Yesterday, Barack Obama and Melinda Gates visited TechBoston Academy, a public school founded with Gates Foundation money:
“You guys are a pretty impressive bunch,” Mr. Obama said to a science class of juniors and seniors, quizzing them on where they were applying to college and what they wanted to do after that.
Mr. Obama had some fun at Mr. Gates’s expense, noting that both of them had attended school in Boston — he at Harvard Law School, Mr. Gates at Harvard College. But Mr. Gates, he said, “couldn’t hack it in school here, so he dropped out. Then he started a modestly successful computer company.”
When nobody laughed, Mr. Obama said, “That was a joke, guys,” adding that he had actually started a big computer company.
Reminds me of a story a high school teacher emailed me in 2008:
Student Named Yesenia: ""Mr. X, Mr. X! I have a question."Teacher: "Yes, what is it?"Yesenia: "Who is Son of Aladdin? Why are they always looking for him in a cave?"Teacher: "Huh?"Yesenia: "What's so bad about Son of Aladdin? Why are they trying to catch him?Teacher: "Oh, you mean … Osama bin Laden?"Yesenia: "Yeah, Son of Aladdin."Teacher: "He's a terrorist."Yesenia: "Oh."Teacher [trying to make this into a Teachable Moment]: "But don't confuse Osama with Obama."Yesenia: "Who's that?"Teacher: "Barack Obama. He's running for President. The African-American candidate."Yesenia:Teacher: "You know, the black guy?"Yesenia [Eyes widening]: "He's black?"Teacher: "Yes."Yesenia: "And he's running for President?"Teacher: "Yes."Yesenia: [With wide-eyed alarm:] "That's bad."
are fundamentalist societies which discourage young men from ravaging young women actually rigged into quiet harems like polygamist sects?
ReplyDeletePoor Barry and his hurt feelings.
ReplyDelete“We have such a shortage of engineers now,” he said to a young man who said he wanted to study engineering. Gesturing to the boy’s friends, he said, “We need architects and pharmacists, too.”
ReplyDeleteAfter his visit, Mr. Obama met with several staff level engineers from Northrop Grumman.
Mr. Obama said, “That was a joke, guys. . . ”
ReplyDeleteThe president is used to lackeys laughing appreciatively at his lame jokes so get with the program, kids.
This reminds me of when he was on the Daily Show and said Larry Summers did a heckuva job, and then got rattled when the audience laughed and tried to save himself with a nonsenical non-sequitor ("Pun intended!")
The One wants to be laughed at when he wants to be laughed at, and not when he doesn't want to be laughed at. Understood?
"Mr. Obama had some fun at Mr. Gates’s expense, noting that both of them had attended school in Boston — he at Harvard Law School, Mr. Gates at Harvard College. But Mr. Gates, he said, 'couldn’t hack it in school here, so he dropped out. Then he started a modestly successful computer company.'
ReplyDeleteWhen nobody laughed, Mr. Obama said, 'That was a joke, guys,' adding that he had actually started a big computer company."
Apparently they're a pretty serious bunch at Moor Science High.
Well, their MCAS biology results are terrible, but their reading schools are good for an almost 90% NAM school and their math scores are above the state average, which is pretty impressive.
ReplyDeleteUnlike the story from a few days ago, some of these non-laughers should be college material.
It's all so innocuous, and you folks make a big deal of it.
ReplyDeleteYou come off as petty haters, all of you, by the way.
Come on, that was a pretty good, droll joke on Obama's part. So were those students too serious and studios to appreciate the humor, or just too dumb to know who Bill Gates was?
ReplyDeleteI laughed.
ReplyDeleteBill Gates retired a while back, so maybe the youth just don't know who he is.
Seems like Obama is trying to ingratiate himself with big-bucks Gates, probably hoping for a big payout one day, possibly after he leaves office. Now is the time to put the schmooze on. Gates seems to have gone off the deep end in recent years, spending money chasing unattainable fantasies. He now seems like a rich crackpot. A very rich crackpot. And Obama has his radar up for his next great opportunity.
ReplyDeleteActually, this raises an interesting question I've sometimes wondered about: how many young people in America have ever heard of Bill Gates?...
ReplyDeleteRemember, he stopped running Microsoft almost a decade ago, and the company itself has been vastly overshadowed by newer web-oriented tech firms such as Google and Facebook and Twitter, not to mention a resurgent Apple. I'd think there's a good chance that all those teenagers would know the gossip about Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs, but to them, M-S is probably just that big old boring corporation that makes boring office-type software that their parents are always complaining about. After all, would we expect any high school students to know the name of IBM's CEO, or rather its CEO from the 1990s? And I doubt the name Thomas Watson would ring much of a bell, except perhaps as a golfer or a Southern populist politician.
In some ways it's a bit strange. For decades, Bill Gates was a towering figure in world technology, probably one of the most famous individuals on the planet. But as Windows gradually sinks into oblivion, I think there's a perfectly reasonable chance in another couple of decades he'll be regarded as someone who left few footprints in the world, certainly nothing to compare with Ford or Toyoda or Morgan or Rockefeller, whose names are still identified with automobiles or finance a century or more later.
On the other hand, I suppose it's always possible that all the countless billions he's been spending on education really will successfully eliminate "the mysterious performance gap", providing with with a gigantic personal legacy---ha, ha, ha...
Bill Gates, is desperate to keep his wife from being a pool-boy chasing cougar, divorced and living the life of Arianna Huffington. Given that Gates has the sexual charisma and machismo of ... a cold bowl of oatmeal (Gates is very definitely a Beta Male, writ large, as far as turning women on) this is understandable and he's desperate to be a big shot. He doesn't want his wife turning into Laurie David. [If not a pool boy, then a contractor.]
ReplyDeleteIt is not as if Gates had anything going for him but his money, after all. He doesn't even exercise power and fame like Donald Trump or something. And yes, to women this matters, a lot.
"We have such a shortage of engineers now," he said to a young man who said he wanted to study engineering. Gesturing to the boy's friends, he said, "We need architects and pharmacists, too."
ReplyDeleteAll of America's demographic chickens - which the likes of Spengler and Mark Steyn and Charles Murray and Steve Sailer have been screaming about at the top of their lungs - are coming home to roost:
February Diary
Predicting the economy, learning Turkish, evaluating rudeness, and more.
