June 25, 2018

"Connected home gadgets are largely installed by men... Many women... do not have all the apps on their phones..."

"The people who spoke... about being harassed through smart home gadgetry were all women.... Each said the use of internet-connected devices by their abusers was invasive — one called it a form of 'jungle warfare' because it was hard to know where the attacks were coming from. They also described it as an asymmetry of power because their partners had control over the technology — and by extension, over them. One of the women, a doctor in Silicon Valley, said her husband, an engineer, 'controls the thermostat. He controls the lights. He controls the music.' She said, 'Abusive relationships are about power and control, and he uses technology.'"

The NYT reports on the problems of affluent women who don't learn how to use their own gadgets, in "Thermostats, Locks and Lights: Digital Tools of Domestic Abuse."

Here's the Wikipedia article "Jungle warfare" in case you want to contemplate that analogy in depth.
The jungle has a variety of effects on military operations. Dense vegetation can limit lines of sight and arcs of fire, but can also provide ample opportunity for camouflage and plenty of material with which to build fortifications. Jungle terrain, often without good roads, can be inaccessible to vehicles and so makes supply and transport difficult, which in turn places a premium on air mobility. The problems of transport make engineering resources important as they are needed to improve roads, build bridges and airfields, and improve water supplies. Jungle environments can also be inherently unhealthy, with various tropical diseases....
I gave some thought to whether "jungle warfare" had a racial tinge that made it inadvisable for speech in polite company. I'm on high alert for that kind of thing because some guy on "Fox & Friends" just got flayed for saying "you're out of your cotton-picking mind." He said it to a black person, who reacted quickly, saying that he had "some relatives who picked cotton, and I'm not going to sit back and let you attack me on TV like that."

"Cotton-picking" is a corny intensifier that tends to be used in place of "damned," as if "damned" is the word that will get you in trouble. I wanted to say it's an "out of the frying pan, into the fire" kind of situation, but maybe some of your relatives toiled over frying pans.

112 comments:

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

"Cotton-picking" is used to avoid saying "fucking". Choose fucking.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

"Jungle warfare" is possibly okay, but saying "guerrilla" will get you fired from your sportscasting job.

Sebastian said...

"They also described it as an asymmetry of power because their partners had control over the technology . . . The NYT reports on the problems of affluent women who don't learn how to use their own gadgets."

Considering that James Damore was entirely wrong about the different interests and aptitudes of men and women, this problem will be easy to solve.

dreams said...

Here is this. Free speech, I don't think so.

"The Oklahoma City Thunder will not renew the contract of the only television play-by-play announcer the team has had since it relocated in 2008."

"Davis was suspended for Game 1 of the Thunder's first-round Western Conference playoff series against the Utah Jazz for a broadcast comment he made during the team's regular-season finale against Memphis. In that game, Davis described Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook as "out of his cotton-picking mind" after an assist."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2018/06/15/oklahoma-city-thunder-wont-renew-contract-of-announcer/36079077/

Ralph L said...

It's "cotton-pickin'."

Where does electronic domestic violence rank in the list of First World problems?

buwaya said...

My wife controls the thermostat and the TV.
I don't care. She feels cold and watches TV, I don't.

This feeling of anxiety seems to be a neurotic trait.

Seeing Red said...

Another reason why females are too stupid to vote.

rcocean said...

"Cotton-picking mind" = bugs bunny.

The Doctor's husband may control the Temperature but she controls his health.

Game Her.

dreams said...

We're living in a world gone mad and those silly liberal snowflakes at our universities will one day be running our country which means ruining it forever.

tcrosse said...

He controls the technology. She controls the pussy. Sounds like balance.

DKWalser said...

I believe the tech thing is one of those damned if you do, damned if you con't kind of situations. By default, I'm my family's IT consultant. My wife wants all the benefits from the latest technology and expects me to acquire, install, and maintain it. Yet, she also resents that she doesn't know how to operate it. IT'S NOT BECAUSE I'M UNWILLING TO TEACH HER OR THAT SHE'S UNABLE TO LEARN. SHE HAS NO DESIRE TO LEARN.

