How to neutralize a "frothing at the mouth" opponent

One never knows when you will called upon to face a hostile opponent or interviewer. Most of us are not well versed in such encounters and do poorly. Often these ideologues started in the media or have much more media experience/training. This segment provides an interesting example of how to effectively spar in such an encounter.

Some things to remember:

1) Show, don't explain
2) Research opponent - they will frequently "telegraph" their message in advance
3) A microphone will more often catch a clear, uninterrupted, calm and evenly delivered voice over a ranting, interjected tirade.
4) Keep message short, punchy, stay on it and close the circle at the finish. (i.e And so we will always support the safety for our children!)

Here is an example.

Newborn child found in barn - Police and CPS investigate

What a great Xmas article! Good for a laugh, and a cry were it not so plausible.

My thanks really goes out to Walter for this piece and all the other work he does throughout the year - on his blog and keeping up-to-date his massive website www.Fathersforlife.org on Men's Issues and Rights. It is a most valuable resource and I am very grateful for it (and him).

I wish him and everyone a Merry Xmas.

The Boys Project

I came across this very interesting via Glenn Sacks blog. Dr. Judith KLEINFELD is the director of The Boys Project, whose mission is to help young males develop their capabilities and reach the potential that their families and teachers know they have. It has resources for teachers.

A large, sullen, poorly educated group of men will not keep the nation vital in the twenty-first century. The nation needs the energy, initiative, and ambition of its young men as well as its young women.

Dr KLEINFELD, a psychologist is a author of popular article "The Myth That Schools Shortchange Girls" and an critic of a legislation changing report published in 1992 titled "How Schools Shortchange Girls: A Study of Major Findings on Girls and Education" by the American Association of University Women (AAUW). She insists that the idea that girls are shortchanged by schools has become the common wisdom-what people take for granted, without a thought concerning whether or not it is true. As evidence of this fallacy, she quotes a nationally representative longitudinal study of the high school class of 1992, discussed by Dwyer and Johnson. It was found that high-school girls outdistanced boys in making the honor roll, in getting elected to a class office, and in receiving writing awards and other academic honors.

But 1992 was a long time ago, and the holes in this diatribe have been growing wider each year.
So it is perhaps not a surprise that in May 2008, the AAUW revisited the state of gender education and guess what - we have made great strides! The crisis is over! For everyone!

However, this article by Leonard SAX points out that women enrollment in Science Technololgy Engineering and Math (STEM) has actually declined over the past 20 years. He believes that the real gender crisis is not ability but motivation. Women remain more likely than men to major in art history and journalism; men are more likely than women to major in computer science, physics, and engineering. That is the reason for differences in earnings - utility.

The issue is that AAUA wants to force girls (and boys) into stereotypical roles that they do not aspire to. Gender differences do exist and they matter.