'flyover country' took over the movement.
When the movement became the lap dog of one political party and became the slavering tool of the pro abortion groups at the expense of representing ALL women....feminism became a pejorative.
Instead of recognizing that all women do not have the exact same mindset or goal and in representing a small portion of women and eliminating anyone who didn't pass the litmus test of the Coastal elites, the movement doomed itself.
DBQ wins the thread.
Feminism should be about maximizing equality of opportunity for women, but it just became another front group of grievance mongers who shill for the Left. Like the civil rights groups. Like unions. If big-F Feminists really walked the walk, they would be outraged at the treatment of Palin and Bachmann. If the civil rights orgs really cared about minorities, they'd boycott the Democratic party, and the same with unions and "workers."
(Note how the identity politics has just stripped words of actual meaning: You are not a "real" woman, minority, or worker if you don't vote Dem)
- James said...
Yes, men may have to do that little bit better to get past the quota. And women have to do that little bit better so men don't think they got the job just because they are women.
Which ties back to my first comment about hating the quota system.
I guess I still don't understand. "Yeah, there are men who are just as qualified as women who are denied opportunities just because of their gender. But you shouldn't give a shit about that."
Person benefiting from sexism tells person penalized by sexism to stop complaining. Knock me over with a feather.
Maybe if women had to take ethics classes, you'd have a better understanding of the soundness of your position.
- bagoh20 said...
"But mediocre people never go far anyway."
Hey, hey, I can hear you, ya know!
It's not mathematically possible for everyone who thinks they are, to actually be, above average.
- Anthony said...
- This comment has been removed by the author.
- Anthony said...
I come from a family of strong willed women. they were mostly conservatives. None felt any real connection with the modern feminist movement. The thing that always got me about movement feminists is, well frankly, what wimps they are. My mother was tougher and more self reliant (and yes far more femenist) than any an entire local NOW chapter.
- Shouting Thomas said...
Person benefiting from sexism tells person penalized by sexism to stop complaining. Knock me over with a feather.
Even when they profess to feminism, the women still want to exploit men with romanticism.
You're supposed to give them what they want because they're so adorable.
- raf said...
@Anthony:I come from a family of strong willed women.
Me, too, to some extent. I grew up thinking that women ran the world. Housewives were CEOs of the household, responsible for most of the planning, scheduling, financial management, and daily operations. By contrast, feminism seemed to glorify self-pity. Power through victimization. Feeling sorry for yourself can be really addictive. If you think you are powerless you are not to blame for anything that is suboptimal; your sole responsibility is to complain. If someone else doesn't fix it, it just means you need to complain more. Feminism was another way to extend childhood, which seems to be the objective of most leftist schemes -- never having to grow up.
- Oligonicella said...
Scott M --
If women didn't have vaginas who would listen to them?
"Please send me a link with video of a talking vagina."
Have you thought at all of how much that would warp your view of sex with your wife? Please rethink your request. It's bad enough to hear complaints and suggestions.
I hope this wasn't too late.
- Scott M said...
Too late. I tried to have a long talk with it last night, but they were both ignoring me.


text:
Sign In
Contact Us
Create your custom Crayola product in just minutes. Visit the Crayola My Way factory to get started now. Tip the crayon will guide you through each simple step!
Turn any art into a real stuffed animal! Super easy to order!
DIY kids' crafts, projects & activities!
Catapult kids to the time of knights and chivalry as they create an imaginary castle! Start the royal treatment by readi
Celebrate shimmering rainforest reptiles! Crayola Metallic Colored Pencils bring out the texture and beauty of these int
The Inuit protected their eyes from the glaring Arctic sun with caribou-antler snow goggles! Make your own with recycled
Irish eyes will smile wherever you hang this ribbon banner. Pots of gold glitter at the ends of Ireland's frequent rainb
Oil and water don't mix? Well, neither does Crayola® Color Sticks and Watercolor Paints. Make a unique bookmark using a
Hunt no more for the perfect Easter egg project! The irresistibly beautiful crayon resist work on these eggs make them a
Young castaways will maroon themselves on their own island - deserted or not! Dream up exotic adventures with this idea
Make your gifts stand out with creativity! Use Crayola Color Explosion™ and your imagination to make packages picture pe
What's up with you? Get your message across to friends and family with a personalized door plaque.
Who's that going up the hill? It's Jack and Jill! Kids have buckets of fun creating finger puppets to act out this delig
Fun pops up all over the place when kids create their own version of a timeless toy. Kids learn the ups and down of move
Honor a key sports figure in U.S. civil rights history, Jackie Robinson. Kids depict the historic day that an African Am
The Torii (Shinto gate) is a familiar symbol of Japan. What does this gate mean and where is it found in Japan?
