The War On Girls

Well, here is a problem....

What is fair? That the boy who self identifies as a girl gets to compete for girls' scholarships in an essentially open field?

How about we just tell the girls "Not only are you forced to expose yourself in front of boys and men and have no say in the matter, but we are also going to take away any chance you had to do well in your field because most men are physically stronger than most women even as teens.

How about we also make it so your only worth is in your boobs and face and how you can please and titillate boys and men? How about we interrogate a girl who was sexually assaulted and had to be rescued by two passerbys til she was dragged through the mud, then slap her assailant on the wrist (6 months in county jail and probation) because making him pay for the THREE FELONY COUNTS (for 30 years of sentence) that an actually jury said he did would cause a "severe impact" to the "champion swimmer". Yes, and lets post his race times in the news articles about the assault because that is OH so pertinent to the fact that he sexually assaulted an unconscious girl.

How about we call brilliant men 'absentminded professors' and call brilliant women 'ditzy'?

How about we call brooding or emotional men who paint 'tortured artists' and call brooding or emotional women who paint 'hysterical'? How about we ignore you when you are past your 'nubile' stage, turn you absolutely invisible? Unless you have a mouth like a sailor, then you get to be noticed again. Go watch a bunch of 7th graders play call of duty so you can brush up on your cussing.

How about we pay you less and if you are assertive (not a jerk, just calmly confident) we call you a b++++?

How about we test medications for you only on males? How about when you have a doctor's appointment, you have to bring your husband so the doctor does not automatically assume that you are just emotional and a hypochondriac? Oh and your husband needs to come to your daughter's appointments too for the same reason. Because it makes PERFECT sense that science class (which she was acing easily and had no stress about) would of COURSE cause an elevated platelet count.

Let's put "juicy" on their bums and sell thongs for little girls...need to start getting them comfortable exposing their body to every. single. pervert. In order to REALLY make it stick, though, we have to make the moms ashamed of everything they do and how they look so they can pass the insecurity down to their daughters. We can do this by making models in magazines digitally altered and airbrushed so that men and women think that is how real women look. Men will expect it and women can starve themselves....more food for the men.

Let's just grow up our girls on virtual sex schools where they can learn to pleasure males and forget dreams. We can teach them how to go from 14 to 21 in 20 minutes with make up. We will teach them how to hide their intellect so they blend in. We will teach them that their only worth is in facebook likes and turn a blind eye to cyber bullying.

And when any parent or girl tries to stand up for herself, let's call them "patriarchal" and "intolerant" and "prudish". We will shame the girls who wear dresses (they should be wearing short shorts and tank tops so that men can shop more easily). We will call parents who do not want their children dressing in front of men "fanatics" and "homophobes", even though we know that predators are gleeful with the new access to girls.

Let's just bail on girls altogether. They obviously only have one purpose, one use, and male desires--from a male who wants an easy way into a scholarship to an easy way to film naked underage girls--take precedence and dominance.

Oh that’s right, we already have. 

** Note, this is not against men--not at all. I am just as irritated with the women who encourage this nonsense from the super liberal legislator to the mom who thinks it's "cute" when her 5 year old daughter cusses. This is against progressives and neanderthals alike who have set up these unintended consequences, who feel without reason, who rage without cause, who demand without thought. This is against society and what we all, you and I, tolerate. This is against everyone, male and female, who fail to SEE, who fail to THINK. who fail to TEACH.

Everyone is a Gift but Not Everyone Is Gifted

Soon we will be leaving the term gifted in the garbage bin where it belongs.  However, before we do that, we have to tidy up some paperwork, if you will, regarding the oft heard arguments and discussions regarding highly abled people, including our favorite:  "Everyone is a Gift".

Yes.  There is no arguing that.  Everyone is a gift.  Everyone was created by God and has human worth.  The most incredible athlete in existence is not worth a brass farthing more than a crippled elderly person or a sick child or a "regular Joe".

Everyone is a gift.

However, NOT everyone is gifted.  Not everyone is highly able.  Not everyone needs to be. 

This takes thinking outside of the normal, societal "More=better" paradigm, so stick with me here...

We each, every one of us, have a specific purpose in life.  We have a specific role we are supposed to play in the Lord's universe.  Every person was given their own measure and number of abilities (and, consequently has their own weaknesses as well) that they would need to fulfill their own specific role.

