caroljane

Criminy. In the article I read she talked very sensibly about the necessity for fighting honour killings, child marriage,FGM--- and said that feminists should not softpedal these things under the excuse of political correctness about cultural differences, and rescuing their victims should be a feminist priority. Maybe she's evolved since 1985. I don't want to dominate anybody or anything. Or submit to them either!

"...exploitation of women by men, or by a patriarchal power structure." This is the reality for so many millions of women in the Mideast, Africa, Asia.... what are these unnamed but all-powerful gender feminists doing about that? I read an article by Phyllis Chesler recently about her work in this area. Whatever kind of feminist she is I guess I am that.

Carol: Do you make any distinction between feminism and gender feminism? Adam Uh...I don't know. Is there a distinction?

Dennis, if the only choice were Dr Phil or Dr Peikoff, I'd run for Dr Jekyll and take my chances with Mr Hyde. I think one reason for a preponderance of males responding to Rand's ideas, is the masculist message in her fiction. In my generation this clashed with the rise of feminism, although the philosophy is all about individualism regardless of gender. Intellectual girls in the 50s and 60s would be more easily drawn to the heroes and their ideas than those of the 70s.

Do you want to be centre, left, right or Uninhabited Wilds? P.S. Check out browsing women - new billionaire alert! I now know our secret OL Howard Hughes is not Canadian. Apparently they have to wear government-issued name tags here.

Joel - what's wrong with the Bells of Brantford? I mean the belles. No Gretzkyellas either? LV - who is Deanna Troy?

I see we are still here so I'll add a note on teenagers. It seems to me that teenage boys are more civilized and generaly nicer than they were in my day. I live across the street from Riverdale Collegiate and often chat with them in the lineup at the Yummy House at lunchtime - sometimes they even offer to carry my books and groceries home for me. Teenage girls are scary, though. Some things never change.

Posting it here was just a whimsical choice. I was thinking about the fact that I decided my career path fairly early in life, about age 12 or 13, and the things I was most interested in as a teenager I am still interested in now, plus a lot more. There was no association with the man/woman theme. Exculpatory of what? I certainly didn't intend any fault or slight towards the adults here--maybe this should move to the Living Room.

That is hardly a guilty pleasure, you should be proud. They need a good troll over there. Try criticizing that creative writer who posts that she does not want criticisms of her writing style. Her style is not bad, it's her content that is awful.

With "chortle" I associate someone snorting loudly "Hhhrrmmpff! into an oversized handkerchief. I googled "chortle" and it said Lewis Carroll coined this word as combination of "chuckle" and "snort", so my association was not that far-fetched. "Snortle" would be another possible combination. I just imagine Tweedledee chortling and Tweedledum snortling as they sit down at the tea table where the Hatter and the March Hare are celebrating another of their non-birthday parties. ;) Alice is one of my favorite female fiction characters! Cool kid! But I'm getting carried away and forget that is not the thread of praise, but the opposite, so back on topic: I threw Erica Jong's book Fear of Flying away, so I can't give the exact quote, but what totally turned me off was this passage where heroine praises the "zipless f***". Imo Fear of Flying is a very unerotic story. Full of blunt sexual language, but there's zero erotics in it. But then this is my perspective only. Yes, the sex parts were really boring, though she's not a bad writer. The most interesting parts I remember were about her first husband, the genius paranoid schizophrenic. She fell in love with him because "he just knew and knew and knew things". Bad enough to marry somebody believing him to be your total intellectual superior, let alone having him go crazy on you. The best feminist writer of that era was Marge Peircy. "Vida" is a classic. I didn't know Carroll invented chortle! What a mind. I love snortle also. Too bad we don't have such a variety of ways to describe "sob", "weep", etc. I also hate having to read about characters blowing their noses after they sob and weep.

I have the week off and am watching Judge Judy again. I love the way she corrects their grammar. Talk about the triumph of hope over experience. Has every American male over the age of 18 been to jail? I am also actively involved in planning the Royal Wedding wardrobes.

And in the Catholic tradition, Sloth is one of the seven deadly sins. I am going to Hell for sure.

"we happy few" indeed. Cheer up, the word around the Igloo is that your house has been chosen for next year's Convention. It was a tough choice between SA and Slag Lake, NWT, but you have won out. Better start arranging transport for the sled dogs.

Phil/ND, Do you moonlight as scriptwriters for The Big Bang Theory? If not you should!

"There is the land of lost content I see it shining plain The happy highways where I went And cannot come again" -AE Housman

Maybe you can produce for us an homage to Alexander Pope's The Dunciad. Just a random thought. I haven't even read the original. The Daunciad, sounds like the name of a spaceship, and at least it's easier to say than Kobayashi Maru. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dunciad " a wonderhouse of thoughts, alive and dead forever reading, never to be read.." How's that? haven't read the D in forever either, but feeling more cheerful about my dunciness, Carol proudly wearing the cap

I write this as I think of another OL poster, who is the constant caregiver of a parent. I don't know you, but I know so many in your same situation. One of my friends has total responsibility for her Alzheimer's-destroyed mother. Many relatives share the care of the elderly-impaired. My own children confer about my deafness, not yet realizing that it is selective. I always expected to be the caregiver/companion of my mother. It was always the unspoken plan. Barring accidents, when she was 85 and I was 65,I would come and live with her and help her live in her home until she died. My husband loved this plan and wanted to move there earlier, until I pointed out we could not afford to do that. It was a great plan, so great that I carry out my part on my own now. I have the conversation with her that we always had, predictable but her always surprising me, understanding each other without agreeing with each other. I congratulate her that she died in the exact way she wanted to, in mid-sentence and full flow, dressed beautifully and in perfect health and spirits. Surprising everyone, not least herself. She could always take a joke. In the dark watches of the night, I continue our conversations,which have no beginning and no end and no meaning, except love.

