Links - September 13th 2011

"You talk to God, you're religious. God talks to you, you're psychotic." - Doris Egan

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Think Again: War - "The last decade has seen fewer war deaths than any decade in the past 100 years... Far from being an age of killer anarchy, the 20 years since the Cold War ended have been an era of rapid progress toward peace... If the world feels like a more violent place than it actually is, that's because there's more information about wars -- not more wars themselves... we see today's atrocities -- though mild by historical standards -- as "signs of how low our behavior can sink, not of how high our standards have risen"... Last year more Americans died from falling out of bed than in all U.S. wars combined... reports on conflict from the World Bank and the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, tell us that 90 percent of today's war deaths are civilian while just 10 percent are military -- the reverse of a century ago. Grim indeed -- but, fortunately, untrue... Recent technological changes are making war less brutal, not more so... For all the recent concern about a newly assertive Chinese navy in disputed international waters, China's military hasn't fired a single shot in battle in 25 years... democracy can heighten conflict by amplifying ethnic and nationalist forces"
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex"

Here's How To Reveal a Secret Facebook List of People You've Been Stalking

Ableist Language - "I first came across the campaign in the context of a call to avois the phrase ‘blind review’, on the ground that “ it associates blindness with lack of knowledge and implies that blind people cannot be knowers”... there are potential costs to sensitizing ourselves to ableist language in the manner suggested. Some metaphors are so dead that I doubt that they do any harm. ‘Sinister’, for instance, does not seem to me to be remotely harmful to left-handed people. But the problem with sensitization is that it spreads: it makes metaphors live, and increases the cognitive load... The problem is once you are sensitized to possible associations and suggestions, it is difficult to stop... There is a cost to the raising of sensitivities. Linguistic self-censorship is time and resource consuming. It may make dead metaphors live once more, and thus lead to some of the very harms it aims to avoid"

The Gay Case Against Gay Marriage and Gay Bigotry - "For honestly and somewhat courageously answering his question Miss California was roundly condemned as a ‘bigot’ by hosts of gay and liberal bloggers... Candidate Obama expressed the exact same view during the Presidential Election... Instead of being scorned as a bigot and a dumb bitch, Obama was handed the Mr America crown by liberals and probably most gay voters. But I suppose that being President of the United States is a rather less important title than Miss America. Branding Christians and traditionalists ‘bigots’ for being Christians and traditionalists... is a highly unattractive exercise in liberal self-righteousness that makes Miss America look quite sophisticated... it isn’t bigoted to believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. It’s just being conventional. And after all, marriage itself is convention and tradition tied up in a big red bow and covered in confetti and sprinkled with Holy Water. Which is exactly why lesbians and gays should have nothing to do with it... gay marriage zealots... [have] made even more of a fetish of the word ‘marriage’ than the religious right they rail against"

Many clients welcome telemarketing calls, replies bank association - "Feedback from our member banks reveal that many customers have found such calls beneficial as they serve to inform customers of the new products and services being offered by their banks... Customers who have requested not to be called by their banks or their telemarketing agents will be put on the do-not-call list"
Actually the telemarketing that pisses me off the most is from banks I am not a customer of

Maybe It’s Time For Plan C - NYTimes.com - "The lures are obvious: freedom, fulfillment. The highs can be high. But career switchers have found that going solo comes with its own pitfalls: a steep learning curve, no security, physical exhaustion and emotional meltdowns. The dream job is a “job” as much as it is a “dream.” “The decision to become an entrepreneur should not be made lightly”"

Promenons-nous dans les bois - "Pourquoi notre chère rubrique Cul-de-sex peut-elle bien s’intéresser à des hommes qui aiment se déguiser en animaux ? Parce que ces créatures, mi-homme mi-bête s’adonnent parfois, à la nuit tombée, aux plaisirs de la chair. Et sans quitter leur vêtement duveteux. On les appelle les furverts"

Why did Japan surrender? - "Some argue that more died in the resulting firestorm than at Hiroshima. People were boiled in the canals. The photos of charred Tokyo and charred Hiroshima are indistinguishable... To Japan’s leaders, Hiroshima was yet another population center leveled, albeit in a novel way. If they didn’t surrender after Tokyo, they weren’t going to after Hiroshima... After a long war and in the space of a few days, the Japanese leadership was hit with two extraordinary events - Hiroshima and the Soviet invasion - and sorting out cause and effect, based on incomplete documentation, may prove impossible... Yet Bernstein, Hasegawa, and many historians agree on one startling point. The public view that the atomic bomb was the decisive event that ended World War II is not supported by the facts"

Unlikely Wit on Sacred Pages at the Louvre - NYTimes.com - "The elderly shepherd standing with his wife recoils in frightened astonishment as an archangel dives down towards them with outstretched arms. A furry ram is at a loss what to do while the shepherd’s dog, tail curled up, gingerly feels its way toward the couple, precariously treading on the horizontal rod of a stylized motif. Life must have been fun in the Italian monastery where they painted this page and sang the music."

