Male Scientist Writes of Life as Female Scientist

When I read about neurobiologist Ben Barres, I was reminded of Teiresias (though I could not remember his/her name and spent a long time figuring it out — read on). I suppose our debates are more lofty than the Greeks, though I think we are still willing to put out the eyes of some with whom we disagree. mjh

Male Scientist Writes of Life as Female Scientist By Shankar Vedantam, Washington Post Staff Writer

Neurobiologist Ben Barres has a unique perspective on former Harvard president Lawrence Summers’s assertion that innate differences between the sexes might explain why many fewer women than men reach the highest echelons of science.

That’s because Barres used to be a woman himself. …

After he underwent a sex change nine years ago at the age of 42, Barres recalled, another scientist who was unaware of it was heard to say, “Ben Barres gave a great seminar today, but then his work is much better than his sister’s.”

And as a female undergraduate at MIT, Barres once solved a difficult math problem that stumped many male classmates, only to be told by a professor: “Your boyfriend must have solved it for you.” …

While there are men and women on both sides of the argument, the debate has exposed fissures along gender lines, which is what makes Barres so unusual. Barres said he has realized from personal experience that many men are unconscious of the privileges that come with being male, which leaves them unable to countenance talk of glass ceilings and discrimination. …

“Does anyone doubt if you study harder you will do better on a test?” Barres asked. “The mere existence of an IQ difference does not say it is innate. . . . Why do Asian girls do better on math tests than American boys? No one thinks they are innately better.”

In her debate with Pinker last year, Spelke said arguments about innate differences as explanations for disparities become absurd if applied to previous eras. “You won’t see a Chinese face or an Indian face in 19th-century science,” she said. “It would have been tempting to apply this same pattern of statistical reasoning and say, there must be something about European genes that give rise to greater mathematical talent than Asian genes.”

“I think we want to step back and ask, why is it that almost all Nobel Prize winners are men today?” she concluded. “The answer to that question may be the same reason why all the great scientists in Florence were Christian.”

The Wrath of Heaven

According to the more popular version by Hesiod and Ovid, the young Teiresias was out in the country, at the foot of Mount Cithaeron, when he came upon two snakes mating. With his staff, he killed the female snake, which caused him to transform into a young woman. For seven years, he lived his life as a woman. Then he came upon the same snakes and was transformed back into a man.

Zeus and Hera were having an argument over who has the most pleasure in a sexual intercourse, a man or a woman. Zeus teased Hera, by saying that the woman had more pleasure than a man did. Hera had the opposite view.

To prove their point, they went to see Teiresias, who had sex as a man and a woman. Teiresias told them that a woman had more pleasure during intercourse than a man. Comparing to a scale of ten, woman enjoy sex nine out of ten, compare that of man with one out ten.

When she lost the argument, she had also her temper, so she was swift with her punishment. Hera struck Teiresias blind. Zeus taking pity on the young blind man, gave Teiresias the gift of second sight and extended his life, longer than most mortals (seven generations from the time of Cadmus to that of the Epigoni).

The most puzzling part of this is that each gender claimed the *OTHER* enjoyed sex more and Hera was furious that women might enjoy sex more. How far we have come. mjh

Land of the Free, Home of the Military-Industrial Complex

Tiny, touristy, laid-back Santa Fe is armed to the teeth against … whatever. Which were the other 4 towns? Reserve? How many did Wyoming get? mjh

ABQjournal: Santa Fe SWAT Team Unveils Its New Armored Bearcat By Jeremy Pawloski, Journal Staff Report

The Santa Fe Police Department’s SWAT Team has a new toy— a $250,000, armor-plated, bullet-resistant black Bearcat.

The Bearcat is built to intimidate, with gunports on its sides and huge wheels that can take it offroad virtually anywhere.

Primarily, the vehicle will be used in any situation that the SWAT Team needs it— hostage situations, extracting barricaded subjects, serving “high-risk” search warrants in narcotics investigations and protecting visiting dignitaries, according to Santa Fe SWAT Commander Lt. Gary Johnson. …

The five Bearcats distributed to various SWAT teams across New Mexico were paid for with state and federal Homeland Security grant money, according to Santa Fe SWAT Team Leader Officer John Schaerfl.

Schaerfl said the Bearcat has a built-in radiation detector and an “explosive atmosphere detector” that will sound an alarm in the event of a potentially explosive gas leak. A porthole at the top of the Bearcat allows SWAT members to peek outside. The vehicle also has air-conditioning and a CD player.

Gary Johnson said the Bearcat could be utilized in the event of any potential terrorist threats in New Mexico.

Senate Committee Acts To Restore Protection For Whistle-Blowers

Senate Committee Acts To Restore Protection For Whistle-Blowers By Stephen Barr

In a breakthrough for advocates of whistle-blower rights, the Senate has approved an amendment that would tighten up protections for federal employees who expose waste, fraud, abuse and threats to public safety. …

Numerous federal whistle-blowers have complained in recent years that agencies fail to handle their cases in a confidential manner and to ensure they do not suffer reprisals from their superiors.

