WHY do "women prefer the mommy track"?

Hey look: more anti-feminist crap from the author who brought you Manning Up: How the Rise of Women has Turned Men into Boys.

Hymowitz' critique sheds some light on the statistical details behind sometimes-misleading about the pay gap, but her thesis isn't supported unless you assume a priori that the differences in work hours, career choices, family priorities, and negotiation skills are inherently biological.

WHY within a broad occupational category do men hold higher-paying jobs? WHY are women more likely to work fewer hours "full-time"? WHY do women have somewhat different choices of major in college than men? WHY might women, on average, be less assertive in salary negotiation than men? These questions need to be answered, and unless they are biological than the pay gap is still based on a sex-discriminatory society.

Why would Hymowitz arbitrarily assume that after all the advances of women in the last century due to feminist struggle, we have now reached some biological threshold of inequality that can't be passed?

Head versus heart

Death Cab for Cutie's song "Crooked Teeth" mentions a war of head versus heart. I find that my head and heart are in agreement about the fundamentals. They both tell me:

1. Love one another
3. Life is grand.
4. Don't trust Whitey.

As of late my head is in a war with my liver, and my heart is stuck in between.

Trump and "the Muslim Problem"

[Stolen directly from Real Clear Politics]:
"Well, I'll tell you what. The Koran is very interesting. A lot of people say it teaches love and there is a very big group of people who really understand the Koran far better than I do. I'm certainly not an expert, to put it mildly. But there's something there that teaches some very negative vibe," Potential 2012 GOP candidate Donald Trump told CBN's David Brody.

What a goofy fucking statement.

Trump seems to have an admirably accurate perception of his situation:

1) He doesn't know shit about the Koran, Islam, or world politics, but he knows he can't say this because
2) Mere indifference to the Islam would not satsify the ignorant bigotry his supporters, YET
3) Outright Islam-bashing might marginalize moderate supporters and even alienate potential business partners after his presidential bid inevitably fails.

So he's got a major problem. The only solution is ridiculous hedging. He whines about political correctness, confuses religion with nationality, then goes:

Well, I'll tell you what. The Koran is very interesting.

"Interesting" is a good word for non-comments about controversial issues. "Complex" also works. It implies you've studied the issue and have come to a nuanced conclusion.

A lot of people say it teaches love and there is a very big group of people who really understand the Koran far better than I do. I'm certainly not an expert, to put it mildly.

Humility, that's good. But ultimately he has to say something. What is the vaguest way you can possibly criticize something?

But there's something there that teaches some very negative vibe

Bad vibes! Islam just gives him the heebie-jeebies sometimes. You dig?

Rating the State Mottos

Each state of the United States has a motto. Some are better than others.

I'm rating on an A-F scale:

A = Excellent
B = Good
C = Eh. Either boring or good with a significant flaw.
D = Poor
F = Shit. The state would be better off without a motto.

Alabama: Audemus jura nostra defendere (We dare defend our rights)

It's bold rhetoric, but given Alabama I'm afraid to ask what rights they're defending. (B)

Alaska: North to the future.

Alaska is not the future, but it is, in fact, north. (C)

Arizona: Ditat Deus (God enriches)

I like the spirit of gratefulness and focus on the environment, but I'm an atheist. (B)

Arkansas: Regnat populus (The people rule)

Hell yeah we do. (A)

California: Eureka (I have found it)

I give it points for being one word, a neat word at that, and a nod to the history of the state. (A)

Colorado: Nil sine numine (Nothing without the Deity)

This motto is practically unconstitutional, I don't care how cool the Latin sounds (F)

Connecticut: Qui transtulit sustinet (He who transplanted, sustains)

Another one about God, but at least it's almost interesting (D)

Delaware: Liberty and Independence

Yawn. (C)

Florida: In God We Trust

My state can't eventhink up its own motto, so we use the federal one. And not even the good federal one (E Pluribus Unum). (F-)

Georgia: Wisdom, Justice, and Moderation

Oh look, a list of principles. (C)

Hawaii: Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono (The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness)

Positives: It's from Hawaiian history and it's in something other than English or Latin. Negatives: Long, sounds like a Bible verse sent through Babelfish. (B)

Idaho: Esto perpetua (Let it be perpetual)

Let what be perpetual? I like the air of mystery around the motto, like the state's founders had some secret society based around some hidden crystal and this is the chant they sing to maintain the state forever. (B)

Illinois: State sovereignty, national union

This sounds like a sub-heading in a civics textbook. (C)

