Truly Scary: Christian Anti-feminism

See this article about the Christian anti-feminist movement, that thinks women find their best fulfillment in submission. They think that feminism leads women to question God... which suits me just fine. Not questioning authority gets us into lots of nasty trouble. It isn't entirely clear what it means to working women: they want them home, but how many families can live today on one salary? Expecially if the family is large, and there is a rather subtle statement that sounds anti-contraception to me in the article. And what about me, a single woman whose father died years ago? I guess they would say I must submit to God, but it doesn't sound very supportive of single women, who are now about half of the total number of women in the U.S. All this before we even get into the question of women who are born gay.

Bush's Spin

Bush has been spending his final days in office spinning like a top, trying to secure his "legacy". There are a lot of people who find what he is saying disingenious at best. Here's an article by Richard Clarke, who was the head of counterterrorism for Clinton and part of the Bush administration, including 9/11, disagreeing with Bush's claim to have kept America safe.

Israel and Gaza: another view

The one thing I am sure of about the Israeli-Gazan conflict is that it is complicated, and that it is extremely difficult to get a complete picture of the situation, groups, and viewpoints involved. This article presents one part of the picture, and a depressing part. What I do know is that the Arabic news sources are full of horrifying pictures of the Gazan casualties, and that breeds more terrorists. Answers? I have no clue.

Book Review: Alex and Me

Title	Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Uncovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence--and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process
Author	Irene M. Pepperberg
Rating
Tags	parrots. language, cognition, animal behavior
	In Sept. 2007, Alex, a 31 year- gray African parrot, the most famous parrot in the world, died, emotionally devastating the women who had had him for 30 years and was the cause of his fame. Irene Pepperberg grew up with birds all her life, then got her Ph.D. in theoretical chemistry. Yet the work didn't satisfy her, and she turned to studying cognition and language acquisition in the African gray parrot. African grays were chosen because their pronunciation is better than other birds capable of speech. Pepperberg began trauning Alex to recognize shapes, colors, and numbers. His capabilities for doing so were astounding. During the 30 years of training, he on his own picked up the abstract concept of none, was able to recognize what was same and what was different, and more. With other scientists studying animal cognition, this has caused a revolution, showing that animals are capable of thought, and that a creature with a brain the size of a shelled walnut was capable of abstract concepts. Pepperburg summed up her scientific studies in her previous book, The Alex Studies. This book in more personal, about her life and how it led her to this work, about her deep bond with Alex, the depth of which even she was not aware of until his loss, and about the studies she did with Alex. His personality emerges as the alpha bird, bossy, playful, and loving. His last words to her were "You be good. I love you. You'll be in tomorrow"? There are great moments of humor. In one, Alex was at the vets and near the desk of the accountant. He asked the accountant, "want a nut?" "No". "Want corn" "No, Alex, thank you"... this went on a while. Finally, Alex petulantly asked, "Well, what DO you want?". The accountant laughed and started paying attention to Alex, which is what he wanted. The book begins with a discussion of what Pepperberg calls her "It's a Wonderful Life" moment. After Alex's death, emails and letters poured in from people who let her know just how much she and Alex had meant in their lives... from scientists, animal lovers, and others. The book is fairly short, written for a lay person, and written well. Marvelous!
Publication	Collins (2008), Edition: 1, Hardcover, 240 pages
Publication date	2008
ISBN	0061672475 / 9780061672477

Book Review: Giants, by John Stauffer

Title	Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln
Author	John Stauffer
Rating
Tags	abraham lincoln, frederick douglass, civil war, reconstruction, slavery, abolitionism
	I saw this book originally on one of the lists of best books of 2008, and I heartily concur with that assessment. It is a dual biography of Frederick Douglass, the black slave who rose to be one of the greatest advocates of abolition, and of Abraham Lincoln. The two men had backgrounds that were more similar than one would think. Both grew up poor, with almost no formal education. Douglass was in his early years rather fortunate for a slave, he grew up rather pampered (it was likely that he was his owner's son) and his first duties were as a house servant, the best condition for a slave. He was even taught a bit of reading and writing. Lincoln, while not a slave, was grindingly poor, and subject to his father's control until his 21st birthday, and felt trapped by being so. Both men loved reading passionately, and read similar works - the Bible, Shakespeare, and particular book of great speeches that included a dialog between master and slave. Both learned speechcraft from this book and became among the best orators of their day. Both had to deal with a great deal of brutality. Lincoln, in the rough and tumble area he grew up in, had to fight to prove his manhood. Douglass was beaten severely to break his spirit. There are many in the U.S. who like to underplay the role of slavery in the run-up to the Civil War. However, this book shows that it was the insolvable issue, a legacy that stemmed from the failure of the Founding Fathers to solve the problem. It had to be resolved eventually. Abolitionists were fairly popular speakers in the North, and Douglass became their most popular. It spurs the imagination to think of the effect he must have had on his audiences... a black man who was obviously intelligent, a mature man, a thinker, a great orator, who could talk about slavery as one who endured it. How many of his hearers must have had their myths of white superiority at the least badly damaged by hearing Douglass...how many men have this kind of life-changing impact on so many? Other events leading to the Civil War include the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the Dred Scott decision in the Supreme Court, both of which opened the possibility that slavery could be reimposed on states that had rejected it. In addition there were the Lincoln Douglas debates, John Brown's raid, the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin (by Harriet Beecher Stowe) which had a tremendous impact on Northern society. Then, finally, came the election of Abraham Lincoln on a platform of not expanding slavery, and the secession of the Southern States. It is hard to recognize now that Lincoln was actually fairly conservative on the issue of slavery. He did not want it expanded, and wanted to put in place policies that would lead to its eventual demise everywhere. But his priorty in his presidency was restoring the Union, not abolishing slavery. For this reason Douglass was often disappointed in him, and a vocal critic. Yet the two men met three times and became friends. Douglass was enthralled that Lincoln treated him as an equal, and as a friend, and forever loved him for that. Truly fascinating story that reminds me of why I love history. Stauffer is to be commended.
Publication	Twelve (2008), Hardcover, 448 pages
Publication date	2008
ISBN	0446580090 / 9780446580090

Book Review: No Rest for the Wiccan

Title	No Rest for the Wiccan (Bewitching Mysteries, No. 4)
Author	Madelyn Alt
Rating
Tags	fantasy, series, wiccans, witches, empaths, paranormal
	Fourth in Madelyn Alt's series about a woman in small town Indiana, who grew up steeped in Catholic guilt, but takes a job with a wiccan and finds to her surprise that it works for her and unleashes her talents as an empath. The character is a bit frustrating in that she won't let go enough of that past, and it makes her do dumb things.... I think I demand more of fictional characters than I demand of myself. ;-).
Publication	Berkley (2008), Paperback, 304 pages
Publication date	2008
ISBN	0425224562 / 9780425224564

Book Review: One Foot in the Grave

Title	One Foot in the Grave (Night Huntress, Book 2)
Author	Jeaniene Frost
Rating
Tags	fantasy, series, vampires
	I think I didn't rate this one higher because I wasn't in the mood for it... not the fault of the book. Frost is a good writer, but this one was just more violent than I was in the mood for.
thors 1
Publication	Avon (2008), Mass Market Paperback, 384 pages
Publication date	2008
ISBN	0061245097 / 9780061245091