Innocent Bystanders

Science is a Man’s Best Friend June 28, 2018

One of the tenets of evolutionary biology is that if the size of an organ varies a lot across the population, it must not convey much of an evolutionary advantage. Thus, when studying size variation of female clitoris versus that of the male member, they found:

..evolutionary biologists have concluded that orgasms in women serve no function, and only exist as a useless by-product of the male orgasm.

Haven’t guys been trying to say this for centuries?

The article claims that this tenet has been challenged by the latest research showing that size variation of organs (nipples, in this case) does not necessarily relate to natural selection. That would invalidate the whole male/female orgasm thingy.

But I think I’m going to wait for corroboration before I embrace a scientific principle so at odds with my natural state.

Fake, False or Purposely Misleading June 27, 2018

News media appears to have lost the confidence of almost 3/4 of the country:

Seems like they should take a different tack if they’re planning on continuing to deliver news content.

But you know they’ll just blame us for being louts who can’t appreciate their lofty craft.

Making Sense of the Border Situation June 20, 2018

The separation of children from their illegally-immigrating parents is the issue du jour for libs seeking to damage Trump and the GOP. But you rarely hear the real story.

Gateway Pundit posted a transcript of an excellent CNN interview with Border Patrol agent Chris Cabrera, the excellence being exclusive to Cabrera’s responses to Brooke Baldwin’s inane questions. Here’s the money quote:

I don’t think everybody understands what’s actually happening down here. You have a lot of these kids that are coming down here and put through terrible, terrible situations by their parents.

They’re brought over in extremely dangerous conditions and in extremely dangerous terrain. And all this can be avoided if they just go through the port of entry. There would be no crime committed by them and they wouldn’t get separated.

Why don’t they do this is beyond me. But this problem is very easily solved, at least on the short-term basis, by going through the port of entry. If they choose to go through the river, they’re committing a crime. Just like anyone else, they’re subject to arrest.

And we all know, when you get arrested, you don’t get to stay with your family. It’s just the sad reality of life.

You should definitely read the whole interview.

Important Announcement June 7, 2018

There is a bunny in my front yard. It is super fuzzy and cute. So I haven’t gone inside since getting home. I’m just sitting on my porch watching it.

There was a robin, too. And for just a second, a dragonfly sat on my thumb.

Update: Here’s a lovely flower I saw a few days ago.

Miss America Missteps June 5, 2018

They’ve done gone and kilt Boy Scouts (now “Scouts BSA”) and the Miss America pageant looks like it’s soon to follow:

Miss America is scrapping its swimsuit competition and will no longer judge contestants based on physical appearance, the organization announced Tuesday.

“We are no longer a pageant,” Gretchen Carlson, the first former Miss America to be named chair of the Board of Trustees of the Miss America Organization, said on “GMA.” “We are a competition.”

They’re also bagging the evening gown event. So what are they going to emphasize instead?

“Who doesn’t want to be empowered, learn leadership skills and pay for college and be able to show the world who you are as a person from the inside of your soul.”

She continued, “That’s what we’re judging them on now.”

Sounds like a boring episode of The Apprentice (full disclosure – I’ve never watched The Apprentice*).

I look at it as: you can either remove the beauty factor from the pageant, in an effort to highlight their other attributes. Or, you can highlight those attributes while fully displaying the contestants’ beauty, showing a complete image of strong, intelligent, talented, and, yes, beautiful, women.

I fear that removing the admittedly eye candy part of the competition is going to trade a teachable moment for an unwatchable moment.

*Actually, I haven’t watched the Miss America Pageant in 40 years either**
**But I have seen Miss Congeniality***
***Twice

Manufacturing Job Growth Stays Strong June 4, 2018

I’ve been less than thrilled with the overall unemployment numbers, because by the measure I use, we’re still far from healed (see previous post).

But I’m more than thrilled with the manufacturing jobs numbers:

285,000 manufacturing jobs added over the past year. Fantastic.

Climb, Climb, Climb!! June 4, 2018

The press is abuzz with superlatives over the latest employment situation report. In fact, even our own lauraw crawled out of her nest of human remains to put up a post about it at Ace’s.

But were the numbers really all that great? Not until IB says so:

Not too bad, actually. In fact, this is the best showing since September of 2008.

But that curve is still awfully flat.