Watching “This Week”: George asks Rummy what he’s going to do about the vacancy left by Paul Wolfowitz. He asked, “What kind of man are you looking for?”
Rummy goes with it, “I’m not sure what type of man I’m looking for.”
And people wonder why there aren’t women in the upper echelons of the academy or business.
This morning’s New York Times includes an editorial about the 2006 budget. Not surprisingly, it includes a number of tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, the top .2% of wage earners. Interestingly, the Washington Post article on the same topic doesn’t really mention the tax cuts, but focuses on the cuts to spending, mostly to Medicaid, student loans and environmental programs.
It’s actually hard to find anything about this story. I realize that the budget doesn’t go to the house for a couple of weeks and until something actually happens, no one wants to write about it. Thing is, this is when you need to write about it. Once the budget is passed, there’s not much you can do. And I know, all these big numbers make your eyes glaze over. They do mine too. But, actually, if it realy is money that makes the world go round, we should be paying attention to this. We should be asking questions like, why do tax cuts only apply to the wealthiest? Why are we even talking about tax cuts when we have such a huge deficit and we’re trying to come up with ways to make programs like Social Security and Medicaid solvent.
Here are a few people writing about it:
Echidne
Kathy at Liberty Street–especially good at looking at some of the specific proposed spending cuts
BlondeSense–who notes that the Alaska drilling provision is tied into the budget bill
I want you to note that the three links above are female bloggers, writing about the budget. And I just did a search through technorati.
You know what everyone’s talking about? Terry Schiavo. Fine, the whole thing could have implications for right-to-life/right-to-die reasons. But you know, this money stuff is going to matter more. If medicaid gets cut and with the new bankruptcy laws, we won’t be arguing over her right to live or die because there won’t be money to sustain her.
All around the mulberry bush,
The monkey chased the weasel . . .
Just thought you’d need that tune in your head before you read this post. Inspired by Bitch, Ph.D.’s post about the question of women bloggers being raised yet again, I thought I’d link around and summarize a bit. I am trying my best to keep my anger in check and I know no one’s really going to read this and since most of my readers are women (my own sizing up of the readership), I am going to try to keep it light and happy. You deal with the subtext.
First, I recommend three of Dr. B’s posts: 1, 2, 3
And there’s links in there. Basically, a lot of people are pointing out that a lot of white male liberal bloggers have some latent sexism. Am I surprised? No. Remember my post about sexism among my colleagues. People of good conscious are sometimes sexist. I’m not sure how to remedy that.
Mel has a nice post about diversity in the blogosphere, about the importance of hearing other voices and the potential for the blogosphere to allow those voices to be heard. I think that is why we always get up in arms when the woman question comes up. It’s because everyone touts the blogosphere as being so democratic and diverse when it’s not. Partly it’s that the msm only pays attention to what’s at the top. And the top bloggers are only paying attention to what’s at the top. Everything else just under the surface gets ignored. There’s lots of diversity bubbling beneath the surface.
Another thing I find funny about the “Where are the women?” question is that there was just a bunch of bru-ha-ha over the mommy blogs. Hello–those are pretty much all women.
Here are some thoughts from my own hunt around the web. Chris Nolan’s 10 reasons why people keep asking this question. James Robertson on Chris Nolan.
Professional lurker has an excellent post about the issue and especially thoughtful on the idea of gendered language.
Another long and thoughtful post at Body and Soul (a blog I immediately blogrolled).
Burningbird looks at it from the technology standpoint, a view I’m quite interested in. And this whole issue dovetails with the sxsw vs. e-tech controversy that both danah and liz lawler write about at many to many. In fact, Dave Winer’s response to the question (which I’m not going to link to because others have) is primarily that, hey, there’s a lot of men in the tech field and blogging started as a techie thing, so of course, it’s still heavily a man’s blogosphere. God, can we get past the “women aren’t techies” or “women aren’t political” stuff. Because it’s. just. not. true.
I could go on and on, but I won’t. The thing is women are everywhere, but somehow they keep getting rendered invisible. I think everyone who asks where the women are should read Invisible Man. And I think no matter how tiring it is, we have to keep shouting “We are here! We are here! We are here!” Because if we don’t, into the beezlenut oil we go.
Update: I also want to add Cleis’s post at Sappho’s Breathing which has a great list of reason’s men give for not reading women’s blogs.
One more update: Echnide (one of my favorite blogs) has some great thoughts on the issue plus links to her own posts on these supposedly “male” political issues.
P.S. Promise this is the last update.
