The Power of Labels

John Doe of Hate Male Post argues that men and father’s rights activists should not use the term “feminazi.” He believes that this prevents productive discussion between the radical side of feminism and those who care about men and fathers.


I agree that “feminazi” is not a productive term to use, but for reasons that differ from those of Mr. Doe. I long ago gave up on having a rational dialog with most self-identified feminists. They reside in a twilight zone that believes that facts, logic, and science are inconveniences to a larger ideological cause. They realize that America’s propensity for hysteria far out weighs its analytic abilities. What matters, though, is what everyone else thinks about your arguments, not what the feminists themselves think.

Are many feminists something like Nazis? Yes, they are. And, they have even more in common with Stalinists. But, this is not something worth debating or quibbling over. You don't win any points with the general public when you state the obvious. Especially not when you do it with anger.

Nazi or Stalinist, the problem when you use terms like feminazi: YOU loose credibility. Feminists are very good at hiding behind the fact that they are women, and therefore weaker and deserving of special protection, whenever it suites them. (Of course, at all other times they claim to be equal and often better than men).

So, when someone refers to them as feminazis, they are able to easily paint that person with a variety of negative images. Once that happens, the logic of your point or argument is lost behind the distraction of the feminazi label you used.

Really, anyone can go around using names like "feminazi." What is MORE difficult - and much, much more valuable - is to build rational and cogent arguments for why contemporary feminism is not only wrong, but actually destructive. Those rational arguments are what will eventually win the day, not some hothead calling feminists feminazis.

In all circumstances, it is much better to label the sect of misandrist feminism "gender feminists." First, the gender feminists did not come up with that term, it was created by Christina Hoff-Sommers (who wrote the War Against Boys). So, they hate it when you use that term.

Second, it is an innocuous sounding, almost clinical sounding, and certainly scholarly sounding term. Yet, it is loaded with meaning. "Gender feminist" is clearly a negative term within contemporary epistemology. So, when you use it, you get credibility while also the satisfaction of knowing that it makes gender feminists grind their teeth.

So, while calling a woman that hates men a feminazi might help you to blow off some steam, you are actually doing a lot more damage to them and their ideology when you use the term "gender feminist." They want you to call them a feminazi, because they want you to discredit yourself. But, when you use the term gender feminist, you take away all of their tricks and all that is left is a rational and logical debate.

On that score, they loose.

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Gregoire Fakes It on Healthcare

Uh oh. Queen Gregoire is going to get involved in the intimate details of your healthcare. In fact, she is going to “take charge” of what treatments you can have, how and where you get healthcare service, who can give you service, and how you live.

From her press release:

“We can’t spend our way out of our health care crisis. We have to confront the real issues of why costs are spiraling out of control. I’m focusing on five major changes:”

“First we should significantly increase our use of evidence-based medicine. We’re going to look at results, not watch television commercials, to determine the best care options.”
Translation: She will decide what your treatment should be for what ails you, not your doctor.

“Second, I want us to better manage chronic care by working to keep more people out of it, because right now 5 percent of people consume 50 percent of health care costs.”
Translation: If you are in pain, you better get over it. Or, die.
“Third, people who purchase health care should be empowered with a more transparent system that lets them be informed customers who shop for health care by price and quality.”
Translation: She will define health insurance products, not health insurance providers.

“Fourth, we must bring our health care systems into the 21st Century. Let’s use our new technology to eliminate waste, trim down administrative costs and get more efficient, timely delivery of care.”
Translation: Information about your healthcare will no longer be private.

“And fifth, we need to take responsibility for both our personal health and everyone’s health by promoting healthy lifestyles and choices in our schools, workplaces and communities.”
Translation: She will raise taxes.

None of this, of course, will do anything to lower the cost of healthcare. The market for healthcare is like any other market and prices therefore respond to supply and demand. Gregoire’s proposals are focused on demand, primarily through limited your choices.

If she really wanted to have a profound impact on healthcare prices, she would focus on supply - increasing supply. Greater supply of a product or service results in lower prices. For example, doctors have been leaving the state for years because the state’s legal system and courts are so friendly to frivolous lawsuits. Get rid of these laws suites and doctors will stay. Don't count on Gregoire to do anything about that, because her largest campaign contributors are trial lawyers.

This proposal is simply political grandstanding.

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More Unreported Campaign Ads

Does anyone really believe the BS in the free advertisement for the Sims campaign published in the Seattle Times today?

The purpose of this advertisement seems to be to revive Sims reputation after his role in the corrupt election of Queen Christine to the Governor’s office has been thoroughly exposed by Stephan Sharkansky of Sound Politics. The Seattle Times definitely went to bat for their pal Sims.

The fact is, there might be many appealing things about Sims, depending on your political views. I was even moved almost to tears by the speech he gave after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The problem is that he was directly involved in an election that was clearly gamed to put Gregoire in office. The situation is similar to the fact that none of us are above the law. We might do all sorts of good things, be likable, and so on, but if we break the law, we will be prosecuted. Sims broke our most sacred trust – our democracy – and so, he really should not be allowed to stay in office for another term.

Speaking of campaign ads, Judge "I-hate-fathers" Wickham upheld his own decision that KVI talk radio hosts John Carlson and Kirby Wilbur made campaign contributions to I-912 (which would roll back the outrageous slush fund called a gas tax) simply because they talked about it and expressed their opinions in support of it on the radio.

Well, if that’s the case, isn’t the Seattle Times campaign ad disguised as a newspaper article about Sims also a campaign contribution?

Even more egregious under the new rules, isn’t Joni Balter’s opinion piece in today’s paper arguing against I-912 a campaign contribution for the other side?

This is a slippery slope, but now that we are on it, we should slide all the way to the bottom.

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Nah, No Bubble Here

The Washington DC metro area is the place to watch if you want to be forewarned of a collapsing real estate bubble. After prices were run up dramatically in the area in the late 1980s, DC was one of the first markets to collapse. And, it collapsed big time.


Today’s Washington Post has a column about young people purchasing homes in the area. It is replete with accounts of 20 year olds purchasing homes with little money down (in some cases, financing the down payment with God knows what kind of loan) and using interest only mortgages.