Take Bob and Joe.  They both sing.

Bob has the voice of warm wood and honey--smooth, strong, rich.  On a measuring scale of singing, he has a 10 out of 10.  He also is a bit of a ham, a performer, and is incredibly gregarious--audiences love him and leave his concerts bubbling with laughter and energy.  He was raised in an urban area, born into a musical family, so his path was natural and right for his talents and abilities.  He quickly rises to the top of his music genre and his performances sell out. 

Joe has a nice, steady, pleasant voice.  He is always on key but perhaps does not have that extra kick of "something" that Bob has in his voice.  However, Joe also plays the guitar.  Joe is an introvert, an artistic guy.  His quiet demeanor is calming to those around him.  He was raised in a smaller town and is self taught, which brings that "down home", organic feel to his music. His life is not flashy, he works as a radiology tech at the local clinic, but that gives him much time to write original music.  He takes his voice, his music, his guitar, and his quiet disposition to retirement homes and hospital wards and soothes and delights the sick and the weary.  He is not high energy, which is perfect for his weaker audiences.  He will never make a million dollars singing for sick kids, but that is ok.  He will not die in obscurity because the Lord sees his work, just as the Lord does not look at Bob's bank account (which is admittedly hefty) but rather looks at Bob's heart and intent and what Bob has done with his fame and money.  Both men can do excellent work in the Lord or blow it completely--their choice.

Two men, both singers, but each was given a specific set of talents, circumstances, opportunities to glorify the Lord in specific ways--one with a loud, booming voice that reaches and energises millions, one with a much smaller, but much deeper role--giving comfort and being approachable and accessible.  He has the time to talk one on one with all of his fans, telling his story of redemption.  Bob cannot access all his fans, but his story is published in music magazines and that is how he spreads his story of redemption.

The key is not to try to have "the most" of one talent, but rather use to the fullest all the talents and abilities given.  It is still all about glorifying the Lord and doing the tasks that He set for us to do before the creation of the world.

Now, what this means is that not everyone is gifted.  Those who do not have a genius IQ do not need a genius IQ for the tasks the Lord has given them.  They are not "less than".

Those of us who do have a genius IQ, or are particularly highly abled, need their abilities for the tasks the Lord has for them.  The man who was given five talents to earn five more talents was not any more highly praised than the man who was given two talents to earn two more talents.  They both were given exactly what they needed to do with exactly what the Lord wanted them to do and were praised the exact same way as "good and faithful servants". (Matthew 25:14-30)

The abilities and lacks that I have are perfect for the role I am to play in the universe.  I can't sing, for example.  I am probably a 4 out of 10 on the singing scale--enough to warble in church without hurting anyone's ears (usually) but that's about it.  That is not a problem because I was never meant to be a singer. I wish I could sing.  I love to sing.But that is not the role the Lord has for me. 


Everyone is a gift, but not everyone is an Outlier.

Those with genius IQ's or who are highly talented do have specific needs and requirements to reach their full potential.  We, as a society, would not deny an opera singer training.  We would not deny a carpenter wood.  We would not deny a child with weak limbs braces for them.  We would not deny an Olympic-level gymnast a coach and floormats. The Outlier child needs specific tools to work to capacity.

So when we hear "Everyone is gifted" we say no.  Not to be jerks, but because the fact is that not everyone has the same needs for the roles that they are to play in their lives.  It dilutes the purpose and joy for every person to insist that they are all highly intelligent or incredible singers or wickedly fast sprinters.  The kid who is not an Outlier will soon be wearied if his parents push him into "gifted" programs, especially since the child was meant by God to, say, be an artist or a competitive swimmer or tinker in the garage as an an inventor. 

Bob's dad might have wanted him to pitch for the Yankees, but that was not where his talent was.  Joe's friends might have wanted him to audition for the lead in a musical, but that is not where his personality was.  We each must look at our basket of talents and abilities, shortcomings and weaknesses**, and the opportunities around us to do the most good with what we have, praying to the Lord that we see the opportunities He has for us then diving into them with excellence to the best of our abilities and being content with that.

