Quickies

Skepchick Quickies 11.5

On November 5, 1872, Susan B. Anthony was arrested for voting in the presidential election. Oh yeah, and it’s also Guy Fawkes Night. So get out your effigies and fireworks and celebrate! (Note: I have never actually celebrated this.)

Mary

Mary Brock works as an Immunology scientist by day and takes care of a pink-loving princess child by night. She likes cloudy days, crafting, cooking, and Fall weather in New England.

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12 Comments

  1. I’ve read the article on War on Women and the question I have is, why is there such a huge difference in political preference between women and men. Is it down to women’s rights?
    In The Netherlands for instance there’s no real difference between men and women in that respect.

    Today the fist ever female Dutch Minister of Defense was inaugurated. A milestone to be proud of?
    Sadly I can’t see a female prime-minister in office in the near future. Odd isn’t it, for one of the most progressive countries in the world. Almost as odd as the fact that there never has been a left wing majority in Dutch parliament. Still the left get the blame for everuthing that is rotten in the state of Netherlands.

  2. http://jezebel.com/5957116/no-headline
    The evo psych postcard is my favorite. ‘A Woman’s Mind, Magnified.’ Funny how the same arguments are being used a hundred years later.
    Men are still stronger, smarter, funnier, better leaders, and more rational, and we still have all kind of scientifical explanations proving that men are just superior. Except for raising babies. It’s not sexist, just realistic, right?
    Why are they able to use the same arguments? ‘Race realists’ have been pretty well debunked and shunned. Saying ‘It’s been statistically proven that black people are stupider than whites, but they’re better at sports’ or ‘Asians are smarter than whites but they have very small penises’ would be recognized as horribly racist, and terrible science to boot. But it’s a-okay to say the same sorts of things about women, and everyone nods right along. What happened that so many accept the arguments about male supremacy without question?

  3. Mary,

    You can’t wait for this election to be over? I don’t blame you but even after the election, its not like these conspiracy theories will go away. The only way there won’t be any new new anti Obama conspiracy theories will probably be if he’s not reelected, and even if Rooney’s elected, it won’t be like people won’t come up with nonsensical conspiracy theories around him or other politicians.

    Besides, there is a bright side to all this stupidity. We get to make fun of it! : )

    This Changes Everything: Barack Obama’s Secret Past
    http://www.colbertnation.com/articles/obamas-secret-martian-past?xrs=synd_cnarticle

  4. Mary,

    Thanks for that list of the nine most anti science politicians in America.

    Part of me actually feels bad that I won’t be able to vote against any of them, and replace them with a better alternative.

  5. A few odd notes from the “Pay inequality” map. In several counties in Texas, women actually make more than men. In one case, up to 50% more. Now, looking at these counties, they’re podunk without the dunk… out in West Texas, where even the grass isn’t greener. I’m just wondering what’s skewing the numbers in those counties.

    Also, a special note for Elyse… this is actually a measure where Texas is better than Illinois, and Dallas County is better than Chicago.

  6. Sad to say Obama’s administration has been strongly anti-science in the field of Biology. One example? Biologist Charles Monnett being suspended and criminally investigated when he found polar bears where Shell Oil wanted to drill.

    1. Luna,

      Really? That’s definitely upsetting to me if true. I’ll look that up. I hadn’t heard about that before.

  7. Voting against environmental regulations is not “anti-science”.

    Being a divine fatalist is not “anti-science”.

    However, those points are trivial in comparison to the fact that not voting to fund scientific research is not “anti-science”, in fact it may be the exact opposite, though I doubt those congressmen were smart enough to realize it.

    “Science can stand on its own feet and does not need any help from rationalists, secular humanists, Marxists and similar religious movements…Science must be protected from ideologies” – Against Method

    There is science as an ideal and science as an institution. Being against the latter is not the same as being against the former. The more fame, fortune, and political influence we give to scientific institutions, the more people will join them not due to a genuine desire to find out the truth but to acquire fame, fortune, and political influence. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, which is why we shouldn’t be giving it to universities and laboratories. It’s one thing when bankers, politicians, bureaucrats, generals, judges, and policemen are corrupt, that’s just life. It’s wholly another when our intellectuals, artists, scientists and engineers are. That’s just perverse.

  8. I remember doing some ‘mansplaining’ once. I was a graduate student, and spent christmases with my aunt, as she was the only relative on the same continent. My aunt is a research audiologist.

    She mentioned that she was thinking of getting a second pair of speakers to put on her stereo, to get music into a different room. I started on an explanation of how you needed to use some resistors to correct the impedance for the fact that now you’d have two speakers in parallel where before you had only one. Then at full gallop, a little light when on in my mind. “Wait. You run an audiology lab. You already know this stuff, don’t you?” “Yes” she patiently replied.

    1. Would that be the typical form that “mansplaining” takes on?

      Just wondering so that I may avoid it.

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