Jazz up the fall with this unique pumpkin. Children become jacks of all arts as they create textured crayon rubbings, cu
Create your own Jingling Tambourine from everyday objects. You'll be ready to play and dance along with your favorite mu
Create your own playful jellyfish with this simple and easy-to-do summer craft!
Jokes are serious business to young children who are developing language. Kids build reasoning and literacy skills while
Why write in a journal? Most kids express feelings about their dreams and struggles. Show you care by designing a journa
Young jesters can create their own clown hats and juggling batons. Excitement will be in the air at a circus or castle t
Start off the school year right! Get organized by making your own jumbo paperclips to keep your important school papers
Catch your friends on the move! Create cartoon-like drawings of each other in the style of Pop artist Keith Haring.
Make a fashion statement with your personalized denim jacket! You'll wear it everywhere!
What's your favorite gymnastics routine? Show vault action, trampoline tricks, or balance beam skills in this colorful p
Carve a pumpkin with just your fingers? Sure, with no-mess Color Wonder™ Fingerpaints you can decorate Jack o' Lanterns

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Tuesday, February 12, 2013 7:34 am
Vatican acknowledges that pope had pacemaker
The Associated Press
Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said Benedict had the pacemaker installed "a long time" before he became pope in 2005. He called the latest medical procedure "routine."
It was the first time the Vatican has mentioned a papal pacemaker.
Italian daily Il Sole 24 said the pope had the pacemaker procedure less than three months ago in a Rome hospital and did not miss any public appearances.
Benedict is resigning on Feb. 28 because he says he has become too infirm to handle the burdens of the papacy. He will become the first pope to step down in six centuries.


text:
Thanks for all the replies. All really helpful.
Think I'm going to hire a concept 2 for a few months to see how I go. My partner is skeptical about me keeping it up (I held my tongue over his cross trainer gathering dust in the spare room).
Good points raised about technique and warm ups. I've only had 5 goes on a machine and the resident gym…[Read more]
Kelly replied to the topic Best rowing machines? in the forum General Banter 4 days, 22 hours ago
Can I ask why everyone dislikes the water rowers so much? They are all they have at the gym I currently go to, and when I go and row on an air one now there is so little resistance that I feel like I'm doing nothing!
Amy replied to the topic Best rowing machines? in the forum General Banter 4 days, 22 hours ago
If your serious about doing it and can afford it then definitely a Concept 2, theres a very good reason why you see them and not other companies products in most gyms and leisure centres.
I looked at all the options and bought the Concept 2 Model E for just over £1K, you can get the Model D for£850 new, the difference is the monitor and i…[Read more]
bosworth replied to the topic Best rowing machines? in the forum General Banter 4 days, 22 hours ago
Honestly if you're going to do it at all seriously (and you can definitely get the bug for it), then go Concept2. The water rowers are ok to a point, but if you are interested in technique and building your strength you will soon find that you end up with water all over the floor and the feel you get from them is different too. There are some…[Read more]
Ah ok that's interesting. So you wouldn't recommend water one? I was tempted as they are advertised as being quieter.
I really enjoyed the times I used the machine on holiday. I generally hate all gym equipment as I get bored but having to focus on technique really helps.
cat replied to the topic Best rowing machines? in the forum General Banter 4 days, 22 hours ago
I bought a cheap one from Argos (I think it was £20-30). It wasn't much more expensive than the ones on Ebay that you've probably got to drive miles to collect.
It works perfectly well and gives good all round exercise. I didn't want to spend a lot of money as I hadn't used one before and knew that before long it would be collecting the dust…[Read more]
bosworth replied to the topic Best rowing machines? in the forum General Banter 4 days, 22 hours ago
Try renting, or you can often find auctions selling off gym equipment (there's one near me that does this frequently).
Water rowers are horrid things – ok if you aren't taking it too seriously, but pretty useless if you want to do some proper work.
I would't recomment getting one of the cheap ones. If you do buy, go for a Concept2 and get some…[Read more]
Thank you . That's a really good idea. I'll look into that!
Fi replied to the topic Best rowing machines? in the forum General Banter 4 days, 22 hours ago
There are quite a few companies that rent them which might be worthwhile in case you get bored with it. I think they usually give you a discount if you decide to buy.
tigg started the topic Best rowing machines? in the forum General Banter 4 days, 22 hours ago
I'm thinking of buying a rowing machine to help maintain fitness.
Used to be super fit, not so much anymore
I hate the gym and the nearest decent one is half an hour away anyway.
Whilst on holiday I tried out all the equipment and I liked rowing. The gym had a concept 2 air rower. These are very expensive!