By John Derbyshire
March 8, 2011 4:00 A.M.
nationalreview.com
How bad will it get? That’s the question hovering in the air. Back of that is the deeper question: Is this recession of the past three years just like other recessions that we eventually pull out of and recover from, or is it some new thing?
...My guess at this point: real bad, very bad indeed. Heads between knees, brace for impact.
Jobs returning - but good ones not so much
By Zachary Roth
Wed Mar 9, 12:10 pm ET
news.yahoo.com
When it comes to jobs, it's not just quantity that matters--it's also quality. It's great news that the economy is finally producing jobs again--even if it'll take another few years of this kind of growth to get us back to where we were before the Great Recession. But that also means it's now time to ask what kind of jobs are being created. And on that front, things are a lot less encouraging.
Several recent studies suggest that the new jobs pay less and offer fewer work hours than the ones they have replaced. Let's look at the numbers:
• Lower-wage industries -- things like retail and food preparation -- accounted for 23 percent of the jobs lost during the recession, but 49 percent of the jobs gained over the last year, a recent study (pdf) by the National Employment Law Program found. Higher-wage industries, by contrast, accounted for 40 percent of the jobs lost, but just 14 percent of the jobs gained. In other words, low paying jobs are increasing as a percentage of total jobs, while high-paying jobs are on the decline.
• Meanwhile, the percentage of those working who have part-time jobs and want full-time ones surged in mid-February to 19.6 percent -- almost as high as it was a year ago before the recovery began, according to Gallup numbers. That suggests, of course, that a large number of the new jobs created over the last year are part-time.
• And a recent Wall Street Journal analysis found that even though productivity rose 5.2 percent from mid 2009 to the end of 2010, wages increased by just 0.3 percent. That means only 6 percent of productivity gains were shared with workers. In past recoveries, that figure has averaged 58 percent. This time around, far more of the gains went to shareholders, in the form of profits, which are at record levels.
There are no easy answers for how to fix the problem...
"It's all so innocuous, and you folks make a big deal of it.
ReplyDeleteYou come off as petty haters, all of you, by the way."
You got way off course somewhere along the line. Here, let me help you get back on track:
National Public Radio
"It's all so innocuous, and you folks make a big deal of it.
ReplyDeleteYou come off as petty haters, all of you, by the way."
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Boy, you sure told us off! Snort.
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As to Gates, one wonders how things would be now, tech-wise, if he had remained in charge at Microsoft. Microsoft under Gates was never elegant like Apple nor clever like Google, but it knew how to simply grind down the opposition with relentless iteration after iteration until it was "good enough" to become the de facto standard.
Gates could at least step in at crucial moments to redirect the efforts of the Microsoft behemoth on to the necessary path (as he did when he recognized the threat of Netscape); this hasn't happened since he left and it shows.
Currently, for example, Microsoft is still trying to squeeze a full sized desktop PC Windows OS into the tablet form factor, while Apple and Android and HP webOS and everyone else is going the logical route, with a stripped down OS tailored to touchscreens and mobile use. But Microsoft can't do this (ie, turn Windows Phone 7 into a tablet OS) because of internal corporate politics. The same internal corporate politics which prevented Microsoft from competing effectively with Google, Apple, Facebook, etc on just about any new market of the past ten years you could care to name.
“We have such a shortage of engineers now,” he said to a young man who said he wanted to study engineering.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, kid. We've already dealt with that imaginary "shortage" by importing hundreds of thousands of cheap foreign engineers to compete for your job. That's what H1-B is all about, after all. Remember that when you ask for a raise.
Bill Gates is certainly not a beta.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Roissy gets a lot right, there is a fundamental lack of sophistication to his understanding of alphaness.
Put Bill Gates in a room with a collection of traditionally "brutish" alpha males and return a few hours later, you might be surprised who is dominating the room.
Whiskey, what would you know about women? Gates is most definitely not a beta male. He dominates intellectually ( and no, mumbling about music theory when a good song comes on or having a larger vocabulary because no one wanted to play with you, forcing you to read more than interact, isn't comparable.) Gates is also a creator, and he had enough balls to drop out of college to start a business. I bet he's had the courage to talk to the girls he liked, get rejected, go at at it again, ect.; like most socially healthy human beings. Beta maledom resides in the lack of balls and the lack of maturity.
ReplyDeleteThrowing power and fame around matters to only a certain type of women; sort of like wearing a 5 inch skirt and heavy make up matter to a certain type of men. The men of higher quality already know a woman when they see one, don't need her to comically exaggerate her feminine features. Similarly, women of higher quality don't need a man to turn his power into mass entertainment to feel that he has it. Like most people who aren't... very socially gifted, you are confusing awkwardness with quiet demeanor and being a jerk with confidence.
So the wealthiest man in the world is a "Beta", with a capital "B" even.
ReplyDeleteOK, now I'm confused.
Whiskey, wtf are you talking about?
ReplyDeleteMelinda Gates wouldn't be able to get a pool boy if even she paid him. Though I doubt she would want one.
Just look at her:
http://ikeygen.com/melinda-gates-we-dont-have-apple-products
Does that face strike you of someone who is looking to get some action on side?
Whiskey, come on dude.
ReplyDelete"In some ways it's a bit strange. For decades, Bill Gates was a towering figure in world technology, probably one of the most famous individuals on the planet. But as Windows gradually sinks into oblivion, I think there's a perfectly reasonable chance in another couple of decades he'll be regarded as someone who left few footprints in the world, certainly nothing to compare with Ford or Toyoda or Morgan or Rockefeller, whose names are still identified with automobiles or finance a century or more later."
ReplyDeleteGates pretty much invented the business of software. Hippies and hobbyists used to write it and hand it out free in the '70s, and Gates turned it into an industry. He'll be remembered for that.
Bill Gates, is desperate to keep his wife from being a pool-boy chasing cougar, divorced and living the life of Arianna Huffington.
ReplyDeleteI think it's much more likely that he's trying to soften his reputation as a scumbag monopolist and anti-social nerd.
I dunno Whiskers; Bill and Melinda look like a matched pair.