Resentment doesn't have to be reasonable.

Freeman Hunt said...

After reading the first paragraph, I thought, "Why not change the wifi password?" Then the article mentioned that and said it wasn't a "catchall fix." How is it not a "catchall fix?"

rcocean said...

I've always controlled the TV remote control.

In the words of Nathan Bedford Forrest:

I get there furstest with the mostest.

Freeman Hunt said...

For any of this stuff: Have these things replaced with versions that are not online. OR Have a repairman come out and explain how to reset them and set up new accounts. OR If you don't want to use them, change the wifi password.

If the guy had a key, you'd change the lock. If he knew the security system code, you'd change it. How is this any different?

rcocean said...

Lots of wives don't want to deal with technical stuff or fix their car.

But very few of them bitch about it, when their husband takes care of it.

Seeing Red said...

I want to whine. Everything else is too much effort.

rcocean said...

I've never understood why people want their homes controlled through the internet or by computer.

What's so hard about getting up and changing the theromstat?

Ralph L said...

It's hard to believe it was a scandal when Rhett said "damn" at the end of GWTW.

readering said...

News report:

David Bossie, the former deputy campaign manager for Donald Trump and current outside adviser to the president, has been suspended from his contributor gig at Fox News. The suspension lasts two weeks.

YoungHegelian said...

I'm sorry, this shit just isn't that difficult, and there's tons of instructional material on the web for almost all of it.

So, Little Miss Brilliant & Have-It-All, sit yer sweet ass down & learn it. You'll be surprised how quickly you can get the basics.

Matt said...

I keep hearing how today's Western woman is strong, fierce, brave, independent and a cornucopia's-worth of other adoring adjectives.

So which is it? Strong, fierce and independent? Or afraid of a phone?

rcocean said...

In WW 2, jungle warfare negated the USA superiority in Firepower and Airpower. Its hard to direct artillery or observe fire.

We had higher casualties as a result. Throw in malaria and other tropical diseases and we had massive infantry losses.

I don't know what that has to do with Household gadgets but there it is.

rwnutjob said...

My white Scotch/Irish Mother picked cotton on my Grandfather’s farm during the Great Depression. Race has nothing to do with it.
But, but, but, narrative.

Ralph L said...

They could try asking their husbands nicely to change things. Do it often enough and they'll fork over control--or run off with the appliance repairman.

n.n said...

Race has nothing to do with it.

We lose more good words to diversity than any other cause. I suppose that's why people are conceiving new language in the urbanscape to compensate.

Michael K said...

readering is excited. Have you got a warm feeling in your jeans ?

Women should be restricted to the use of electronic and other devices invented by women.

Like that bridge in Florida or the female Navy officers that rammed the freighter and got 7 sailors killed.

readering said...

rwnutjob, you must be a big fan of Show Boat, that old musical set on the Mississippi, with the subplot of the performer sent away because of her mixed blood. Scotch-Irish, I think.

readering said...

Micheal K, when did you get so cranky about the news?

n.n said...

Sex disparity. Is the NYT arguing for diversity (e.g. color, sex discrimination) in electronic technicians? Who special and peculiar interest are they aping now? Insidious.

Rockeye said...

NYT, never change. We can always count on hearing of the newest, affluent coastal 1st World Problem from them. How could I ever manage to maintain my smug sense of flyover-superiority without they NYTs willing collaborators?

Mary Beth said...

These things aren't difficult to learn how to use. Not learning how is a choice, not a right to victimhood.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

Fox banned Bossie.

buwaya said...

The NYT is, as many have noted, the habit of hordes of over-schooled, neurotic women.
They can't live without anxieties. They would be very depressed otherwise. Inventing new anxieties for them is a service the NYT is glad to provide.

readering said...

