The kid is learning about biological anthropology for science right now and we just got to the section on genetic drift.
Since it is a college text book we're using, he needed a little help with some examples of the definitions in the book. One definition was about sampling errors and the book used the classic 10 flipped coins as an example (since I'm not teaching the kid statistics and probability till the end of his math book- this example left him confused).
Me: So imagine you are an alien and you are trying to learn about people by watching tv shows.
Kid: Ok
Me: You know how so many things use the 2 guys and a girl set up.
Kid: Oh yeah- I hate that.
Me: Well if you were an alien you would think that men outnumbered women 2 to 1 because that is the dominant example you see on TV. But you'd be wrong,because women are actually closer to 52% of the population.
Kid: Ohhh that's a serious sampling error.
Saturday, November 07, 2009
the oppression olympics is a game of"let's you and hir fight"
First- did you miss me? Cause I missed you internet land. Being without internet is a wee bit like amnesia. I know I know stuff, but without ready written evidence to back me up I feel all lost and woozy and disconnected.
But once more into the breach I am.
Wonder and I were having a discussion a while ago about the friction between feminists who hate that the burden of caring and nurturing is always put on the backs of unpaid women, and PWD who need care in order to function in the world. Both Wonder and I have experience as carers, but for personal reasons I fall more into feminist side of the argument and Wonder falls into the PWD side.
Both of us are right and the solution lies not in acquiescence on either side, but in a 3rd way.
The problem is that women are expected to be the free labor backbone of society, not just in caring for children and spouses but parents and school functions and houses and and and and. It's free labor. It's hard work. It's worth something more than we have been given (less income over the course of our life times, for example). It can wear you out. There is no vacation time from one's own family, after all.
We need caring to stop being seen as some form of biblical punishment that's been inflected on us since Eve ate that stupid apple. We need it to be seen for what it is, and immensely valuable profession that is necessary for society to continue.
And you know the thing about professions is that people get to choose them. They aren't usually forced onto folks.
On the flip side, PWD are part of society, and they deserve every bit of help they can get. Just like children shouldn't be seen as a punishment for wanton trollopy, lapses in good health should not make a person "burdensome".
We need "women's work" to be seen as valuable to society. PWD need to be seen as valuable to society. We need to cough up the money to pay for the tools and the work that it is done to keep society running.
Children need to be looked after, houses need to be cleaned, grandpa shouldn't be left alone during the day because he forgets to turn off the stove. These are valuable jobs. We should pay for them and we should pay well.
(You all know that once caring becomes a "skilled" profession with a livable wage,suddenly all sorts of men will discover their nurturing side- best antidote to the second shift problem I can think of).
But once more into the breach I am.
Wonder and I were having a discussion a while ago about the friction between feminists who hate that the burden of caring and nurturing is always put on the backs of unpaid women, and PWD who need care in order to function in the world. Both Wonder and I have experience as carers, but for personal reasons I fall more into feminist side of the argument and Wonder falls into the PWD side.
Both of us are right and the solution lies not in acquiescence on either side, but in a 3rd way.
The problem is that women are expected to be the free labor backbone of society, not just in caring for children and spouses but parents and school functions and houses and and and and. It's free labor. It's hard work. It's worth something more than we have been given (less income over the course of our life times, for example). It can wear you out. There is no vacation time from one's own family, after all.
We need caring to stop being seen as some form of biblical punishment that's been inflected on us since Eve ate that stupid apple. We need it to be seen for what it is, and immensely valuable profession that is necessary for society to continue.
And you know the thing about professions is that people get to choose them. They aren't usually forced onto folks.
On the flip side, PWD are part of society, and they deserve every bit of help they can get. Just like children shouldn't be seen as a punishment for wanton trollopy, lapses in good health should not make a person "burdensome".
We need "women's work" to be seen as valuable to society. PWD need to be seen as valuable to society. We need to cough up the money to pay for the tools and the work that it is done to keep society running.
Children need to be looked after, houses need to be cleaned, grandpa shouldn't be left alone during the day because he forgets to turn off the stove. These are valuable jobs. We should pay for them and we should pay well.
(You all know that once caring becomes a "skilled" profession with a livable wage,suddenly all sorts of men will discover their nurturing side- best antidote to the second shift problem I can think of).