ReplyDeleteIt's not like Bill made the mistake of marrying his pretty secretary; I mean, look at her:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melinda_Gates
Her wiki says her father was an engineer and she was a product manager at Microsoft. This sounds like a geek marriage to me. Plus they have their foundation to manage together. I don't think Bill really has to worry about the sorts of things that worry you, Whisk, when it comes to women.
It's the athletic gogetter alpha male types who make the mistake of marrying younger, high maintenance females. Geeks (and Bill Gates is only an alpha within the geek context) don't actually have a problem with their spouses getting older because they were never focused on the physical body or looks in the first place.
I would guess Melinda Gates is of a similar type to Bill Gates in that regard. I don't know her but I wouldn't figure her to be a potential cougar.
Tune in again for Steve Sailer's next presentation of Jay Leno's depressing 'Jaywalking' feature!
ReplyDeleteWhiskey said, ...(Gates is very definitely a Beta Male, writ large, as far as turning women on)...
ReplyDeleteGates is not a beta. You need to read up on the definitions. Gates is more likely a delta or gamma.
"He doesn't want his wife turning into Laurie David. [If not a pool boy, then a contractor.]"
ReplyDeleteWomen!
Is this why Whiskey drinks? ;o)
"It's all so innocuous, and you folks make a big deal of it.
ReplyDeleteYou come off as petty haters, all of you, by the way."
Don't worry, we're not making funny of your precious president Jugears Mcfuckstick Carter II, you schmuck. You'll have to go to some other thread to chide us for our hate-thought.
We're simply flabbergasted that the students don't seem to know you Bill Gates is. Although if I had been there, I wouldn't have laughed either, because the joke wasn't even worth a chuckle. So maybe there is an alternate explanation.
"Whiskey said, ...(Gates is very definitely a Beta Male, writ large, as far as turning women on)...
ReplyDeleteGates is not a beta. You need to read up on the definitions. Gates is more likely a delta or gamma."
Jesus, why don't you guys just say that he's a total dork instead of parsing everything as alpha/beta. I get a kick out of Roissy too, but why state the obvious and in such ackward terms?
Even if the president tells a crummy joke, I would've probably attempted a chuckle if I was aware that it was a joke. I know you guys hate OBAMA (and I hated Bush) but he's still THE POTUS.
ReplyDeleteIs it still too wintery to play golf? He would've had more fun playing golf. And it would have made about as much difference.
ReplyDeleteIrony and understatement are English traits associated with rich people.
ReplyDeletehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3433375.stm
Obama has morphed from the first hip-hop president to a WASPish country club member.
------------------
And yes, Bill Gates is beta. Alpha is your physical size, your facial looks and how you act.
Gates and Zuckerberg are now basically the same guy, or Zuckerberg is where Gates was 20-30 years ago.
If you saw Zuckerberg at a cafe in Iowa, you'd assume he was Napoleon Dynamite. If you saw John Elway or Brad Pitt at a cafe in Iowa, you'd assume he was alpha.
Being beta is not bad, but earning money (especially with computers) has nothing to do with attracting women...and that's the problem.
"Even if the president tells a crummy joke, I would've probably attempted a chuckle if I was aware that it was a joke. I know you guys hate OBAMA (and I hated Bush) but he's still THE POTUS."
ReplyDeleteWhat is there to like about Obama?
And again, you're thick as a brick. No one is making fun of your worthless president for telling a bad joke. That's not the point of Steve's post.
I'd tap Mrs. Gates!
ReplyDeleteI'd tap Mrs. Gates!
ReplyDeleteYeah, after glancing at those pics of her, I was left with the distinct impression that she's got a little bit of that upper-crust je-ne-sais-quois naughtiness in her which really comes alive after a couple of glasses of wine.
Think of the grocery store produce aisle cucumber scene in Animal House...
[Er - come to think of it - maybe that was Whiskey's point?!?]
Whiskey thinks Gates is a Beta?
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't tell us much about Gates but it does help illuminate this Beta concept that dominates Whiskey's thinking.
Alpha and Beta derive from ethology. In baboon society for example there will be a pack leader who will monopolize the resources, physically abuse, and assert priority in order to earn access to a harem. The alpha is likely to be the most physically impressive specimen and unlikely to have any obvious defects.
You can certainly see a lot of human sexual behavior when you look at chimps, bonobos, gorillas, and orangs. But each species is also quite unique. Bonobos are sweet, female led and over sexed, gorillas have harems, orangs have rape, and chimps have war, murder, and treachery. So to say that we are like our furry cousins leads to the natural question; which ones?
Gates got 1590 on his SAT. I didn't do as well and of course neither did Obama. I forgot my score but Obama no doubt remembers his - whatever it may have been. I'm pretty sure if I had scored better than Gates (a perfect 1600) I would have remembered.
Gates' biography in Wikipedia also attests to his outstanding academic record and intellectual accomplishments. Obama also went to a Harvard but he had a completely hidden school record after Occidental.
In the spirit of yesterday''s topic - Gates shone on objective tests while Obama survived on essay questions.
So was Gates an alpha or a beta?
Gates was certainly competitive. He killed Gary Kildall after all. He was alpha in the manner of chimps - he was a very nasty competitor. Obama is more like a Gorilla - a kind of passive top male who competed once and now effortlessly enjoys his position.
BTW Chimps are smarter than Gorillas.
Albertosaurus
It's all so innocuous, and you folks make a big deal of it.
ReplyDeleteYou come off as petty haters, all of you, by the way.
Whats that whining sound?
Do my brakes need checking?
"But as Windows gradually sinks into oblivion,"
ReplyDeletehonestly the commenters on this website make for the most ridiculous contrast of great posts/dumb comments I've seen anywhere on the Internet...not that an anecdote about the humor-stifling atmosphere around Barry is a great post, but Steve really deserves a better class of commenter...nerdisms like this remind me that a large percentage of HBD types seldom experience reality
"So the wealthiest man in the world is a 'Beta', with a capital 'B' even.
ReplyDeleteOK, now I'm confused."
So am I. Never mind. It's just the Whiskey talking.
Have a Pez and forget about it.