The thing about a newspaper like the NY Times, it is full of articles, with headlines. Men, can read the article if the headline is of interest, or skip over if not. You do not have to wait for Althouse to select certain articles for you. The technology is really simple.

daskol said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
daskol said...

and no one toils over fires?

chuck said...

Don't know if my relatives picked cotton, but I know some picked berries and nuts and even followed the harvest to do so. Lots of folks used to farm, and lots of folks did farm work.

Jupiter said...

"... some guy on "Fox & Friends" just got flayed for saying "you're out of your cotton-picking mind." He said it to a black person, who reacted quickly, saying that he had "some relatives who picked cotton, and I'm not going to sit back and let you attack me on TV like that."

It never fails to amaze me that white people go on pretending that it's safe to have dealings with black people. I guess if you're on TV, you might have to.

Larry J said...

I’m 61 and white. I earned my first dollar picking cotton 55 years ago alongside several members of my family and other poor people who happened to be black. We were paid 2 cents per pound. It wasn’t fn or easy work but being 6, I didn’t have to stoop so much.

Big Mike said...

The more I have learned about security (meaning lack thereof) of the Internet of Things, the less interested I am in having Internet-connected devices in my home.

Jupiter said...

readering said...
"You do not have to wait for Althouse to select certain articles for you. The technology is really simple."

Actually, it is fairly complicated. You have to open up a private browser window, and it requires a new one for every new article, which means you have to go back to the original window and open a new private window from some innocuous link, and then cut-and-paste the URL, and now you don't have ad-block, so the algo-demon starts sending you all these bizarre pictures of useless objects made out of leather that take up half the page and take forever to download. Althouse reads it so we don't have to, and we do appreciate it.

YoungHegelian said...

Lots of folks used to farm, and lots of folks did farm work

When I was growing up in northern Alabama in the 60s & early 70s, the county high schools closed for cotton picking season so that the kids who were old enough could help with the harvest. I was a city-boy at a city high school, so I could look down on those people in smug comfort, because I could then get away with being a young & smug asshole.

Needless to say, the large majority of those kids were white.

tcrosse said...

and no one toils over fires?

Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble.

Tommy Duncan said...

...some guy on "Fox & Friends" just got flayed for saying "you're out of your cotton-picking mind." He said it to a black person, who reacted quickly, saying that he had "some relatives who picked cotton, and I'm not going to sit back and let you attack me on TV like that."

Fuck off Jamie

readering said...

Big Mike: Amen to that.

Jupitor: I read NY Times (and other stuff) online through my public library. Not as hard as you make it out to be. You do have to open an account at the library, though.

readering said...

Larry J: I am also 61, but left cotton country as an infant. If you picked cotton 55 years ago, you must have some amazing memories.

fivewheels said...

"silly liberal snowflakes at our universities will one day be running our country which means ruining it forever."

One day? Did you time-travel here from 1966?

AlbertAnonymous said...

This is why I let my wife control all of the major appliances. I don’t want to be seen as controlling or harassing her in any such way...

Win win

Michael K said...

Blogger readering said...
Micheal K, when did you get so cranky about the news?


I'm fine with the news. I just get annoyed at the orgasms some have about bad news for the other tribe.

I know you lean left. So do three of my kids. Two are lawyers, so that explains it.

The third is an artist-type.

We pretty much don't talk about politics with them. Once in a while it comes up but usually not.

I'm not mentioning names but often the leftist kids need more help.

Glee at items like whether David Bossie was banned from Fox, with no explanation, is not news.

It is celebration. Like the woman in Virginia who was celebrating driving Sarah Sanders out of her restaurant.

Is that something you want to celebrate ?

tcrosse said...

Who remembers "Bless your little pea-pickin' heart" ?

Unknown said...

The only electronic device that I control in my house is the vibrator. Well, that and the coffeemaker.

Jeff said...

I suggest two substitutes for "cotton-pickin mind". If you want to be really polite, say "ever-lovin' mind". If not, or if you just want to use the more popular vernacular, then "mother-fuckin' mind" seems to be acceptable these days.

rhhardin said...