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Every revolution needs
a manifesto. So while I am not regularly interneted that is what I am working on.
So far I've got the Poor People's Union/Revolution or PPU/R
That's just not very catchy as a name, is it? Suggestions?
Also- for the non-poor but sympathetic (Like Blue Lion) of course you can be part of it, we always need allies. But like allies of other groups, self determination of poor people is the central idea. It's not about charity, or pity, or trying to make the middling meddling middles feel better (not the Blue has EVER done anything like that- I'm talking about the standard charity model of not really helping the poor much while at the same time making poor people feel ashamed because the system chews them up and spits them out at the bottom)
So what would you all like to see in a manifesto? I want it to be as inclusive as possible, no leaving people behind because their flavor of oppression has too many intersections to be easily summed up.
So far I've got the Poor People's Union/Revolution or PPU/R
That's just not very catchy as a name, is it? Suggestions?
Also- for the non-poor but sympathetic (Like Blue Lion) of course you can be part of it, we always need allies. But like allies of other groups, self determination of poor people is the central idea. It's not about charity, or pity, or trying to make the middling meddling middles feel better (not the Blue has EVER done anything like that- I'm talking about the standard charity model of not really helping the poor much while at the same time making poor people feel ashamed because the system chews them up and spits them out at the bottom)
So what would you all like to see in a manifesto? I want it to be as inclusive as possible, no leaving people behind because their flavor of oppression has too many intersections to be easily summed up.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
I'm in a doing kind of mood
After reading about higher jobless rates becoming the new norm, real unemployment being about 20%, homeless families on the street while new apartment buildings sit empty, and fucking fauxgressive douchebags who wanna fat hate at the poor- I'm in the mood to do something.
I also just watched The Future Is Unwritten about Joe Strummer (who I love with the passion of a 1000 fiery suns).
It's time to get our punk rock, DIY, fuck your authority figures and the shiny horse they rode in on, on.
Nobody is gonna speak for us, the poor and ignored. Handouts and charity may feed you for a bit, but we are tired of begging for our fare share. I want to kick and break and punch and bite and scream.
And then I want to build.
I've been thinking that what we poor people need is a union. It shouldn't matter what your job is (or if you have one). We need to band together and scream for ourselves. We need the boots off our necks. We need the boots off our kid's necks. We need to be louder than the poor pitying tones of the middling middles.
It's time for a class war, is what I'm saying.
I also just watched The Future Is Unwritten about Joe Strummer (who I love with the passion of a 1000 fiery suns).
It's time to get our punk rock, DIY, fuck your authority figures and the shiny horse they rode in on, on.
Nobody is gonna speak for us, the poor and ignored. Handouts and charity may feed you for a bit, but we are tired of begging for our fare share. I want to kick and break and punch and bite and scream.
And then I want to build.
I've been thinking that what we poor people need is a union. It shouldn't matter what your job is (or if you have one). We need to band together and scream for ourselves. We need the boots off our necks. We need the boots off our kid's necks. We need to be louder than the poor pitying tones of the middling middles.
It's time for a class war, is what I'm saying.
Friday, October 16, 2009
10 things that shame and punishment and restriction have never "cured"
Quickly- I am at the library with a scant few minutes of internet time before closing. Watch me type so fast my fingers flame
Here's your top ten list of things not "cured" by shame, punishment or restriction:
1) Homosexuality
2) extra-marital sex (either pre marital or adultery)
3) rape (when the shame, punishment, restriction is aimed at victims or potential victims instead of rapists)
4)disease (did shame ever cure an AIDS patient? Or a lung cancer victim?)
5) obesity (if fat shaming worked we'd all look like Ralph Lauren models)
6)mental illness
7) immigration- legal or otherwise. (go back and ask the Irish if "No Irish Allowed" kept them from immigrating 150 years ago. Ask the Chinese in San Francisco if shame kept them out?
8) poverty
9)poverty
10)POVERTY
Einstein famously said that "insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting to get a different result". I think it's more stupidity.
Several things above don't need to be cured at all, they are blights on society (homosexuality, extra-marital sex, immigration, obesity)
The others are illness or disease, which last I checked only got cured through medical science, and poverty.
