Reporting Housework

 Women report doing more housework when being interviewed by a woman. Men are not affected by the gender of the interviewer.

When studying time spent on housework, most evaluations rely on retrospective questionnaire responses rather than on diary-based data. There remains, however, discussion about how reliable such retrospective time-use data are. For example, Kan (2008) finds systematic differences between questionnaire and diary data on housework hours which vary by gender and other characteristics of the respondents. 

Yeah, I'll bet that's true.  Diary versus questionnaire "finds systematic differences" in just about everything. Not that the diary can't be shaded as well, but we tend to put on the shine more for questionnaires. Are women feeling guilty in front of other women, claiming more dusting than they really do? If we go back and look at previous studies, can we tell?  Wanting to measure something accurately and objectively doesn't mean you are succeeding. 

There is no standard definition for what constitutes housework. Does gardening count? When does beautifying shift over into hobby? Do driving errands count? Parent-teacher conferences? It is one of those elastic categories that easily lends itself to taking resentful positions for what is included. I imagine the items that spring to mind first do indeed fall to females more often, likely unfairly: laundry, cleaning, cooking, dishes. Gratitude, or lack thereof, figures prominently in folks' feelings about the matter.

Even If You See It Coming

 It is done very well.

 

Op-Ed By a Horse

 I Work Very Hard, And I Would Like to Try Cake

Back to Links from 2014

Frozen Revisited.  I watched "Frozen" for a second time with the granddaughters and was irritated by the lack of foreshadowing that Hans was going to turn into the villain.

Frozen Re-Explained  Six months later, I ran across an article that explained the lack of foreshadowing to me. However, support for my idea was still rather half-hearted.

Risk Assessment of Sex Offenders

Two PC Spirits  A competition between Indigenous Culture and the combined weight of Anthro professors, alt-religion, and gay people. At the time the answer was only partly in.  The conflict has now been resolved by the latter coalition insisting that the Indigenous Peoples did too have two-spirit gender- switching people which was very modern of them.  That the various tribes insist this was not so is simply ignored.  The Indians lose again.

Parody/Parody Non  

How To Get Out of a Psych Hospital 

  

Being at War

I turn 73 in a couple of weeks and grew up in an era of many Americans knowing directly what it was like to be in a war in other places. Europeans and others, however, would frequently mention that Americans had no knowledge of what it was like to live through a war and held that as a serious talking point that we had no idea of the horrors of it. European writers would bemoan warlike Americans just not understanding the danger. When we visited there we would be solemnly informed of the battles that took place, and people who had been in them or lived through bombings would be trotted out as prizes to lecture the stupid Americans.

I have a brother-in-law in his late 80s who remembers being able to distinguish which side's bombers were coming in the Paris suburb he grew up in late in the war.  My best friend in the 80s was the son of a man who had been in the Hitler Youth, was drafted at 17 and sent to the Russian Front, was immediately captured and sent to Siberia. One could still meet such people then.

It is entirely fair that they had a point in saying Americans just didn't get how bad this could be. Most of us hadn't the least clue.

European writers and even people on the street still talk that way.  I grant that there is something different about looking at the river running through your town and knowing "This was the boundary between the Nazis and the Allies during the war," with buildings and even damage still visible. But it is entirely a pose at this point. There are many more Americans than Western Europeans especially who know what war looks like up close now. One could say that this is our own damn fault, but it is still a core fact. Scandinavians, Spaniards, Austrians, and Belgians are now the ones who know nothing directly. Terrorism they sometimes know.

They don't know what it is like to be fired on and have armies of occupation patrolling the streets, whether on their side or the other guy's, so they imagine that what they do have is almost the same thing. 

It is not only the American military.  American missionaries and businessmen have also seen war around the globe. Portugal sent out both 500 years ago but nowadays, not so much.  America has a lot of immigrants who have seen war elsewhere. Fewer illusions. 

Better Moon Shot Choice

"Space Oddity" was hurriedly released in June of 1969 to be in advance of the moon shot, but it barely registered in the UK despite good reviews, and not at all in America. With re-releases it picked up steam and was a hit in 1970 and quickly became an early 70s standard.  So I missed it in my Top 100 lists for 1969, but Texan99 was on it anyway.

It's definitely a better choice because it's an astronaut, not just the moon. The moon is actually mentioned. I put this out as a better choice.

 

The Wrong Lesson

David Foster links to an excellent summary essay by Richard Fulmer about groups putting energy into economic activity rather than political activity. Politics is necessarily redistributive, creating no new wealth. The continuing misunderstanding by socialists and much of the left that the amount of wealth is somehow just present, and equity can only come from taking it from A to give to B. Economic thinking casts a wider net on getting wealth, including direct creation of something that was not there minutes before.

 Those who had to rely on markets and education were, in a grim irony, forced into the more productive path. Markets reward productivity. Politics rewards coalition-building, favor-trading, and the ability to extract value from others.

Politicians, especially on the left believe "Only we can save you. Elect us and we will get you your fair share. There is no other path." Unions will insist "We got you the weekend and the forty-hour week." That is less than half true.  They could not have done this if there were not new wealth to draw from. They were not useless, and the service they provide must be achieved somehow. But they did not create a penny of it. You can't export the practice to places that aren't producing wealth - there is nothing to share. 

