Rotundus.com

I approve of silly little games like these.

HT: Kottke

One story gathering a lot of attention today is that the Augusta Golf Club has now added two female members, whereas in the past it was male only.

A New York Times blog post asked Is Golf Unethical?, focusing in particular upon Augusta's male-only policies amongst other concerns its a piece arguing against golf's inclusion in the Olympics. It made the following assertion specifically in regard to sexual segregation:

No honorable person can play at a segregated club

If such is the case, what about all the women-only athletic facilities? It's not just one or two gyms we're talking about - it's numerous chains of female-only facilities. If Augusta's policy is an example of sexism, then I'd argue that these places - of which there are far, far more - should fall into the same category. (Incidentally the closest gym to where I live happens to be female-only).

If female-only spaces are OK there should be no problem with male-only spaces. To quote statements made in the past by Augusta's chairman:

Our membership is single gender just as many other organizations and clubs all across America. These would include Junior Leagues, sororities, fraternities, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and countless others.

Gender-exclusive events seems to have cropped up in Canadian politics recently. To quote the Province:

Clark has been a fierce critic of the NDP’s “gender equity” quota system, where some ridings have been designated for women-only candidates in the next election. She has called the policy gender discrimination that’s insulting to men and patronizing to women.

But that hasn’t stopped Clark from enthusiastically embracing a “No Boys Allowed” policy at her women-only socials.

“We kick all the men out,” Clark boasted proudly at an Aug. 3 women-only luncheon in Delta, where not even male waiters were spared from the Liberals’ gender rules.

“We have gotten rid of the male server and everything,” Clark said. “Because I notice conversations happen differently when it’s just women in the room.”

I suspect you'd hear a much larger uproar if the Liberals or NDP were to have hosted male-only events. Again, either gender-exclusive events are OK or they're not. You really can't have it both ways.

Failing to cover the Christ Our Savior video riot

Some thoughts on the jailing of the Russian band Pussy Riot from the GetReligion blog.

Racism by Political Party

A response to a comment from an MSNBC journalist that "It is undeniably the case that racist Americans are almost entirely in one political coalition and not the other" with actual statistics. The conclusion: "It is undeniable that some Americans are racist but racists split about evenly across the parties. No party has a monopoly on racists."

Generation Read: Millennials Buy More Books Than Everybody Else

"millennials now buy 30 percent of books. In comparison, baby boomers, who have far more disposable income than most millennials, only made 24 percent of book purchases."

College Students Don’t Respect Peers Who ‘Hook Up’ Too Much: Survey

The development of the so-called single standard for sexual conduct across gender. "women in sororities who lived in Greek housing were 42 percent more likely to hold a reverse double standard than an egalitarian libertarian view of hooking up." If you've ever stumbled across 'game', one thing that many of those who try to practice is seem to argue is that one should pay attention to what women do rather than what they say. This particular bit would seem to support that assertion.

Bizarre economic indicators

The Deslide tool used here, which converts slideshows to regular web pages is also interesting.

Energiewende: German plans to cut carbon emissions with renewable energy are ambitious, but they are also risky

An overview of how renewable energy is affecting the German electrical grid.

The Rise of She: What a Shift in Gendered Pronouns Means

An excerpt from a paper mentioned in the article: "Between 1900 and 1945, 3.5 male pronouns appeared for every female pronoun [she, her, herself, hers], increasing to 4.5 male pronouns during the postwar era of the 1950s and early 1960s. After 1968, the ratio dropped precipitously, reaching 2 male pronouns per female pronoun by the 2000s. From 1968 to 2008, the use of male pronouns decreased as female pronouns increased." To the article's explanation of what it means I'd like to add that it makes things a lot more wordy and breaks up the flow of text a fair bit to constantly put in 'he or she'...

Runaway population growth often fuels youth-driven uprisings

"About 80% of the world's civil conflicts since the 1970s have occurred in countries with young, fast-growing populations, known as youth bulges ... In a sluggish agrarian economy, few young men can find legitimate employment. Their lack of a steady income essentially closes the door to marriage in a society where sex outside of wedlock is forbidden. Tradition requires paying a dowry and staging a wedding celebration, which together cost as much as $5,000 — three times the average annual household income."