Wednesday Open Thread
Welcome to your Wednesday open thread. This has been an interesting week in Delaware politics. Anthony DeLuca is in trouble and the story on the basketball pole went national (it was featured on Glenn Beck’s radio show and website). What else is on your mind?
All I can say about this story is :eyeroll:. Rep. Sean Duffy From Wisconsin says his Congressional salary of nearly $200,000/yr is hard to live on but Wisconsin public employees need to take a pay cut.
At a town hall meeting in Polk County, Wisconsin earlier this year, Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) was asked whether he’d vote to cut his $174,000 annual salary. Duffy sort of hedged, and went on to talk about how $174,000 really isn’t that much for his family of seven to live on. Then he went on to say he supports cutting compensation for all public employees, along the lines of what Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) has proposed for the Badger State.
…
Here’s what Duffy says about his salary:
I can guarantee you, or most of you, I guarantee that I have more debt than all of you. With 6 kids, I still pay off my student loans. I still pay my mortgage. I drive a used minivan. If you think I’m living high on the hog, I’ve got one paycheck. So I struggle to meet my bills right now. Would it be easier for me if I get more paychecks? Maybe, but at this point I’m not living high on the hog.
Duffy also said that he pays more in health care costs and retirement savings than he did when he was a district attorney before he ran for Congress. That said, Duffy said he’d support the idea of “public employees across the board” taking a compensation cut.
“Let’s all join hands together and say ‘I’ll take a pay decrease, absolutely,” Duffy said.
Hey, I’m sure with 6 kids and 2 residences, he is not rolling in money. But he makes almost 10x what his average constituent makes and he has health insurance for his own family. Why does he think that Wisconsinites should get by with less if he’s having trouble?
In a complete non-surprise, a survey found that women leave engineering because of misogyny.
One popular explanation for the dearth of women in science and engineering fields has been that women freely choose to leave these fields in order to spend more time with family. However, a new report shows that, at least for engineering, that isn’t the whole story.
In Stemming The Tide: Why Women Leave Engineering, two University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professors report on their survey of over 3,700 women with engineering degrees. They found that just one in four women who had left the field reported doing so to spend more time with family. One third left “because they did not like the workplace climate, their boss or the culture,” while almost half departed due to “working conditions, too much travel, lack of advancement or low salary” (respondents were allowed to check more than one reason). The researchers also found that among women who got engineering degrees but never entered the field, a third made that decision “because of their perceptions of engineering as being inflexible or the engineering workplace culture as being non-supportive of women.” And, unsurprisingly, “Women engineers who were treated in a condescending, patronizing manner, and were belittled and undermined by their supervisors and co-workers were most likely to want to leave their organizations.” Writes study author Dr. Nadya Fouad, “Bottom line — it’s not all about family for most of the women who left engineering.”
I’m not at all surprised by this. The differing levels of support do play a role in why women leave physical science fields. There’s basically no support for women in science, an very, very few mentors to help navigate the problems. I’m just waiting for someone to tell me how women are overreacting or something.
Tags: Open Thread
I think you’re overreacting or something.
Now see, I don’t understand this.
I never minded a female engineering supervisor on big construction projects.
When I was done my assigned job, I’d say to her, “How’d I do, Babe”? and then, “What’s next, Hon?”.
I only had one problem with this chick who complained of my passing gas at morning meetings.
I tried to explain that when you’re on the road and your dinner mainly consists of beer, bratwurst and beans, this is to be expected, but she wasn’t buying it.
Well, I switched to white wine,fois gras and WHEATIES to keep the job.
What a world, what a world.
Is anyone following the hearings on the Civil Unions bill in Dover today?
Bill Kristol supports Obama now. So, assuming Del Liberal does too, that means that you guys/gals agree with Bill Kristol on this Libya thing. How does that feel? to know that DL and Bill Kristol both support a war?
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/you-ve-come-long-way-baby_555622.html
@Why Women Leave Engineering
They’re probably frustrated with the fact that engineering departments never get off their collective asses to go out in the field to get “eyes on”. When I worked non-union at Edgemoor, work orders and material came in for maintenance/upgrade derived from prints drawn up in the previous decade. The same is true at the Delaware City refinery. Every entity that owned/operated that timebomb in my ten years experience there hasn’t a clue about what actually exists in the system, they plan off their desktops. Women, generally, have a better eye for detail. Suck it up fellas, the females top us in so many ways.