Has anybody got any recommendations o…[Read more]
alec posted an update 1 month, 4 weeks ago
Have we reached a tipping point where antibiotic become as useful as a chocolate fire guard?
Carefully targeted ABs will continue to a highly effective treatment many serious bacterial infections.
"He … picked up the superbug after a sexual encounter with a woman in south-east Asia."
Yeah, that's the story he's sticking to.
Not long ago my life was saved through a course of antibiotics, so I'm towards the view that they serve a useful purpose.
Not yet at tipping point but if large swathes of the agricultural sector keep shovelling tens of thousands of tonnes of ABs into the food chain every year, we'll soon get there.
When it happens we'll have a lot more than STI's and chest infections to worry about. For a start lots of cancer treatments and many types of elective surgery will…[Read more]
No, nowhere close and we have lots of possible promising avenues for developing new ones which will need to be used more responsibly. Doing so is economically, politically and technically very difficult but not impossible.
It might help if they weren't freely available without prescription in much of Europe and the rest of the world.
I was treated in a Swiss hospital for cuts in the summer. After being patched up, I had the following conversation with the doctor
Doctor "Do you want antibiotics"
Me "I don't think so, do I need them?"
Doctor "No….ah, your British. Like the Swiss you use antibiotics wisely. The French and Italians always ask"
For once (every rule has an exception), the eu could really interfere in a beneficial way. Ban whole herd preventative antibiotic use and make them prescription only in the whole of the eu. Then start applying pressure through the WHO globally. I think we might regret this more than climate change in a few decades.
On a related note, I had a work colleague with an infection try to fulfil his (USA issued) prescription in Holland… the Dutch doctor politely explained that the surgical grade antibiotic perscribed was equivalent to a bazooka to kill a butterfly and adjusted the prescription.
ABs do seem highly overprescribed in some countries.
Easy availability is a big problem; you can walk into a pharmacy in Africa and buy one or two tablets. People don't see why they should buy and finish an entire course, which is a waste of their precious cash.
Anybody who fears the pharmaceutical industry will not solve the problem has no understanding of the money that's at stake. An executive…[Read more]
Use within farming in southern Europe is off the scale and completely ignored in farm legislation by the eu. The chemical and medical sector are the biggest eu lobbyists though.
Apart from the fact there is a knock effect to us medically in future resistance, I wouldn't eat the meat from most European countries.
One tonne of amoxicillin would provide over 95,000 courses (note courses, not doses). Conservative estimates currently put the agricultural sector as using over 100,000 tonnes of ABs. The vast majority of this usage isn't targeted, it's prophylactic as even very minor infections have a relatively large impact on weight gain in livestock. It's…[Read more]
The economic problem with developing antibiotics is that for there to be a return for a business they have to sell in volume before the patent expires yet no responsible regulator will allow a powerful novel antibiotic to be used for anything but the hardest cases so we need a new model for funding development and extracting value.
The political…[Read more]
strike posted an update 1 month, 4 weeks ago
Radio 4 was reporting how seriously they are taking the ball tampering in the Australian test match, to the point where the transgressor may not play test cricket again. How does this incident stack up against a blatant dive in the penalty area, or a handball such as Thierry Henry's, whereby he doesn't own up to it if it isn't seen. Ball tampering…[Read more]
It's rife in every sport and in every country. My colleague who lives in Nigeria and with his daughters, plays tennis at state level, says that one of the biggest frustrations for his daughters is that African parents commonly bribe the passport officer to under-declare their child's age so that his daughter aged 14 ends up playing a girl aged 15…[Read more]
Tampering is premeditated and has to be organised. Diving is premeditated in the sense that everybody knows it's going to happen but not in an organised way like tampering.
What interests me is the psychology of cheating in professional sport. How do otherwise mainly decent people justify behaviour which deliberately breaks both the spirit but…[Read more]
Football people treat cheating as "part and parcel", whereas cricket sets itself higher standards.
I'm sure performance enhancing drugs are used routinely in professional football. Nobody gives a shit about that – they barely even get tested.
Once money enters the equation fair play and sportsmanship seem to take a back seat.
Cheating at sport really does seem strange – but then cheating at anything seems strange to me.
With regards to "cheating" at sport I do laugh when I'm at a kids cycle race, see all the kids (under 10's) rolling around the course on top of the range bikes, light as a feather, yet all within the approved guidelines – I do then wonder where it will…[Read more]
Perhaps rugby might be a good sport to look at for this, rather than football.
I don't think I can explain it very eloquently but I will try (probably because I am no longer familiar with the exact nuances of the rules).
In rugby, during the game, part of the 'game' is to try and take actions that are to your advantage (handling the ball…[Read more]
This scandal and another one have had me thinking, a lot, about people and the nature of competition.
