Comments on: Where it’s all going

By: Thinking about Dumbledore « Bookworm Room

Thinking about Dumbledore « Bookworm Room — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 15:37:50 +0000

[...] So should gays really be celebrating this revelation? It seems to me as if Rowling is saying that, while homosexuals can quite obviously be loving, brilliant, powerful, honorable and brave, their sexuality can blind them and celibacy is the better option. That seems to be strictly in keeping with the religious doctrine that says that, while gays can’t help being gay, they shouldn’t act on it. (I actually find this view troubling, since sexuality is such an integral part of the human condition. I just like bedroom conduct kept in the bedroom, and off the streets and out of politics.) [...]

By: twps

twps — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 15:53:33 +0000

Oh joy. Our tax dollars at work yet again.

By: ymarsakar

ymarsakar — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 12:21:07 +0000

The aristocrats are all racists at heart, for how else can they justify the fact that they can live it big and rich while others have to sludge through life living hand to mouth?

They must believe themselves superior, in one way or another, else they would feel too much guilt. Without noblesse oblige, how would such a person such as Kerry or Kennedy ever live with themselves?

By: Bookworm

Bookworm — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 23:17:45 +0000

Found it, Earl, and I should have remembered sooner. James Watson is the Nobel Prize winner who stated his belief that black people are overall less smart than other people. He has since apologized and stated that he doesn’t know what came over him when he made that statement.

Certainly I’m extremely uncomfortable with the idea of drawing racial lines around intelligence — except that I’d be the first to tell you that, when it comes to Bell Curve intelligence tests, Jews tend to have a higher Bell Curve than other groups. So I guess it’s okay to think these thoughts in connection with higher performance than with lower performance.

The problem, of course, with making lower performance claims about other races is that you start getting into issues of education and opportunity. Jews have a culture that was historically devoted to academic achievement and that, again historically, elevated intelligence to a very valued level. Other cultures don’t do that, and you really can’t have a pure test of intelligence absent full educational opportunities and a culture devoted to the world of the mind. If people aren’t training those mental muscles, how can you make conclusions about their innate quality?

By: Bookworm

Bookworm — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 23:10:59 +0000

I don’t know, Earl. Since it was part of the quotation, I just kept it there. I was rather hoping either (a) that the reference could be used to demonstrate the falsity or truth of the quotation or (b) that someone would explain to me who poor James Watson is/was.

By: Earl

Earl — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 22:50:22 +0000

Can someone direct me to the source
of the “forced recantation” by James
Watson?

What is *that* about?

By: Michael Phillips

Michael Phillips — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 16:53:22 +0000

After four decades of management and management consulting I can assure you that anti-discrimination laws place a low hurdle in the path of all classes covered by the law.

Top management, not middle-management, has a bias toward people who do not have an extra tool for suing the corporation. That unprotected class is getting smaller all the time. It now includes heterosexual white males under 55 years old, not too heavy and in very good health.

By: Ellie

Ellie — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 16:33:52 +0000

When (and why) did “gender” come to mean “sex”. Maybe when sex came to mean intercourse?

For the record, sex mean classification according to reproduction function and gender means classification according to grammatical conventions.

Not that the language can’t evolve, I just find it curious when it does.

By: Earl

Earl — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 16:33:35 +0000

Mike, the issue for Galileo was whether the earth was
fixed in space with everything revolving around it, or
if the sun was the center of the solar system, with
earth moving around *it*. Thus, the quote - said to
have been uttered as he left the room after recanting
his position - was “Still, it moves.” The VERY BEST
book on this subject - and you will be shocked at
how you were lied to all these years - is Galileo’s
Mistake, which you can find at Amazon. Read it.
http://www.amazon.com/Galileos-Mistake-Confrontation-Between-Galileo/dp/1559707224/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-3421435-7870520?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192897648&sr=8-1

Ivan, I would only add “Christian” to that list.

Our culture is going insane…….

By: Ivan Ivanovich

Ivan Ivanovich — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 13:58:21 +0000

I did not object to “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” in 1964, nor do I now, but I do object to Everyone, Except White Heterosexual Males, Shall Be Protected.