Paul Ryan decided not to trail behind Obama and Romney in making extremely weird and offensive remarks about women:
Now it’s a war on women tomorrow it’s going to be a war on left-handed Irishmen or something like that.
I spend so much time with highly educated feminist men, academics, scholars, intellectuals, etc. that I had no idea things were so bad in terms of gender issues among other groups of population. These remarks don’t come from a vacuum. There is a whole culture behind them. And that’s kind of scary.
Clarissa's Blog 
WOW. That’s crazy and deeply disturbing. I think Paul Ryan is one of the most terrifying politicians in the Republican party (or in the country for that matter.) And I deeply deeply hope that he and Romney don’t get elected.
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All I can think when I see nonsense like this is pray that my absentee ballot found its way safe and snug into the county vote officials’ headquarters.
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We will need every single vote, it seems.
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Well there’s lots of gender issues among academics as well. Try the following comment from a scholar on his facebook page after an academic conference.
“My impression of the Conference of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans. There are thousands of people at the conference and an unusually high concentration of unattractive women. The super model types are completely absent. What is going on? Are unattractive women particularly attracted to neuroscience? Are beautiful women particularly uninterested in the brain? No offense to anyone..”
http://isisthescientist.com/2012/10/18/what-we-learn-when-professorly-d00ds-take-to-facebook/
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Well there’s lots of gender issues with academics as well. Try this comment on a Scholar’s facebook page after his trip to an academic conference.
“My impression of the Conference of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans. There are thousands of people at the conference and an unusually high concentration of unattractive women. The super model types are completely absent. What is going on? Are unattractive women particularly attracted to neuroscience? Are beautiful women particularly uninterested in the brain? No offense to anyone..”
http://isisthescientist.com/2012/10/18/what-we-learn-when-professorly-d00ds-take-to-facebook/
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Is there a reason why people are suddenly massively quoting on my blog a blogger who organized a bullying campaign against me a while ago?
Just wondering.
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Of course, President Obama has been described as a ‘left handed Irishman’, since he has some Irish ancestry. There was also a joke in 2008 or 2009 re-spelling his name as O’Bama. I wonder if this is intended as a subtle attack on the President.
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“Of course, President Obama has been described as a ‘left handed Irishman’,”
– Really?? I had no idea! This sheds a very different light on the entire comment.
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I wonder if we over interpret comments by parsing them to the N degree. During the 2008 democratic primaries Obama said to reporters about his opponent, Hilary Clinton,
“I understand that Senator Clinton, periodically when she’s feeling down, launches attacks as a way of trying to boost her appeal.”
Was this a subtle anti feminist attack or just a general comment? This was in an ABC article entitled, “Is Obama Using Sexist Language?”
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2008/02/is-obama-using/
also from the 2008 primary:
“Taylor Marsh writes that words like this, in her view, indicate “a way of thinking about women. A way of demeaning women in power; even saying we’re not up to the job. Seriously, Senator Hillary Clinton is a woman running for president. Not some emotional menopausal diva popping pills because she’s depressed she broke a nail.”
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I think there is nothing subtle about the remark you quote. It does betray a deeply sexist mind, in my view. If, say, a colleague of mine made a comment about me that involved “claws” and “periodically feeling down”, I would make a harassment complaint immediately. This is not an appropriate way to talk about women. I’m sure Obama himself did not like it when his opponents referred to him as “uppity” and “a boy.” He should know better than this.
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I am not an Irishman, but left-handed and I can tell you that living the life left-handed isn’t all fun and sparkles! I mean have you ever tried to use one of those ergonomic scissors?! They break your fingers if you use them with the “wrong” hand!
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I recently saw a store that sells things specifically for left-handed people.
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Yes, this year the electoral crop of conservatives are Repugnant, not just Republican. Ryan, a conservative Catholic, and Romney, a conservative Mormon, are both from traditions that advocate that women should stick to Kinder Kuche Kirchen (children, kitchen, and church). And let us not forget the State of Misery’s contribution, Todd Akin.
As for the “isisthescientist.com” comment, has anyone looked at MALE neuroscientists – not exactly Adonis material, by and large. Er, is anyone surprised that scientists, male and female, look – well – ORDINARY?
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“Yes, this year the electoral crop of conservatives are Repugnant, not just Republican. Ryan, a conservative Catholic, and Romney, a conservative Mormon, are both from traditions that advocate that women should stick to Kinder Kuche Kirchen (children, kitchen, and church). And let us not forget the State of Misery’s contribution, Todd Akin.”
– It scares me a lot that these folks have support of many voters. Akin is STILL running, after every disgusting sick thing he said.
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