Cotton picking is a euphemism for fucking.

Keep your cotton picking hands off my gin. Eli Whitney

In case you had ancestors who fucked, it avoids offense.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

"Connected home gadgets are largely installed by men...

I dunno. Maybe.

But I suspect there is a far larger group of men who have the reaction: I don't need any of that crap! -- and if it gets installed at all, it's only to keep peace in the house.

rhhardin said...

Do apes pick cotton. Go for double offense points.

readering said...

Michael K. If you read glee into a unadorned news report pertaining to this post, then I feel for your kids.

My mom is a Republican who voted for Trump. She and I talk politics just fine.

rhhardin said...

I don't have any remote anything and I'm a men.

Oh except I use a serial port to set the clock on an old Drake R8B receiver whose buttons no longer work, for spring ahead and fall back time. I power up a nearby old laptop for that nearby.

The receiver used to pull in hugely distant AM stations to listen to Imus, long ago, using an 8-element active phased array spread out over an acre. But then Imus started streaming audio, and IBOC for HD AM radio came in and wiped out the AM band, and the buttons stopped working, and it was no longer necessary except as a clock radio to listen to and record Rush every weekday automatically.

So there's lots of guy stuff but no internet of things.

rhhardin said...

I picked cherries one summer.

That was my start in statistics.

rhhardin said...

You have to pick the whole tree, not just the easy branches. They give you a wooden ladder to get up there and work.

Each bucket you fill earns you a punch in your card. They pay off the card at the end of the day.

You can eat all the cherries you want. It's surprisingly little.

rhhardin said...

Later I worked in a machine shop, running Swiss screw machines and lathes.

There were no pictures of tits and ass on the wall, so it wasn't a hostile workplace like auto repair shops.

Sometimes I was sent out to retrieve parts from a competitive but sub-subcontracting machine shop. These things are all over the place. You never notice them. No tits and ass on their walls either.

It must have been a Swiss tradition.

Michael K said...


Blogger readering said...
Michael K. If you read glee into a unadorned news report pertaining to this post, then I feel for your kids.


I feel for them too. The leftists need more help.

I did read glee in your comment. Why was that important to you ?

readering said...

Just makin' conversation.

Michael K said...

readering, it's kind of sad you don't see how you were celebrating.

What was the reason ? Do you even know ?

Michael K said...

Oh, it was the "cotton picking " comment.

Boy that is a triumph for the left.

Almost up to the standard of the Duke Lacrosse Team.

Michael K said...

Readering, you must be so proud.

readering said...

Myself, I was surprised the comments took off on the jungle warfare related points. I thought this would be about the NY Times article, identifying a new method for harassing women. But Althouse brought up the Fox and friends bit and I updated, finding it interesting that Fox News viewed the conduct punishable.

Bonus tip, your views on "the left" are well covered, Micheal K (and predominate overwhelmingly on this site, so you must get a warm feeling mostly when you scroll through the comments). You can leave them out sometimes and they won't be readily forgotten.

LordSomber said...

"There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission…"

PuertoRicoSpaceport.com said...

Johnny Cash had some things to say about picking cotton. There were probably more whites picked cotton than blacks.


I never picked cotton
Like my mother did and my brother did
And my sister did and my Daddy died young
Workin' in a coal mine

When I was just a baby too little for the cotton sack
I played in the dirt while the others worked
'Til they couldn't straighten up their backs
And I made myself a promise when I was old enough to run
That I'd never stay a single day In that Oklahoma sun

And I never picked cotton
Like my mother did and my brother did
And my sister did and my Daddy died young
Workin' in a coal mine

Folks said that I grew up early and the farm couldn't hold me then
So I stole ten bucks and a pickup truck and I never went back again
Then it was fast cars and whiskey, long legged girls and fun
I had everything that money could bring and I took it all with a gun

And I never picked cotton
Like my mother did and my brother did
And my sister did and my Daddy died young
Workin' in a coal mine

It was Saturday night in Memphis when a redneck grabbed my shirt
And he said go back to your cotton sack, I left him lying in the dirt
And they'll take me in the morning to the gallows just outside
And in the time I've got there ain't a hell of a lot
I can look back on with pride

But I never picked cotton
Like my mother did and my brother did
And my sister did and my Daddy died young
Workin' in a coal mine

I never picked cotton
Like my mother did and my brother did
And my sister did and my Daddy died young
Workin' in a coal mine

John Henry

Rabel said...