Indiana: The crossroads of America

This could be the motto the state tourism board uses, but it's not dignified enough for the real one. (C)

Iowa: Our liberty we prize and our rights we will maintain

Probably the worst "freedom isn't free!" motto. It's just too long. But it's not bad. (B)

Kansas: Ad astra per aspera (To the stars through difficulties)

Short, mellifluous, inspiring. (A)

Kentucky: United we stand, divided we fall AND Deo gratiam habeamus (Let us be grateful to God)

The ho-hum 1948 motto was just too inclusive for Kentuckians, so in 2002 they poked atheists in the eye with an even duller one about God. I award these B, D respectively. That technically averages C, but indecisiveness is anathema to sloganeering, so I'm going with (D).

Louisiana: Union, justice, confidence.

Louisiana rounded out its mediocrity with additional Cs in phys ed and music appreciation. (C)

Maine: Dirigo (I lead)

Confidence is attractive in a state, and brevity in a motto. (A)

Maryland: fatti maschii, parole femini (Manly deeds, womanly words)

Good, unique message and bonus points for being in Italian. But points off for stupid gender essentialism. Should I give it a pass, as it was written in 1874? Nope. (B)

Massachusetts: Ense petit placidam, sub libertate quitem. (By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty)

Bonus for being the oldest motto (1775), but it's a bit long and if you think about it, the second phrase is sort of a non sequitur. "Liberty" does not fully solve the contradiction between "sword" and "peace". (C)

Michigan: Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam circumspice (If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look around you)

Can you imagine being a Michigan second-grader and hearing that this is your state motto? Pathetic. It's worse than Indiana's in the "sponsored by the state tourism board" category. (D)

Minnesota: L'étoile du Nord (The star of the North)

Like Alaska's but truer. (B)

Mississippi: Virtute et armis (By valor and arms)

I admit this is pretty badass, even though it's probably celebrating the Confederacy. (A)

Missouri: Salus populi suprema lex esto (Let the welfare of the people be the supreme law of the land)

If Arkansas and Missouri became one state, its combined motto would be lamp unto the feet and a light unto the path every nation on the earth. (A)

Montana: Oro y plata (Gold and silver)

Fuck principles, we're just going to list precious metals. Somehow more interesting than lists of principles. Plus maybe it's a metaphor or something. (B)

Nebraska: Equality before the law

The motto was due in ten minutes, but the committee hadn't come up with anything! What would they do? State assemblyman Tobias Smyth threw a desperate glance out the window towards the courthouse. Engraved upon its marble exterior was EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW. "It'll do," he thought. Tobias Smyth is now known as the Father of Nebraska. (B)

Nevada: All For Our Country

Hey goofus, it's a state motto not a national one. (F)

New Hampshire: Life Free Or Die

Four short words that sum up the ethos of the state. (A)

New Jersey: Liberty and Properity.

Dull and inaccurate. (D)

New Mexico: Crescit eundo (It grows as it goes)

This is the inside joke in the back of a high school yearbook. (D)

New York: Excelsior (Ever upward)

One word? Predicting skyscrapers in 1778? (A)

North Carolina: Esse quam videri (To be, rather than to seem)

State motto...or eighteenth century philosophical tract? Either way, North Carolina is the real deal. (A)

North Dakota: Liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable

Motto, North Dakota, not manifesto. (C)

Ohio: With God, all things are possible

As an if-then statement I guess this is true. (D)

Oklahoma: Labor vincit omnia (Labor conquers all)

What is it with these South-central states and their commie mottos? (A)

Oregon: Alis volat propriis (She flies with her own wings)

Like its neighbor Idaho--cryptic, in a good way. (B)

Pennsylvania: Virtue, Liberty, and Independence

Imagine global egalitarian democratic revolution breaking out, raising the prospect of a just peace for all humanity. Imagine how any person of good will would feel. That is how excited this motto doesn't get me. (C)

Rhode Island: Hope

In the unlikely story of America, there's never been anything false...about Rhode Island. (A)

South Carolina: Dum spiro spero (While I breathe, I hope) AND Animis opibusque parati (Ready in soul and resource)

The first motto gets an A, the second a B. The lowest grade counts; otherwise states would hand in like fifty mottos and hope one was good enough to pass. (B)

South Dakota: Under God the people rule

Arkansas' but with more God and less Latin. (C)

Tennessee: Agriculture and Commerce

No, no, no. I know what you do, Tennessee. What do you believe? (D)

Texas: Friendship

I really like one-word mottos. (A)