Although that was one of the weirder currents in the Whiskey River we've all come to know. I just can't see Bill Gates "desperate" to prevent his wife from cougarish behavior any more than I can see her having a "Cabana Chat" with her girl friends. They both seem supremely sexless to me but who knows?
"Jugears Mcfuckstick Carter II"
ReplyDeleteoh my,
well, moving on: perhaps Gates should sink a few million into an enterprise which could utilize the talents of these young worthies.
let' see, something cutting edge, perhaps
"Biplane Aero"
Wow, that's the first pic I ever saw of Melinda Gates. She looks like she she'd be commissioner of the Women's Bowling Tour.
ReplyDeleteDuring that famous double interview with Jobs a few years back BG held his own. How? He used subtle irony to cut Jobs down to size several times. I specifically remember that happening when those "I'm a Mac and I'm a PC" ads came up. At another time he said something like "Steve, though not an engineer,..." And he never sounded angry or bothered by anything, so the irony wasn't forced.
ReplyDeleteSupersmart people tend to sound ironic 24/7. They're mildly amused by the games ordinary earthlings play. Gates exhuded that sort of a vibe during that interview, so on appearances he came out about even.
Anon, I think you'd better take another look at Animal House. Dean Wormer's wife was much far more feminine looking than Melinda Gates despite being older, wine or no wine.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lesson in this tragic story, hopefully Sweetie's murder will not be in vain:
ReplyDeleteYesterday, a Brooklyn teenager was arrested and accused of killing her nine-year-old brothers' pet hamster. Today, more details have emerged about the incident, revealing the messy backdrop that led to a hamster getting a necropsy.
Monique Smith, 19, allegedly killed her little brother's hamster in an apparent revenge scheme involving at least one other dead hamster. Smith, who has a two-month-old child, lives with 10 of her 12 siblings on Putnam Avenue in Bushwick; according to City Room, her mother, Theresa Smith, the troubles started after she bought a hamster, Princess Stephanie, for the nine-year-old, Brandon. The eldest sibling, who is 25, deliberately killed that hamster for unclear reasons—he felt very remorseful, and bought his brother three new hamsters to make up for it.
Somehow, this act angered Monique Smith in turn. Theresa Smith noted that anger issues and violence run through their large family, eerily telling the Times, “Thirty-two years ago,” she said, “my brother strangled my sister to death.” The Post says she was trying to get back at her 12-year-old brother, Aaron, but the City Room implies it was an act of jealousy which led to her attacking the hamster. Either way, she picked up the biggest of the three hamsters, Sweetie, “took it out of the cage, and she slammed it on the floor,” killing it on impact.
OT but perhaps colleges should have barred Peace Corps recruiters instead of military ones.
ReplyDeletePeace Corps Gang Rape: Volunteer Says U.S. Agency Ignored Warnings
ABC News Investigation Finds More Than 1,000 Rapes, Sexual Assaults Since 2000
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/peace-corps-gang-rape-volunteer-jess-smochek-us/story?id=12599341
SPImmortal:
ReplyDeleteWhat is there to like about Obama?
Well, he is young, and from a generation that gives him even more disadvantage than his skin color.
Can anyone add anything?
***But Mr. Gates, he said, “couldn’t hack it in school here, so he dropped out. Then he started a modestly successful computer company.”***
ReplyDeleteHeh, I agree with the commentator above who noted this was a pretty good, droll joke on Obama's part. Unfortunately, it went over the head of the young audience. Ten years ago it probably would have been better received.
Barack Obama the elite black guy and Melinda Gates the elite white woman. How will racial dynamic play out in the long run?
ReplyDeleteWill white elites or white underclass achieve mulatto-ism first? White elites tend to be more educated, thereby more indoctrinated by interracist PC. Thus, they are more open to figures like Obama and to race mixing. In contrast, the white underclass tends to be more tribal and primal, thereby more hostile to outsiders, such as blacks. On the other hand, white liberals live in a privileged world of their own with relatively few blacks. And because of their elevated tastes in classical music, art scene, and foreign film, they tend to be culturally and socially separated from most blacks who don't care about that 'shit'. In contrast, the white underclass, though more 'bigoted' and tribal, get their culture from TV, pop music, porn, and other forms of low culture. Low culture today is dominated by blacks, which means one has to act black or interact with blacks in order to be cool. So, white underclass men are more likely to imitate gangsta rappers(since it's the only culture they know) and white underclass women are more likely to model their sexual behavior on hip hop and interracist porn.
So, all in all, white liberal overclass doesn't mingle much with blacks but embraces interracism as an intellectual and moral ideal, whereas white underclass remains fearful and anxious about blacks but is more likely to act like rappers and have sex with black men. What a strange world we are living in.
The joke obviously wasn't funny. I would bet that it was delivered poorly, too.
ReplyDeleteHere's the only shot I could find that reveals some of Melinda's gams. Pretty good in a suburban-tennis-club kind of way. And I agree with the anon above, couple of glasses of wine and I bet she'd be quite playful. She's also reproduced herself, which is really great.
ReplyDeleteWhiskey's a bit too enamored of this alpha-beta stuff. Gates is a low-T guy who snagged a fellow nerdette and bowed out of the competition. It's a lot less bothersome than all the headaches your ex-ballet/supermodel princess will cost you. Just toss a few billion at Melinda and let her tour Africa instead.
"And again, you're thick as a brick. No one is making fun of your worthless president for telling a bad joke. That's not the point of Steve's post."
ReplyDeleteRead my post again dingus, I said that if the kids were aware of it being a joke, they would've laughed. That underlines the idea that they didn't know what Gates did to get so famous.
Obama on bullying and being bullyied
ReplyDeleteWho admits (publicly) to being bullied???
What government needs to have a conference on school bullying???
Geez.
The school was founded with money from Bill Gates yet the students didn't know who he was even with his wife standing in front of them? And they're supposed to be an "impressive bunch"? Whoowee, yeah, the future geniuses even failed to laugh at some lame joke which they probably found puzzling rather than funny. Obama should have referenced some rapper in his joke, that might have gotten a response.
ReplyDeleteI don't get the "Pez" thing. Is that some Midwestern, black stereotype I'm not aware of?
ReplyDeleteWhat government needs to have a conference on school bullying???
