Candace Owens’ Question Period

Wow, what a great article asking us all to take a closer look inside and maybe, just maybe, consider our words before we make pronouncements. I will strive to really think before I chatter! Thank you Trudy.

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We all know the purpose of feminine protection is to allow women to leap about in fields while on their periods.

Well, the Oscars are over and they managed to make both conservatives and liberals mad. And yes, I have opinions, despite never having watched the awards ceremony this or any other year.

From what I can tell via Twitter, which is where I learn about things I don’t care much about, liberals are mad (justifiably) because the Best Picture award went to Green Book, a movie that transforms the true story of an exceptional black musician into a white-savior narrative seen through the eyes of his racist driver.

Conservatives, meanwhile, are outraged because somebody said the word “menstrual.”

Did I get all that right?

I found out about conservative outrage through this stellar tweet from Candace Owens — well, this tweet and the 46,016 people who had apparently liked it up…

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An ageing philosopher returns to the essential question: ‘What is the point of it all?’

‘Being 97 has been an interesting experience.’
By the time of his death, the US philosopher Herbert Fingarette (1921-2018) had lived what most would consider a full and meaningful life. His marriage to his wife, Leslie, was long and happy. His career as professor of philosophy at the University of California, Santa Barbara was both accomplished and controversial – his book Heavy Drinking (1988), which challenged the popular understanding of alcoholism as a progressive disease, was met with criticism in the medical and academic communities. In a later book, Death: Philosophical Soundings (1999), Fingarette contemplated mortality, bringing him to a conclusion that echoed the Epicureans: in non-existence, there is nothing to fear. But as Being 97 makes evident, grappling with death can be quite different when the thoughts are personal rather than theoretical. Filmed during some of the final months of Fingarette’s life, the elegiac short documentary profiles the late philosopher as he reflects on life, loss, the many challenges of old age, and those lingering questions that might just be unanswerable.
Director: Andrew Hasse
Producer: Megan Brooks
Website: FTRMGCWhat is the point of it all?

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Thoughts on women in leadership – Part II

Thank you Jane and as a male of our species I often despair that we really don’t learn much, no matter our society. It appears to me we as an “advanced” society still thrive on negativity and disrespecting others to advance our cause. We stand by meekly, shake our heads and moan that politics is a dirty game and then forget as we go about our daily lives until the next scandal comes along when we start tut-tutting again.
We shake our heads in bewilderment at women covering their heads with scarves but never question a man wearing a crucifix around his neck; we snicker at powerful women in dresses but then wonder why if they were a pant suit; we never question men all wearing a similar suit but would certainly have lots to say if the same happened with a group of women!
We prattle on about our libertarian Canadian way of life but tell snide jokes about Newfis, Quebecers, Albertans and of course the vaunted British Columbians and the West Coast lifestyle! We stand on the world stage and condemn others for their shameful lack of morals or human rights abuses and ignore ours happening here at home every day.
Sorry for prattling on but my view of humanity is a little skewed right now as I sit here in my comfy chair in a warm home while it is -10C outside and yet vast numbers of people don’t even have a chair to sit in or the luxury of an electric light.

Robby Robin's Journey

Obviously, I knew when I wrote my blog post ‘Thoughts on women in leadership – Part I’ that there was more to the story. That’s why I included “Part I” in the title! But I have to admit that I couldn’t have foretold the event that occurred in Canada last week that propelled me to dive into Part II. I’m afraid I’ve discovered more red flags than sage advice this past week in navigating the rough terrain of standing your ground as a woman – at least in the worlds of politics and technology. Hopefully, when I’m ready to tackle Part III I’ll find more encouraging supporting materials. Here’s hoping. We need nurturing, empowering environments in which our most capable women – and men – can thrive and find success in leadership roles. The examples I have been reading about this past week do not fit that definition.

Those…

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Re: generation

Why older people must stand in solidarity with the youth climate strikes. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 15th February 2019   The Youth Strike 4 Climate gives me …

Source: Re: generation

On the Death of Robots: Who Gets to be Human?

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I’ll admit it: like lots of people, I’ve shed a tear or two over the “death” of the Opportunity Rover, which spent far longer recording information on the surface of Mars than it was ever supposed to. After seeing dozens of cartoons and tributes, it’s hard not to anthropomorphize a machine that embodied so much of our humanness, our striving to know more about the universe we live in.

The story of Opportunity and the response to its “death” showcases the best of humanity: our curiosity, our ingenuity and ability to create technology that satisfies that hunger for knowledge, and our empathy, which is so vast that we can anthropomorphize a data-collecting robot, endow it with human characteristics, and mourn its loss as if it were one of us.

As a species, we take my breath away. We are amazing.

At the same time, the machines of human ingenuity churn…

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Toxic Femininity

Wow, here are some ideas worth thinking about a whole lot more.

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Photo: Lukasz Dziegel, pexels.com

Throw into the 2018 file of “Things That Happen So Regularly We Hardly Even Notice”: liberal friend uses the phrase “toxic masculinity” on social media to refer to a man abusing his partner or shooting a bunch of strangers or whatever. Conservative friend responds aghast to the idea that “masculinity is toxic” and rushes to the defense of all the great, truly MANLY men she knows who embody masculine qualities. Tired liberal friend explains that the phrase “toxic masculinity” does not mean “being masculine is toxic.” Blah blah blah: at this point we all know our lines.

But my latest go-round on the Merry-Go-Round-of-Gender-Norm-Debates triggered a new thought: Is there such a thing as “toxic femininity”? 

If “toxic masculinity” means not “masculine behavior is inherently toxic” but “there is a version of masculine behavior that can be expressed in toxic and damaging ways” — violence…

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Keepin’ it Real

Excellent review of not being perfect

Life After 50

Warning: I may have dropped the F Bomb in this post…more than once!

In a recent conversation with a friend who was experiencing some challenges, they expressed that their life sometimes felt like a total fuck up.

I assured them they had not won the prize on that one!

However it did get me to thinking.

We live in a world, where on a daily basis, we are bombarded with images of people seemingly living richer, fuller and more adventurous lives.

People working in more exciting jobs & wearing more fashionable clothing.

People who travel the globe with what appears to be an endless supply of income.

People who are married to the perfect partner & have miraculously created the perfect family who all live in a perfect home.

People living a life we can only dream of.

But are they really?

I believe a more accurate statement might be, we…

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What’s it All For?

This is quite deep and certainly warrants more thinking.

THE LANDSCAPE OF REALITY

If one is inclined to look at life with a scientific lens, then it’s difficult to avoid an uncomfortable possibility. What if the whole thing is pointless at the bottom of it all? The universe continually recycles from creation to destruction. It doesn’t matter where you look it mostly comes out the same. Here on Earth the evolutionary process seems exceedingly wasteful. Scientists estimate that more than 99.99% of species that have ever existed are now extinct. In the far distant future it doesn’t look much better. In about 5 billion years the Sun will turn into a red giant; expand and extinguish any possibility of life on our plant. And there is no reason to believe that the universe at large is any different. Noble prize-winning physicist StevenWeinberg put it this way, “The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless.”

The universe goes on…

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