Women's Awards

This leaves me perplexed. A "Best Woman Anything" award already bothers me: it is saying women can not compete on an open stage and need their (our) own special category where we only compete against ourselves.

So much for empowerment.

Take, just as an example, woman author awards. You have Author Awards, and then Woman Author Awards. Because Women Authors are not... Authors?

Admittedly I know nothing about the American "Woman of the Year" awards other than the fact that they exist. It seems to me though that the only thing that makes a "woman" as opposed to anything else (i.e. a man) is giving birth and lactating (I know, I know: Caitlyn, right? stay with me and I will get there). So Woman of the Year awards should be who gave the most birth and performed the best lactation? Perhaps?

Give me an engineer of the year award, scientific breakthrough of the year, athletic achievement of the year, book of the year, charitable action of the year, community service of the year, etc etc etc and let the best person win.


Conclusion? Base awards on accomplishments.

Based on this post Caitlyn Jenner is a very worthy recipient of the Woman of the Year award, as for her it was, indeed, quite an accomplishment rather than a fluke of birth.

Of Lions and Coffee Cups

Really guys, I'm as amused as the next guy about the Starbucks cup debacle. A crazy pastor made a video saying Starbucks is anti-Christian. It's funny. I'm not sure it has the staying power we are giving it, though.

On the other hand, this happened last week:
9-year-old Tyshawn Lee lured into alley, shot to death
And not a peep on a single one of my social media feeds.

So I will do what I now always do when I don't quite understand how people choose to place their outrage and I will ask: But are the lions ok?

Politcs of Crowds

Trump blames Mexican immigrants who can’t even vote. Sanders blames what he calls "the billionaire class," a class whose purported vast influence doesn’t seem to have done anything to prevent Sanders’ own formidable political rise. The pope blames the bankers, denouncing "usury" and what he called "oppressive lending systems which, far from promoting progress, subject people to mechanisms which generate greater poverty, exclusion and dependence."

Read the rest here