ReplyDeleteA government which protects it with "zero tolerance" anti-violence programs, which punish only the victims of bullying.
A topic of interest to Steve:
ReplyDelete>>Speaking as a parent and as a victim, Obama urged everyone to help end bullying by working to create an atmosphere at school where children feel safe and feel like they belong. He said that even he felt out of place growing up.
"I have to say, with big ears and the name that I have, I wasn't immune," said Obama, who moved around a lot as a boy, being born in Hawaii and growing up there and in Indonesia. "I didn't emerge unscathed," he said.>>
Steve has mentioned that the only time Obama was known to have been subject to bullying was when he was in Indonesia, and that was probably for his race, not his name. The president never specifies that as he prefers to imply that racist whites bullied him. It works better in the narrative.
The Students were unimpressed with Bill Gates. Why? Because Bill Gates is a beta male. He lacks the charisma, social dominance, and "owning a room" that make women hot. That's all it is. Bill Walsh, Gen. Petraeus, Dwight Eisenhower, were all that way too. That's the style of most leaders in male environments. Look at Warren Buffett.
ReplyDeleteBut we don't live in a world where that matters -- it's a feminized, celebrity, charisma driven world. One where EVERY kid knows who Charlie Sheen is but none knows Bill Gates, and he funded their school! As for Melinda, she's a woman. She's rich. I doubt Gates had her sign a pre-nup. He better keep her happy or she walks out with half his money. I'm sure she'd like a pool boy. She's a woman, even ugly women like sex. That doesn't change.
As for Windows, the shift to phones/tablets for 24/7 streaming and the like, which is ongoing, is a huge threat to MS. They're not competitive because to win in that segment you MUST write an OS for low power consumption. It's not a desktop or even a laptop -- it's a low powered battery mini-computer. Something MS is simply terrible at.
Windows Mobile sucks ass, because the OS is not tuned like iOS, Android, etc. for low power ARM chips and the like. Who wants a phone that dies after two hours, out of juice?
Got a good laugh at the Whiskey comment:Melinda's turgid vagina,aching for some muscular Honduran stud.
ReplyDeleteWhiskey, the idea that Gates is "beta" is absurd. You don't think he "commands a room"? What, are other people going to talk over the multi-billionaire while he's trying to get a word in? You don't think women see other men kowtowing to him and jumping at his beck and call? You don't think there are countless women throwing themselves at him?
ReplyDeleteYou describe Brad Pitt as alpha. He performs that role in films, but in real life he looks p-whipped. Have you heard him interviewed? There's nothing dynamic or assertive about him. Other actors may have that quality, but not Pitt. He gets chicks because he's a movie star, not because he's alpha.
You really think that a 47-year-old woman like Melinda Gates is yearning for an affair with a hot young pool boy? The thought of the look in his eyes as he sees her naked would be enough to nip fantasy in the bud. This yearning for the super-young sex partner is a guy fantasy, not a middle-aged woman fantasy.
The most attractive woman in our social circle, still hot in her mid-forties, divorced her very handsome, athletic husband and married a successful, dweebie accountant. The handsome guy had a blue collar job and she'd reached the point where she had had enough of financial constraints and decided to go for material comfort while she was still attractive enough to earn it. At a certain point security is a bigger deal for women than an exciting sex life.
That's my observation, anyway.
I have a feeling that Whiskey's alpha bad-ass attitude would fade to babbling reverence if he met Bill Gates face to face.
ReplyDelete"Whiskey, the idea that Gates is 'beta' is absurd."
ReplyDeleteGates is a alpha among geeks. In a football locker room, he would be a beta. But then, a big dumb athletic lug would be a beta in a room full of lawyers.
"Bill Gates, is desperate to keep his wife from being a pool-boy chasing cougar, divorced and living the life of Arianna Huffington."
ReplyDeleteIt is pretty rare for wives of very rich men to seek divorce absent abuse of some sort.
Just look at your example: AH didn't seek a divorce, rather her husband Michael Huffington was gay and decided to come out of the closet.
"Because Bill Gates is a beta male. He lacks the charisma, social dominance, and 'owning a room' that make women hot. That's all it is. Bill Walsh, Gen. Petraeus, Dwight Eisenhower, were all that way too. That's the style of most leaders in male environments. Look at Warren Buffett."
ReplyDeleteThere is something to this. Gates would have been a classic beta in highschool. He would not have been the most popular kid. He might have been top do among computer geeks, but geeks are not the most popular kids in school. And they sometimes get pushed around by jocks and 'greaser' types.
But there are three kinds of betas. Dumb betas, unambitious betas, and smart ambitious betas. The last kind want the money and power but they know they don't have the naturally cool qualities to win people over. So, they use their brains to out-think and outmanuever other people. If it weren't for his brains, Gates wouldn't have attracted a following, but he had brains and ideas. He had the winning formula, so other geeks gravitated toward him. And so they created a supergeek company. I think a lot of Jews are like this. They seek the Shylock-Alberich(Nibelungen)path to power. Physical betas, mental alphas.
Often betas in highschool where they got beat up by big dumb polacks but filled with ambition and resentment to get to the top in a brainy manner. Ace Rothstein in CASINO is a beta among the Italian hoods. He knows the Italians are brutal and have killer instinct and shouldn't be messed with. But in the world of business and gaming, he knows he's got the geeky goods that others don't have. And he's the alpha when managing the 'dumb white people' hired by the Casino. He even fires one of the really dumb ones.
In the movie SIXTEEN CANDLES, Anthony Michael Hall plays some geek, but after highschool, he's probably likely to make more money cuz society favors people with brain power than people with muscle power. How many highschool jocks become successful athletes? Not many. Yet, many geeks get hired by companies like Google and Microsoft.
Ayn Rand got it wrong. The super-individual of capitalism looks more like Zuckerberg than Cooper.
"I don't get the 'Pez' thing. Is that some Midwestern, black stereotype I'm not aware of?"
ReplyDeleteI'm crushed. You misunderstand me completely.
No, the Pez thing is not Midwestern, black or stereotype thing. It's just a friendly Kylie thing, like offering someone a stick of gum.