The "other one" erupted on Monday in the Go / Weiqi / Baduk community. In case you don't know, Go is a mind-sport, an abstract board game, in which players take turns to place stones to surround the area of a square board. The player who…[Read more]
I touchingly hope that diving in football may go out of fashion. Messi is a shining example of a player who tries to ride tackles and frequently scores by keeping going when everyone on the pitch stops because they expect him to go down. It was noticeable in the England- Italy match the other night that Sterling twice got back on his feet rather…[Read more]
pippy posted an update 2 months, 1 week ago
Should England go to the Football World Cup in Moscow? I'm generally against using sport as a political football (excuse the pun), but this is different as there is a risk to both footballers and fans. It presents the Russians with too many opportunities to be a least difficult, and much worse is possible. I know that if England, Germany and other…[Read more]
Sport as it relates to national teams is inherently political.
I don't think England should go to the World Cup, no, if sufficient evidence exists to link Russia to the Skripal killing. Ideally there would be some international unity, but I can't really see that happening.
I don't think the players would be at risk, but the fans would from Russi…[Read more]
If Britain boycotts the world cup and no one else does, then if will make Britain look isolated not Russia.
At the moment no other country is likely to boycott the World Cup, especially since the UK is one of the main routes for dirty money leaving Russia, and three premier league teams are owned by Russians with good links to Putin.
Putin…[Read more]
Indeed. If we want to make any substantial impact on Russia then we need to hit them in the wallet, it seems to be the only thing they understand. Quite why major sports tournaments keep going to countries that are f*cked up is beyond my comprehension…unless bribes are involved.
I'm assuming that England will only stay for the group stage before returning home to an enraged media, then the hunt for a new manager can begin.
Kelly posted an update 2 months, 3 weeks ago
Arsenal: Wenger has to be sacked!
Think I heard Martin Keown saying 'Wenger is like a defeated boxer in the ring where no one is prepared to throw the towel in for him and he keeps going back for more – someone (Chairperson/owners) needs to give him a way out coz he keeps waiting for the ideal way out, which doesn't happen'.
Stadium half empty…[Read more]
What would you like to see Arsenal become? Trophies need to be bought these days, not earned and it's a pretty soulless experience supporting a team that spends circa £300M per year to try and compete at the top level. This still doesn't guarantee success, either.
That's a pretty good assessment. I'm a Manchester United fan. The Fergie years were great, there is no denying that. Made better for having spirited rivals like Arsenal and Liverpool. And of course there were marquee signings but they felt special and fairly rare. One of the pundits on the radio made the point that £30 million nowadays gets you a…[Read more]
I agree entirely. And add to that the disgraceful cheating on the pitch, the bullying of the ref when decisions don't go their way and the ridiculous earnings. Totally soulless at the moment (apart from the Leicester win) and frustrating to watch. It just feels as though the whole sport is without integrity from the top to the bottom which in…[Read more]
Last summer Arsenal made profit in the transfer market. I'd like to see them spend some of their massive wealth on players. They've bought too many duffers – so need to sort this out (one of the reasons Wenger has to go). And I'd like to see them playing as if they really meant it – bad management a key factor here (another reason Wenger has to…[Read more]
Serious question – how is it bad management re: the playing style?
It's brilliant what Wigan did (as a United fan you had me cheering from the rafters). But, you'll not be bank rolling a bid for Messi anytime soon off the back of a good FA Cup run. It almost (could?) prove where the focus lies. There are trophies and there are trophies – unfortunately.
Buying trophies is why football is the new wrestling – it's entertainment but it's not sport. Just like you sit there in a Bond film routing for 007 to win, but really he always does. The outcomes are predictable. Can't see why the average person wastes any time, money or effort on professional football. Plenty of good sport available these…[Read more]
Here is an example of money in football.
We have a world cup being held in Quatar. We hear of human rights violations and workers dying on a regular basis. Its basically the land that time forgot.
We have a top level manager in Pep Guardiola being held up as a shining light for his support of the Barcalona independence fight wearing his…[Read more]
As a neutral I'd say Wenger was brilliant when he arrived and did much to singlehandedly transform the culture of the game but now he seems to have run out of steam and should leave with whatever dignity he has left intact. I feel genuine pity for a guy who has outstayed his time and either won't or can't acknowledge that. Contrast it with Alex…[Read more]
Wonder who they would get to replace him?
Arsenal still a quality side and Wenger a top coach, but every now and again a special team comes along and some City fans have been waiting 50 years for this! Arsenal just been unlucky to get them twice in a week when they look to be finding top form.
Nothing Wenger could have done I don't think….C'mon City!!
