It’s a track meet with two racers: Usain Bolt, who ran a 9.58 -second 100-meters and Florence Griffith-Joyner, who ran a 10.49 -second 100-meters. Both were very fast, but the stopwatch seems to indicate a 0.91 second difference. Stopwatches. Hmnnn. What do they know? Probably misogynistic devices designed by men to prove their superiority; that’s my guess. Why can’t we just have opinion? Why can’t we just say who we believe had the faster time? Objectivity!? It’s overrated. The obvious is also overrated.
On Your Mark
“It’s disappointing to me that although the title of this hearing implies a much-needed discussion, we’re likely going to be forced to listen to transphobic bigotry,” said Rep. Summer Lee in hearings on the state of Title IX and the inclusion of trans-athletes in women’s sports.
Get Set
Former college athlete Riley Gaines was poised and ready for the contest.
Go
Right out of the blocks, Riley said, “But unsafe, unfair and discriminatory practices towards women must stop. Inclusion cannot be prioritized over safety and fairness, and ranking member Lee, if my testimony makes me transphobic then I believe your opening monologue makes you a misogynist.” Slam, bang!
Gold Medal
Winner: Riley Gaines in a contest with another woman.
Out of the Mouths of Babes
Is there any argument a Democrat makes that is not wrapped up in some form of identity politics and ad hominem reasoning? Is there no Democrat issue whose stance can be braced by logic? Is there no Democrat who believes in unequal talents and skills among humans? Were all current Democrats given Participation Trophies when they were children?
I have two sons. When the younger of the two was three his six-year-senior brother was already into sports and on his way to the first of two appearances in the Astrodome for the national championship of Punt, Pass, and Kick contest run by Ford and the NFL. Trophies began to accumulate on the family shelves, trophies won by the older brother.
My mother, well-meaning as she was, bought a little trophy for the younger son. When she gave it to him in the belief that it was some kind of esteem-builder, he said, “But Grandma, I haven’t done anything.”
It’s that kind of honesty we need to see in our politicians and academic leaders.
Is There Any More Evidence Needed?
Rep. Summer Lee was on the Braddock High School Track Team. I can’t find any information on her track performances and neither can AI. I assume there’s someone at Braddock High who remembers whether or not she was a track star, but I just don’t have the interest to pursue the matter. Maybe she was outstanding. Maybe she wasn’t.
Maybe she ran track for the boys’ team. Such cross-participation is not unheard of. When a local high school team shut down its women’s tennis program, one of the stars of the team and a Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League girls’ champion switched to play for the boys’ team. She won the WPIAL championship for the second time, defeating all the male challengers. So, in some sports girls can definitely hold their own against boys. But there comes a time when…
In fact, that time has already come. In 2017, the FC Dallas U-15 boys academy team beat the US Women’s National Team. Yeah, if you hadn’t heard, Summer, fifteen-year-old boys beat the best women’s team in the…world. I’m now wondering whether or not Summer ran track against the fastest males in the WPIAL. And I’m wondering whether she entered the shower in the locker room with male athletes. Hey, soap exhibits no animosity to gender, just an animosity to dirt. Why not share?
Did Title IX Achieve Equity?
Reality is the last consideration in a Democrat politician’s mind. Title IX changed college sports in significant ways. It put girls’ softball, basketball, and volleyball on a par with men’s wrestling, baseball, and other sports. That was great for women, and it gave many of them a chance to win scholarships that supported their academics. In NCAA Division II, however, complying with Title IX meant reducing support for men’s sports, relegating some of them to minor status in most colleges and even eliminating them in some. The university where I taught gave up its successful wrestling program just after it produced a national champion. It then dissolved the men’s tennis team which had fifty consecutive winning seasons and began a women’s tennis team. The scholarship money dried up for other men’s sports, also. So, the good that Title IX did came at a cost, a tradeoff that made equity a significant factor.