Pick a bale a day.

Michael K said...

Bonus tip, your views on "the left" are well covered, Micheal K (and predominate overwhelmingly on this site,

We lack intelligent lefty commenters. I was hoping a little that you would fill that gap but, I guess not.

readering said...

Keep guessing

PuertoRicoSpaceport.com said...

All the news that fits we print is a useful strategy.

Once the fill the comic up with this kind of bullshit story well, gee, sorry, we just don't have any room to fit in a story like this:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Transportation Minister Israel Katz agreed this week to begin promoting their “Tracks for Regional Peace” initiative that is intended to create a trade route connecting Europe with the Persian Gulf and Israel, Hadashot news reported Saturday evening.

“Tracks for Regional Peace” is based on the planned extension of railway tracks in northern Israel, which would link Haifa’s seaport to Jordan’s rail network, which in turn will be linked with that of Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Arab states.


https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-to-begin-promoting-railway-linking-haifa-seaport-with-saudi-arabia/

A railroad between Israel and Saudi Arabia? What next? Cats sleeping with dogs?

It was only last year that the first flight, ever, between SA and Israel took place (President Trump on AF1) and the first commercial direct flight a month or two later. Used to be that if you had an Israel entry/exit stamp in your passport SA would not let you in the country.

And now a direct rail link?

Plenty of hits if you Bing Saudi Israel railway. None, that I coulf find, went to US MSM sites.

Too busy with fake news stories and bullshit stories like this.

Is the problem that after 5,000 years of warfare and worse in the ME, there might finally be peace during a President Trump presidency? Can't have that happening. Ixnay on any oodgay ewsnay.

John Henry

John Henry

PuertoRicoSpaceport.com said...

Blogger tcrosse said...

Who remembers "Bless your little pea-pickin' heart" ?

I grew up watching the ol' peapicker on the TeeVee. Back when there were 2 channels and the picture was about 18" and round.

Here he is singing Bless your pea picking heart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK8zP1wsXb0

John Henry

Henry said...

How much of the inequality is coming from 11-year-olds boys?

I speak from experience. But of course, I was an accomplice.

Paco Wové said...

"I thought this would be about the NY Times article"

That the NYT publishes yet another article for and about neurotic upper-class women isn't really that interesting (to this crowd, at least).

I can see why discussing the Calvinball of public discourse would be more attractive.

Birkel said...

Every business textbook lauds division of labor, but this author appears never to have considered the concept.

The concepts of comparative advantage seem not to register with the author of this nonsense.

Husbands need to start complaining that wives control the family menu.
Controlling what a man eats is terrible abuse.

Chas S. Clifton said...

It was my impression that "cotton-picking" gained its pejorative association among WHITE Americans -- there were lots of white sharecroppers growing cotton in the early 20th century south -- see the photos by Depression-era photographer Walker Evans for examples.

"Cotton-picking" and "pea-picking" were both slanders used against white Okies in California in the 1930s-1960s, at a minimum, meaning "stupid hick."

Henry said...

Verbal attacks are also asymmetrical.

n.n said...

"Cotton-picking" and "pea-picking" were both slanders used against white Okies in California

Today, it's "deplorable". Progress, unqualified. Divergence... semantically, and with malicious intent, yes.

Lucien said...

As stated on another thread yesterday, I'd like to see a cogent explanation of how "Are you out of your cotton-picking mind?" is a racial slur.

Eleanor said...