Utah: Industry

You have to pick the right word though. Either this is lauding Utah's pitiful industrial sector, or encouraging the awful Protestant work ethic. (C)

Vermont: Freedom and Unity

"Ben and Jerry" would have been more interesting. (C)

Virginia: Sic semper tyrannis (Thus always to tyrants)

Tyrannicide is for lovers. (A)

Washington: Al-ki (by and by)

It gets points for being in an indigenous language, but I don't even know what the English version means. (C)

West Virginia: Montani semper liberi (Mountain men are always free)

Love it! Sums up both the (aspirational) character and the topography of the state. (A)

Wisconsin: Forward

Add an exclamation point or Latin it up and it might work. But as is, it's dull as shit. (D)

Wyoming: Equal Rights

Wyoming is still bragging about being the first to grant suffrage to women. But then again it's not bad thing to brag about. (B)

Observations:
-Only a fraction of state mottos truly inspire.
-The quality of the motto has little to do with the quality of the state.
-I am a sucker for populist rhetoric.
-My repulsion to the mere name of God indicates I may be either a demon or a vampire.

-----
A while back I got a kick out of this rating of the national flags. Re-reading it now, I may have borrowed more than I thought.

TRUMP?!

I don't fucking get it. Who the hell is supporting Donald Trump? This is unfathomable to me.

It's a comparable breeze to understand why someone would want Huckabee or Ron Paul. I even sort of understand supporting Rudy Giuliani. He's the kind of guy you trust to round up the undesirables and make them disappear. Trump, on the other hand, simply isn't credible. He can't muster Guiliani's authoritarian technocratic menace or the good-old-boy chuckling "charm" of a racist Southern sheriff like Joe Arpaio. I despise those men and the motivations anyone has in voting for them, but at least I sort of understand.

But Trump is a joke. He is a character created for television. A squinty asshole beloved--as a television character--by lesser assholes. How can anyone look at him and think Let's put him in the White House ?

Excerpts from the Gospel's

The Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man
There was a poor man Lazarus, a rich man Dives, and a dog who licked Lazarus' festering sores. And the disgusting man was cast into an eternal hell of literal fire.

Jesu's and the Adulteress
Jesu's found a woman who had committed adultery. After giving an angry lecture, He said to her, "Go and sin no more."

The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats
There were sheep, and goats, and the wicked were cast into an eternal hell of literal fire.

Disturbance in the Temple
Jesu's came to the Temple, and saw that people were interacting with each other instead of concentrating on God, so Jesus used a whip to cast out the sinners from the holy place.

Jesu's and the Rich Man
Jesu's was approached by a very wealthy man who had kept the Commandments, asking "what else must I do to be saved?" Jesu's told the rich man what he must do, and the rich man went away, requiring no more advice.

Why do you love the devil? explains the apostrophes
H-E-double hockey sticks, explains some ideas I borrowed.

I went to Walmart recently

It was sterile and cold and big. It was unnaturally bright, like heaven. But bad. So hell.

Walmart is like hell. If you think I'm being dramatic, go there at night. There are fewer people then, most of them clinging to the entrance near the plastic ring machine and the scratched-up horsey ride. The plastic horse on the ride cannot leave. Like Satan, aware of his eternal fate, the horse's only pleasure is in corrupting mortals to join him in his suffering. "Come in," the horse beckons, his iris paint chipped, his teeth bared in garish grimace, "Every Day Low Prices. Always." The horse has eaten the externalities. The horse is carnivorous.

Past the horse is the main chamber, the planeless hangar. The bright white pipes and metal support structures converge at some distant point in what should be the horizon; this point is in fact the restrooms. The vaulted heights humble. Have you ever been humbled beneath stars unsullied by city lights? It is nothing like that. It is the humility of standing before a thousand furious horse-headed judges. Look down! Head down! Look too long and the sentence will be pronounced.

Products are found easily and at a suspiciously low price. Rest assured that a small part of your purchase will go to underprivileged children.

Move toward the checkout, the dinghy floating in a sea of tile. Jutting from the walls is Old Glory. Do you feel patriotic? Yeoman farmers once worked this land, and sharecroppers, and slaves. But they are no more. Now they work in this warehouse. The person at the checkout will scan your product. Does this person appreciate living under the warehouse? If this person does not, there are plenty of other persons to take this person's place. There, there. Do not cry. It is only logical.

With your newly acquired goods, move toward the exit. To the warm night air! You do not notice the horse on the way out, but he notices you. He will be waiting for you.

At Walmart.