You would think, as a spurs fan, I would be happy at seeing what is happening at Arsenal. I'm not though. Because Arsenal, alongside Spurs and Liverpool should be the models of what modern football clubs are built on. Unfortunately, they are now selling their souls to investors who see millionaires as paupers.
There are hundreds of different…[Read more]
Maybe he's waiting to be sacked so he can use Ron Atkinson's old line when he got the bullet at Man U. "I leave as I arrived – fired with enthusiasm"
Wenger inherited George Graham's iron-hard defence plus Dennis Bergkamp. Once these essential parts of the team were retired he had no plan for replacing them. Admittedly he bought into the vision of a new stadium which increased the revenue stream but he has been timid in the transfer market. Apart from Shankly, Paisley and Ferguson every manager…[Read more]
It's fair to say that Wenger, with the honourable exceptions of Campbell and Kosczelny (sp?) has always come up short on defenders but he followed Bergkamp with
Thierry Henri, Robert Pires, Manu Petit, Patrick Viera, Freddie Ljundberg, Fabregas
Hardly unproductive signings
I couldn't have said it better myself!
As an Arsenal fan of a long-time standing, I crave the defensive toughness and counter-attacking speed of the George Graham teams. I feel very disorientated watching Arsenal these days (unlike when I first followed Arsenal seriously in the late 80s). Wenger did do well for his first decade as manager but ran…[Read more]
Wenger should have done the sensible thing in a May .and retired.
and the owners were much too soft when agreeing to let him carry on.
Arsene either doesn't have a retirement vineyard to potter around on ,or he stubbornly believes he can produce another team capable of challenging.
His players don't do nearly enough. Welbeck was terrible the…[Read more]
No! And here's why:
A) Wenger is easily the most interesting manager in the Premier League. Even though he is not really likeable I find myself really liking him. Arguably he presided over the most beautiful football ever played in the UK. He is part of the culture of our football – if we lose him we will miss him.
B) It would be very unwise to…[Read more]
What is strange is how stubborn he is.
His best team was great, but it was hard. Even the flare players like Bergkamp and Henry had that bit of Devil in them. But their Spine was hard, they went out and won the fight then won the game with great soccer.
For the last decade there has been no spine, no good keeper, no hard center half, no dominant…[Read more]
The money players earn is often cited, sometimes lazily, as a reason why that fight or spirit has been lost. Back in the day when your profile dictated earnings, a stellar cup run or a winning team was the zenith upon which you got known and got to dictate somewhat, your worth.
Now even very average players have image rights, boot deals and…[Read more]
jess posted an update 2 months, 4 weeks ago
Boycott the next World Cup in Qatar? So many people have died building the stadiums, let alone the abuse and neglect of workers and their human rights, yet there is little in the way of public commendation.
Various folk from arab nations are the only people keeping the rich in footballer rich. They are bankrolling so many clubs, you don't bite the hand that feeds you. So don't expect to hear anything strongly condemning from the FA etc..
Exactly. You get situations where Pep Gaurdiola wears a yellow ribbon in support for jailed Catalonian politicians, which is against FA rules… yet is an ambassador for the Qatar World Cup where far more human rights issues are a problem. Then you look at who pays his salary and it all starts to make sense.
Has football ever been a beacon of…[Read more]
"Has football ever been a beacon of integrity, honesty and morality?"
Perhaps. A long time ago when footballers went back to their day job on a Monday morning and the only merchandise was a home knitted hat or scarf in appropriate colors.
I recall the outcry when Russia was awarded this year's World Cup, people demanding we (The Home Nations teams) boycott that event. All gone quiet now.
And the next Winter Olympics in China?
Why not go the whole way and advocate boycotting visiting, spending money or generally dealing with the offending countries (it isn't just Qatar)? Abuse, neglect and death of workers happens across the Gulf, yet I haven't seen many calls for people to stop having sunny beach holidays in Dubai or to stop climbing in Oman.
Why focus on the world cup? This is how the construction industry works in most of the world, so why cherry pick the world cup for your concern instead of all construction?
The same could be said for the consumerists of the world in general. Why for example do people have such a Hard-on for taking down Oxfam. Yes, obscene things were done to extremely vulnerable people in the name of charity.
Oxfam, on the whole try their best to do good in the world, but public opinion went for the jugular. Here we have an…[Read more]
strike posted an update 3 months ago
5 medals £28 million spent.. was the winter Olympics worth the money for great Britain?
My 50p share has been well spent in keeping me entertained.
What is the 'worth' of success in international sport of any sort?
Tends to make people feel better when a member of the tribe does well against the other tribes, aka foreigners.