This reminds me so much of the Internet bubble. I know I keep saying that, but the similarities are just striking. At that time, there were so many 20-somethings working in these joints and believing that somehow the fundamental laws of economics had shifted. Profits didn’t matter, not even revenue, because it was the New Economy! Yeah baby!

Well, most of them found that their stock options were worthless by the time they could exercise them. They learned firsthand how quickly markets can turn. One day they were working their tails off in a company they thought would make them multi-millionaires before the age of 30, and the next morning they encountered locked front doors. Who knows what they have moved on to, but I’d guess they are looking at the current crop of 20-somethings and shaking their heads. Or, maybe it is their irrational exuberance that is driving the current real estate boom.

This article is full of telltale signs that the real estate market in the Washington DC metro area is out of whack. This for example:

"I feel like if I don't buy now, I'll never be able to live in Washington," Newland said. "And if I don't do it now, nothing will be in my range."

And this ….

Young buyers' "willingness to consider taking financial risks is much, much higher than it used to be," said Keene Taylor Jr. of Taylor Foster real estate.

But, that’s OK, because real estate is not highly leveraged like, say a dot com company in 1999. Or is it?

After boning up on real estate jargon and ditching a lender who refused to use e-mail, Goldman clinched a contract on a 625-square-foot, one-bedroom condo in McLean for $157,000. She put down 5 percent, mortgaged 80 percent and took out a line of credit for the remaining 15 percent.

Well, maybe not. But, at least home buyers are generally an experienced and sober lot …

Home buyers between the ages of 18 and 34 made up 39 percent of the market last year, according to the most recent data from the National Association of Realtors. And 12 percent of first-time home buyers were younger than 25.

And doesn’t this sound a little like the Day Trader’s mantra?

"When your house sale's return is comparable to your day job's salary every one to two years, moving is no big deal," Mazza said in an e-mail.

Good thing these interest only loans are going to people that really qualify for them …

Iobst recommends a few tricks to help his young clients stay competitive. One is to have their parents take over monthly bills for a few months so their bank accounts can stay full -- making it appear to lenders that the buyers really do have the cash on hand to seal the deal.

At least the Post provides something of a reality check ….

Falling too in love with a house -- or the idea of a house -- can be costly in the long run. Interest-only or adjustable rate mortgages are structured for lower payments -- at least initially. But if interest rates soar after a few years, as they have been known to do, monthly payments could double.

And, finally, while real estate does have an underlying asset that in most cases will not go to $0 like stocks can, and the real estate market moves slower than the stock market, when things hit a tipping point, they tend to go south faster than anyone would expect. And a lot further.

Already, there are some signs that the Washington market could be slowing down, and some analysts think it peaked months ago. If owners try to sell their homes when the market has cooled off, they could wind up owing more than it's worth.

The sky will not fall if real estate prices come down. Well, not permanently. But, there will be some people in a world of hurt when those balloon payments eventually come due on those interest only loans. Can you say, "Buyers market"?

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Breaking with Reality

Several father's rights groups have rallied to push back against misinformation, lies, and gender feminist propoganda in a recent PBS "documentary" entitled Breaking the Silence. This documentary should have been called Breaking with Reality, since it states myths as if they are facts.

As near as I can tell, the point of Breaking the Silence is to expose how fathers supposedly are abusing a concept called Parental Alienation Syndrome and getting custody of their children in divorce cases at will. Anyone that knows anything about the statistics of the outcomes of divorce cases knows that in the vast majority of divorces with children, the mother gets custody of the children. One need go no further than this fact in order to discredit the entire "documentary," even though practically every minute of it makes statements that are easily shown to be false.

Gender feminists love to harp on about breaking this mythical silence about topics such as domestic abuse. In reality, with $5 billion in funding from the federal government going to gender feminist organizations thanks to the misandrist Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), it's hard to hear pretty much anything but what feminists want you to hear about American families. An extraterrestrial intelligence intercepting our communications and perhaps running Google searches would have to conclude that the male human species on earth, especially men in America, are brainless brutes who ALL create their own private Idaho of violence as part of their mating ritual.

Of course, this is not true. American women are the most privileged group in the history of the world. They are the safest, the most pampered, and with the most options available to them of any group (including those horrible members of the "patriarchy") the world has ever seen. Despite this fact, their "voice" is now a shrill cacophony of loud complaints that is heard above all others.

Many women, in fact probably most women, are aware of this. Most are thankful that they live in times that give them so many options, from being a housewife with children to sitting at the head of the table in the boardroom of a major corporation. Thankful that they have the best medical care, best housing, best nutrition, most access to education, and fastest transportation ever available to any group (including men). Unfortunately, a shrill few, who are also the loudest, the angriest, the most disaffected, and most hateful, seem to have the bullhorn.

Breaking the Silence is yet another unreasonable and hateful scream from those controlling the bullhorn. Perhaps a letter recently sent to PBS provides the best picture of how distorted and gross gender politics in our generation has become. That letter follows:

****************

Dear Madison,

As a father who was initially accused of child abuse (and later,
spousal abuse), and in each instance, without any evidence to back the
allegations, and, as a father who attempted to impress upon the court
that the children of this marriage were indeed being subject to intense
parental alienation, an act also noted by the forensic evaluator, and a
father who ultimately lost custody of his children as a result of
the 'system' being unduly swayed by the feminist rant of 'PAS' being a
fraudulent science brought onto the courts by 'angry fathers', I take
great offense at your response.

Upon the release of the original 'Breaking the Silence' episode, I
contacted my local PBS station (KPBS in San Diego, CA) and informed
them of my concern. Their response was that my concerns were to be
forwarded to the station manager who I was promised would get back to
me and which, to no surprise, he/she never did.

You would claim by this piece that the researchers found that PAS is a
myth. In the interest of fair journalism, they should take a look at my
six children who now are beginning to speak as they come of age and are
just coming to grips with how the system sold them out regarding your
(and so many others) rejection of PAS as a legitimate concern. If you
dare, and if you can dare to be an informed, open-minded, and impartial
journalist, you would take on this challenge to take a look at what
many judges here in San Diego County have found to be one of the most
outrageous and bungled litigations in this county's Family Courts.

Listen to my children!

Listen to the anger of my oldest son, now 19, forced to babysit his
five younger brothers and sisters and to be the father to them I wanted
to be, while their mother went out drinking many nights and slept most
of the time when home!

