Recent Comments

1. 7 days ago on Doonesbury

   The rest of the story is that the Lisa Olson indecent exposure controversy was in 1990 and access to men’s locker rooms by female reporters has been normal since 1978.

   That controversy started essentially in 1975 (remember that female sports reporters were rare to nonexistent before the women’s movement in the ’70s) when the NHL decided reporters of both sexes should have equal access to its players and that that access should be in the locker room.

   Not every league agreed, but a court said in 1978 that at least the equal access part was required.

   I don’t know of a famous case where a female reporter showed up uninvited in a men’s locker room.

2. 7 days ago on Doonesbury

   Female athletes seem pretty tough to me. My guess is they would not crumble if a male saw them naked, especially in a professional circumstance.

3. 7 days ago on Doonesbury

   What responsibility Iraq and Saddam Hussein had for 9/11 is irrelevant to the US war against Iraq. Proponents did not claim it was retribution for 9/11.

   That war was meant to prevent Iraq from attacking the US in the same manner, for similar reasons, as Al Qaeda did on 9/11.

4. 15 days ago on For Better or For Worse

   I do the same (keep keys on me at all times), but I’ve been foiled with keys I don’t use all the time (Imagine going into your neighbor’s house to water the plants and locking the key in the house when you leave).

   So additionally, I developed the habit long ago of always locking a door from the outside with the key. For doors that are always locked, the habit still usually makes me touch they key as I leave before the door closes.

   And I also hide a key whenever possible.

5. 19 days ago on Monty

   Or stilts. I love the stilts.

6. 19 days ago on The Duplex

   Who says it’s fraudulent? Maybe Eno’s GoFundMe says he’s unable to make ends meet while lying on the couch day after day, drinking beer and watching game shows and asks for people to have mercy and give money to buy food and shelter. That’s what I assume he’s talking about. Eno’s no criminal.

   I once thought of a website to host exactly this kind of request, called “GoF—-Yourself”.

7. 19 days ago on Doonesbury

   But the Supreme Court has actually ruled that the Constitution doesn’t really mean that literally (that the executive power is vested in one person).

   Congress has created dozens (maybe hundreds) of agencies to execute the laws of the United States and not report to the President. The Federal Reserve Board is one that is commonly mentioned. When Congress started doing this, the Supreme Court was asked if the Constitution allowed it, and the answer was yes.

   And if Congress can make a whole separate executive mini-branch away from the influence of the president, then surely it can place limits on the way the president can execute the laws he does execute.

   (The current court has proven itself willing to overturn precedent, though, so maybe Trump can get that changed).

8. 21 days ago on The Duplex

   I doubt it. It’s worded more like an exposition of his own thoughts than as an explanation to others.

   I wonder if it bugs you when strangers think they’re smarter than you. That could explain making a passive aggressive comment meant to make the other person feel less smart.

9. about 1 month ago on The Duplex

   I don’t hate it.

10. about 1 month ago on For Better or For Worse

    I spent a lifetime working for giant bureaucracy IBM and one of my greatest peeves was people who couldn’t tell the difference between committee work and teamwork. Managers tended to call everything a team, which was pretty misleading.

    I always explained it to anyone who would listen like this: A committee is like the San Francisco Board of Supervisors: Everyone has the same job and nobody is in charge. A team is like the San Francisco 49ers: Each person has a unique job and there’s someone carefully dividing the work to make sure it all fits together.

    I have found it rare in business that a committee is better than a team, but committees do have their place.