Read this Stuff (12/22/15)

Students at Oberlin apparently have too much time on their hands.

Students at an ultra-liberal Ohio college are in an uproar over the fried chicken, sushi and Vietnamese sandwiches served in the school cafeterias, complaining the dishes are “insensitive” and “culturally inappropriate.” 

Gastronomically correct students at Oberlin College — alma mater of Lena Dunham — are filling the school newspaper with complaints and demanding meetings with campus dining officials and even the college president. 

General Tso’s chicken was made with steamed chicken instead of fried — which is not authentically Chinese, and simply “weird,” one student bellyached in the Oberlin Review.

Others were up in arms over banh mi Vietnamese sandwiches served with coleslaw instead of pickled vegetables, and on ciabatta bread, rather than the traditional French baguette.

I still, sometimes, feel the grief of my repented-of abortion and much-later miscarriage. Some feminists are surprised to discover that same grief.

These women are often angry. Justifiably so. Notice that these stories are much longer than the standard article. It takes more words to talk around the truth. Also, I suspect, because editors are unwilling to edit stories that are so raw, which makes Kimball’s complaint about a conspiracy of silence odd. Where is the sphere of silence and secrecy when national and international publications accept 10,000-word pieces on these topics?

The silence is in women’s emotional lives. What feminism insists we hide is not facts or bodily functions. Those we can flaunt—are encouraged to flaunt. We can talk about women stuff all we want. We just aren’t allowed to feel anything about it.

That is the reason the essential pretense is so essential. Who has feelings about a clump of cells? The feminist comfort Kimball spoke of regarding her abortion did not tell her how she would feel about the procedure, but that she did not need to feel anything about it. Pregnancy is just a biological function. There is no need to bring emotion into it. That’s the patriarchy and social conditioning talking. Just dismiss those feelings.

But then, one day, our desires change and the feelings don’t dismiss so easily. Occasionally, those undismissable feelings are not just about the baby.

My post at Da Tech Guy Blog from this past Saturday.

I must be getting old in the world of online opining—I’ve been blogging since 2003. Since that time, I’ve been called all manner of nasty things related to my race, religion, heritage, politics and whatnot. I’ve been called a whore for the white man and an African snob by black people. I’ve been called a Low Information Voter, an apologist for Islam(!) and a probable welfare queen by white people—the presumption was that I voted for the present POTUS. In 2008, I was even called “delusional” by an alleged conservative. My crime? Asserting that Barack Obama is a Marxist/socialist/progressive/communist. (Who’s the LIV now?)

As a result, insults pretty much roll off my back. In addition, I rather enjoy answering back like a civilized human while, sometimes slipping the verbal shiv in without the insulter knowing it…until they see their blood on the floor.

Conspiracy theories are a joke, right? Riiggght.

The mirror trades, as described in a Russian central bank report earlier this year on Deutsche Bank, involved clients buying Russian shares for rubles in Moscow and simultaneously selling them in London, usually for dollars, according to people familiar with the central bank’s findings.

That sort of trade, while legal in some circumstances, can also be used to skirt U.S. rules on reporting large international movements of money.

Russia’s central bank has slapped a derisory $5,000 fine on Deutsche Bank.

Meanwhile...

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