Peg Tittle

Most commented posts

  1. Short Men — 64 comments
  2. Bare Breasts: Objections and Replies — 27 comments
  3. Why Do Men Spit? (and women don’t) — 26 comments
  4. Short Men — 19 comments
  5. Walking Alone in a Park at Night — 11 comments

Author's posts

College/University Students are Not Expected to Read

“A student who worked as a janitor at his college was sanctioned because he was seen reading a book called Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan … (The image on the cover was upsetting to the two people who reported him.) …” (The Coddling the American Mind, …

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Handing Over Our Thinking to Algorithms

I was struck by something Lukianoff and Haidt said in The Coddling of the American Mind when they describe the response to Rebecca Tuvel’s article (“In Defense of Transracialism”) in Hypatia: “It is striking  how many of the critics’ complaints refer not to Tuvel’s arguments but to her word choices” (p105).  At first, I thought, …

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Open Season on Women: More evidence of the pornification of our society

I live in a small lake-centered community about three hours north of Toronto, consisting of about thirty houses: about ten are occupied year-round; the others are occupied mostly just during the summer.  So, small neighbourhood. Over the past few years, I’ve experienced six instances of what I would call over-the-top insult.  Specifically misogynist insult. Man …

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This is Not The Truman Show

I live in a cabin on a lake in a forest (purchased back when people like me, not-rich people, could afford such things).  There are about ten permanent residences; about ten cottages owned by people who may (or may not) be there during any given weekend or week; and, now, oh the horror, about ten …

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Surely, A Metaphor (for what’s happening to our planet)

Weather websites and municipalities are issuing air quality alerts because of the smoke coming from several uncontrolled forest fires, and yet people in cottage country just a few hours north of Toronto have smokepits going all day, presumably so they won’t be bothered by mosquitoes. Never mind that said smokepits fill the whole neighbourhood with …

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The replacement of journalism

“The replacement of journalism by rumor aggregators …”  (Zendegi, Greg Egan).  Yes.  That.  Precisely.

Truth and Negotiation

“Caitlin knew she was not a good negotiator, not like Annelise or Rachel.  Sicence didn’t negotiate truth; it tried to discover and prove it.” The Eleventh Gate, Nancy Kress Ah.  The less regard for truth, the greater one’s negotiation skills.  Explains politics.  The state of the world.

Who should pay for housework?

“In strict economic terms, the almighty free market theoretically considers the work of women in the home to be without value, to be worthless.  It is recognized nowhere in the free market economic model” (The High Road, Terry Fallis). Also true for the work of men in (and around) the home. But I would not …

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“None of the Above” Ballot Idea

NANCY MOUNT BILL PASSES IN HOUSE Proposes “None of the Above” Be Added to Ballot Thirty Percent of the Votes Would Trigger New Election     Excellent idea.  from Jack McDevitt’s The Long Sunset

James White’s Sector General series

James White’s Sector General series should be required reading for ANYONE assigned to first contact missions.  Note in the first paragraph below (from Alien Emergencies), the inclusion of specialists in communications, philosophy, and psychology.  Note the exclusion of specialists in any of the hard sciences.  And the military.  (Note also, the more effective way.) “The …

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