Schools and Theories...

aC. Sidebar

I really don't know why people get into a fuss about between the theories of creationism, intelligent design, and evolution, except for the religious and scientific community. I do know that all of their arguments invest a lot of antagonists and protagonists. Now the issue is that Bush would like to introduce Intelligent Design into the curriculum of grade school.

There's a lot of criticisms and educational value to Intelligent Design. I do not know a lot about Intelligent Design. From my research, Intelligent Design's main argument is to discredit how traditional fact finding science is flawed to find solutions, answers, and theories on certain research, theories, and problems. A couple of these problems are from the big-bang theory and the creation of man, or the chicken or the egg dilemma.

As a person who hates fundamentalism and how people really go beyond criticism and straight to fanaticism, I do not endorse Intelligent Design. All I'm saying is that ID should be closely looked at and considered. You may say why?

According to dictionary.com, science is defined as:
1) The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena.
2) Methodological activity, discipline, or study.
3) An activity that appears to require study and method
4) Knowledge, especially which gained through experience.

In theory, ID is a theory. Intelligent Design is a theoretical explanation of phenomena, so that could explain man and hopefully about women as well, but never-the-less ID is an explanation. Specifically, look how the definition of science as a correct observation or a precise, accurate methodological activity.

This is where I think people get all ruffled up. As much as I love precision, correct and accurate information, room for error will always occur. Look at the last space shuttle launch. Look at the Titanic. Look at space, we're finding more "planets" and galaxies that we originally thought there were. My point is that science is not suppose to be precise, because if everything in this world is precise, then why study it? We don't live in Utopia and man is certainly not perfect and known to err. Just ask any women about her spouse.

So we are not perfect, and that means that we have to strive towards precision and perfection. That is why we study. I mind, it is for this precision and perfection of information, from the lost city of Atlantic, to the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Olmec, Mayan, and ancient civilizations along the Fertile Crescent, Indus, Nile, and Amazon River valleys. We study these examples because they spark our interests, but also there isn't perfect information. Relics only tell specific stories and answer few questions. Generations of stories of oral traditions are faded and blended with lies, fantasy, fiction, and hyperbole.

I could say something about the Bible right now, but that's another blog. Mr. McCollough was my favorite teacher of all time. He said that history is a pack of tricks played upon the dead. We can't rely on textbooks just to tell us the truth and facts about the past. The best research is primary source information, but what if this information has been dead for thousands of years? Well, then that is why we research. That is why we have science to initiate the solution or explanation of phenomena.

We should teach ID, not because people we say that we shouldn't, but because students need to research and have resources, theories, and information available to them as possible to better find answers for themselves. Yes, I'm talking about self-actualization and truth. Not for the censorship of free ideas, thoughts, and explanation for precision and search for precision. If we can have the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, then we should be able to pursuit what we want for what we want for the name of science. I really don't think people realized that, but now do you and our President may have realized?

You've Probably Never Seen Her...

aC. Girl Denise

You've probably never seen her unless your on the West Coast. This model is a contributing member of Sports by Brooks Girls. A model/event agency that was started by a sports commentator. The girls of the agency go around bars, clubs, and around the world promoting that California women are hot, but also sports trivia with whole entertainment. Here's to you Denise!

Topic of the Day...

Comparative Value (Worth) or Pay Equity.

The doctrine of comparable worth states that women and men should receive equal pay for jobs that are deemed to be of equal value. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 guarantee that men and women who perform the same job will receive the same wage from an employer. Proponents of comparable worth argue that the same principle should apply across professions. If a male-dominated vocation and a female-dominated vocation are of "comparable worth," then members of those professions should receive the same salary. For example, if working in a laundry is as difficult and important as driving a truck—and if laundry workers are mostly female and truck drivers are mostly male—then laundry workers should earn the same as truck drivers.

In 1974, the state of Washington conducted a pioneering study of wage inequities in its civil service. Researchers assigned "worth"-points to 121 different jobs according to four categories: knowledge and skills necessary, mental demands, degree of responsibility, and working conditions. Salaries for predominately (at least 70 percent) male jobs were compared with predominantly female jobs of equal point value. Electricians, for one, were measured against secretaries since both jobs were "worth" 197 points. (The rating system had its quirks: Fisheries patrol officers were deemed to be worth 382 points, more than biologists and civil engineers.) The study found that in the Washington civil service, workers in female-dominated professions earned 20 percent less than those in male-dominated professions of comparable worth.

By 1989, about 20 states (including Washington) had tried to restructure their civil service pay scales according to the principle of comparable worth. That typically meant that the state would devise its own rating system and the state legislature would earmark millions of dollars to bring the salaries of underpaid female professions to the level of their male counterparts. The results were mixed. A follow-up study in Washington found that the wage gap had shrunk significantly. Job segregation remained unchanged, though, and many male civil servants moved to the private sector.