In major universities, the scholarship drought affecting men’s sports wasn’t as severe. Major college football teams can harvest tens of millions of dollars to more than $150 million annually, enabling those schools to support many teams. But Division II and III teams didn’t fare as well because their small crowd support never made those schools’ basketball and football programs into cash cows. The product of IX was a series of cuts to men’s programs on the basis that the percentage of women at a school should be the percentage of women receiving aid in a school’s athletic programs—even though there’s a disparity in the numbers of athletes on men and women’s teams: Football teams might have 75 players; basketball and volleyball teams just 15.
Title IX says nothing about reducing boys’ sports programs, but to achieve its stated goals, individual colleges had to make choices detrimental to men’s sports. (What if we just shorten the 100 meters to 91.48 meters but still call it a 100-meter race for women? Yep. There goes that 0.91 second difference between Bolt and Griffith-Joyner.)
Where Does Summer Pee?
If Riley Gaines is “transphobic” as Rep. Lee says, then the congresswoman (congressperson? congress-human?) needs to answer the restroom questions: Are the restrooms in the Capitol labeled in any way, and does she use one marked “Men” as frequently as she uses one marked “Women”? And if she uses exclusively the women’s restrooms and excludes biological males from using the same facilities, is she a misandrist?
Would Summer entertain having males who are 6’10” and weigh 245 to 260 pounds play against the women’s basketball team? And why do I even have to ask such a question?
The Obvious-phobic Party
The obvious is the obvious—but not, it seems, to Democrats.
Take the border as the chief example. The moment Biden entered office, the rush to the US border began. Now, not only have millions entered illegally, but also thousands of pounds of fentanyl have entered the country—with the resultant deaths and overdoses in the hundreds of thousands. But the obvious isn’t obvious to Democrats who refuse to close the border. The obvious—cities like New York becoming overburdened by migrants requiring food, clothing, and shelter—was never evident to the Democratic leaders of those cities at the outset of the Biden policy. The obvious seems never to have been obvious to Democrats.
Instead, the Democrats play the name game, and they never seem to run out of names: Racist, misogynist, transphobic, Islamophobic, gender phobic, xenophobic, fascist… All terms that have nothing to do with the realities their policies and practices have engendered.
Every issue is an identity issue for Democrats who ignore the obvious. If they had invented watches, time would be read in “abouts”: it’s about noon. It’s about three. She ran the race in about the same time that he ran it, so let’s call it even. Seems fair, right?
And fairness is the motto of Democrats—except when and where women are concerned.
On Your Mark
“It’s disappointing to me that although the title of this hearing implies a much-needed discussion, we’re likely going to be forced to listen to transphobic bigotry,” said Rep. Summer Lee in hearings on the state of Title IX and the inclusion of trans-athletes in women’s sports.
Get Set
Former college athlete Riley Gaines was poised and ready for the contest.
Go
Right out of the blocks, Riley said, “But unsafe, unfair and discriminatory practices towards women must stop. Inclusion cannot be prioritized over safety and fairness, and ranking member Lee, if my testimony makes me transphobic then I believe your opening monologue makes you a misogynist.” Slam, bang!
Gold Medal
Winner: Riley Gaines in a contest with another woman.
Out of the Mouths of Babes
Is there any argument a Democrat makes that is not wrapped up in some form of identity politics and ad hominem reasoning? Is there no Democrat issue whose stance can be braced by logic? Is there no Democrat who believes in unequal talents and skills among humans? Were all current Democrats given Participation Trophies when they were children?
I have two sons. When the younger of the two was three his six-year-senior brother was already into sports and on his way to the first of two appearances in the Astrodome for the national championship of Punt, Pass, and Kick contest run by Ford and the NFL. Trophies began to accumulate on the family shelves, trophies won by the older brother.
My mother, well-meaning as she was, bought a little trophy for the younger son. When she gave it to him in the belief that it was some kind of esteem-builder, he said, “But Grandma, I haven’t done anything.”
It’s that kind of honesty we need to see in our politicians and academic leaders.
Is There Any More Evidence Needed?
Rep. Summer Lee was on the Braddock High School Track Team. I can’t find any information on her track performances and neither can AI. I assume there’s someone at Braddock High who remembers whether or not she was a track star, but I just don’t have the interest to pursue the matter. Maybe she was outstanding. Maybe she wasn’t.