Great Answer

 

We might be doing education all wrong, but this is not why. An adding machine - or children two grades ahead - have always been able to do the math better than the student. Lots of people can write better than a ninth grader.  What has that got to do with anything? 

Replication

Attempts at replication of social science papers showed that half could not be replicated with statistical significance, and re-analysis showed that 2% of the studies even came to the opposite conclusion! Some of the difficulty maybe downstream of the fact that less than 30% of the 600 papers gave enough detail that replication could even be attempted. 

Finally, SCORE checked papers’ replicability — the most onerous of the three tasks. Researchers endeavoured to repeat entire experiments, gathering and analysing the data from scratch. Of the 164 studies that they focused on, they were able to replicate only 49% with statistical significance¹. That figure is roughly in line with the results of other attempts to replicate scientific findings.

Gurwinder concludes from the 7-year long project published in Nature  it’s now wiser to assume a social science study is flawed until there’s reason to believe otherwise. Similar problems persist in biomedical studies.

The Natural Progression

My wife invited a woman from knitting group to come to one of our Easter services.  She called yesterday to see if the woman was coming and to which service, 9 or 11?  "I can't come because of Easter" of course turned out to mean that preparations for the feast after the celebration prevented going to the celebration. This has definitely happened with Christmas as well. I don't think this is simply North American, It is a natural tendency of humankind.

In Honor of the Moon Shot

I mean in 1969. There are pop songs from that year that sort of work, but none that jump off the page.  

"Bad Moon Rising" - well, I'm not sure a bad moon is what we are looking for.

In "Aquarius" the moon is in the seventh house, but that's the last we hear of it.

"Good Morning Starshine" has stars, not the moon.

I think that leaves an entirely forgettable song by Paul Revere and the Raiders,

 So maybe we try 1968, for the first moon orbiting and looking at the "dark" side of the moon.

Nothing. No moon songs in 1968. 

"Remember the Ladies"

Also from the Free Press 250th Anniversary historical discussion is the famous exchange between Abigail and John Adams, excerpted here.

Abigail (full text) ...and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Laidies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.

John (full text) Depend upon it, We know better than to repeal our Masculine systems. Altho they are in full Force, you know they are little more than Theory. We dare not exert our Power in its full Latitude. We are obliged to go fair, and softly, and in Practice you know We are the subjects. We have only the Name of Masters, and rather than give up this, which would compleatly subject Us to the Despotism of the Peticoat, I hope General Washington, and all our brave Heroes would fight. 

I have most frequently heard this discussed as if Abigail is being half- or even fully serious about the rebellion. In that reading, John comes off as something of a prick, dismissing it so lightly. Yet while Mrs. Adams is being sincere, she is also being intentionally humorous and hyperbolic. Only in our own era, when there are women who would mean it just as it is stated, would the harsher interpretation be automatic to some. John Adams was not that stupid. If he thought this a quiet threat of what would happen in the next decade or so if the ladies were not "remembered," he would have been more diplomatic and conciliatory in his response.

These were two people who loved and enjoyed each other, and even on serious subjects put each other first. They are both correct about the underlying issue. In the realm of violence men are more likely to be dangerous and tyrannical, and women even then knew that reining that in was of grave importance to many women. But the general (though uneven) verbal superiority of women was known then as well, though scarcely acknowledged, and Mr. Adams's humor is carefully delivered. 

Don't Call Them Pirates

 From the Free Press, a story of the privateers of the American Revolution, Don't Call Them Pirates.* 

Washington had a realistic view of what motivated men. Though he himself had refused to accept a salary for his service in the Continental Army (he accepted only reimbursement for expenses), he saw the importance of marrying patriotism with appeals to the pocketbook. “I do not mean to exclude altogether the idea of patriotism. I know it exists, and I know it has done much in the present contest,” he wrote. “But I will venture to assert that a great and lasting war can never be supported on this principle alone—It must be aided by a prospect of interest or some reward.” 

I am a subscriber, and I don't know how much of the article is above the paywall. But with FP the first paragraphs are usually enough to get you started thinking, anyway.  And I have some 1-month free subscriptions to give if you get in touch with me at wymanhome (comcast). It is also why I included a section from further down.  Letters of marque and reprisal figure prominently, and a further reading list is there.

*Not that that would be a bad thing. 

Civic Knowledge

Instapundit links to a study (via Marc Porter Magee at X) by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation of the comparative civic knowledge of men and women.  Men greatly outperformed women on the task in all 50 states. However there may be something misleading about this.  It is my experience that women know more about local elections, candidates, and issues, while men follow national candidates and issues more.

Just a thought. 

High Trust and Xenophobia

I had a friend at work who lived for two years in Estonia when her children were preschoolers in the early 2000s. She and her husband were very white, Americans of German extraction and not alarmingly eccentric in any visible way. Neither were they socially accepted in any way, even though the husband brought very useful skills to the university and the wife was intelligent, open, and charming. Other mothers would decline play dates with the brightly-dressed American children, and at daycare the staff discriminated against them and did not insist that the other children treat them fairly. 