Isn't it lottery funded? Therefore thanks to all the gullible fools that paid for lottery tickets, I really enjoyed the games and didn't pay a penny.
Joking aside, we only complain that we're rubbish at everything if we don't win anything and that we should invest more. We're not going to compete with serious nations on pluck and great British…[Read more]
It seems much cheaper than many other sports e.g. premiership football (and more interesting), the people are not paid masses and inspire whole generations on occasions. If 12.5 million people watched it thats only £2 each. For me the summer olympics are more inspiring than winter, but I think definitely worth it.
That money goes into supporting winter sports at different levels. I imagine tens of thousands of people will have benefited from this funding to some extent.
In what way? Funding for summer Olympics is very much ring fenced for competitors and then only for those with a realistic chance of being competitive. Unless new facilities have been built which are open to all that £28 million has no legacy.
Not really. Basketball is played by more people in inner city's, the money would be better spent there than on middle class sports for the esoteric few..
The 'whataboutbasketball' argument in the context of winter Olympic funding has been quite funny.
I think it's a fundamental question. If we are spending tax money on sport, do we spend it widely on mass participation to improve the health and wellbeing of a wider population, or do we take the East German approach and focus on high achieving athletes in niche sports, and potential future high achievers for reasons of national pride…[Read more]
Not really. That money could be used in inner city areas to promote a grass roots sport which has far more participation than bob sleigh or whizzing down an icey slope on a tea tray.
It cuts right to the heart of the issue about promoting sport.
I don't think there are any winter sports to roll out to the inner-city masses – maybe ice hockey?
Otherwise seems a shame to abandon a major international get-together for the sake of £28m – compared to about £20bn we spent hosting the summer olympics.
Skeleton was good tv
If it was spent on Basketball, it would go to the national team and its hangers-on (coaches, managers, physios etc.) rather than grass roots. However those at the top are already exceptionally well paid, as they are performing in the USA and getting megabucks. Do we really want to hand more money to people who are already (or approaching)…[Read more]
However I have absolutely no time for spending money on maintaining a small number of middle-class winter sports enthusiasts in the manner in which they'd like to become accustomed.
And I certainly do not understand why someone born in the USA, who lives in the USA, and only has 1 parent who came from GB but now lives in the USA being funded by…[Read more]
I worked with a Winter Olympic sportsman. He spent the winter six months a year living out of the back of a 15 year old van going from event to event. I think his funding covered travel costs, but that was about all.
28+ million pounds – Some cream off a hell of a lot of money. Some people get a good living from what is dished out, but that doesn't mean everybody does, or even those that deserve/need it do.
Maybe someone needs to look at who actually gets what. I do know that the number of (questionably needed) people at head office for athletics has…[Read more]
@oldgal I think you just about get my point. There are alot of grass roots sports played in the inner city areas of the UK which could seriously be better funded and are played by lots of kids in those areas.Basketball is easily the best example. Lots of kids play it.
Basket ball s funding in the UK for the Olympics is zero. Basically because the…[Read more]
If funding is there to 'buy' medals, the Norwegians are 16 times better at it than us …
As rule the uk doesn't have the climate so it has to spend money on it's winter athletes. The Norwegian budget is half the uks for example. But then generally you can train on your own doorstep there.
Kelly posted an update 3 months ago
Dear Wigan fans, your manager got wound up (going ballistic in the tunnel at the ref and our manager), Aguero got wound up (lashed out at a fan) and some of your fans were a total and utter disgrace. We did provoke your fans, which was wrong, but the reaction was well bad, and carried one once we moved away – ripping stuff up and throwing it at…[Read more]
Success can cause arrogance and with that an almost given right to win a football match.
They are not familiar with loosing. A shame they have forgotten where they have come from.
Guardiola. Classy guy…. If any of the ground staff find his dummy, then it'd only be fair to return it.
All of this is true. But let's not be totally blinded by the giant-killing moment.
Aguero was on the pitch, on his own, surrounded by Wigan fans who should not have been there, with pretty much no protection. Obviously he was coming in for some abuse, taunting and goading and shouldn't react, but who was making sure he got safely off the pitch?…[Read more]
Great result for Wigan but I imagine there will be some kind of penalty for the pitch invasion, which will take the gloss off a tremendous night for them, especially if City complain their players were put at risk.
Absolutely disgusting situation for Aguero to be in. To the point it nearly took away the massive feeling of achievement and what football should be about.
IMO Wigan should be dealt with in the harshest possible manner as this wasn't just fans cheering and goading Aguero. He could quite easily be in a hospital bed this morning or worse.
It…[Read more]
You seem to know more about the Aguero incident than the rest of us??? Much more than you could possibly have taken from the television pictures.