The issue gained national significance in 1983, when a federal judge ruled that Title VII protections applied to different jobs of equivalent value. (The 1983 decision was overturned on appeal two years later; comparable worth now seems to be a dead issue in the courts.) Comparable worth thus became a campaign issue. Presidential hopeful Walter Mondale endorsed it; the Reagan administration, including John Roberts, opposed it.

Critics of the policy argued (and continue to argue) that it's impossible to measure the true value of a job since economic conditions are so variable. Important factors were also left out of the rating systems, like a given job's prestige, how much fun it is, or its value to a specific community. Instead of creating a continually updated table of wages, critics say, the government should let the free market determine the relative worth of different jobs. (Slate Magazine, What's Comparable Worth?, Aug. 22)

The supporters of comparable worth point to the relatively depressed wages of those in largely female professions, such as health care, child care, and elementary education, compared to the wages of those, such as truck drivers, parking lot attendants, and vocational educators, in mostly male professions. In virtually every case, they claim, jobs that demand comparable skill, education, risk, and responsibility receive vastly different salaries, depending entirely on whether the jobs are filled mostly by men or by women. (Santa Clara University, Comparable Worth, Spring 1990)

For example, in Minnesota, state jobs were rated according to required level of education, training, stress, customer or client contact, and responsibility. To cite just one example of the findings, registered nurses and vocational education teachers were each rated the same, but the salary for nurses, who were mostly women, was only $1732 per month, while the salary for vocational education teachers, who were mostly men, was $2260 per month. Numerous other studies show that the greater the concentration of women in a job, the lower the wage employers pay that job.

Such sex-based pay discrepancies, say the advocates of comparable worth, are unjust because society has an obligation to treat people equally in the absence of any relevant differences in their situations.

Advocates of comparable worth claim that women have been victimized by a socialization process that unjustly steers them towards precisely those fields that are the least lucrative. It is true that gradual shifts in society have allowed more women to enter higher paying fields. But the supply of jobs in these occupations is far too small, social and economic barriers to women attempting to enter such occupations continue to exist, and women who have been in their careers for many years find it difficult to shift to new occupations even when institutional barriers are removed.

For the most part, the adjustments to civil service pay scales that were made in the 1980s were never repealed, but they haven't been updated, either. To ensure that jobs of comparable worth continue to earn equal pay, states would have to study the wage gap at regular intervals and adjust the pay scale appropriately.

Addition Links
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa038.html
http://www.cis.org.au/IssueAnalysis/IA2.htm



aC. Sidebar

I do believe there is a gender pay gap. I don't have to read it off the internet or from the advertisements on the "L" trains telling me about it. I know it exists. I have a many friends, male and female with lucrative and non-lucrative jobs. Regardless, in the non-lucrative jobs, the pay isn't substantial. Come on, you can't tell me that a dishwasher, gardener, and other manual labor position will rake in 6-figures. Well, unless your gardening Diddy's plush condo in Boca Raton. Do you know how much cheerleaders make? I believe NFL cheerleaders make practically next to nothing. I do know that pay for being a Luv-a-Bull is meager.

The call for comparative worth is no louder than this, when you have a multi-million dollar quarterback, pitchers, and shooting guard making obscene amount of cash, while the cheerleaders, WNBA players, and the professional Fastpitch Softball players combined do not add up to equal to those of the weed-smoking, 19-year-old raping, steroid-abusing male athletes that dominate the covers of SI or ESPN Magazine. Don't get me wrong here, I'm no feminist, but I do agree with them that we all live in a male dominated society. I'm a guy, do I feel bad? Yes. Is there something I can do about it? May not as a student, but possibly as a business owner or politician I can.

The whole issue of comparative law doesn't merely surround the concepts of employment and labor laws, but beyond to sociology and history. Anthropological review should be considered of society’s relations between human and other humans, especially in dealing with the relationship of male and females. With this requirement, research, and interpretation, maybe that's why comparative worth, pay, equality is so hard to come by.

Is it our own greed? Does it come down to pure humanistic characteristics and traits interacting? Maybe. I can tell you where the economic hand of capitalism is; To the Abercrombie models, Diddy's Pepsi commercials, and 2:00 am Carlton Sheet's infomercials for the temptation for a "better" future and life for Americans. So can there be something done? Well, maybe, but we as a society may have to change individually and collectively, regardless of changing just the civil service structure. I think Reagan had it right; there are too many variables and Smith's hand in economy that affects the economy of employment and labor. You can certainly pay women more, but if we as a society can not appreciate every female on an objective basis, rather than meat, than comparative worth will fail and respect for ourselves as a society.