Poverty has been a source of shame for those who live in it since forever. Punishment doesn't cure it either, whether it's Workhouses or debtors prison or Welfare to Work policies.
We've tried shame, punishment, and restriction for eons to end poverty. Perhaps it's time we tried something less stupid. Perhaps it's time we realized that poverty is not the result of personal, individual failures but of a society that refuses to provide basic living requirements to the least powerful of it's members.
(It is probably a good thing that our internet died when it did- as I was so angry at the fauxgressive, sexist, classist, fat shaming going on at Change.org that my blood pressure was seriously rising. I have no more patience for helpful wolves in sheep costume)
PPS-- I cannot type blog posts from my phone, but I can read comments and might be able to respond, so consider this an open thread. I miss you peeps.
Here's your top ten list of things not "cured" by shame, punishment or restriction:
1) Homosexuality
2) extra-marital sex (either pre marital or adultery)
3) rape (when the shame, punishment, restriction is aimed at victims or potential victims instead of rapists)
4)disease (did shame ever cure an AIDS patient? Or a lung cancer victim?)
5) obesity (if fat shaming worked we'd all look like Ralph Lauren models)
6)mental illness
7) immigration- legal or otherwise. (go back and ask the Irish if "No Irish Allowed" kept them from immigrating 150 years ago. Ask the Chinese in San Francisco if shame kept them out?
8) poverty
9)poverty
10)POVERTY
Einstein famously said that "insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting to get a different result". I think it's more stupidity.
Several things above don't need to be cured at all, they are blights on society (homosexuality, extra-marital sex, immigration, obesity)
The others are illness or disease, which last I checked only got cured through medical science, and poverty.
Poverty has been a source of shame for those who live in it since forever. Punishment doesn't cure it either, whether it's Workhouses or debtors prison or Welfare to Work policies.
We've tried shame, punishment, and restriction for eons to end poverty. Perhaps it's time we tried something less stupid. Perhaps it's time we realized that poverty is not the result of personal, individual failures but of a society that refuses to provide basic living requirements to the least powerful of it's members.
(It is probably a good thing that our internet died when it did- as I was so angry at the fauxgressive, sexist, classist, fat shaming going on at Change.org that my blood pressure was seriously rising. I have no more patience for helpful wolves in sheep costume)
PPS-- I cannot type blog posts from my phone, but I can read comments and might be able to respond, so consider this an open thread. I miss you peeps.
Relay messsage from the Red Queen
Okay, this is my third attempt to make Blogger my pal and get it to post the WHOLE post. Please, Blogger, be my fwiend?
Got word this morning from the Red Queen herself. She, the Kid and all are fine--it's just her internet connection that's fubar. RQ, here's hoping it'll all be straightened out to your satisfaction soon. The joint ain't the same without ya.
But, to pass the time while you're offline, would anyone like to contribute an ode to Sen. Al Franken for his overall awesomeness? (Or one decrying the 30 male Republican senators who thought the suffering of gang-rape victims should be secondary to Halliburton's profits?) I'll start:
The clown speaks the truth
and helps the sufferers more
than their "protectors."
Got word this morning from the Red Queen herself. She, the Kid and all are fine--it's just her internet connection that's fubar. RQ, here's hoping it'll all be straightened out to your satisfaction soon. The joint ain't the same without ya.
But, to pass the time while you're offline, would anyone like to contribute an ode to Sen. Al Franken for his overall awesomeness? (Or one decrying the 30 male Republican senators who thought the suffering of gang-rape victims should be secondary to Halliburton's profits?) I'll start:
The clown speaks the truth
and helps the sufferers more
than their "protectors."
Friday, October 09, 2009
What? No? What for exactly?
What has he done exactly to merit this?
Anything? Even one tiny thing? Are they giving out Nobels now just for being NotBush?
Oh I get it now- they are giving to him with the hope that he'll make some change.
Hopium Smoking- not just for Obots during primary season anymore.
Anything? Even one tiny thing? Are they giving out Nobels now just for being NotBush?
Oh I get it now- they are giving to him with the hope that he'll make some change.
Hopium Smoking- not just for Obots during primary season anymore.
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