Listen to my oldest daughter who now is trying to find a way to assuage
her guilt over the years she acted in 'alliance' with her mother's
agenda.

Look at my second oldest son who is now suffering from depression and
social anxiety disorder.

And if a man's word cannot be believed, look to the timeline of events
in this case, these are most difficult to dispute ...

12/1998; restraining order against father on mother's word only, no
evidence
2/1999; father given supervised visitation
4/1999; supervision of father removed, first warning to mother
5/1999; father's timeshare increased to 30% unsupervised
2/2000; father's timeshare reduced voluntarily, CPS involvement
3/2000; father's timeshare restored, judge determines perjury on part
of CPS case worker, mother cautioned again
3/2000; CPS case worker, taken off case, in retaliation, colludes with
mother and adversely influences custody evaluator
mid 2000; mother given last warning to stop alleging behavior,
emotional abuse of children
late 2000; initial judge leaves family court, case handed to new judge
through 2/2001; more allegations and numerous legal challenges money
eventually runs out, father settles for 10% timeshare and is forced to
take on over $50K in community debt
12/2002; financial decisions overturned, mother was found to have
committed perjury, order to pay remaining taxes on community and
reimburse father
12/2002; mother files child support arrearage claim with DCSS later
determined to be fraudulent
6/2003; mother files appeal of perjury finding / overturn of financial
judgment
2/2005; mother loses appeal, unanimous decision
8/2005; mother sanctioned for fraudulent application of DCSS services
10/2005; mother continues to defy court, refuses to pay sanctions,
taxes, refuses to allow visitation, files motion to increase child
support based on father's non-involvement with children despite his
consistent attempts to exercise visitation (consistent in arriving at
mother's residence for pickup/dropoff)

PAS is real, very real, and ignorance of this fact will lead to a new
generation of children subjected to a new form of abuse, that being the
wholesale emotional battering of children by their mothers and the lack
of a fraternal interest and development in their precious,
impressionable lives. And PBS appears to be leading the charge to see
that our children are freely brought up in this new environment
of 'FatherHate'.

I would suggest to you that we do need to "BREAK THE SILENCE"!
Unfortunately it is PBS, Connecticut Public Television, and the Mary
Kay Foundation that are forcing the true 'silence' on society.

I for one (and I will also encourage many others), will be taking a
stand if this 'hate' piece should be broadcasted by PBS unedited and
without any fair and unrepressed coverage of the equally horrid side of
child abuse, that being the type of abuse that is perpetrated mainly by
the angry and vindictive women of this country, PAS. If you can't do
that, then we have no need for PBS, Mary Kay, and any other entity that
would seek to preserve this mode of injury to our children they so
proudly promote and disguise.

Anyway, here is my contact info, I would welcome any journalistic
investigation of my experience. Any takers?


John van Doorn
XXXX XXXX XXXX
San Diego, CA 92131

858-XXX-XXXX [address and telephone number removed to protect Mr. van Doorn]

PS, any comment on the so-called 'mother' who dumped her three young
children into San Francisco Bay the other week. And how about one Susan
Eubanks, a so-called 'mother here in San Diego county, who shot her
four sons to death in cold blood in 2000. The oldest son's body (he was
about 15 years of age if I recall properly) was found positioned on a
bed in front of his two younger brothers and spread out in an attempt
to protect them. Susan Smith in South Carolina is another, dumping her
two young children strapped in their infant seats, into a lake in South
Carolina. Any comments? or is this just a figment of a bunch of angry
men's imaginations? Should we forgive the mother who would kill her
children because of post-partum depression or some of the other 'myths'
the professionals in the industry are willing to accept. The blood of
the children above screams out for consideration of their situation.

CAN YOU IGNORE THEIR SILENCE!!!!

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Seattle Fuddy Duddies

The Seattle Fuddy Duddies are at it again. Now, they are complaining when people invest in new home construction that improves land values all around them.

It’s about time Seattle neighborhoods got a make-over. Anyone with a soft spot for some of the famously ugly Seattle houses built in the 1940’s through the 1970’s is a curmudgeon, nuts, or simply looking for something to complain about. And, that – complaining – is something people in Seattle are famous for.

You can’t be blamed if the complaints make you want to say “get a life.” What else are you going to think when you read that someone is complaining because a house is gone that their kid once went to for a birthday part.

Meanwhile, the very people that are likely doing most of the complaining are the same group that buy into Nickels’ “urban village” insanity. In fact, Nickels and Sims have been amazingly effective at restricting natural growth and have even gone so far as to strip private property owners of their rights. It’s like a balloon – squeeze in one part, and another part will expand. If you restrict growth in the suburbs, you’re going to have some people that put their dream home where a crappy old 1940’s rambler once was.

I think the real fear here is that middle and upper middle people who tend to be a little less whacky than your average Seattle monorail freak are going to move into the city and change the balance of power.

Oh, the horror.

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Greg Schmidt for King County Sheriff

The Seattle Times shows again that when it comes to political correctness, they will not be out done. They have endorsed Greg Schmidts challenger in the election for King County Sheriff.

According to the Seattle Times, the King County Sheriff’s office is a paper pusher's dream:

Running a department with a $110 million budget and 1,100 employees, including 750 sworn officers, is a leadership position that builds upon knowledge of the mission and people, and demands broad experience juggling budgets and paperwork.

Actually, there is much more to consider when casting your vote for such an important position. Chief among these is whether the candidate brings an extreme ideology with him or her to the office. We need a Sheriff that is focused on law enforcement basics, not social engineering.

Sue Rahr clearly subscribes to the gender feminist “men are bad, women are good” philosophy. For example, she is a true believe in the orthodox feminist view that domestic violence is an expression of “patriarchal control and oppression.” Among her accomplishments is leading a nazi-like movement within the sheriff’s office to ensure that only men are arrested in domestic disturbances, regardless of the circumstances encountered by a deputy. She also gleefully enforces unfounded restraining orders that are often used as tactics in divorces to remove a father from the lives of his children.

Greg Schmidt has a more balanced perspective on these matters. He is also much more articulate than Rahr and has more experience working with men and women on the beat. While Rahr was learning how to push papers and play office politics (as well as gender politics), Schmidt was out working with the community and solving crime.