I think it's more of a division of labor thing. If the woman does most of the things that need to be done daily, then a the man managing the electronics in the house is just part of his share. Ask most men if they'd rather control the apps in the house or do the wash, and they'll pick the electronics. My husband is disabled, and I do it all these days. Now that I see how long it takes to do what used to be his share of the chores, I realize what a bad deal I was getting all those years. Once you get the equipment and the apps set up, there's really nothing else to do if you did it right.

MountainMan said...

tcrosse said: “Who remembers "Bless your little pea-pickin' heart" ?”

I certainly do. Closely associated with Tennessee Ernie Ford and his popular TV show of the late 50s and early 60s. He’s a local,hero where I live.

Also closed every show singing a hymn. Imagine trying to do that today.

Henry said...

Back in the day, it was splitting wood that was asymmetrical.

There's also a jungle warfare in not knowing how to do electronics. It's like the hypochondriac in a Jane Austen movie.

The point is simple. Abusers will use whatever is at hand. Electronics. Money. Food. Sympathy. Technology is a means, not an ends.

n.n said...

Watermelon is also diversitist (i.e. color judgment). So is fried chicken. Isn't buckwheat diversitist, too? Diversity is judged on a progressive scale, conditioned on political, social, and fiscal opportunity.

Fernandinande said...

"Gadgets are hard."

Michael K said...

I always thought the definition of a "cotton picker" was a woman who had lost the string on her Tampax.

Oh well, The left has much to teach us about language, Especially rappers.

n.n said...

Women are more real than virtual? This feminine gender attribute may be correlated to the mommy role designed by Gaia.

Henry said...

Did I really write "Jane Austen movie" instead of "Jane Austen novel"? At least I spelled Austen right.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

“Do it yourself”. The traditional retort to the willfully helpless who also like to whine.

Oh Yea said...

rhhardin said...
Later I worked in a machine shop, running Swiss screw machines and lathes.

There were no pictures of tits and ass on the wall, so it wasn't a hostile workplace like auto repair shops.

Sometimes I was sent out to retrieve parts from a competitive but sub-subcontracting machine shop. These things are all over the place. You never notice them. No tits and ass on their walls either.

It must have been a Swiss tradition.
6/25/18, 7:37 PM


Must of been none of the machine shop I worked with in the '70's were Swiss. Everyone I dealt with had at least one Rigid Tool Calendar:
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=ridgid+tool+calendar&qpvt=rigid+tool+calendar&FORM=IGRE

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

“Fuck off” is also evergreen when dealing with the entitled.

PuertoRicoSpaceport.com said...

I spent much of the day auditioning for a gig in a plant full of fully automated CNC Swiss machines. Anyone who has never seen one should go to youtube and watch some.

Amazing machines.

I got the gig and will be helping them with a SMED project reducing changeover and setup times. A really interesting project.

John Henry

RichardJohnson said...

I'm on high alert for that kind of thing because some guy on "Fox & Friends" just got flayed for saying "you're out of your cotton-picking mind." He said it to a black person, who reacted quickly, saying that he had "some relatives who picked cotton, and I'm not going to sit back and let you attack me on TV like that."

My mother had cousins 10-15 years younger than her who picked cotton in their younger years. Their mother was a widow. One cousin became a schoolteacher; the other the wife of an army officer. They viewed their cotton-picking as something they had to do to survive. Just as I washed dishes at restaurants.

They thought that you had to be out of your cotton-picking mind to want to pick cotton all your life, but that there was no shame in picking cotton. You did what you had to do. There was pride in working hard. Pick a Bale of Cotton.

A Colombian work colleague told me that "Trabaja como un Negro" (You work like a black man." It was a compliment: she considered me a hard worker.

PuertoRicoSpaceport.com said...

No Rigid Tool calendars.

Does Rigid even do calandars anymore in this day and age?

John Henry

Bruce Hayden said...

“I've never understood why people want their homes controlled through the internet or by computer.

What's so hard about getting up and changing the theromstat?”