Come to Monroe Twp. New Jersey. We can do lunch at one of the many excellent New Jersey diners. The State of N.J. is famous for its diners. Ba'al Chatzaf Screw Monroe, Mastoris in Bordentown is the best diner in NJ bar none. Make sure you request a booth. http://www.mastoris.com/ Sorry guys you are both wrong. The best diner in North America is called Carman's and it is in St. Stephen, N.B. If you ever have to cross the border there, go eat and mention my name. You will not get seated any faster but you will talk to a lot of interesting people while waiting.

This thread is started here because this corner is fairly empty. I could not find the original place where Xray and I started a leisurely conversation about why most posters on this forum are males, but it is a perennial topic and any teens who might be hanging here will still be discussing this when they are 105 like me. It is not of total uninterest to teens because those predisposed to fall in love with an intellectual discipline usually do so at a young age. Many who so fall in love will stay in love for all their adult lives. They will love with words, with literature, with the language of music, with mathematics, with the maddening paradoxes of history, with the perilous certainties of engineering, with the scouring uncertainties of visual art. Some will fall in love with philosophy. Some of those who do will become Objectivists. Here begins our look at why few women post on Objectivist forums. Two reasons why they don't can be fairly easily dismissed: 1 - The abrasiveness of some posters in discussion.(assuming women are more easily offended by this . Ha, ha.) 2. The overall lack of women in Objectivism and philosophy in general. I believe this reason is valid. I have no statisticss, no empirical evidence at all, but my impression is that philosophy, as an avocation, is like chess --preponderantly a male recreation. I am well aware that this is especially interesting to Objectivists, whose revolutionary founder was a woman, and whose best contemporary writer is a woman. I am not thinking of the Barbara Brandens or the Madame Curies here when we speculate on why most interested women do or do not engage on O-forums. I can think of some reasons and would like to hear yours.

double fault

"He stared at the blank page/screen/canvas and willed his mind to summon words/brushstrokes. Instead, his mind rebelliously summoned the image of last night/summer/year and dispensable though unforgettable Maria/Ivan....his slavish loins obeyed his mind... this is the fault of rde

Sorry, I was unclear. The whole name dauncelynam is an anagram for a three word name. Daunce doesn 't mean anything except the available letters (Cenuda, Aducen etc I didn't like much) though I like the association with dauntless. Dunce, not so much.

Ladies, the most encouraging news ever comes to us today via Reuters. It is mixed, true - the bad news is that there are as few billionaires likely to be here on OL as there ever were. But the good news is, the billionaires there are, have even more money than they did before! Twenty-five percent more, according to Forbes magazine.One quarter. In aggregate these 1,210 people (that are officially known about - there might be more) have $4.5 trillion dollars as compared to the measly 75% of that they had last year. So XRay and the team, let's get to work. Only 175 of these are single. And 48 of them are women! We were working on the assumption that only men would be willing to marry us but let's keep open minds. Anyway, here's a partial breakdown of the singles: 1.36 - never married 2.81 - divorced 3. 6 -separated 4. 52 - widowed Hoo boy, this is one ripe market. The never marrieds we could write off as so paranoid that they would have a prenup requiring the bride to pay them in case of a divorce, but you never know.They might be gay, but look at Barry Diller, he got married to a woman. Maybe they just never met an Objectivist before. Divorce is easy after the first time. Jump for those rebounds. Separation - can become severance Widowed - slam dunk. Remember Anna Nicole! Excitedly, Goldie

It's March 17 and I have just crept home in shame because I can't wear green though it is my favourite colour. My maternal grandmother's forebears were Kilpatricks but apparently they were English protestants since the 18th century, and the rest of my uneventful ancestors (except the tarred and feathered one in 1781 - thanks a lot, Sons of Liberty) were Scots, English or Passamaquoddy (conjecture here but highly likely). I love genealogy stuff (I am an addict of "Who do you think you are?" on TV, and have already guessed some of yours from your names. Coates, I have high hopes that you are of English descent and related to John Coates who wrote the best Jane Austen continuation ever written (of the Watsons).I'd like to see if some of my guesses were right. I guess I get no prize for Kelly. S. Beallieu, a lost Cajun? Scherk - Swiss, Dutch, German, Transylvanian? Baal/Bob, you have given enough clues. Even Ashkenazi or Sephardi seems clear.Poland, Russia, Germany?

Good grief! You mean Obama is a secret Objectivist?