From the telly pictures I saw he was clearly being jostled and antagonized by 3 or 4 wigan supporters. one of the Man City subs or staff was trying to get Aguero out of the way, but one of the Wigan "fans" was repeatedly getting right in his face.
I dont believe even opposing supporters would have physically assaulted him but what was evident…[Read more]
I think Aguero will get a ban, the game has changed, a decade ago a bit of fan/player contact was nothing but it is more serious now. Remember schmeichel rugby tacking turkish fan and dragging him off the pitch.
But he also pushed/punched him and then kicked out so I think a 1-3 game ban. His reaction was understandable but doubt the FA will see…[Read more]
alec replied to the topic Do men like independent women? in the forum General Banter 3 months, 2 weeks ago
The biggest thing I hate about men is they want to be in control, or think they should be in control.
@babe Not all men. You've obviously met the tossers
But let's be blunt – women don't help themselves sometimes. You don't have to accept that treatment.
And women can be just as demanding, controlling and abusive.
Be a good person, don't be an…[Read more]
babe replied to the topic Do men like independent women? in the forum General Banter 3 months, 2 weeks ago
The biggest thing I hate about men is they want to be in control, or think they should be in control.
For what ever reason they think their opinions have more value than a womens and they only like independent women when what they are doing either enhances or does not effect what they do.
I know of at least four women I know well, where their male…[Read more]
bosworth replied to the topic Do men like independent women? in the forum General Banter 3 months, 2 weeks ago
My ex partner told me I emasculate men, I was too capable and too independent. What he meant was he was a failed man, he was am alcoholic, who couldnt get his act together to even do the basic stuff, so I renovated the house, I sorted electrics, I built up the business and I coped easily without him for 18 months while he had a cushy contract…[Read more]
- Load More


text:
Winter 2013-2014
Trustee is Keynote Speaker
Marywood University officially celebrated the new academic year at Fall Convocation on Thursday, September 19, 2013, focusing on the core value of respect.
Esteemed Marywood alumna and trustee Colonel Lorraine Rupp Breen '78 was the keynote speaker at the event. The recipient of the 2013 Alumni Award of Excellence in Health and Human Services, she also received an honorary doctorate during the Convocation. Col. Breen, a Nutrition and Dietetics magna cum laude graduate, has long demonstrated leadership success in the health care, food service, and military professions. Following her graduation from Marywood, she traversed the nation and the world numerous times, while performing in positions of senior health care leadership in both the civilian and military sectors. Today, she is the Chief of Staff for the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs. The one thread in all her assignments has been her ability to lead large and small organizations while mentoring literally hundreds of people throughout her career. Reflecting Marywood University's mission to prepare tomorrow's leaders, Col. Breen has been a shining example for others to emulate.
In addition, faculty awards were presented during the convocation. Marywood's 2013 CASE Professor of the Year is Ann Cerminaro-Costanzi, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Chairperson of the Foreign Languages Department, and the honoree for Distinction in One's Discipline is Peter Hoffer, M.F.A., Associate Professor of Art.
Faculty honorees, pictured with the deans of their respective colleges. From left to right, Frances M. Zauhar, Ph.D., Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; Ann Cerminaro-Costanzi, Ph.D., Marywood's 2013 CASE Professor of the Year; Peter Hoffer, M.F.A., recipient of the 2013 Distinction in One's Discipline Award; Collier Parker, M.F.A., Dean, Insalaco College of Creative and Performing Arts.


text:
(DAILYMAIL) — It may sound like a plot straight out of a science fiction novel, but a U.S. mission to blow up the moon with a nuke was very real in the 1950s.
At the height of the space race, the U.S. considered detonating an atom bomb on the moon as a display of America's Cold War muscle.
The secret project, innocuously titled 'A Study of Lunar Research Flights' and nicknamed 'Project A119,' was never carried out.


text:
Submission + - Papa John's Sued For Unwanted Pizza-Related Texts (itworld.com)
jfruh writes: "Nationwide pizza chain Papa John's is finding itself on the receiving end of a $250 million dollar text spam lawsuit. As more and more people use their cell phones as their primary numbers, more and more companies will have them on file. Will this be the result?"


text:
GIRLS BASKETBALL: Riders win get first WBL win
ST. MARYS — The St. Marys girls basketball team earned its first Western Buckeye League win, a 34-27 victory over Defiance on Thursday night at Murotech Court.
Ashleigh Falk scored a team-high 13 points and Kelly Heitkamp added 12 points to lead the Riders to their third win of the season.
St. Marys led 15-14 at the half before outscoring the Bulldogs 9-7 in the third quarter and 10-6 in the fourth quarter.