No double entendre intended
I have no problem with the war or whatever you want to call it, dv. I read plenty of Libyans, be it academic expats or the regular folks fighting MQ, are happy with the involvement. Thats all that really matters, not that luck sperm-club asswad, Bill Kristol.
Fortune does favor the brave. And if Syria or Yemen or whatever is just like Libya, then their names would be Libya. So don’t even go there. 🙂
Anyone else locked out of twitter?
@ heragain nope
The least stable of isotopes wrote:
When my daughter tells me that, in her physics classes — astrophysics major at Penn State, by the way — that there are only two or three women in her classes, it seems to me that the problem is less that women don’t get enough support once they are in the field than it is that they don’t start in the first place.
Mr Viti wrote:
So, now you’re complaining about bipartisanship? 🙂
To me, the operative question is: what would have happened in Libya if we hadn’t intervened? Is it somehow better if Qaddafi kills his own people than if we try to prevent that?
I’m just trying to see where the contributors at DL stand. At this point, sadly, only UI dipped into it, then ran for the hills and didn’t comment. And, with her post, it seems that she is fine with the war. Which also means that she and bloody Bill Kristol are on the same side of the fence. Which, to me is a sad state of affairs and really impacts the credibility of this site and it’s contributors. When you and Bill Kristol agree on something, especially war, you got seriously problems. Especially when you have “Liberal” on your masthead.
All I hear are crickets over here. Granted, several people have regular lives and the posts come and go at varying frequency, but it just seems to me in the past, things like War got a little more coverage and opinion then they are now.
and your question is a tired bullshit one. If you cared about human lives you do something about the ones in your own country. It’s irrelevant what would have happened. What’s happening on our own soil is.
Forbes reports on the top corporations who have paid no Tax.
http:www.forbes.com/2010/04/10/01/qe-exxon-walmart.
How can it be that 2/3 of these corporations havent paid a cent in taxes…and Delaware is the corporate state. Has the Governor and State Treasurer investigated to find out how many are incorporated here and whether or not they owe us…
We should be outraged about this.
Dana: there are many cites up where the Libyans themselves are undecided. The freedom fighters have no weapons to fight with. Many say, “give us the weapons and we will do the job ourselves”, some say “we need the flyovers”, but what the US and NATO are really doing is “more than flyovers”. Since NATO would on its face tomorrow if not for the US, who does Obama think he’s kidding here.What the Libyans are really worried about is if they open the door to the US and Nato, they are letting in the devil who will then put a “Karzai” government in place and steal their oil. Recall Khadafy nationalized the oil, and actually did a lot of good things with that money. He built a water system throughout the country which puts water in every home and they have the abilty to do agriculture now. There are only 6 million people, and they must import workers to run all those refineries. This is not Iraq with 25million people and oil…so the Libyan people have a right to be worried about our intentions.
Mr Viti wrote:
Remember when President Clinton intervened in Bosnia-Herzegovina, it was due to pictures like this. We were faced with one of those moments where “never again” — referring to the Holocaust — was being tested.
President Obama was being faced with people being slaughtered. He had to take a decision: was he going to try to stop it, or was he going to stand by, wash his hands of it, and say, in effect, too bad, so sad, must suck to be them.
It’s really easy, when you don’t have the responsibility: you can advocate anything you want, from a purely philosophical point of view, and it doesn’t really matter. But, if you can, try to put yourself in President Obama’s position: he was presented with a decision, being urged on him by people he trusts, President Sarkozy of France, Prime Minister Cameron of the United Kingdon, Secretary of State Clinton as well as several other advisors, to intervene to try to save some people from slaughter by Colonel Qaddafi’s mercenaries, or to sit by and let them die. Your position means nothing, his decision actually meant life and death. Could you, in his position, not have acted?
Is Donviti going to primary Obama?
yes I would’ve chosen to not wage war. and again spare me this life or death bull shit. you throw up this position like it is something you really feel we as americans have a commitment too defending all the oppressed. if you really cared about the oppressed and the downtrodden you would start by caring about your own country men
OK, Mr Viti, as President, you would have chosen to allow Colonel Qaddafi’s troops and mercenaries slaughter the rebels and the innocent bystanders.