So, unlike the all to predictable Seattle Times, we endorse Greg Schmidt. In fact, we recommend that you make a campaign contribution to Schmidt by following this link.

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Bubble Mania

It seems I’m not the only one that thinks the real estate market smells a lot like the NASDAQ around about 1999.

Timothy Ellis of Kenmore, WA actually has a blog devoted to the topic: Seattle Bubble. You won’t find much in the way of analysis on Timothy’s site, such as comparing per capita income growth in the Seattle area to real estate inflation (these two numbers have historically tracked, until about 2000, when real estate took off and left income behind). But, he does seem to stay on top of the area’s news articles on the topic of real estate. And, he has some good links to others tracking real estate bubble evidence in other regions, such as Ben Jones' The Housing Bubble 2.

So, go check Timothy’s site out and, when you come back to Silly Seattle, don’t forget to take the poll in the upper right hand corner.

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Protect Your Internet

The Wall Street Journal has a good article about the increasing possibility that your Internet service provider will try to limit how you use your paid-for Internet bandwidth. It all comes down to this: your ISP wants you to buy services such as voice and video from them, not a third party.

Verizon Wireless provides a good example ... Verizon Wireless recently launched what is called 3G data services. Basically, this is just wireless/mobile internet. By getting a simple PCMCIA card (you know, those cards you can plug into your lap top), you can use Verizon Wireless as your internet provider.

The problem for Verizon is that the vast majority of their revenue is from the mobile voice service you buy from them. So, picture this: What if you use their wireless Internet and then get voice service from a company that provides voice over the Internet, such as Vonage?

Vonage has software phones you can simply install on your lap top (or even PDA). So, you could buy your wireless (and therefore mobile) service from Verizon Wireless and buy your voice service at a much lower rate from Vonage. Yes, Verizon would be getting money from you for the wireless Internet service you are buying, but it might not make up for the lost voice revenue.

Anyway, what Verizon really wants is to keep growing their revenue by selling you both wireless Internet and voice. So, what they are likely to do is limit your ability to buy voice from a Voice over Internet (or VoIP) provider such as Vonage. If you know much about Internet Protocal networking, you know this is actually quite easy to do. When traveling over the Internet, voice travels in different types of packets from regular data. These are called RTP, by the way. All Verizon has to do is slow down all of the flow of RTP packets from all IP addresses except their own and, wa la, your Vonage service won’t work.

Do you buy cable modem Internet service from your cable provider? Well, they can do the same thing. First, they want you to buy voice service from them, not from a company like Vonage. Second, they are also threatened by the fact that eventually you will be able to buy video broadcast from someone other than them – video over the Internet, that is. So, cable TV companies such as Comcast will find it awfully tempting to interfere with data going through the Internet connection you buy from them.

If you use Skype, it can be interfered with just like Vonage or any other voice over the Internet telephone service provider. In fact, Verso Technologies, Inc. makes a software that specifically targets Skype traffic.

Don’t buy all the crap about Internet service providers just wanting to prevent congestion. The fact is, most of these companies only operate the first leg of the Internet – the path from your home to some part of the Internet backbone or “core.” Neither Verizon or Comcast operate the Internet backbone; it is owned by companies such as Level 3 and MCI. There is so much capacity on the Internet core that every person on the planet could easily download the Library of Congress at the same time and there would still be excess capacity.

No, what companies like Verizon Wireless and Comcast want is to make you buy voice and other services from them. They want your money so they can increase their revenues.

Since you are already paying for your Internet bandwidth, you should scream bloody murder if you find that any third party service is not working over your broadband Internet connection. The best companies in the field will be those that advertise that they do not and will never interfere with the flow of your data over the Internet. But, in case those companies do not arise, make sure you write your representatives in Congress as well as the Federal Communication Commission to tell them that you want the Internet to remain open.

Interfering with the Internet is the sort of thing a company like Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex) does. Telmex is owned by Carlos Slim, the wealthiest man in Mexico. Slim treats the entire country of Mexico like it is his personal hacienda. Carlos Slim’s Telmex owns most of the broadband Internet connections available to residential customers in Mexico. He interferes with voice over Internet service provided by the third parties so that all voice service must be purchased from him just so he can make another peso. Meanwhile, Mexico has the highest cost telephone service in the world.

Tell your representatives in Congress, your Internet service provider, and the FCC that you do not want the USA to look like Mexico.

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The DV Tactic Surfaces in King County Races

Well, here we go with liberal Democrats ace-in-the-hole when the going gets rough: accuse your opponent of domestic violence.

The false hysteria ... generated about the topic of domestic violence is covered extensively in Silly Seattle. Suffice it to say that in the current irrational environment accusations of domestic violence are used to discredit men generally as well as men and fathers in specific settings, such as family courts. The basic strategy is straightforward – make an accusation of domestic violence and then leave the man in question (the one accused) in a discredited position and therefore unable to defend himself.

So, Sims ally in the Puget Sound blog-o-sphere is doing just that: accusing David Irons of domestic violence. Then, the Seattle PI picks up the story in their effort to save the failing campaign of Sims.

This is also the same struggle that King County Sheriff candidate Greg Schmidt faces. Schmidt once called the police after his new wife became violent, but then found himself being arrested. He spent large sums of money to clear himself of the charges and further pursued a lawsuit against King County for prosecuting him even though they had absolutely no evidence.

In Schmidts case, he faces an uphill battle against Sue Rahr, even though he is clearly the more accomplished and not to mentioned most intelligent, articulate, and savy of the two. For her part, Sue Rahr considers herself an activist in the area domestic violence and brings this up as often as possible in order to further unfairly taint Schmidt.

Given the effectiveness of a mere accusation of domestic violence in impeaching the credibility of the accused, it is no surprise that Sims and his pal at Horses Ass would resort to such a tactic.

The people of King County, and especially men and fathers, should reject this tactic and vote in overwhelming numbers for both Schmidt and Irons. Otherwise, this sort of baseless character impeachment will continue and male voters may also find that they are victims of this sort gender feminist attack themselves, especially if they land in family court.

If this tactic does not stop here and now with these two races, you can be sure that it will continue. It will then be virtually impossible for a male candidate to win political office in King County unless he is directly involved in attacking men, fathers, and families, like both Sims and Nickels are.