The quote that begins Are High-Trust Societies More Xenophobic? , “I found a region and a culture that finishes high in societal ‘trust’ rankings globally, yet has little trust in outsiders,” rang true for me about rural Scandinavia, but not urban.  In contrast, Romania both welcomed and rejected Americans while I was there at about that time, and I was given to understand that this extended to Western Europeans as well. But Romania was not a high-trust society under communism, even as intense nationalism simmered underneath the surface the whole time.  Yes, they hated gypsies, Hungarians, and Russians, not to mention Jews and Germans while they still had them, but they were not correspondingly high-trust with each other either. There was a Casa Noastra in the cities, quite equivalent to the Italians of similar name. Trust only for the narrowest of categories.

I would read the Aporia article with the world outside North America uppermind first, only extending it to ourselves when you finish. The relationship between ingroup and outgroup thinking is much more complicated that we would think at first, and the usual explanations shift between obvious correctness and wild misunderstanding. Peter Frost has given a gift here, of information vaguely known and understood leading to unexpected conclusions that don't fit our pictures of other nations. But...but...aren't these the same people who... Yes. Yes they are.  Their contradictions are different from ours. You will find yourself tentatively thinking "I see that, but I had not thought of it that way."

All of this changed with industrial capitalism and the rise of labor markets in the 1800s. Industrialists found that they could more easily expand and contract their workforce by hiring and firing non-family members. Meanwhile, compulsory education made young people less available as a source of labor. Children became a net cost, and their numbers shrank. Thus ended the West’s population boom, first during the 1920s and 1930s and then for good in the 1970s. Meanwhile, the rest of the world began to experience substantial population growth due to Western advances in medicine, sanitation and agriculture. (Italics mine.)

Wednesday Links

Reading comprehension is not a skill. An excellent "we've put the cart before the horse in education" essay. Critical thinking skills are not even an issue if the child doesn't know the vocabulary. Another instance in which "drill and kill" is actually life-giving. 

Crystal Widjaja. "You need to be unemployed to keep up with AI, so that you don't fall behind and become unemployed."

Voter's views on the economy 

Kids are safer than ever.  We complain that the overemphasis on safety has made children tentative and vulnerable.  Bethany checks out what we have gained for this. 

Unexpected

NH has had vanity plates for a long time, and still has a high percentage of them. I always thought it was a very sensible libertarian way for the DMV to make a little extra money for the taxpayers. Fee for service. 

 

Medical Update

I fell off a bread truck onto my elbow over 10 weeks ago driving my humerus into my rotator cuff.  Three of the four tendons are completely torn.  Surgery will be in early June, with a 50-50 chance of doing any good at all, only a 25% chance of complete restoration of function. Then 6-12 weeks in a sling, 6-12 months of physical therapy.  The PT will maximise whatever I've got, so my functioning will be at least improved regardless. 

Not very encouraging, but I have already started adapting, anticipating what I can lift and what I can't, where I can reach. One gets creative. I am not especially discouraged.  Life goes on.  

A Boy's Best Friend Is His Mother

My DIL is weeding books from the town library, and discovered a songbook from 1992 which has never once been taken out. It has "Sippin' Cider," which I knew from scout camp in 1965, but none of the others were familiar.  Some of the titles were phrases I had heard before, not knowing they came from a song.

 

Foxhole Friends

Anyone can support you when you are right, moral, and making sense.  The fanatic's test is whether you can support them when they are wrong, evil, and making no sense at all.  Those are their most important supporters. 

At the Free Press I Went Undercover in France's Anti-Israel Movement. 

 I participated in conversations in which activists—who proclaimed themselves deeply committed to believing all sexual violence victims—expressed doubt about the veracity of rapes committed by Hamas against Israeli women on October 7. Worse still, some female activists claimed that “Hamas responded in accordance with its culture.” Even those who believed the victims fiercely denied the antisemitic nature of the rapes: “This is not an antisemitic rape; it is patriarchal, because it is inherent to men to rape women,” explained one activist during a feminist demonstration.

Bad Apologies

If someone says "I'm sorry IF..." that could mean they don't think they did anything wrong, it's just you being oversensitive.

If someone says "I'm sorry BUT..." that could mean they only did something that looks wrong because you did something worse that caused it.

If someone says they are sorry and feel ashamed they did something, they still might only mean they are embarrassed they got caught, not that they feel at all bad about having injured you.

Each of these might be used for a decent apology.  I don't want to fuss about someone sincerely being sorry but not getting the words quite right.  Yet these are often evasions. 

Inexcusable and unforgivable are not the same things. An evasive apology does not only not excuse wrong behavior, it is an additional injury in and of itself.  Not all behavior is excusable. Yet all call be forgiven and we are in fact commanded to. One of the main ways we go wrong is in wasting energy trying to find excuses and convincing ourselves they apply to "those who trespass against us."

Scripture tells us that the quickest and most reliable way to get to forgiveness is to recall what we have been forgiven for ourselves.