Follow-up: Murder of Transgender woman

We commented earlier on the tragedy of Angie Zapata’s death.  The “suspect” is now going to trial.  If convicted, he will be sentenced to life without parole.  His description of the murder  is enough to suggest he should be removed from society:

He told police he thought he had “killed it,” referring to Zapata, and covered her with a blanket. He then set about trying to clean up the crime scene. While doing this, he heard “gurgling” sounds coming from the victim and saw Zapata sitting up. He hit her again with the fire extinguisher.

 

Afghan Gov’t will change law

And sometimes things get better.  From CNN

“Now I have instructed, in consultation with clergy of the country, that the law be revised and any article that is not in keeping with the Afghan constitution and Islamic Sharia must be removed from this law,” [President] Karzai said.

The law  would have allowed very restrictive measures to be imposed on the Shia minority women. 

For ealier posts on this blog about the law, see here.

In praise of stay-at-home moms?

Stay-at-home mothers perusing the Wall Street Journal online will no doubt be gratified to learn that Dr. Laura has written a book in praise of them. After all, they may be so busy “finding value” by looking into their children’s eyes and wrapping their bodies around their husbands’ when they come home from work that they don’t even realize that these “incredible moments…make your life more valuable than the person who replaced you at work.”

Working mothers perusing the Wall Street Journal online should be reassured that, although Dr. Laura believes that mothers should never go back to work, she “didn’t write this book about working moms.” Still, they should also be aware that “during the first three years, the mom should be at home because all of the research shows that the person whose body you come out of and whose breast you suck at, at that stage, really needs to be the mom — unless she’s incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial.” Apparently, choosing to work instead of opting to “make a house into a home,” though incompatible with being the mom, is not on its own enough to make a working mother incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial. That fact, plus knowing that Dr. Laura’s “heart hurts” for them, should console working women who will never feel “those pudgy arms around your neck” (presumably not even on evenings or weekends) and whose children will never learn their perspective on “what’s moral and of value.”

(Thanks to Alison Reiheld for circulating the link to the interview.)

Baffling response to pay gap in Sheffield

The goal: equalise pay between women and men, because women are being paid less. The method: reduce the pay of some of the lowest paid female workers (as well as some of the lowest paid male workers). We’re supposed to think it’s OK because some people’s pay is going up. Aaargh! I am more than a little bit appalled to see equalising pay used as a justification for this.

If you’d like to complain, you can do so here.

Gender equality in Metaphysics

It shouldn’t be unusual, but it is. See how nice it looks?

I Workshop on Vagueness and Metaphysics
25-26 June 2009
Organized by Dan López de Sa, with the auspices of LOGOS.
Sponsored by MICINN and UB.
Residència d’Investigadors CSIC (c/Hospital, 64 – 08001 Barcelona)

Besides some members of the research team, speakers will include:

Elizabeth Barnes (Leeds)
David Barnett (Colorado)
Ross Cameron (Leeds)
Iris Einheuser (Duke)
Delia Graff Fara (Princeton)
Dan Korman (Illinois)
Ofra Magidor (Oxford)
Benjamín Schnieder (Phlox)

Thanks, Esa, for the link!

The Perils of Ambiguity

Next time you’re looking for an example of ambiguity, you might consider the verb ‘to teabag’.

1. To dip ones testicles into the open mouth of another person.
2. To hold an anti-taxation protest (Spring 2009, US right-wing)

And you might have a look at this (h/t Shakesville):