I was going to say if you're ever in my area, you could come to my house for English muffin pizzas but I'd better not. Heaven only knows what stereotypes you'd ascribe to my menu.
Sometimes I think Whiskey is a zookeeper and get all his thinking about humans from comparisons to the monkey cage.
ReplyDelete"I have a feeling that Whiskey's alpha bad-ass attitude would fade to babbling reverence if he met Bill Gates face to face."
ReplyDeleteThis alpha-beta things gets ever more complicated. With animals, it's simple. The one that is toughest and growls loudest is the alpha. With humans, alpha-beta thing depends so much on the social context. A big dumb guy can feel small and weak among small smart guys. A smart guy can feel like a wuss among big thugs.
Some big strong guys are emotionally timid; some small guys are aggressive and natural leader of men--like James Cagney and Al Pacino are runts who talk fast and big. Come to think of it, this is even true of animals. A small vicious cat sometimes dominates a much bigger shy dog which would rather slunker away than fight the cat.
The movie that is most interesting in terms of alpha-beta dynamics is GLENGARRY GLENROSS. There are layers of alphadom here, with each guy trying to be the top dog. Moss(Ed Harris)is desperate to be badass but he's humiliated by Alec Baldwin. But Baldwin surely has to kiss the asses of other men up the ladder. Though these salesmen try to be alphas, they must play beta-ish when trying to hook clients. They gotta talk nice and sweet. It's like a beta-loser trying to be an alpha-winner putting on the act of a beta-nice guy.
Though ostensibly into real estate, they are really hustlers and conmen, trying to unload worthless property on dupes. Most of the guys are filled with both exaggerated self-confidence and whiny self-pity--Moss especially. He clealry wants to be top dog and push people around, but he gets pushed around most of the time, so he whines about how he's an honest 'working man' oppressed by the powers-that-be.
Later, the office is burglarized, and there's an investigation, which is kinda funny. A company that hires men to hustle-and-con innocent customers reported a robbery.
Also, the set-up is a catch 22. Salesmen are given worthless leads which they must sell in order to get the good leads. To get the good stuff, they must do the impossible. It's almost like the company is conning its own workers. Yet, this sets up an alpha-beta situation of some high order. Most of the guys can't do anything with the crappy leads. But there is one successful guy, Roma(Al Pacino). We see how he operates. He doesn't depend on the leads. He's like a predator always on the lookout for prey. If others go to lunch to take a break from work, he goes to lunch to look for prey. And he has one guy(Jonathan Pryce)for lunch. Unlike others who approach their customers with something to sell, Roma, the natural alpha, bides his time. He doesn't sell the product; he sells himself. He first hooks the beta prey to his aura of wisdom, masterfulness, manliness, worldliness, Nietzschean supermanness, etc. The beta boy is impressed and flattered to be in his presence. Roma understands that beta-boys feel inadequate in life and wants to be 'liked' by and approved of by an alpha man. Roma understands this psychology--so does Obama or maybe he should be called Romaba. He acts like a nice lion who, instead of devouring the sheep, treats the sheep as his friend. Beta-boy Pryce is putty in his hands. Of course, Roma is indeed devouring beta-boy in a slow but sure manner, like a python taking its time to encircle its prey. But, beta-boy mistakes the encirclement as a kind of friendly embrace.
Perhaps the most important character is Levene(Jack Lemmon). At one point, Roma praiss Levene as 'old school', the real stuff, but it's really a case of damning with praise. Levene's old school methods may have worked in the past when Americans were more naive, more trusting, and more easily duped--a time when Americans thought Welles' WAR OF THE WORLDS broadcast was real. But in the new world of hipsterism and cynicism, Levene can't fool anyone. And he seems unable to learn any new tricks. The new era belongs to guys like Roma. It's time for new school. Levene knew how to fool innocent and trusting people of Old America(as did the salesmen in the movie TINMEN). Roma knows how to dupe educated and vain people. Roma knows the new psychology. In a way, it says a lot about politics. McCain and Obama was like Levene and Roma. Old School and New School.
ReplyDeleteRoma is so good that he cons not only his customers but his fellow workers. He knows he's better than others, but one of the hallmarks of his alpha-effectiveness is to play the nice guy when it doesn't cost him anything. So, he reassures Alan Arkin when Arkin feels down. He says wonderful things to Levene. He knows it's better to be surrounded by 'friends' than by enemies. So, he's a schmoozer, and he makes people around him feel that he's their best friend when, in fact, he doesn't give a shit about anyone but himself. Levene kinda realizes this in the final moment, which is kinda heartbreaking. Moss, on the other hand, will always be a loser. He knows how to bark but not to howl. No matter where he goes, he'll always be a bitter loser resentful of winners. He lacks brains, style, and patience. He wants it all but whines about those who have more. He may have alpha drive, but his lack of self-control betrays an insecurity, a weakness. He's the type who has to constantly show off his 'superiority' to mask his inferiority and has to always act righteous to conceal a total lack of scruples. He's like the sodbuster in SHANE who gets killed by Jack Palance. Talk is cheap.
An interesting thing about GLENGARRY GLENROSS is the psychology of the con. Is it possible for conmen to get so deep into con that they end up conning themselves? This is what happens to Levene. He thinks he finally made a killer sale and that he's back in the game. But as Kevin Spacey says, 'did you see how those people are living?' The Nyborgs--Levene's clients--are just 'crazy' people without money who like to talk to salesmen. Levene, so eager to win in the game, conned himself into believing he made a killer sale. Even more perverse is the fact that Spacey gave him a lead that he knew to be worthless. Out of spite? Insane company policy? As an excuse to get rid of a useless worker?
But before we say... yes, but it's just a play or movie, what happened with the housing bubble in the 2000s? Did the best and the brightest in the US con themselves too? If Levene should have known that the Nyborgs, in their dingy home, couldn't possibly be the kind of people to afford to buy real estate, what was the chance that all those illegal alien, black, and white trash deadbeats could pay back the loans on all the houses they bought? In a way, the housing boom of the 2000s was even more insane than what happens in GLENGARRY GLENROSS. At most, Nyborgs' check will bounce and there will have been no sale. Embarrassing for Levene but no harm done. But in the 2000s, it was as if banks were loaning tons of cash to people just like the Nyborgs--and even worse--so they could all buy McMansions. Did all those politicians, bankers, economic gurus, credit rating agencies, etc knowingly pull a massive con or did they con themselves--like Levene did?