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Omar, You're So Silly!

Now, this is really quite funny. It appears that Arab satellite television is re-broadcasting American network fare, albeit with some alterations to make it less American and therefore, supposedly, less offensive to the average Arab-on-the-street.

In The Simpsons, for example, Homer becomes Omar and Bart becomes Badr. But, those Arabs familiar with the American version of The Simpsons primetime cartoon find the Arab version incredibly dull.

"This is just beyond the pale," wrote As'ad AbuKhalil, a professor at California State University, Stanislaus, on his blog, angryarab blogspot.

After watching a segment of Al Shamshoon, Professor AbuKhalil said: "It was just painful ... The guy who played Homer was one of the most unfunny people I ever watched. Just drop it."

Maybe we can help liven the Arab version of The Simpsons up a little, though. The Simpsons is funny because it pokes fun at the soft underbelly of gluttonous American culture and I don’t see any reason we couldn’t make some adjustments so that it can do the same with Arab culture. Of course, in order to fly, this would require Arab culture to be able to poke fun at itself and even Islam, which is something Arab culture is not known for.

But, what the heck, let’s give it a try anyway.

Omar really ought to be a hapless suicide bomber. Badr could be a madrassah student. Mother and daughter, obviously, would always appear in burkhas.

Now, the funny part would be that in every episode, Omar tries but fails to blow himself up. This would have potential for endless permutations as Omar pursues his dream of 72 black-eyed virgins. Meanwhile, Badr would be seen coming up with twisted but hilarious interpretations of the Koran. He might be seen in each episode expecting a worldwide Islamic theocracy to be just around the corner, only to find that people, really, are just a little to lazy to implement it.

And, what of Mother and Sister? Why, there would be endless humor in the fact that neither Omar or Badr really know what they look like (you know, with the veil burkhas and all). Omar might find himself in bed with the wrong woman while Badr gets lost in a sea of veiled Muslim girls trying to find his sister.

Now, this would actually be fun to watch. It might even go over pretty well in America. It is, after all, about time we started poking more fun at Arab and Muslim culture. It sure is ripe for it.

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Your Affirmative Right to a Bad Education

I always considered “admissions” combined with “Seattle public schools” to be an oxymoron.

Most wise parents ... who can afford to get out of Seattle’s horrific school system do. Unfortunately, there are still a few left in the system fighting over the lesser of a system of evils. Those that are fighting for admission to their preferred school within the system can be bumped based on nothing more than the color of their skin, and this was upheld by the cultural warriors of the 9th US District Court of Appeals.

Ironically, also in today’s Seattle Times, there is an article about Seattle public schools loosing $25 million in grant money from the Gates Foundation. The reason, according to foundation Executive Director Tom Vander Ark, is simple. The Foundation chooses school districts that "have a really good record of improvement, have enjoyed stable and effective leadership, and had a really good plan going forward. And none of those apply in Seattle."

Might there be some connection between the serial failure of Seattle’s schools and the emphasis placed on political correctness and silly terms like “diversity.” There probably is and you should watch for a new PC term that is a favorite of the feminist bureaucrats that populate Seattle's public schools system: “cultural competence.” (Or, go here for a more detailed look at the phenomenon of cultural competence as flagship for screening out original thinkers).

At least there are some things to chuckle about as we watch Seattle sink into the same abyss New Orleans just drowned in.

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Bubble Trouble

The Washington DC area is showing some of the first signs that fissures are developing in the nation's speculative real estate bubble. Much like in the early 1990s, developers have overbuilt condos and townhomes, resulting in a 19% drop in orders for homebuilder NVR Inc.

What do you think? Is there a reaal estate bubble? Take the poll to the right!

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Rights are Wrong in Family Court

Is it so hard to believe that a judge would routinely violate the most basic rights of those in her court?

Clearly, it should not be. The Seattle Times published a story today about how King County District Court Judge Mary Ann Ottinger effectively sentenced an underage drinker to more than a year in jail. Ottinger apparently did not warn the young lady with the apparent drinking problem that she had a right to an attorney.

The full history of the young drinker was not explored by the article. It may well be that Ottinger saw a serious drinking problem and social menace in the making and felt the need to take about the only action at her disposal – throw this young lady into jail to teach her a lesson about where she seemed to be headed.

Now, in my book, there is never a good reason for a judge entrusted with enforcing and protecting our rights to violate those very same rights. Even when it seems to be for the best.

But, strangely, this happens on a regular basis in family courts every day in the State of Washington. Is there a special commission investigating any of these cases (as with Ottinger)? Has a newspaper or any other media bothered to look into it, as the Seattle Times felt a compelling need to do in the Ottinger case?

No, because the rights of a father simply do not measure up. As a matter of government policy, fathers are considered a menace and extracted from the lives of their children whenever the slightest excuse is presented.

Rights? Those are irrelevant when the arrogance of the state tells a family court judge that she should do what seems right.

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Women Find Their Voice

Finally, we have the voice of women outside the contemporary gender feminist orthodoxy on the topic of domestic violence. Cathy Young of the Independent Women’s Forum has produced a comprehensive study on the topic without ideological blinders and patriarchy paranoia.

She states that ... “The feminist movement has done a lot of admirable work to raise public consciousness about the problem of domestic violence. Unfortunately, it has often done so from a limited and one-sided point of view. We need to consider other ideas, other perspectives from social science, psychology, and clinical practice. Even many feminists who work in the field with domestic violence victims and perpetrators have started to admit that feminist theory does not always fit the reality."

That is a bit of an understatement, but Young seems to have reached the same conclusions that serious scholars have been reaching for more than two decades.

Domestic violence is not an expression of patriarchal control and oppression, nor are women the only victims. It is a complex and multi-faceted problem that in the vast majority of cases involves personality disorders, learned dysfunctional behavior, or alcohol or substance abuse. Often, all three at the same time. Moreover, the majority of intimate violence is mutual, with both the man and woman instigating and perpetuating destructive lifestyles.

Now that Congress has reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), it is time to clean its house of women studies trained pseudo professionals with a gender-political axe to grind. While they are at it, they should use some of the Act’s generous funding to address the ultimate form of domestic violence: Suicide. Three out of four suicides are committed by men, and the majority of them are suffering marital problems.