The Akaka amendment would permit federal employees to claim whistle-blower protection for “any” disclosure they make of wrongdoing. According to Akaka, the amendment would restore and clarify congressional intent as to what type of whistle-blowing is protected and where it may take place. …

But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled that federal employees have no protection for disclosures made to immediate supervisors or co-workers, for statements made in connection with their normal employment duties, or for statements of publicly known facts.

Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that public employees cannot seek First Amendment protection in sounding an alarm but must rely on federal and state laws to protect them from reprisals.

Dozens of the Wealthy Join to Fight Estate Tax Repeal

Dozens of the Wealthy Join to Fight Estate Tax Repeal by David Kay Johnston

SEATTLE, Feb. 13 — Some 120 wealthy Americans, including Warren E. Buffett, George Soros and the father of William H. Gates, are urging Congress not to repeal taxes on estates and gifts.

[Among those signing it are Mr. Soros, the billionaire financier; the philanthropist David Rockefeller Jr., former chairman of Rockefeller & Company; Steven C. Rockefeller, chairman of the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation; Agnes Gund, a philanthropist whose family owns stakes in many companies, and Ben Cohen, a founder of Ben & Jerry’s.]

President Bush has proposed phasing out those taxes by 2009. But a petition drive being organized here by Mr. Gates’s father, William H. Gates Sr., argues that “repealing the estate tax would enrich the heirs of America’s millionaires and billionaires while hurting families who struggle to make ends meet.”

The billions of dollars in government revenue lost “will inevitably be made up either by increasing taxes on those less able to pay or by cutting Social Security, Medicare, environmental protection and many other government programs so important to our nation’s continued well-being,” the petition says.

In addition to the loss of government revenue, the petition says, repeal would harm charities, to which many of the affluent make contributions as a way of reducing the size of their estates.

“The estate tax,” it says, “exerts a powerful and positive effect on charitable giving. Repeal would have a devastating impact on public charities.” …

Mr. Buffett said repealing the estate tax “would be a terrible mistake,” the equivalent of “choosing the 2020 Olympic team by picking the eldest sons of the gold-medal winners in the 2000 Olympics.” …

“We have come closer to a true meritocracy than anywhere else around the world,” he said. “You have mobility so people with talents can be put to the best use. Without the estate tax, you in effect will have an aristocracy of wealth, which means you pass down the ability to command the resources of the nation based on heredity rather than merit.”

FBI plans new Net-tapping push

FBI plans new Net-tapping push | Tech News on ZDNet By Declan McCullagh, CNET News.com

The FBI has drafted sweeping legislation that would require Internet service providers to create wiretapping hubs for police surveillance and force makers of networking gear to build in backdoors for eavesdropping, CNET News.com has learned.

FBI Agent Barry Smith distributed the proposal at a private meeting last Friday with industry representatives and indicated it would be introduced by Sen. Mike DeWine, an Ohio Republican, according to two sources familiar with the meeting. …

Eliminate the current legal requirement saying the Justice Department must publish a public “notice of the actual number of communications interceptions” every year. …

DeWine has relatively low approval ratings–47 percent, according to SurveyUSA.com–and is enmeshed in a fierce battle with a Democratic challenger to retain his Senate seat in the November elections. DeWine is a member of a Senate Judiciary subcommittee charged with overseeing electronic privacy and antiterrorism enforcement and is a former prosecutor in Ohio.

god bless amerika

I’m an atheist who believes nationalism and zealotry are the roots of many of the world’s problems. So, you can imagine how horrifying it is for me to see bible-thumpers wrapped in flags, proclaiming Jesus as our true President. The formerly benign “god bless amerika” now gives me the creeps.

During channel surfing, I often linger over a Christian channel. I see things I like, especially the theatrics of T.D. Jakes. (I went through a brief period where I enjoyed Christian music videos — much more so than country.)

It is especially interesting to see the “Christian nation” propaganda that is always present reach a peak near the Fourth of July. There was a sermon on the wicked effort to misrepresent the Founders as Deists. I saw a special on His Holiness, George Christ Bush. Several times, I saw part of a concert held in the White House that seemed to feature only Christian music. It is especially chilling to watch the leader of the non-denominational US watch 5 youths jump off a Hitler Jugend poster and into the White House to sing about Amerika and the freedom we all enjoy, “thanks to that one man.” I know they don’t mean Jefferson, but I can’t tell if the mean Jesus or Duhbya. That room held 50 to 100 people. How many of them thought, “I can’t believe this is happening in the White House.” Any? It made me think of good times at Bergesgarten.

The White House is no longer the People’s House. It is a Christian Compound. We are one election away from Evangelicals demoting the rest of us to second-class citizens. Ironically, they will do this as part of a Religious Freedom Act, to protect them from persecution from secular humanists.