Sometimes I think about what might have been, if I’d just been born a few years later–say 1972. Actually maybe 1976. When I see all the great stuff that’s going on–and has been going on–in the technology world, I feel a little left out. Which is odd given that I work in a technology field. I do know a lot about technology. I taught myself html and css (both need some work). I learned enough php to get by editing scripts that other people write for me (yay web guy and language guy). I can work any software program you put in front of me in no time. I’ve learned video editing software of all stripes, dreamweaver, photoshop, fireworks, gimp, audacity, cleaner, and on and on. And I’m always looking for new software. I can work on any platform: Mac, Linux, Windows. I can even do Unix. And I love, love the internet. But my knowledge is not very deep. This actually serves me well in my current position. I never know what kind of problem someone is going to present me with and I can think about all the the things I know about and come up with a solution that is likely to work well for someone who’s not that good at technology.
So why do I feel I’ve missed the boat when I seem to be so technologically proficient? Because I think there could be more. I’ve always felt a bit behind the curve, kind of like missing the wave (to mix my metaphors). I did take a computer science class in undergrad, but nearly failed (it was at 8 a.m.; I’m not a morning person). It was mostly about the innards (motherboard, processor, etc.) which went right over my head at the time, and business applications (spreadsheets, databases). There was no programming, no thinking about how computers can be used to solve problems. And, there was no internet.* There was no sense that computers could one day bring far-flung people together. Five years later, there would have been much more to offer, a real computer science major.
On to graduate school in creative writing where I actually wrote a lot about science, math and computer science. (I was dating Mr. Geeky and hanging out with the Math babes). I joined newsgroups and listservs. I lied on a job application to get a job doing a computerized layout for a conference proceeding and a series of newsletters. My first day on the job, I read the manual. The next day, I started laying out stuff taken from all formats of floppies. I was basically immersed in technology and loving it. But not loving my program so much. I quit and got a corporate job. Just three years after I quit, the school began a master’s program in Instructional Technology. Before I left, I actually investigated getting a Ph.D. in Education. It was just a little too early to see what was coming and how I might fit in.
Though the corporate job had nothing to do with computers, I ended up 1) proposing a dramatic change in our computer system that would move us from a terminal-based system to a pc-based system and 2) doing almost all the training on computer use. Again, a little later in the game, I might have shifted to the IS department.
And then, the next go around in graduate school after spending a year at home, learning html btw, and generally really experiencing the internet. Used the web in every class I taught. Taught in computer classrooms. Really thought about (and wrote about) teaching with technology. Taught other graduate students how to do html. This is what I was really excited about–the effect of technology on teaching, on the lives of my students. Unfortunately, no degree program in composition/rhetoric. Had to focus all my research energy on Renaissance literature, which I truly enjoyed but was not passionate about in the same way.
So here’s the path I envision that might have been. I think I still would have gotten my undergraduate degree in Creative Writing (that, too, was a passion). But I might have minored in CS or I might have gotten a Ph.D. in Compositon/Rhetoric with a focus on technology issues or I might have gotten a Ph.D. in Instructional Technology. I know I probably could have stuck my neck out a little, especially in the last round of grad school and could have construction my own program. But I just didn’t. It didn’t occur to me to do so. I also know that I could still get a Ph.D. But I don’t have the energy for it now. There’s too many other interesting things to do. I know what getting a Ph.D. takes and I just don’t have it in me right now. Someone visiting my lab from Columbia University once asked me why I didn’t have a Master’s or Ph.D. in Instructional Technology and I simply said, “I came along too late in the game.” He seemed to understand, being a little older than me.
It’s funny how all these little things add up to take you down the path you end up going down. I did make conscious decisions all along the way, but new paths were being built after I’d passed the turnoffs. When I was being interviewed for this job more than 2 years ago, I was asked, “Why this job? Why now?” I quoted Robert Frosts poem, “The Road Not Taken.” I was taking this path now, but I have a different way of reading the ending:
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
I have always thought of the ending as triumphant: “My life is great because I took a path different from everyone else.” To some extent, that may be true in my case, but there is the sigh, the resigned notion of being unable to go back. Although for me, there were many divergings and, as I said, divergings that opened behind me, there is still the “what if . . .” As I get older, I feel both a twinge of regret and a bit of triumph, never completely one or the other.
*Technically, the internet existed, but was not widely available, certainly not at my tiny liberal arts college.
This is one of the best random shuffles I’ve gotten. I almost always get stuff I don’t like. But I think I like everything in this list:
The Ghosts That Haunt Me–Crash Test Dummies The Ghosts That Haunt Me
Particle Man –They Might Be Giants Flood
Zanzibar–Hoodoo Gurus Stoneage Romeos
The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead–XTC Nonsuch
Minor Swing–Django Reinhardt Django Reinhardt – Djangology 49
The Blues Are Brewin’–Billie Holiday Lady’s Decca Days Volume Two
Your Eyes–The Sundays Static & Silence
King Of The Road–Roger Miller Golden Hits
Where The Streets Have No Name–U2 Joshua Tree
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For–U2 Joshua Tree
Okay, there’s some audience participation here. I am planning to take some of my birthday money on music. Everyone suggest songs, albums, artists you think I should buy. I have pretty eccletic taste in music. I’m up for anything–so suggest away. I’ll even buy through your iTunes affiliations if you have them.
technorati tags: music, fridayshuffle, random10
I’m a generally unfuckwitted, liberal, not-too-generous, not-too-selfish, relatively well adjusted human being!