Furthermore, it is time to separate children from the reflexive phrase “women and children.” Women are not children and they are not helpless. Children, on the other hand, do need special protection and our society must stop removing them from their fathers as a matter of deliberate social policy. The safest environment known for a child is in the presence of his or her biological father. Children are several times more likely to be abused in the household of a single mother – either by their mother or by her new male partner. This is not to suggest that we should discriminate against single mothers, but rather that we should STOP discriminating against fathers.

In fact, to accomplish this, Bush should consider replacing Diane Stuart, Director of the Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women, with someone similar to Louise Oliver, who he recently appointed to the perpetually mischeiveous and silly UNESCO.

It’s well past time we ceased the destructive patterns VAWA has thus far only served to codify in local, state, and federal laws.

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Male Suicide in Virginia

This week the US Congress reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which provides $4 billion to gender feminist organizations bent on destroying the institution of marriage and incarcerating as many men and fathers as possible. Also, this week the National Violent Death Reporting System released a report on violent deaths in the State of Virginia.

Turns out, 60% of the violent deaths in Virginia in 2003 were suicides, and 3 out 4 of those suicides were men. As the Washington Post states:

Suicides accounted for more than half of all violent deaths in Virginia in 2003, with the majority committed by white men with marital troubles and a history of depression, according to a state study to be published today.

Yes, men with marital problems commit suicide at extremely high rates. In fact, they are more than 20 times more likely to commit suicide than kill their spouse. Many of these men are hopeless after loosing access to their children, their home, and their dignity after being falsely accused of abuse and then raped by family courts.

This is one of the results of VAWA.

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These People Can Run a Monorail?

The Seattle Monorail is adding insult to injury. From Joel Connelly:

In a disastrous summer interview with labor leaders, monorail board member Cindi Laws remarked that Jews had given money to the anti-monorail campaign and that opponent Beth Goldberg was Jewish and hence likely to get ample funding.

Profuse apologies followed. But this week, the Seattle Monorail Project put off by two days a board meeting slated for Tuesday night. It was rescheduled for Thursday, which happens to be Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement and holiest day of the Jewish year.

"It shows a cultural insensitivity that a public body should not exhibit. You just don't do it," Robert Jacobs, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, wrote to the board.

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Only in the Soviet Union

What does the gender feminist crowd do when the facts aren’t on their side? They keep the facts out of the picture, that’s what.

Senator Joseph Biden and his fanatical friends ... did that by turning Senate hearings on the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) into a feminist madrassa.

The domestic violence industry of Canada is doing the same thing, where scholarly researchers are being excluded from the Alberta-government-sponsored World Conference on the Prevention of Family Violence. These scholars held their own conference in order to give truth a chance.

VAWA passed both the House and Senate, with minor differences that were ironed out in conference and then the entire bill was attached to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. Washington State’s representatives in Congress were gung ho supporters. Cantwell and Murray make no secret of their disdain for men and fathers, so those two are hardly a surprise. Republican David Reichert, on the other hand, counts on the male vote. Once it becomes more widely known that he has participated in the worse legislation since Jim Crow, he might find it a little harder to get it.

The opposition to VAWA was more vocal and better organized than ever before. But, with billions of VAWA dollars going to gender feminists groups that in turn funded the self-perpetuation of the money, it was hard for reasonable voices to be heard. As Congresswoman Connie Morella (R-MD) stated earlier today, "This legislation passed because of all the [Pro-VAWA] organizations out there making sure that Congress heard their voices loud and clear."

There is not much left to do at this point on the federal level. Feminist madrassas will be funded for another five years. But, most social change occurs at the local level, and this is where politicians such David Reichert may begin to pay the price. In the meantime, men and fathers should vote with their actions, refusing to be roped into a system that is designed to destroy them. In other words, stay clear of entering into the government defined contract called marriage. Stay even more clear of co-habitation.

After President Bush signs VAWA into law, he may as well bring home the troops. There will be no Constitution for which to fight.

And, as they step off the plane into a land where they have lost their most basic civil rights, Bush himself ought to be out there to hand each returning soldier a new book entitled, "Will She Call 911 on You?," By Marc H. Rudov.

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MSM Reaches Out

Now, this is an interesting development in the blog-o-sphere!

A few years ago, it seemed that traditional sources of print media were concerned that bloggers were leveraging their on line content by linking to it. Most of the talk was about the threat that blogs represented.

But, now it appears that some newspapers are actually reaching out and encouraging blogs to link to their articles. I linked to a Washington Post article here. If you go here to the WP article I linked to, and look in the second box in the middle of the page, you’ll see a section called “Who’s Blogging.” There, you will find yours truly.

Seems they have finally caught on to the fact that blogs are a major source of readers that can be directed to their content and, hence, advertisements.

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That Late 90's Vibe

Based on data a month old, Seattle’s local newspapers were recently hailing the strong real estate market. I don’t know about you, but this is starting to feel like déjà vu all over again.

Perhaps there just aren’t that many people left in Seattle from the Internet boom of the late 90’s ... But I bet those still around are getting the same sense of impending doom that I am. In 1999, the sky was the limit for Internet, telecom, and technology stocks generally. There was endless talk about the New Economy and anyone that dared to question it based on fundamentals was laughed at or ridiculed because they just didn’t “get it.”

Well, that was the case until early 2000 anyway, when the bottom dropped out of the market. How often do you read articles about the New Economy these days? Not much mention of "brick and mortar" companies as if they are some sort of old-school franchise. Now, the stock market is about as sexy as your grandma in a tu-tu.

The real estate market is looking eerily similar to the wonder year of 1999. Crazy mortgages abound. Banks are eagerly marketing loans that require no payment of principle until a balloon payment years out. Worse, there are even “mortgage loans” in which interest is being added to principle and people pay little more than a monthly maintenance fee.

Speculation is running rampant. Real estate investors are using these creative mortgage instruments to purchase residential real estate on the bet that it will continue appreciating at recent rates as far as the eye can see. Investors are picking up old apartment buildings, turning them into condos, and selling the individual units, often to the aforementioned speculators. Many metropolitan areas have seen huge increases in new condo developments and even real estate agents are getting a little worried about a glut.

