Go ahead, call me a giant wuss. I can take it.
7:39:50 PM    please comment []

As reported by Reuters and called to my attention by boing boing:

On the heels of a previous report that debunked the notion that a man's shoe size could be used to estimate the length of his penis, a new study now claims that those with inquiring minds need merely take a gander at a man's forefinger...

Dr. Evangelos Spyropoulos and colleagues from the Naval and Veterans Hospital of Athens, Greece say they conducted their investigation to gather more information on the relationship between body measurements and male genitalia size. They argue that such information--as well as a clearer definition of "normal penile size"--will help doctors counsel and treat the many men who are concerned about perceived inadequacies relating to their genitals.

The "lack of standardized metric data and the absence of widely acceptable criteria on the proper size of the external genitalia poses major difficulties in the counseling and/or treatment of young adult men with worries of sexual inadequacy," the authors write.

Okay. So let me be as clear about this as possible.

Within reasonably normal parameters (let's say, a standard deviation), we women JUST DON'T CARE how long your penis is. There may be a certain occular thrill associated with length, but I'm here to tell you that it's trivial, temporary, and nothing to get yerself in a twist over. As it were.

But.

(You knew there was going to be a "but," didn't you?)

If we care about your proportions at all, what we care about is girth. There are good anatomical reasons for this, the technical details of which I will spare you.

Double-but.

(Urrrk. That didn't come out quite right.)

Surely by now, you enlightened fellows you, you realize that anatomy is not destiny, right? You do realize that the "endowment" of the guy that all the girls whisper about to one another with misty eyes ultimately has nothing whatsoever to do with the meatpacking industry and everything to do with what's between his ears and in his heart, right? You know that it's about what he pays attention to, and how, and why, and what kind of attention, no? That's the gift that keeps on giving.

Granted, it would be easier for everybody if we could just say: Hoo-boy, that's a sure fire winner there, no question, let's get right on that!

Aren't you (admit it!) glad that's not the way it actually works?

Okay. So could we quit it with the size correlation articles already????
6:20:12 PM    please comment []

In a long-repressed fit of pique, I posted a rant entitled "The Curse" at BlogSisters. I fully expected to get pounded into the pavement by irate women scolding me for letting down the side (which only goes to show that I have my own set of knee-jerk assumptions I ought to root out). To my surprise, so far the reaction has mostly been the moral equivalent of "You go, girl!" or "What you said!" There've also been follow-on posts and comments that suggest that many of us have tales we'd like to tell.

There was one brave male voice in the comments who expressed the wish that the women in his life would be more forthcoming on these topics. So it's for the Jasons out there that I've posted the link.
2:11:46 PM    please comment []

I don't know whether I find the Michaels Crafts store connection as compelling any more, although I still think it may have provided the first impetus of anger. If this weekend's shooting is connected ~ and I have no reason to doubt that it is ~ then my guess is that this weekend was the first where shooter-guy didn't have the kids (or, even creepier, he went out after putting them to bed, which would suggest that he lives near Ashland).

The police have not released any information yet about the race or occupation of the man shot behind the Ponderosa (or his spouse). The latest intrigue centers around the request for an individual to call the phone number left "at the Ponderosa" and, more recently, the police saying they will respond to the message they've received.

It's been my suspicion from early on that the police have more information than they have released (which is perfectly reasonable, by the way), and that the apparent randomness of these shooting is more apparent than truly random. I was particularly struck that, after the Ashland shooting, the authorities swiftly threw up two major roadblocks on Connecticut and Wisconsin Avenues in Northwest Washington ~ stopping and searching every single vehicle. Bear in mind that the shooting was 80 miles away. I've heard no cogent explanation for this action, which only makes sense if they are operating with significantly more information than they are releasing.

A grace note ~ as reported on CNN's website, the Ashland victim's wife released a statement including these words:

I would like to thank people of Richmond and Ashland for their caring and prayers. They have been a bright ray of hope and comfort. This has been a frightening and difficult time where I feared for the loss of my husband, friend and soul mate. Please pray also for the attacker and that no one else is hurt.

May God bless her for her ability to speak the language of peace while carrying such a heavy personal burden.

I'd like nothing better than for my theory that these shootings are motivated by white-supremacist, anti-government sentiment to be wrong (if my divorced/separated theory is right, then I wonder too whether the wife may not have left him for a person of color). At the moment, I certainly don't have enough information to either modify my thoughts or to reinforce them. In any case, I hope I'm wrong wrong wrong.

We don't need more egregious evidence of our internal divisions and failings as a society. From my perspective, the "best" possible outcome of this would be for it to be proven to be foreign terrorism. But I think that's very unlikely.

It's also true that the last thing this region needs is another reason for people not to visit. Our tourist economy took a huge hit after September 11th, and still has not properly recovered. Do the patriotic thing and come visit me in our nation's capital!

[Update: So I've clearly been wrong about a bunch of things. The Tarot card apparently WAS left by the sniper, as the Ponderosa letter made mention of additional messages on the card that have not been reported in the media. The thing that has me the most baffled at present is reports that the Ponderosa letter includes a demand for money ~ 10 million dollars, according to some sources. That makes no sense to me. Also, I'm trying to figure out why Chief Moose would report the postscript threatening children. How is anything improved by going public with that? I'm going to stop speculating for now because I truly believe that the public has only inadequate and misleading information to work with.]
1:10:52 PM    please comment []