See how compatible you are with me!
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I’m 90% compatible with Musey.
I was flipping through my Newsweek last night and was stopped by one of those Parents: the Anti-Drug ads. I’ve been seeing these for a while now. In theory, I agree with the premise of the campaign. I think encouraging parents to be involved, to talk to their kids is a good thing. This particular ad, however, was about keeping tabs on your kids after school. And I thought, okay, good idea, but how am I supposed to do that when I work until six? I have a very flexible employer and I have a husband who’s an academic with a flexible schedule, so I think we’ll be able to work something out when Geeky Boy hits junior high that allows one of us to be home when he is. But most people do not have this kind of arrangement.
I went to the campaign’s website to see if they linked to information on after-school programs or other community resources. Nope. Not much there. In their partners list, there are quite a few good organizations, some of which probably offer some of those resources. In general, however, their campaign is all about using information to combat a drug problem. We know this doesn’t work. DARE doesn’t work. Just Say No didn’t work. They’ve done studies. What we parents need is support, information on community resources for getting our kids involved in something they enjoy, so they won’t want to do drugs. What I’ve found in my own community is that it’s difficult to find these. Most are still sending out information on paper only. If you don’t receive this info by mail, you have to physically go somewhere and get it. And for those of us who can barely manage to make it to the grocery store, asking us to take time out of our work day to go get some flyer is crazy.
I’m frankly not overly worried about drugs. I probably should be given my own checkered past, but I kind of have an idea of how it all happened. My parents checked out but at the same time were giving me directives about what I *should* be like. I hope to avoid checking out myself and to only fight the fights that need to be fought. I mean I don’t care if my kid dresses all in black or has hair in their eyes. He/she will figure it out. That kind of stance has more to do with peer relationships than with me.
In retrospect, I know that the drugs I did did some damage to my potential. Luckily, I suffered no physical damage, but the amount of time I wasted drinking and doing drugs meant my grades slipped which had all kinds of ramifications. There’s no sense crying over spilt milk, but I do sometimes wonder if I wouldn’t have really finished my dissertation if I had gotten off track very early on. And I think what was more damaging was not the drugs themselves, but the attitude surrounding the whole subculture. It was not a constructive way to fight authority–which is what we were trying to do at times.
It’s not like I have any magic formula to deal with all of this when I have to with my own kids, but I *do* know that it’s going to take more than me and Mr. Geeky to handle the whole thing. It’s a shame really that the Anti-drug campaign doesn’t offer such support.
Today was quite a good day–as it should be, of course! I did not get to goof off today, but it was very productive. My colleagues took me out to lunch for Indian food. I love Indian food! For dinner, my family took me to the Japanese steak house near our house. It was also really good! I am so full right now.
I also got a nice bouquet of flowers from my dad–sunflowers, daylilies and yellow daisies. Spring is in my house!
Food fun continues tomorrow as our campus restaurant is having a special Irish meal. Two of my colleagues, including my boss, are from Ireland. I’m looking forward to it. I used to go to this great pub/restaurant in Bloomington, IN called the Irish Lion. I loved that place. This meal will be very close to that–without the Guiness, unfortunately.
Next week, I’m taking a vacation to hang out with my kids–much needed! It will be good to be recharged and ready to go.
Thanks everyone for the birthday greetings! There are so many of us with March birthdays. Maybe next year, we should have a big party.
To me! Yay! I’m headed to 40 more quickly than I thought possible. I don’t feel anywhere close to 40.
I have to say that in the last 24 hours, the blog world has really raised my spirits. I was tickled at the P/H meme. I was also tickled at the mommy blog thread at Unfogged. Just reading lots of different things made me smile for much of the evening. Thanks, everyone!
Sometime later–when I’m goofing off at work (cause it’s my birthday)–I will write something more substantial.
Over at Unfogged, there’s a great post about Mommy Blogs. And even greater are the comments, in which Bitch, Ph.D is, of course, heavily participating. In fact, I can’t believe I got to post this before her.
I think ogged is right, by the way. Just think of all the news coverage dooce is getting and that whole NY Times article on mommy blogs. They probably got reamed for that.
I may not like all the mommy/parent blogs I have run into, but I have quite a few on my blogroll and quite a few people in other categories who are parents and blog about it quite a bit.
It’s funny because when I see myself on other people’s blogrolls, I get categorized all kinds of different ways–parent, geek, writer, techie, academic. I like that, actually. We all play different roles and different people appreciate our different roles. Someone my read my blog for the parenting stuff, someone else may read it for the geeky stuff (rare though it may be), others for something else. Heck, that’s why I started the thing, to write about whatever crossed my mind–and sometimes that’s my kids.
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