Kicking. Squealing.
1. Slate talks about murder rates in South Africa in light of Blade Runner shooting his girlfriend. Ignores the obvious.
2. Character formation and menial jobs.
3. Granted, it’s only Thought Catalog, but some little pixie over there writes a how-to on slapping a jerky boyfriend. She tries to cover all of her bases – environment, script, delivery. What she forgets to consider: what if the dude hits back?
4. Clayton Cramer compares murder rates in northern U.S. states to those of Canadian provinces.
5. Charles Murray tweeted a link to the documentary below. A Norwegian program called Brainwash looks at genetic race differences. Both Murray and Gregory Cochran seem most intelligent in the doc. Richard Lynn comes off poorly. I would have liked to see James Flynn’s input.
Of note: the boldness with which the filmmaker opened with a comparison to dogs which also happens to hit on the discussions about pitbulls; the Asian woman is annoying and an idiot; Cochran’s point that it is a poor argument to say that IQ tests only measure adaptation to modernity; we live in modern times of our own making and so metrics which measure scores which indicate ability within this environment are important.
How to slap a guy…. yeah.. what if he hits back. Hmm well on her side I think she should perhaps have an appointment scheduled with the dentist. In my fantacy “rebuttal-article” one of the mutual friends clued me into her plan, and I allow her to do everything she said. THEN, (fantasy remember), the curtain drops on the wall of speakers sounds system I have off to the side, cue up prodigy’s “smack my bitch up”, as I proceed to do just that… ah aren’t petty revenge fantasises fun.
Link 1. Cue another 13000 word essay, by someone who fails to see irony, about why you’re insecure.
The Slate article links to a Johannesburg newspaper report of the Bladerunner shooting; some background info included in the report notes the following statistics, which I found somewhat surprising, if not telling:
Homicides involving guns have declined in South Africa in the past decade, Ms. Kirsten said, a development many here attribute to the Firearms Control Act of 2004. It restricts South Africans to one gun, either a handgun or a shotgun, for self-defense. Exceptions exist for regular hunters, but all weapons must be licensed, and gun owners are required to demonstrate that they are trained in gun safety and are free from mental instability and substance abuse.
The overall murder rate has dropped by 50 percent since its peak in the late 1990s, and the number of women killed by intimate partners using a gun has also dropped. In 2009, 17 percent of such intimate partner killings were gun-related, down from nearly 31 percent in 1999.
Hold off; not denying a racial aspect and causation factor to the high murder rate, but I wonder A), if those reduced numbers are true; and B) If they were, how did they achieve that feat in that given demographic.
All seven parts of that documentary “Brainwash” are up on Youtube. The sticky, smelly glue that holds it together is a panel of repeat interviewees commited to the blank slate doctrine, sociologists or “gender researchers”, for example. These people define political correctness in the sense that they’re either directly involved in writing legislation or their research is used to validate legislation.
He generally starts by asking one of the blank slatists to voice the politically correct view about the subject of the episode. Then he interviews scientists whose results throw question upon the doctrine. And then he plays those interviews back to one the blank slatist. After you’ve seen one or two episodes, the last interviews are always predictable – the interviewees roll their eyes and sigh, they laugh and try to get the interviewer to laugh with them, and when the interviewer presses the point they throw doubt upon the motivation and competence of the scientist. The word “interesting” is a key smearing and distraction tactic – why is this interesting? I don’t think this is an interesting issue to study, why is this researcher so preoccupied with this issue?
Related to Link 3: ‘Controversial app lets you beat up your boyfriend’
Louis Theroux’s doc on J’burg
Don’t think this is pretending to be anything other than humor, but skewers the bubble that men and women “work out” in equal ways. Women consistently are going at like 50-60% capacity, whereas you regularly see guys going 80-100% capacity.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI7S7mKYHhY&w=560&h=315%5D
What if he hits back? Ask Rihanna for advice!