Thanks for the invite Kylie, but I'd only rob you at gunpoint, it's in the genes.
ReplyDeleteHe gets chicks because he's a movie star, not because he's alpha.
ReplyDeleteSorry. Beta schlubs don't get decide who is and isn't alpha. Women who make goofy Youtube tributes get that privilege.
How much do teachers matter? From my personal experience, it depends on the students. If students wanna learn and have supportive parents, good teachers are wonderful. If students don't care to learn much, it doesn't make much difference.
ReplyDeleteLiberals have called for more spending on education. But after tons more were spent in places like Washinton DC, there wasn't much improvement. So, they sought to find better teachers. Would it have worked? Maybe somewhat.
Libertarians call for more choice, and call for 'rational' free-market solutions. I'm all for free-markets, but can education be treated like a dollar store or follow the same rules as a casino or a pub? And are higher values and ideals rooted in free markets or in something else--of moral or spiritual character? After all, the rewards of education are much delayed. A student will not economically gain from education until considerably later. Most good students learn because they take pride in learning, want to be knowledgeable than ignorant, because they want to feel good about high marks/grades, etc. And some of the most education-driven people do it out of passion than money. If money was the only goal of education, EVERYONE would study to be lawyers or CEOs. But many people study to be professors, researchers, etc.
And though many experts discuss teaching in terms of it being a profession, a job, or career; and they search for solutions with calls for higher pay and etc, the fact is the best teachers approach teaching as a calling, a kind of mission in life. Their devotion to teaching goes beyond 'rational wage-salary' thing.
From my personal experience, there was a 5th grade public school teacher who took her job very seriously. The class was mixed-income and mixed-race. She not only went out of her way to teach but she even gave up weekends to take a select number of students to museums, etc. I'd been to museums with my parents, but some of the black kids--with welfare mothers--got to visit certain museums only because the teacher made the extra effort. She took turns with students, taking 4 at a time on saturdays. It was the first time I got to see a play, Beauty and the Beast. (Movies were more within the family budget.) I remember it vividly because at the end, the Beast took off his mask, and one of kids--black--shouted, 'the dude's black!'. Indeed he was, something still kinda strange in the late 70s.
She was probably a liberal but she was tough when necessary. There was order in the class, and we learned quite a bit. And she also showed slide shows of her travel across America, giving us a sense of the larger America. She was a German-American, and maybe her dedication to work was something carried over from the Pietist tradition which said God gave people life as a gift and it shouldn't be squandered but appreciated and used for the betterment of man and society.
In 6th grade, I had a different teacher, a black guy in his 50s. We called him Mr. Corned Beef cuz all he ever seem to do is sit around and eat his corned beef sandwich. His idea of teaching history was to give us a list of words; we were suppose to find the sentences with those words in the book, and write them out on paper. I had no idea what the meaning of the exercise was, but there it was. And for science, he introduced us to 'matter' as 'stuff you can touch, like this desk'. So, until I learned otherwise, I thought the scientific definition of 'matter' was 'stuff you can touch'.
Anyway, my point is my fifth grade teacher could have made the same amount of money as my 6th grade teacher doing what he did. She could have treated teaching as just a job to collect the paycheck. She too could have taken it easily and munched on corned beef sandwiches all day. But for her, teaching was a calling, not just a job. And this quality is cultural and even 'spiritual' and cannot be explained by 'rational' ideas. Her background instilled her with a sense of duty in life and to society. And I think she wouldn't have done what she did for lower or higher pay.
ReplyDeleteNow, imagine a nation full of people like the fifth grade teacher and a nation full of people like the sixth grade teacher. It makes a big difference. Free markets and rational social polcies are all very nice, but the root foundation of society revolved around values, ideals, and habits.
Of course, even in my fifth grade class, there were racial divisions. Top students tended to be Asians, Jews, and some whites. Bottom students tended to be black and some Hispanics. We 'white trashers' were somewhere in between.
Even so, blacks did better in her environment than in the classroom of Mr. Corned Beef where we spent most of our time talking about TV sitcoms and pop music while the teacher read newspapers and ignored us most of the time.
Another thing. In elementary school, there were some black kids who seemed bright but they got lousy grades. Almost all them, bright or dumb, seemed to care about nuttin but TV and goofing around. Few ever came to school with their homeworks finished. After school, they went straight to Boys Club and played pool. And when I visited the homes of black friends, their parents were always doing nothing but watching TV. So, not all of black low achievement is due to lower IQ. Even smart black kids have no sense of priorities.
Indeed, if it weren't for his white grandma, Obama could very well be selling crack. There were some smart black guys back in the days who just wasted their lives. So, instead of WAITING FOR SUPERMAN, maybe what black kids need is WAITING FOR SUPERWHITEGRANNY.
Whiskey I agree that Gates tends towards beta but think you're reaching that that is why nobody reacts to the joke. I also think Obama is pretty beta too. However I think they are both very shrewd and determined competitors. They are not particularly secure or self confident though, which is more important in the alpha calculus.
ReplyDeleteThis is the official white house youtube (how fun!) video of the speech:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-G39FFUrtA&feature=player_detailpage#t=80s
The Link begins just before the gates remark, which begins about 1:50. You can see a shot of the crowd right about then too. If you watch from the beginning, note that Obama seems to already have some of the crowd laughing, so its extra noticeable when the joke falls flat. And check out his facial reaction right before saying "that was a joke guys"... priceless.
The crowd appears to be heavily black when it is shown just before the gates remark. This is Jon Stewart [Leibowitz] style humor which anyone who went to his and colbert's rallies can tell you is not too popular among blacks.
Further, race aside, I bet that many young people might be taken aback by POTUS acting like he's on the daily show. Caught off guard and unsure how to react.
I suspect also that the word "modest" threw a lot of the kids. I would bet that word's usage has generally been in decline from some time now. I doubt it is taught to kids in schools (if they even teach vocabulary anymore, outside of SAT prep).