Hard to do when they are 1,200 miles away. Last summer, my electric bill doubled in June. Turns out that it is expensive to cool a fairly large house in Phoenix, when the temp is breaking 110 and maybe headed to 120. So, i went online to the tility company, did some research, and then switched to a system where off peak usage is far cheaper. Then, I went to my thermostats (1200 miles away), and set them to cool the house from 9 pm until maybe 6 am, then let the House warm up during the day. Next bill the cost was back down, with the savings that month paying for the two smart thermostats.

Big thing this summer is that I upgraded the security system. Instead of being limited to 50 photos or video clips a day, I now have 24 hour a day recording, that are good for a week, that I can look at anywhere in the world. Far easier to check all the triggered events every couple days, and look at the video if something looks interesting or suspicious, than to fly back there routinely. Added some more motion detectors too this spring. Expect to add some more cameras next year, since they moved from recording only 2 cameras around the clock, to a half dozen of so.

eddie willers said...

That pea-picker also loaded Sixteen Tons.

Guildofcannonballs said...

oh my and she sure could sing

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funsize said...

this dynamic feels rather true, minus the control/abuse. My spouse is very gadget-oriented and has all the apps. I hate apps, and deeply distrust all the connected gadgetry. The convenience does not outweigh the potential for abuse, and I like fewer moving parts so I can operate the things in my home should I not have power, web, or a phone for some reason.

jb said...

"Cotton-picking." Heh!

My good buddy Seb, blacker than the ace of spades, laughs at all the hoopla out there about race. "JB", he says, "It's all a buncha bullshit by those that can't live without being pissed off at or about everything!"

Then again, in most self-demeaning/deprecating fashion, he has his nick-name tattooed on his upper arm - Bubba. Supposedly a "no-no." But call him the "Unc-Tom" thing, though, and he will chase after whoever dares utter that nonsense.

He, like I, greatly dislike the perpetually aggrieved. They are functionally useless.

Yancey Ward said...

Women who have never once heard of Google and YouTube.

Kirk Parker said...

" Technology is a means, not an ends."

The hell you say!

-Kirk the sometime technologist.

Fritz said...

Gotta give the guy credit for finding his outrage on the fly, though.

Pettifogger said...

Taft, Texas, surrounded as it is by miles of cotton fields, bills itself as the Best Cotton Pickin' Town in Texas.

stlcdr said...

Denial of fundamental truths.

Men generally orient themselves to the technical aspects of life. Women to the more nurturing. For those that might take offense, the technical side is actually a lot easier than the nurturing side: changing the oil in a car, for example is easy.

There is no good outcome in trying to make things 'equal' - as we are currently seeing more and more. It's a snake eating its tail.

SGT Ted said...

It's not about making things equal. It's about privileging women's sensibilities in public life in order to control men.

daskol said...

Changing the oil in a car is pretty easy. rhhardin does some intensely technical stuff, though. hobbies are outstanding ways to spend time. as I get older, I'm hoping to have more time for them. at the moment, with three kids and a job, I give short shrift to hobbies.

Craig Howard said...

What's so hard about getting up and changing the theromstat?

After a while, it becomes lost knowledge. Like when the remote goes out and you sit and watch a show you don't like for hours because you've forgotten you can change the channel up at the set.

Unknown said...

I once was having a coffee-break conversation about my company's policy for almost demanding unqualified hires because of race and gender, and used the phrase "call a spade a spade" in reference to incompetence. Laughed out of the room.

Caligula said...

"They also described it as an asymmetry of power because their partners had control over the technology."

These partners need to wise up and return at least the illusion of control. A placebo thermostat, perhaps?

daskol said...

and lol, but the body shop that my friend chris runs is a family friendly place. a lot of calendars on the wall, some old ones that should be taken down. you really don't need calendars from 2015 anymore. but it's clutter, familiar clutter, charming.

daskol said...

and no one toils over fires?

Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble.


double toil! I'm still chuckling about this.