I think I’ll go burn a bible for the Fourth. mjh

take 'under god' out of the pledgeFor evangelicals, a bid to ‘reclaim America’ By Jane Lampman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor | March 16, 2005

An energetic pastor who built Coral Ridge into a 10,000-member megachurch with far-reaching radio and TV audiences, the Rev. Dr. Kennedy regularly calls the US a Christian nation that should be governed by Christians. He has created a Center for Christian Statesmanship in Washington that seeks to evangelize members of Congress and their staffs, and to counsel conservative Christian officeholders. …

Christianity and patriotism are interwoven throughout the gathering, from Christian and American flags marched into the sanctuary, to red, white, and blue banners festooning the church complex, to a rousing “patriotic concert.” Several speakers emphasize the idea that America’s founders were largely Christian and that their intent was to establish a biblically based nation. (No mention is made of other influences on the Founding Fathers, such as Englightenment thinkers or issues of freedom of conscience.)

David Barton, a leading advocate for emphasizing Christianity in US history, deftly selects quotes from letters and historical documents to link major historical figures such as George Washington to a Christian vision, and to suggest that the courts and scholars in the last century have deliberately undermined the original intent of the Founding Fathers. …
Continue reading god bless amerika

Shouts of ‘Treason’ Repress Any Debate

Note: I’m moving this up because the Journal published it 7/3/06 and I think it says something about freedom and independence in America today. peace, mjh

In so very many matters these days, reactions are binary. You see black, I see white. You say yes, I say no. Worse, the notion of “let’s agree to disagree” is long gone. I’m right and you are not only wrong, you are an idiot without morals. Or vice versa.

So, it is no surprise that some people think the Bush Administration should do absolutely anything it deems necessary to fight the War Without End: spy, arrest, torture — anything. Similarly, it is no surprise that some people find these “cures” worse than the disease.

The latest installment in this is the program involving sifting through financial transactions looking for something. To some, this is a no-brainer, to others, this is intrusive. More importantly, it is just one more example of a President who believes he has no limits so long as he’s “protecting” us like a Big Brother.

To tell you the truth, I don’t really care about this latest assault. I rather doubt any of my financial transactions rise to the level of notice. If Bush wants to spy on rich people, he has my blessings. I doubt they’ll tolerate it for long.

What troubles me is the Radical Right’s tactic of shooting the messenger. To the Radical Right, the discussion is not about civil liberties or even appropriate tactics in the War Without End, it’s about treason — the New York Times has committed treason in revealing these details, as the Washington Post committed treason in revealing our CIA prisons, etc.

You and I cannot agree or disagree on something kept secret from us. Nor can we have any intelligent debate if we reduce it all to a matter of treason.

Secrecy is unavoidable in all human matters. However, secrecy is a great tool of totalitarianism, as is a populace that wants to be kept safe and in the dark and is willing to destroy anyone who wants things discussed in the open. mjh

Think Progress » VIDEO: Snow Lashes Out at Media, Suggests NYT Has Undermined Americans’ ‘Right to Live’

Press Secretary Tony Snow followed up with another attack at today’s press briefing:

[T]he New York Times and other news organizations ought to think long and hard about whether a public’s right to know in some cases might override somebody’s right to live, and whether in fact the publications of these could place in jeopardy the safety of fellow Americans.

Think Progress » Rep. King: NYT Reporters Should Be Charged Under Espionage Act

Rep. Peter King (R-NY): [N]o one elected the New York Times to do anything. And the New York Times is putting its own arrogant elitest left wing agenda before the interests of the American people, and I’m calling on the Attorney General to begin a criminal investigation and prosecution of the New York Times — its reporters, the editors who worked on this, and the publisher. We’re in a time of war, Chris, and what they’ve done has violated the Espionage Act, the COMINT act.

GOP Measure Slams NYT for Bank Story By Ben Pershing, Roll Call Staff

The House will vote on a resolution today or Thursday that is expected to criticize The New York Times for its recent disclosure of the government’s secret use of information from a massive international finance network to fight terrorism.

Think Progress » Hardball Guest Says NYT Editor Is Guilty of ‘Treason,’ Advocates ‘Prison For 20 Years’

[MSNBC’s Hardball Chris] MATTHEWS: Let me ask you Melanie, do you really mean treason? You mean put them in jail for life? I don’t know what treason carries as a sanction, but I assume the penalties are incredible severe, 20 years perhaps.

[radio talk show host Melanie] MORGAN: Yes.

MATTHEWS: You are saying to put Bill Keller and his associates in prison for 20 years?

MORGAN: Absolutely. I am absolutely advocating that. What has happened is shameful If he’s the one that is ultimately responsible for making this decision. …

When you break the law, you break the law. And the press, the media in this country have to learn one thing. They have to operate under the same laws and the same rules and regulations that all of the rest of the American people do.

Piling On the New York Times With a Scoop By Howard Kurtz, Washington Post Staff Writer

Even by modern standards of media-bashing, the volume of vitriol being heaped upon the editors on Manhattan’s West 43rd Street is remarkable — especially considering that the Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal also published accounts Friday of a secret administration program to monitor the financial transactions of terror suspects. So, in its later editions, did The Washington Post. …

[R]arely if ever has any White House mounted such a sustained public campaign against a single news organization. And a vast array of pundits on the right have responded by escalating their rhetoric.

Heather MacDonald, writing in the Weekly Standard, called the Times “a national security threat” that is “drunk” on its own power. …

Despite the stories that appeared in competing papers, the New York Times is still bearing the brunt of the criticism at the White House, on Capitol Hill and throughout the media world.