Maybe she ran track for the boys’ team. Such cross-participation is not unheard of. When a local high school team shut down its women’s tennis program, one of the stars of the team and a Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League girls’ champion switched to play for the boys’ team. She won the WPIAL championship for the second time, defeating all the male challengers. So, in some sports girls can definitely hold their own against boys. But there comes a time when…
In fact, that time has already come. In 2017, the FC Dallas U-15 boys academy team beat the US Women’s National Team. Yeah, if you hadn’t heard, Summer, fifteen-year-old boys beat the best women’s team in the…world. I’m now wondering whether or not Summer ran track against the fastest males in the WPIAL. And I’m wondering whether she entered the shower in the locker room with male athletes. Hey, soap exhibits no animosity to gender, just an animosity to dirt. Why not share?
Did Title IX Achieve Equity?
Reality is the last consideration in a Democrat politician’s mind. Title IX changed college sports in significant ways. It put girls’ softball, basketball, and volleyball on a par with men’s wrestling, baseball, and other sports. That was great for women, and it gave many of them a chance to win scholarships that supported their academics. In NCAA Division II, however, complying with Title IX meant reducing support for men’s sports, relegating some of them to minor status in most colleges and even eliminating them in some. The university where I taught gave up its successful wrestling program just after it produced a national champion. It then dissolved the men’s tennis team which had fifty consecutive winning seasons and began a women’s tennis team. The scholarship money dried up for other men’s sports, also. So, the good that Title IX did came at a cost, a tradeoff that made equity a significant factor.
In major universities, the scholarship drought affecting men’s sports wasn’t as severe. Major college football teams can harvest tens of millions of dollars to more than $150 million annually, enabling those schools to support many teams. But Division II and III teams didn’t fare as well because their small crowd support never made those schools’ basketball and football programs into cash cows. The product of IX was a series of cuts to men’s programs on the basis that the percentage of women at a school should be the percentage of women receiving aid in a school’s athletic programs—even though there’s a disparity in the numbers of athletes on men and women’s teams: Football teams might have 75 players; basketball and volleyball teams just 15.
Title IX says nothing about reducing boys’ sports programs, but to achieve its stated goals, individual colleges had to make choices detrimental to men’s sports. (What if we just shorten the 100 meters to 91.48 meters but still call it a 100-meter race for women? Yep. There goes that 0.91 second difference between Bolt and Griffith-Joyner.)
Where Does Summer Pee?
If Riley Gaines is “transphobic” as Rep. Lee says, then the congresswoman (congressperson? congress-human?) needs to answer the restroom questions: Are the restrooms in the Capitol labeled in any way, and does she use one marked “Men” as frequently as she uses one marked “Women”? And if she uses exclusively the women’s restrooms and excludes biological males from using the same facilities, is she a misandrist?
Would Summer entertain having males who are 6’10” and weigh 245 to 260 pounds play against the women’s basketball team? And why do I even have to ask such a question?
The Obvious-phobic Party
The obvious is the obvious—but not, it seems, to Democrats.
Take the border as the chief example. The moment Biden entered office, the rush to the US border began. Now, not only have millions entered illegally, but also thousands of pounds of fentanyl have entered the country—with the resultant deaths and overdoses in the hundreds of thousands. But the obvious isn’t obvious to Democrats who refuse to close the border. The obvious—cities like New York becoming overburdened by migrants requiring food, clothing, and shelter—was never evident to the Democratic leaders of those cities at the outset of the Biden policy. The obvious seems never to have been obvious to Democrats.
Instead, the Democrats play the name game, and they never seem to run out of names: Racist, misogynist, transphobic, Islamophobic, gender phobic, xenophobic, fascist… All terms that have nothing to do with the realities their policies and practices have engendered.
Every issue is an identity issue for Democrats who ignore the obvious. If they had invented watches, time would be read in “abouts”: it’s about noon. It’s about three. She ran the race in about the same time that he ran it, so let’s call it even. Seems fair, right?
And fairness is the motto of Democrats—except when and where women are concerned.
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