Well...

Yours Truely, has just paid off $3.36 dollars off his tuition. I used the remaining amount from a cash card to pay off my $2,145 tuition. I'm so smart!

Dumb People in the News...

Va. Laptop Sale Turns Into a Stampede
Associated Press

A rush to purchase $50 used laptops turned into a violent stampede Tuesday, with people getting thrown to the pavement, beaten with a folding chair and nearly driven over. One woman went so far as to wet herself rather than surrender her place in line.

"This is total, total chaos," said Latoya Jones, 19, who lost one of her flip-flops in the ordeal and later limped around on the sizzling blacktop with one foot bare.

An estimated 5,500 people turned out at the Richmond International Raceway in hopes of getting their hands on one of the 4-year-old Apple iBooks. The Henrico County school system was selling 1,000 of the computers to county residents. New iBooks cost between $999 and $1,299. Officials opened the gates at 7 a.m., but some already had been waiting since 1:30 a.m. When the gates opened, it became a terrifying mob scene. People threw themselves forward, screaming and pushing each other. A little girl's stroller was crushed in the stampede. Witnesses said an elderly man was thrown to the pavement, and someone in a car tried to drive his way through the crowd.

Seventeen people suffered minor injuries, with four requiring hospital treatment, Henrico County Battalion Chief Steve Wood said. There were no arrests and the iBooks sold out by 1 p.m. "It's rather strange that we would have such a tremendous response for the purchase of a laptop computer — and laptop computers that probably have less-than- desirable attributes," said Paul Proto, director of general services for Henrico County. "But I think that people tend to get caught up in the excitement of the event — it almost has an entertainment value."
Blandine Alexander, 33, said one woman standing in front of her was so desperate to retain her place in line that she urinated on herself.

"I've never been in something like that before, and I never again will," said Alexander, who brought her 14-year-old twin boys to the complex at 4:30 a.m. to wait in line. "No matter what the kids want, I already told them I'm not doing that again."

Jesse Sandler said he was one of the people pushing forward, using a folding chair he had brought with him to beat back people who tried to cut in front of him. "I took my chair here and I threw it over my shoulder and I went, 'Bam,'" the 20-year-old said nonchalantly, his eyes glued to the screen of his new iBook, as he tapped away on the keyboard at a testing station.

"They were getting in front of me and I was there a lot earlier than them, so I thought that it was just," he said.


aC Sidebar...

Geez, I didn't know that Apples were that popular. The video can be seen on MSNBC. If you watch it, or if at home, MSNBC or CNN, you can clearly see that these people weren't of the typical Apple user or demographic.

I do commend the school system for raising funding by doing things like these. Which is putting on sales of used computers, not mob events. People need to be smart and better prepared. Decency and generousity should accompany this as well. The schools were nice enough to do this, I think respect and civility isn't too much to ask for.

Wait...I forgot where I am. America. Land of the free, and the idoitic. Come on, we produced Michael Jordan, but screwed up with Michael Jackson. George Washington is our symbolic dollar billed hero, but there will always be those Benedict Arnold. For every Joe Montana, Dan Marino, or Troy Aikman, there will always be the Nate Newtons. For every great thing, there is will be a fuck-up. So America...here's your sign.

Cowboy and Indians...

Honestly, is there anything wrong with naming a team "Warriors". After all, the origins of this word is Old English/French. Now what about the Fighting Irish or the 49ers? Do these original people have rights too? Come on America; stick your head out of your ass. There is nothing damaging about Indian tribe, slang, or other names representing a sports team. In fact, the Seminole tribe of Florida has actually gave approval for Florida State University for it's mascot. Now the only thing I find offensive are white college boys decked out in tribal uniform and attire and tiring to do the cabbage path slash rain dance celebration. If Ford decided to name a car after an Indian name or term then that's an atrocity too.

Think about it? What would we cheer for? Syracuse, Orange? Marquette Golden? They both have a good basketball teams, but I wonder if they will next decide to name themselves a colored M&M. So in a politically correct sports world; what would we have? Pittsburgh Ship Captains? Oakland Treasure Seekers? Now how about these more appropriate names, the Washington Lobbyists, Atlanta Felons, Chicago Hired Truckers, San Diego Border Patrollers, San Francisco Rainbows, but I’m still trying to attach names like; Wifebeaters, Rapists, Alcoholics, and Ron Mexicans.

So if the times are changing, then we seriously need to change to more appropriate names that are the sign of the times and offensive to "innocent" people.

Gas Price Update

Cheapest: Citgo on State and 13th in Lockport and Marathon on Naperville Rd. and Lincoln Ave. in Westmont @ $2.49 (Unleaded)

Expensive: Mobil on Ogden and Western in Chicago @ $2.89 (Unleaded)