Is it Time for Masculinism? - "In the sexual arena, even wise teachers of sexuality such as David Deida, author of umpteen books on the subject, insists that in striving for equality of the sexes, women have become more like men, men more like women, and in that sameness we have lost the fundamental male-female energetic polarity that makes for desire, lust, and hot sex. How to bridge this gulf, in which men are men, women are women, and raw, primal desire is real and allowed, yet not cross over into the world of inequality, rigid roles, objectification, and pre-feminist values?"

Revenge of the Introvert - "When learning, introverts do best in quiet conditions and extraverts do better with more noise... "When we prime people to value happiness more, they become more unhappy and depressed""

Your Personality Could Make You Gain Weight: STUDY - "The meaner you are, the likelier you are to gain weight as you age"
"[It] found greater weight gain among impulsive people; those who enjoy taking risks; and those who are antagonistic - especially those who are cynical, competitive and aggressive"

The lies I told as a psychic - "Anita had only positive things to say about everyone's future. Trust me, no one wanted to hear otherwise... My friend Russ, a talented actor, worked for another psychic hotline. He thoroughly enjoyed perpetrating a fraud. He told me that he started each call by saying that he just drank a vial of lamb's blood to give him fortune-telling superpowers... A few of my calls lasted an entire hour and consisted of me reassuring the person on the other end of the line that everything would be OK. Those folks really didn't give a damn about psychics or readings. They just wanted to talk to a friendly voice... burger flippers, toilet scrubbers and those who facilitate elephant mating had cleaner jobs (and probably took more pride in their work) than I did"

29 life lessons learned in travelling the world for 8 years straight - "2. Deferring your happiness to the future is a terrible idea
9. More money will NEVER solve your problems"

What French girls know - "French girls grow up with this legacy of women who were utterly feminine and totally kick-ass; a legacy of bare breasts, revolutions, royal courts, sex, death, blood, guts and great hair. Meanwhile, my generation of American girls grew up with Betty Crocker, Girl Scouts and training bras -- and Julia Child was as French as it got. How unfair is that?"

Secret Singapore - "Internationally renowned as a foodie's paradise, Singapore's 2,000 or so eating establishments are now expanding underground with a number of secret supper clubs"

Daniel Schneidermann voit du sexisme partout - "Schneidermann relève de nombreuses expressions sexistes, qui n'auraient pas, selon lui, été utilisées pour évoquer un homme. Ah bon ? Faisons le test sur les articles du Figaro.fr avec l'aide du plus méticuleux des archivistes, Google... La déconstruction féministe des textes est une noble activité qui a connu ses heures de gloire sur les campus américains dans les années 80-90, mais mieux vaut ne pas la pratiquer au doigt mouillé"

chinese christian converts - "Anxious to save souls and to keep account books, missionaries often were satisfied with converts who were the dregs of society - freeloaders referred to contemptuously by Chinese as 'Rice Christians' [since they received free rice if they converted] - and uncharitably demanded preferential treatment for them in lawsuits and disputes over land"

Geylang Checker: Are Singaporean Ladies not better than Prostitutes?
Comments: "You may serve homecooked meals everyday but you can't cook better than a chef."
"Have you ever wanted to or tried to change a man? This is common among women.But think about it, how would it feel if your husband or boyfriend tried to change you?It hurts men when they know women want to change them"
"my partner cheated on me with other guys... or else it would be... no gucci bag den no sex tonight... WTF!... most of my frens actually marry thai or even china woman... all becoz they know what a man needs.. and in return we give them wat they need..."

How working long hours affects the wage gap - "One of the biggest contributing factors to the wage gap is the phenomenon of “overworking” – which means working 50 hours a week or more. The study, using data collected by the US Census Bureau, found the relative hourly wage of overworkers compared with that of full-time workers had increased substantially over the past three decades, but because a greater percentage of male workers were overworking, this change benefited men much more than women. Today, women earn an estimated 81 per cent of what men are paid... “Because our labour force values those who work long hours, women are at a disadvantage.” This is true especially in managerial-level jobs. In the so-called greedy occupations – doctors, lawyers and upper-level managers, for instance – workers are evaluated based on their face time at the office, according to Cha, who specialises in gender and labour markets. It is no coincidence that these jobs tend to come with the fattest pay cheques, too"
Cue feminist bait and switch