Oh, wait, that wasn’t what you said, was it? You said, “I would’ve chosen to not wage war.” It certainly sounds much more antiseptic that way, neater, cleaner. But in saying the high-minded, “I would’ve chosen to not wage war,” you have to recognize what else that means, as I put it for you in the first paragraph, because choosing not to wage war when war already exists does not mean that the war no longer exists.
antiseptic, like Scope or baby wipes.
I would not have launched weapons to kill other people in and around the middle east. I would use thst money on my citizens.
Civil unions bill clears Senate committee
Donviti, we’re talking foreign policy not homeland insecurity. Only a murderer or a profiteer would electively use arms outside of defense. This action, or war, if you prefer, is in the best interests of our allies, not self serving this time. I’m not supporting it but I’m not going to rail against it either. Consider the arms we give to the Middle East, that I rail against because THOSE monies should stay home. Just let Obama say he got Quadaffi where Bush couldn’t nail bin Laden
“Is Donviti going to primary Obama?”
Should that ever be the case, I’ll volunteer for his campaign.
DV for President!!
What’s his policy on gun nuts like yourself, Little Mis?
Right joe. Because the united states arming “rebels” to fight an evil govt leader has always worked out for the US. Bin laden and the taliban come to mind
@ Joe – the policy is to shoot …blanks?
could NOT resist that one!
regardless of my stance. I want to know where DL stands on the issue.
“When you and Bill Kristol agree on something, especially war, you got seriously problems. Especially when you have “Liberal” on your masthead.
All I hear are crickets over here.”
Yeah, that’s the major problem, all right — people not acting the way Don Viti thinks they should. Ever consider pondering your own priorities a little deeper? Because when your biggest concern is whether your former colleagues are acting sufficiently pure, the problem isn’t theirs, it’s yours.
@Donviti I said electively, not effectively. Let’s not kid around DV, it could be you or Palin in the oval office; the corporations run the show and our armed forces are their security squad. Europe needs oil, we need a stable market. Is the stable market worth the blood of Americans, yes. Are the CEOs worthy of our sacrifice, absolutely not.
See this Libya thing for what it is and go from there. Sticking daisies in the barrels of guns doesn’t leash the dogs of capitalism.
@Little Mis, nothing is forgotten nor forgiven. I called you out once already. You know where to find me.
Nahhhh. DL gives plenty of opinion geezy. I just wonder where they are the little things like war and no basket ball poles is all.
Everyone! Lock your fucking doors!
“Women engineers who were treated in a condescending, patronizing manner, and were belittled and undermined by their supervisors and co-workers were most likely to want to leave their organizations.”
Go figure.
Oh crap. Obama’s doing some compromisin’ again. Hold on to your wallets.
Just like the tax bill, when Biden emerges and says things are going well, that’s when you know the capitulation is a done deal. Biden is like the harbinger of doom for the Democratic agenda.
“considerably less than tea party activists demanded” is the new bar for Democratic victory, I guess.
OK, I am going to say it, Obama is a liar just like bush. ABC News reports from North Carolina, “2000 US soldiers are now on the ground in Libya”. Gates made a statement that, “I dont know if there are CIA there”….if you dont Gates who does. Websites from around the world are reporting the story of the CIA commander Hifler in charge of the rebels. We dont know WHO these so called rebels are. Black africans are being slaughered by the rebels who think they are pro Khadafy. They are the workers caught in the middle. Russian Doctors reporting hospitals have been bombed as well as residential homes. DemocracyNow.org reported the hospital bombings in vivid color last night. If you fall for this people of peace, YOU truly will fall for anything.
anon, i cant seem to find that story. would you please supply a link to where you found that?
OK, I am going to say it, Obama is a liar just like every US president. Why on Earth would Gates tell the truth about the CIA, or what we’re doing there?
As for your ability to report on anything, the story about the hospital “bombing” is more complicated than you claim, to wit:
“Coalition airstrikes on an ammunition depot apparently resulted in Libyan rockets hitting the town’s general hospital, a nearby apartment complex housing foreign medical staff members and a single-family home. Several civilians were injured but there were no deaths, hospital officials said.”
Some things never change, anon: You’re often wrong, but never in doubt.
Sorry DV, we’re good friends and all that, but the logic of “if Kristol’s for it, then we must be against it” is soooo faulty and stupid that I don’t know where to begin!
You know that’s the same, um, “thinking” the right uses for pretty much everything, don’t ya?
still no sign of anon’s magical army of 2000 invisible ground troops in lybia.