Megan Sewell led Defiance with 16 points.
St. Marys improved to 3-12, 1-5 in the WBL.
The Roughriders travel to Wapakoneta next Thursday night for a 6 p.m. junior varsity tip-off against the Redskins.
OTTAWA — The Wapakoneta Redskins pulled out a 41-27 win over the Ottawa-Glandorf Titans in a Western Buckeye League varsity girls basketball game Thursday night in Ottawa.
Wapak had to overcome a cold night shooting the basketball for the win. The Redskins hit on just 17 of 46 field goal attempts (36 percent).
The Redskins had two scorers in double figures. Senior Courtney Knippen totaled 10 points on 5 of 8 from the floor. Junior Annie Henderson also scored 10, dropping in a pair of 3-pointers.
For the Titans, Niki Ellerbrock, Elissa Ellerbrock and Libbey Recker scored six points apiece to lead the way.
Wapak improved to 8-6 overall and 4-2 in league play. O-G is 4-11, 1-5 WBL.
The Redskins return to action at noon Saturday at home against the Minster Wildcats.
Celina 59, Van Wert 49
Celina took an early lead and maintained it in a high-scoring second half.
The Bulldogs got 18 points from Kylee pBader and 10 points from Taylor Guingrich in the victory.


text:
San Diego cop shot by known gang member
The officer went into emergency surgery and is expected to make a full recovery
By Tony Perry
Los Angeles Times
SAN DIEGO — A 31-year-old convicted felon is in San Diego County jail on suspicion of shooting a San Diego police officer Thursday while attempting to avoid arrest, according to jail records.
Ignacio Canela is being held on multiple charges of possession of drugs, possession of burglary tools, being a felon with a firearm, evading arrest and attempted murder. There is no bail listed.
Canela is suspected of shooting the officer in an attempt to keep from being arrested on a warrant for assault with a deadly weapon. Officials said Canela is a known gang member.
The officer, whose name has not been officially released, underwent emergency surgery and is expected to make a full recovery, officials said.
The officer was shot in the arm, leg and chest after chasing a suspect into a canyon in the City Heights area.
Acting Mayor Todd Gloria said Friday morning that he visited with the officer's family at the hospital Thursday night.
"He's well," Gloria said. "His vest clearly saved his life. The other officers did a great job in caring for him after he was shot."
Capt. Terry McManus said the incident began in the mid afternoon with officers watching the suspect in the mid-city area and planning to make an arrest. The suspect then drove away, with police cars in pursuit, he said.
The suspect exited Interstate 15, jumped out of his car, ran into a canyon and tried to escape by running into a drainage ditch, McManus said. The officer and suspect were in that ditch when the shooting occurred, he said.
After the officer was shot, other officers arrested Canela without incident, police said.
A radio call of 1199 — which means "officer needs assistance" — brought dozens of officers from the San Diego Police Department and other law enforcement agencies.
Copyright 2013 the Los Angeles Times
- Tags
- Officer Safety


text:
LAKE PLACID - Winter is ending and spring is right around the corner. Except for the skiing faithful, it is a sweet time of year. Partly because it means the return of warmer temperatures and partly because it's Maple Season.
This weekend and next, New York state will celebrate Maple Weekends, and there are events on tap around the region each day on the weekends of Saturday and Sunday, March 16-17 and 23-24 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.. Sugar shacks in and around the Adirondacks will open their doors for tours, tastings, pancake breakfasts, wagon rides, recipes, demonstrations and more.
Each year, the Adirondack Region produces one-third of New York State's maple syrup, according to a press release announcing the Maple Weekends, and as spring temperatures begin to rise, maple trees and sugar bushes become a hive of activity. In Northern New York, when sap begins to drip through sugaring lines, it's a sure sign that Adirondack maple sugaring season has begun.
Maple Weekend offers visitors and residents an opportunity to taste this "liquid gold" in all its forms. Participating locations in the area include:
Cornell University, Uihlein Forest, 157 Bear Cub Lane Lake Placid (518-523-9337)
Golden Arrow Resort, Main Street Lake Placid (518-523-3353)
Heaven Hill Farm, 302 Bear Cub Lane Lake Placid (518-524-0240)
Black Rooster Maple 3076 state Route 73 Keene (518-576-9792)
The Wild Center 45 Museum Drive Tupper Lake (518-359-7800)
The Visitor's Interpretive Center at Paul Smith's College, State Route 30 Paul Smiths (518-327-6241)
1812 Homestead Farm and Museum, 4403 state Route 22 Willsboro (518-963-7816)
Maple Knoll Farm 784 14th Road Minerva (518-251-5141)
For more information on Maple Weekend, visit mapleweekend.com.