Please, Please, Please: Do Not Make Your Kid The Center Of Your Universe, Cassie Murdoch, Jezebel, July 6, 2012

It’s impossible to say for sure that intensive parenting leads to depression and stress and being dissatisfied, but the links don’t really make sense if you flip them around. It’s also not clear whether intensive parenting has any great impact on the children, but Liss concludes that anything that makes moms depressed probably doesn’t benefit children in the long run. Plus, anecdotally some of us have observed that making your child the center of the universe tends to result in rather obnoxious offspring.

Justice Sotomayor accuses colleagues of thinking they can ‘wish away’ racial inequality, Robyn Pennacchia, Death and Taxes, April 23, 2014

Just yesterday, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the people of Michigan had the right, via mob rule, to ban the practice of Affirmative Action at state institutions such as the University of Michigan. It wasn’t a good ruling. Ever since the state voted to ban it, minority enrollment has declined significantly. Which is not surprising, because when you ignore unearned privileged and advantages, it’s hardly shocking when the priviledg and advantaged pull ahead. Obviously the person who starts the race in the middle of a marathon is going to have a better chance at winning.

A New Study Shows the True Impact of Childhood Bullying — and It’s Far Worse Than We Thought, Eileen Shim, PolicyMic, April 18, 2014 (h/t Ampersand)

An incredible study coming out of the U.K. indicates that childhood bullying can affect the victims well into adulthood — even 40 years on.

For decades, a research team at King’s College London has been tracking a group of 7,771 people from England, Scotland and Wales who were all born in the same week in 1958. At age 7 and 11, their parents were asked to provide information on whether the children had been bullied. More than one in four had occasionally been bullied, while 15% were bullied frequently. Then later in life, the participants were asked to check in periodically and provide feedback on their health.

What the researchers found was shocking: At age 50, those who had been frequently bullied as a child were much more likely to have depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts and poor physical health than those who were not. In addition, they were less likely to have higher education degrees, high-paying jobs, romantic partners or social support. Even when childhood intelligence levels were taken into account, these adults also scored lower on cognitive IQ tests. In general, they reported lower quality of life and satisfaction

A More Perfect Union? Patrick Hruby, Sports on Earth, April 24, 2014

For decades, schools have banded together under the auspices of the National Collegiate Athletic Association — a union, if you will — to unilaterally enforce a policy of “amateurism,” in which college athletes (and only college athletes) are not allowed to be compensated for their fame and/or playing ability beyond a level determined by the schools as a group. The current compensation level is capped at the value of an athletic scholarship — room, board and university tuition — plus anything else the school cartel deems permissible (such as bowl game swag bags).

While this arrangement would appear to be an obvious violation of antitrust law — in fact, when the NCAA previously attempted to price-fix assistant basketball coach compensation in the manner of athletic scholarships, it was routed and humiliated in federal court — the association and its member schools have successfully beaten back previous challenges to amateurism for a number of reasons: underfunded legal opponents; a deferential and incurious federal judiciary; public support and/or indifference; and a powerful, paternalistic cultural mythology surrounding amateurism itself, one that labels campus athletes receiving cash envelopes from boosters and recruiters as impure while lauding coaches wearing shoe company lapel pins as morally upright makers of men.

Sorry to Burst Your Masturbatory Comic Bubble (No, I’m Not), Jill Pantozzi, The Mary Sue, April 17, 2014

I have a theory on why a small segment of men who read comics send rape threats to women who write about comics. To put it simply, they think we’re destroying their masturbatory fantasies (literal or otherwise).

You may laugh but it’s quite possibly the source of all the hatemongering. They’re under the impression comics are for men. Men only. And the characters therein, specifically the female characters, are there for them to ogle. The mere thought of that being taken away from them is frightening (even though, you know, porn and porn comics!). So frightening they will do anything to stop it. And they think silencing women with threats is the answer.

Photo credit: klsgfx [Public domain, CC0 1.0], via Openclipart.