Have you driven around Seattle lately and noticed the number of “for rent” signs in front of houses, apartments, and condos? Might there be too much exuberant money chasing this real estate?

Not many people want to take the chance of talking bad about real estate, lest they be laughed at like anyone warning "watch out" in late 1990's was. Much like in the Internet boom days, there are “experts,” such as Wharton Professor Peter Linneman, who are happy to tell investor groups what they want to hear in exchange for big speaking engagement fees.

I can’t say that I know much about real estate investing, so don’t consider this posting to be any sort of advice. But, I will say this: I hate to bet against futures markets. More often than not, they are right.

For example, take a look Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc. Here is Charles Schwab’s description of Hovnanian:

Designs, constructs and markets single-family detached homes and attached condominium apartments and townhouses in planned residential developments. Company developments are located in the Northeast, North Carolina, South Carolina, Metro D.C., California, Texas and the Mid-South.

Hovnanian’s stock prices has slid from an all time high of $72.30 per share in July to just over $46 per share today. That’s a colossal slide for a real estate development company in a market that is supposed to still be hot. Insiders have been trading the stock all the way down. Even more ominous, put contracts (a futures contract in which you agree to sell a stock in the future at a set price, and thus you are betting the stock price will go down) on Hovnanian are soaring.

As I stated, I don’t think anyone should be taking financial or investment advice from me or my blog. I’m simply pointing out that the sector that has kept our economy afloat for the past four years sure is looking a lot like something we experienced in the late 1990s. If a day of reckoning does come for what might be speculative excesses, I sure hope it isn’t equally as painful.

I'd like to know what you think. Please vote in the poll, which you will find in the top right hand side of the page.

Meanwhile, I don’t think anyone in Seattle ought to be buying into the city’s smug attitude. Seattle likes to think of itself as immune to the troubles of the rest of the world. How the city forgets that it was one of the areas hardest hit by the Internet melt-down.

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NOW or "THEN"?

If NOW’s approval is the only litmus test for women political candidates, women and the country will suffer mightily.

Here is the interesting case of Patricia White, who is running for Boston’s city council. She has been unable to secure an endorsement from NOW. That seems like a major plus in my book .... but Patricia is nonetheless concerned.

Apparently, Patricia doesn’t measure up based on NOW’s criteria:

According to Emily Hall, acting director of NOW's political action committee, endorsements are based on an analysis of a candidate's stand on five issues: abortion rights, economic justice, racial justice, gay and lesbian rights, including same-sex marriage, and domestic violence.

NOW presents itself as “the voice” of women, as if their sex makes women into one political monolith. But, looking at the criteria for endorsement above, it would seem that NOW has little in common with most women.

For the NOW crowd, squishy terms like “economic justice” revolve around socialism, big government programs, and anti-constitutionalism. They want Big Sister's hand in most of your decisions and your family life as well. Carey Roberts sums up the result pretty well in his most recent column.

If Washington State’s crop of women politicians represent NOW’s image for women in politics, we are in trouble. First, we have Christine Gregoire, who obtained the Governor’s office through election fraud in King County. Then, we have Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, who spend a large part of their time attacking their male constituents with every weapon at their disposal.

These three banditas do get the endorsement of NOW. The rest of the country ought to take a close look at the sorry state of Washington to get an idea of what you are in store for if someone such as Hillary Rodham or Michigan’s Debbie Stadenow ever make it to the pinnacle of power.

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More Subversive Art

Robert Jamieson has perhaps his best column ever in the Seattle PI today.

So called "liberal" Seattle should read this column with shame. The repeated vandalism of the home of a military veteran and Bush supporter is an example of how the political ideology of Seattle has little to do with liberalism.

It does have everything to do with totalitarianism. Ironically, the vandals call Potts (the veteran) a Nazi. But, the vandalism of his home reminds me of real Nazis vandalizing the homes of Jews in Germany.

In fact, it is exactly the same thing.

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Subversive Art

The uproar over a planned nude statue called "Father and Son" is grossly missing the point – on both sides of the debate.

Pastor Joseph Fuiten of Bothell's Cedar Park Assembly of God Church is up in arms over the fact that the two figures in the statue, a father and a son, will be depicted nude. He calls this a monument to pedophilia....

Danny Westneat of the Seattle Times responded with the usual regressive and dismissive Seattle media tone toward the concerns of evangelicals. Westneat says that art is good and important if it makes people talk. If that’s the measure, does he call the terrorist attacks of September 11 a form of art? They sure made people talk.

Matt Rosenberg of Sound Politics is worried that evangelicals in the Republican Party of Washington State drive away moderate voters when they make so much noise about something as unimportant as a nude statue. His is a valid concern. Certainly part of the problem that Republicans have in the state is that people view Pastor Fuiten as indicative of the entire party.

For my part, I love the statue. Not because it is making people talk; Westneat is sadly mistaken in his simpleton view that art should be measured by the controversy it inspires. And, I’m not worried about nudity. Humans in their natural state have no relationship to pedophilia or any other sex crime except in the eye of the beholder. If that’s what the Pastor sees, he might want to seek counseling of either the earthly or the spiritual variety.

I love it because it has meaning to me and possibly many other men in the state. Meaning is the measure of art. It might even help to wake Seattle's victim oriented gender feminists to the havoc they have wreaked by using one of the few mediums that have a chance of getting through to them. This was probably not the intent of the artist and definitely not the intent of the Seattle Art Museum, steeped in the cultural correctness that they are.

To me, the statue is symbolic of a disease that, for its prevalence and state sponsorship, is much more widespread and has longer term social and cultural implications than pedophilia or “talk.”

The statue depicts a man reaching helplessly for his son. A curtain of water separates the two. In the State of Washington, and particularly in King County and Seattle, that curtain of water is the state itself. Nearly half of all children in parts of the state are growing up without a father in their household. Meanwhile, divorce rates continue to rise and almost half of all men in their thirties in King County have never been married. Family courts routinely remove fathers from households and the lives of their children on false allegations of abuse; the practice is so wide spread that official divorce forms from the family court system practically assume that a woman will want to make charges of abuse against her spouse.

These statistics do not happen in a vacuum. Blaming men misses the point. These facts are also not a measure of the success of women, as the Seattle media would have you believe. They are indicative of the hostile stance the state has towards marriage and the male side of the equation.

