You may delay, but time will not.
Benjamin Franklin
Creepy Government Employee of the Day
From Boing Boing:
Here's what happened, as my daughter described it in text messages to us: she was at the station where the TSA checks IDs. She said the officer was "glaring" at her and mumbling. She said, "Excuse me?" and he said, "You're only 15, COVER YOURSELF!" in a hostile tone.Not the first government employee involved in a cover-up; more seriously, why is some TSA agent leering at a minor and commenting on her appearance (Frauenfelder posts a picture presumably of his daughter at the airport, she is wearing slacks and a top that barely hints of cleavage and/or midriff; she appears to have an average build. (There was a recent story about a well-endowed Washington teen initially denied entrance to her prom due to the school dress code.) ) I have no idea why a safety officer thinks how the appearance of passengers is any of his business; what's next: would he think it appropriate to tell me I could stand to lose a few pounds? [In a personal anecdote, I was at the Providence airport on a sweltering summer day. I saw a family with 3 young children, probably on their way to Disneyworld; the very well-endowed mom was wearing a top showing off a jaw-dropping amount of cleavage. I just assume most travelers dress to be comfortable; in this example, the woman accompanied by young children clearly wasn't dressing to attract male attention.]
I may have mentioned this example in a prior post. When I was on the UWM faculty, I was using a statistical package called LISREL to do confirmatory factor analysis for one of my research projects. For reasons I don't recall, I couldn't access the software through my office PC but had to go down to a lab. I befriended a psychology graduate student staffing the lab. She happened to be well-endowed but always wore clothes like heavy sweaters that minimized her curves and always covered up from the neck down. I've only mentioned this to set the context; we liked each other personally. (I was concerned about university policies so I never asked her out, but she made it clear she was interested.)
So one day we were chatting when she told me about a professor in one of her classes whom told her to stay after class. He then allegedly told her that her breasts were too large and were causing a distraction to the rest of the class--she had to do something about them. I'm not sure what--the last time I checked, they aren't detachable, so you can store them in a locker during lecture. I had never seen this lady wear anything that flattered her figure. I told her it was wildly inappropriate on his part and I figured maybe he was making a weird pass at her. It never crossed my mind to comment on a student's appearance; under progressive academia, a single white male is presumed guilty; I made sure my office door was open when a coed visited, and the best preventive policy is never to mention appearance, where even an innocuous compliment could be taken out of context. I never knew what became of my friend in the stat lab. I think she may have told the student newspaper around the time I was preparing to move to El Paso, because I read a remarkably similar story. I don't recall if we discussed her filing a grievance; if he was a highly regarded tenured professor, she maybe worried the school would look the other way and she might face reprisals.
The one thing I regret about Frauenfelder is that he engages unnecessarily in politically correct ideological feminist claptrap, complete with the ludicrous Hillary Clinton vast male conspiracy nonsense. Total overkill: you can't generalize from one employee making an unsolicited, inappropriate comment. I have never told female relatives how to dress; I have occasionally told nieces I'm not fond of unnatural hair color, body piercings (especially on tongues), tattoos, or Gothic makeup, not that it matters to them what I think; I'm sure other guys approve of the same things. I once had a very tall girlfriend whom wore a white outfit to Mass; I casually mentioned how attractive she looked in that outfit, and the next time I saw her, she was wearing the same outfit in question. I was convinced my compliment, with no ulterior motive, influenced her decision what to wear. I thought to myself, how cool: it's like having a giant Barbie doll. (Believe me, she had a mind of her own; she really didn't take it well when I broke up with her: she was determined to have the last word and lost whatever respect I had for her in the process.)
The Life of Emily
The Miss Utah Moment
Question: “A recent report shows that in 40 percent of American families with children, women are the primary earners, yet they continue to earn less than men. What does it say about society?”
Answer: “I think we can relate this back to education and how we are continuing to try to strive to … … figure out how to create jobs right now. That’s the biggest problem and I think, especially the men, are, uh, seen as the leaders of this and so we need to try and figure out how to create education better so we can solve this problem.”Whereas much attention has rightly been focused on the stream-of-consciousness gibberish response, little has been paid to the economically illiterate loaded question. First, and Mark Perry of Carpe Diem has published innumerable posts on this, women increasingly comprise a majority of college graduates, a category correlated with higher incomes. I have a married sister and a married niece, both RN's, whom have earned more than their husbands (I don't believe either has earned a bachelor's).Part of that figure is where the woman earns more, which doesn't foot with the comment "they continue to earn less than men". Do they mean to suggest that less experienced male nurses earn more than female nurses? That simply doesn't make business sense. Why would I pay a man more than I have to, given labor supply and demand?
Second, the 77 centers fail to control for factors like experience, hours, lifestyle choices, etc. I know a lot of men, as well as women, whom don't want to put in more than 40 hours; if you're a manager or a road warrior, it affects quality of life. You may be less willing to move to another state to accept a promotion. I have 3 of 4 sisters whom chose not to work until their youngest child was in school. To employers you don't have the same experience, your skills and knowledge may have eroded and/or have been obsoleted. It has nothing to do with some vast male conspiracy; it has to do with worker productivity. Ignorance or abuse of statistics is no excuse for irrational conspiracy theories.
Third, let's even suppose for the sake of argument that the feminist conspiracy theorists are correct. In a capitalist system, such an irrational arrangement where women are allegedly paid less, all other things held equal, i.e., women are equally productive, a competitor would have an economic interest to arbitrage that spread.
The loaded question presumes fairness from an ideological perspective. From an individual perspective, it is not fair to pay a given female DBA the same as me when I literally do up to 8 times more work.
The question is based on an abuse of statistics. But there are hints of truth in Miss Utah's response, An economic growth policy can yield more jobs, including higher-paying value-added knowledge workers. Regulatory and/or occupational license reform can make it easier for "work from home" entrepreneurs to start and grow a business. Merit pay and collective bargaining reforms (e.g., seniority-favored layoff policies) can make a difference in heavily female occupations like K-12 teaching.
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Henry Payne and Townhall |
The Beatles, "Love Me Do"