**Not to bog down in the weeds, but this does not mean that we do not try new things or step out into nerve wracking situations.  Joe would have had to get the gumption up to play in public as an introvert and might feel weary after.  Bob might have to remember the spotlight is not always on him and need to let other people have their moments.  I discovered in my 30's that I have an uncanny ability in archery and spent the next few years teaching, competing, and working in an archery range.  So we must not stagnate, and I still want to take singing lessons, but the point is that we need to do what we can with everything we have for the glory of God.

Science Is Infected

We recently posted about Dr. Durrant, a man who just discovered that one fundamental understanding in chemistry is wrong.

Now, it was no one's "fault" that Lewis was incorrect back in 1916.  He simply did not have all the available information. 

Here is the thing:  Science is simply what we can observe with the tools at hand.  It is foolishness to portray any scientific fact as immutable or inviolate. 

We are still children putting together a giant puzzle.  We do not know how large the puzzle is, nor the subject matter.  We think pieces fit, but they might not.  We will continue to learn and continue to discover complexity and forces and influences that we cannot imagine now.

This is a problem with today's science--it has ceased to be about discovery and is now more about assertion and "rightness".  It has stopped being exploration and has become flag planting and politics.  It was a virgin pursuit tainted by the stain of money and politics.

Consider early explorers looking for trade routes and spice islands.  That is fabulous.  Then consider the early explorers who ceased to look to increase trade (in this case knowledge) and began to take over those islands to deny passage to others, to control the trade (money and politics).  Throw "publish or perish" into the mix and you have a recipe for scientific disaster. 

Does anyone remember the "eat chocolate to lose weight" debacle?  It was a "scientific study" published in "peer reviewed journals" (it really was published in journals it had no business being in).  A couple of years later, the instigator of the fraud announced how false it was and showed how science is being manipulated.

Now, of course, the MSM got a hold of chocolate as a panacea for pudge, but recently, another paper demonstrated that many psychological experiments with "significant results" are actually bunk and unable to be repeated. 

Remember, the greatest minds in the world, true Outliers as smart as we are, used to believe that the world was flat.  They were not stupid men.  Their IQ was as high as any now.  However, they did not have the tools or the perspective to understand.

We must, in science, maintain that humility, that childlike wonder coupled with a thinking man's self doubt and the honesty of an old nun, so that we do not build our castles of knowledge on sand.

Outlier, Not Gifted

There is perhaps no larger stumbling block to the highly intelligent/highly talented community than the term "gifted".  It is the bane of our existence.  It creates an instant defence in those who were never selected for Gifted and Talented classes.  It makes it impossible for us to describe who we are without sounding like self absorbed jerks.  It makes it impossible for mothers who have children with high IQ's to reach out to other mothers without causing instant jealousy.

It also can cause the person who is gifted to consider themselves superior or that they have no need to work or put forth effort.  It can create an identity of entitlement or can isolate a child so completely that their youth is spent hiding who they are whilst they fight off bullies.

It prevents the highly abled from getting the assistance they need.  It is very easy to generate sympathy from other parents for the child who is not a 'rival' their own, due to disease or injury.  Only the most callous man does not have some place in his heart for a child who struggles to read or walk.

However, try getting education funding for "gifted kids" and suddenly it is as if you are trying to take away Little Timmy's last crutch.  "Why do 'gifted kids' need educational support if they are so 'gifted'?" people ask with a tinge of jealousy. 

Teachers too can feel anger or hostility toward the "gifted troublemaker" kid who outscores their own child.

When parents are overwhelmed by their 3 year old who has given up sleep for Lent and is trying to build his own nuclear reactor in the basement, they too can feel resentment at the "gifted" label "If this is a gift, can I give it back?" is a refrain spoken by more than one frazzled parent or lonely teen.

Most of this could be eliminated by the simple act of changing the term from the emotionally charged "gifted" to the more accurate "outlier".  Outlier is accurate.  It is a place on a bell curve.  It makes no judgement about whether that place is good or bad, it just states a location on a map, so to speak.

It also illustrates poignantly the feelings of isolation that a highly intelligent person can feel.  "I look at the chart of myself and my peers and there are no dots around me" an Outlier might observe.

Words have weight and meaning and subtext that creates ripples of effect throughout entire lives, so here we use the term Outlier and encourage you to do so as well, as you see fit.