My interpretation differs substantially from the official line of the Seattle Art Museum:

Nudity in this work is a symbol of emotional nakedness; the two figures stand before each other but cannot touch; they try to see each other, but never see eye to eye; they are separated by bell jars of cascading water, which prevent any contact between them. At 94 Louise Bourgeois is still finding ways to push the boundaries of her creativity. The subject of Mother and Child is classic in art, but Father and Son is especially relevant today when fathers play a more active role in their children’s lives.

It's not surprising that SAM would view "Father and Son" as an expression of the hopelessness of a father ever truly connecting with his child. Indeed, this was likely the line that artist Louise Bourgeois gave them and thus provides her intended meaning. But, most fathers can see through SAM's interpretation for the feminist propaganda it is. The beauty of this sculpture therefor lies in unintended consequences that subvert the original intent.

We have discussed the frontal attacks of the state on men, fathers, boys, families, and marriage extensively on this blog. Take a look around and the picture might become clearer to you.

Then, go take a look at the planned statue. You too may find that it is unintentionally subversive to the prevailing political cultural of our times.

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Holistic or Holier-than-thou?

The University of Washington says it will scrap the notion of accepting students based on merit and begin using what they call a “holistic” admissions system. What this means, quite simply, is that the power in the process of gaining acceptance to UW will be taken out of the hands of students and put into the hands UW administrators.

The consideration of factors in addition to GPA and SAT scores is not in itself a bad thing. There is no question that there are kids out there for whom, given poverty or other factors, a 3.0 high school GPA and 1000 on the SAT should be viewed as downright miracles. These kids really do deserve to be given a second look by UW admissions. If not, the bar may be so unreasonably high for underprivileged kids that they decide it’s just not worth it to give it their best shot despite their circumstances. They need to have some realistic hope.

The problem, unfortunately, is that when admission criteria become so subjective that we start hearing the word “holistic,” we know we are facing an admissions system that will be based on ideology. There will be a small number of people within UW deciding what they believe would be the perfect mix of students in order to create their image of a campus utopia. This invites activism into the admissions office and soon we will see all sorts of interest groups insisting that they be “heard” in the admissions process.

A column by Malcolm Gladwell in this week’s The New Yorker provides some perspective on how subjective admissions systems play out in Ivy League schools. The interesting history Gladwell (author of Blink and The Tipping Point) outlines is that Ivy League schools first began considering more than academic achievement during admissions in order to curtail a huge expansion in the number of Jews on their campuses in the early part of the last century. According to Gladwell, this ignominious beginning evolved into a system less concerned about ethnicity than personal features such as these:

“This young woman could be one of the brightest applicants in the pool but there are several references to shyness,” read one [application review]. Another comment reads, “Seems a tad frothy.” One application—and at this point you can almost hear it going to the bottom of the pile—was notated, “Short with big ears.”

One can only imagine what the litmus test for admission to the privileged status of an Ivy League education is in today’s politically correct environment. I suppose this has something to do with the reason that I generally find Ivy League educated people (not always, but more often than not) unable to get much accomplished in the rough and tumble world of reality. Frankly, I avoid them as employees and in business deals.

But, Ivy League schools still set educational trends. It would seem that UW has decided to follow suite. Yes, as Tim Eynman says, the holistic method is in part a way to get around voter mandated prohibition on considering race for admission to state supported schools. If that were the only intent, I would be less concerned.

So much in the state of Washington involves self-conscious self-censure and politically correct group think. It’s hard to believe that the sorts of people that occupy UW's administration will not use these factors in their subjective admissions process.

Perverse incentives will likely ensue. For example, the politically correct class seems to believe that fatherless households are preferable. They may not say this, but the state has instituted Nazi-like policies that are directed towards that aim. So, will this mean that preference will be given to children from fatherless homes? Will students from intact families begin to feel that they are at a disadvantage if they do not have reasons to call themselves a victim?

Subjective criteria are awfully squishy and far from transparent. They will leave the requirements for gaining admission to the state’s schools a mystery for many high school students and their parents. Do we really want the admissions office of UW deciding who shall be ordained with privilege at the expense of kids having some control over their own destinies?

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Boys Are Dumb, The World is Flat

Only a Seattle newspaper could take an obvious problem and reach counter-intuitive and obviously idiotic conclusions.

Sunday’s Times features an article about the dearth of male students enrolled in universities. Close to 60% of all bachelor degrees are now earned by women.

One would think that it would be hard to look at this simple fact and conclude anything except that we are failing our boys miserably. Christina Hoff Sommers warned about the anti-boy bias in schools in her book, “The War Against Boys.”

But, the Seattle Times managed to make our feminist education system’s failure to meet the educational needs of boys into discrimination against women. Here are some of the absurd quotes provided in an effort to refute the obvious:

"Do I think it's doomsday for the male gender? No," said Jacqueline King, a director at the American Council on Education in Washington, D.C. "I look around the world, and it seems to me that men are still in charge."

Ah, so it’s the patriarchy again wielding its “oppression and control."

But King, of the American Council on Education, said her research shows the gender gap also is tied to race and class. The gender gap widens as family income decreases.

Well, let’s make that a white patriarchy.

When young, low-income men don't go on to college, they still can get relatively well-paid jobs on construction sites or in warehouses, for example, King said. Low-income women, on the other hand, often are left facing a future of minimum-wage retail jobs.

"That woman is just as concerned about paying for college, but she has an economic imperative more pressing than the male student," King said. "That's really important."

Yes, and I suppose this is why women still believe that a man should pick up the check?

Linda Jacobs, the director of College Placement Services, a Seattle-based company that helps match students with colleges, suspects increasing imbalance in female applicants is causing some colleges to actively discriminate against women.

"I certainly have seen, with a number of colleges, that the stronger females have been wait-listed or denied when less capable males were accepted," she said. "I'm seeing it especially in the smaller liberal-arts colleges."

Jacobs said that causes frustration among parents and students.

"It's especially unfair because years ago, when there were significantly more males, this didn't seem to be a concern," she said.

God forbid affirmative action does anything but destroy opportunities for white males.

Part of the reason that our country fails boys, men and fathers so miserably is that our media itself is so anti-male. It’s difficult to recognize and solve a problem when the mainstream media is still reporting that the world is flat.

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