Summers
 

I agree -- also, I think that people overlook that when they say things like "women don't conceptualize math the same way as men" that there's a continuum, and that there are going to be individual women who conceptualize math the way an average male does, and that there are going to be individual men who conceptualize math the way the average woman does.

While the Summers stuff was still big in the news, I happened to grab a very very old Newsweek to read at lunch and it had a (couple? few?) piece(s) on how looking at brain waves and the differing abilities of men and women to figure out stuff like spatial relations vs. what people's feelings are by looking at a picture of just their eyes, autistic kids are like super-"male"s and, as one might expect, the vast majority of autistic kids are male. There was also a little sidebar or mention of some opposite-of-autistic thing where a person is extremely empathic but has no clue about spatial relations (or whatever).

Anyway, basically I find all of this very interesting. I definitely, definitely agree that there are, on a general level, sex-linked differences in how people process information.

We interrupt this economics discussion for a cheap political shot.
 

Or, if you're not a LOTR fan, you may like the real-world themed bumper sticker that someone passed along in response:

"I never thought I'd miss Nixon."

Summers
 

His mistakes:

(1) Whether he likes it or not, he speaks for an institution; he needs to think about how his position impacts Harvard's recruitment of potential faculty members in the audience; he doesn't have the freedom that Harvard faculty have to be idiots and not get called on it

(2) He concludes that both discrimination and socialization are "lesser" - As we say on this board, "cite please".

(3) He suggests science and engineering are "special cases" - why? Again, cite please.

Summers
 

The "I would like nothing better than to be proved wrong" is the arrogant asshole miscalculation. He in no way thinks he's going to be proven wrong, and he deosn't care. THAT was his opportunity to act like a leader and discuss the strides the women at the conference have made, blah blah blah, and the new outlook they bring, blah blah blah, blah blah blah. He's not a fucking (what is WITH you and the "effing"? Christ.) researcher in the area, obviously; he was there to give the message that the administration recognizes that this convention or whatever is important/worthy/what have you.

What he did is like the Queen going to Charles and Camilla's wedding and giving a toast that discusses how people who divorce are irredeemable sinners. OK, not that bad, but you get the drift.

Bilmore, you effing, arrogant cad!
 

Not quite. Sommers statement implies that Science as it is now practiced is good and correct and male, the last being unfortunate but unavoidable. My statement implies that women will bring into science things that will make it better. But both statements begin from a position of accepting the idea that there may be differences in the way many men and many women think about things.

Sommers is looking at it from a biased perspective. Not surprisingly, a biased male perspective.

We interrupt this economics discussion for a cheap political shot.
 

*sniff*

Bi-partisan bullshit
 

So.

Houston politics are theoretically non-partisan. No one runs for office under the ageis of one political party or the other. Last year, the GOP made an effort to concentrate power and they fucked up on the mayor side (ran two people for awhile, then one dropped out, and the one left was a complete moron), but got a majority of the seats on City Council.

The guy who ended up winning as mayor is what the Houston Press describes as Best Identity Crisis:

• He's a lawyer-turned-businessman and Bill Clinton's former deputy secretary of energy. He was able to attract prominent Republicans to his campaign for mayor, and he won 62 percent of the vote in the runoff that got him elected. But who is Bill White? Is he the liberal Clinton appointee fighting to find health insurance money for Houston children, or is he the conservative fighting against his so-called liberal union base to cut the pensions of city employees? Is Mayor White the man willing to take on conservatives with his traffic mobility plans -- including tow-truck regulation -- or the one who shows a willingness to take on the powerful unions -- like the police union -- by appointing outsiders to run departments? The mayor keeps the usually combative City Council under control, and so far he's found a way to appeal to the loyal audiences of Bob Lanier, Lee Brown and the Bushes. But if he ever settles on an identity, that may quickly change.

According to the Burnt Orange Report, his last approval rating was around 76 percent.

Today, there's a hysterical article in the Houston Chronicle about the GOP being pissed off as hell that their flunkies on City Council *gasp* support the mayor! I guess bipartisan support and actually getting stuff done aren't core GOP values.

Halfway to Socialized Medicine
 

From BNA

Summers
 

First, he told them, ahead of time, that there were very special conditions under which he would appear - and I believe one of them was that he not be invited as giving an institutional representation.

Second, he posits. He throws something out for discussion. These are not settled issues. Can he only say something like that once it's proven?

Finally, I think what he meant by "special cases" is that the gender stats in those two fields aer so different from other fields.

What he really said was, "there seems to be something to the idea that there are biological differences explaining the disparity in numbers. Discuss, please." For this he gets trashed? I don't get it.

Bilmore, you effing, arrogant cad!
 

I've only read parts of the transcript. What I read didn't leave me with this impression. I saw more of a "could this be a reason, as distasteful as we might find it?".

Halfway to Socialized Medicine
 

That sound, I think, is the thrashing from club's seizure, brought to him by the Bush Administration. Medic!

Halfway to Socialized Medicine
 

I'm amused that we are getting the crap side of socialized medicine without any of the advantages. I would say "heh" except it's just . . . so . . . bad.

Halfway to Socialized Medicine
 

It's good you're finding other ways to be amused, now that the whole sex toy thing has been proven to be illegal.

bad news, club
 

From an economic perspective, we can assume that the two are fungible, since displaced workers will surely use the money rationally in the way that makes them best off -- perhaps to buy job retraining on the private market.

See Thomas Sowell in Capitalism Magazine ("In defense of individual rights"), here.

Halfway to Socialized Medicine
 

I don't distribute. I think the ban is on distribution, not possession. I think I'm under the limit over which you are presumed to be a distributor.