And I just had a reach idea of my own: could this be Obama spitting beta game at Melinda? He DLVs Bill in absentia (surprisingly well I might add) and tries to DHV himself with off the cuff SWPL humor. Immediately after the joke flops, he starts extravagantly pedestalizing Melinda: "a force in her own right, most generous and effective philanthropists, successful businesswoman" (really?).
Though it may not be easy for a beta to act the alpha, it's not difficult for alphas to put on the beta touch. In a way, one could say the most successful alphas are those who know when to play alpha, when to play beta.
ReplyDeleteAlpha-all-the-time is stupid. Tony Montana--indeed most gangster anti-heroes--are alpha all the time. Everything Tony says in SCARFACE could be summarized as 'I got big balls'. He's bold and rises quickly but falls quickly too. He never knows when to play it soft, when to shut up. Sonny in GODFATHER is like that too, and he too dies young.
Michael, on the other hand, knows when to pull an alpha, when to pull a beta. When Moe Green bitchslaps him, Michael just takes it. He lets Moe win round one, and Moe feels badass and overly confident. He thinks he put Michael in his place, but Michael was just biding his time to get Moe when the time was right.
In GODFATHER II, Michael again allows himself to be bitchslapped. Hyman Roth really tears into him about 'it all being about business'. Hyman Roth wins round 1, but Michael sets up another plan. Hyman vs Michael is deadly cuz both are alphas who know when to play the beta card. Hyman even turns down a slice of cake for a smaller piece. But they are really playing for the whole cake.
Because blacks were forced to play beta for so long, black politics of the 60s produced the other extreme: black politicians being alpha all the time. There was no end to the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton hollering and sharking fists. They were like black Tony Montanas, and typically Jesse even said in 2008 that he wanted to rip Obama's balls off. This was a winning strategy with blacks maybe but not with whites.
Obama is more like Michael. He knows when to play hard, when to play soft. He didn't go to Jews and holler, 'gimme some more shit, mothafuc*a!' but sat at their feet and played a nice kid in order to woo and gain their support and money. That's real gangster-thinking.
Glengarry Glen Ross also gave us the best minor Simpsons character ever, Gil the salesman.
ReplyDeletehttp://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Gil_Gunderson
Come on, that was a pretty good, droll joke on Obama's part. So were those students too serious and studious to appreciate the humor, or just too dumb to know who Bill Gates was?
ReplyDeleteI agree.
"Thanks for the invite Kylie, but I'd only rob you at gunpoint, it's in the genes.""
ReplyDeleteYou're Irish?
I thought you were black!
zed is dead said...Sorry. Beta schlubs don't get decide who is and isn't alpha. Women who make goofy Youtube tributes get that privilege.
ReplyDeleteI don't really think much about this "alpha-beta" thing, because I find it simplistic, but is it all about which guys women find attractive? I would have thought it had a more to do with men to whom other men defer due to their natural dominance. In a primitive society this would give them access to the best women. In our society, though, women get to follow their own impulses and often choose men that other men consider losers and douchebags.
If the sole source of your evaluation of alpha status is who does best at the singles bar, then I don't think it's all that meaningful.
How to understand this Alpha-Beta stuff.
ReplyDeleteSteve is the Alpha. The commenters are the Betas.
Albertosaurus
the exchanges about alpha/beta in these comments are completely embarrassing to read...please stop speculating about this subject as if you are flipping through the dungeon masters guide...these are people you haven't met, but it's safe to assume that anyone who has achieved prominence is "alpha" for your purposes (i.e. it would only take eye contact to get someone like you to submit and offer a courteous blowjob)
ReplyDeleteThe whole alpha-beta thing really ties people up in knots. Look at this way: If the President and richest man are not the top of the American social heap, who the heck is? By definition the President of the United States, even if a socially awkward type like Nixon or Carter, is an alpha, and so is anyone in the top-tier rich, especially if self-acquired rather than inherited.
ReplyDeleteNow we know everything we need to about Glengarry Glen Ross. Thanks. Really. Good. We got it. Re Truth,turning down an invite because he would only rob and kill the host:Thats alpha!
ReplyDeleteIt is not as if Gates had anything going for him but his money, after all. He doesn't even exercise power and fame like Donald Trump or something. And yes, to women this matters, a lot.
ReplyDeleteEr, you had to go a long way for that one. Donald Trump is the bar between "beta" and "alpha" on the power and fame scale?
No wonder you harp on this stuff.
Yes, it's easy to have plenty of interested and attractive women around if you're Bill Gates. You can even display plenty of power and fame. You hire attractive women, then you order around your "alpha" male employees like you're Genghis Khan in front of them. And it wouldn't take Gate's IQ to figure this out, either.
Now, maybe Gates is in love with his wife. That would explain your theories about his behavior far better than this "Gates can't find a hottie if his wife dumps him" stupidity. But that phrase, "in love," might be too normal to fit into the Roissy schtick.
Never mind. It's just the Whiskey talking.
ReplyDeleteHaha! Perfect! How did it take that long for someone to write that?
:)
Anon, I think you'd better take another look at Animal House.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe a closer look at Melinda. I ran a G**gle image search and just looked at the thumbnails and thought she was slightly cute, and definitely better-looking than Gates. But I looked again, and she is kinda "bowling-team" masculine/robust facially. That's the kind of thing I think usually manifests itself subconsciously - Gates wanting his sons to look more masculine than he does, and choosing a masculine-faced woman as a result.
Gates is a alpha among geeks. In a football locker room, he would be a beta. But then, a big dumb athletic lug would be a beta in a room full of lawyers.
ReplyDeleteNo, no, no! There is no CONTEXT, beta!
Sometimes I think Whiskey is a zookeeper and get all his thinking about humans from comparisons to the monkey cage.
ReplyDeleteHaha, true. I get that impression from a lot of Roissy cultists.
"By definition the President of the United States, even if a socially awkward type like Nixon or Carter, is an alpha, and so is anyone in the top-tier rich, especially if self-acquired rather than inherited."
ReplyDeleteProblem is, neither Carter nor Nixon were alphas. Among black men and even whites, Obama is a beta with minimal credentials to be president. Something's afoot here that could use sorting. I think of someone like Mitt Romney as an alpha (because of his physique and quintessential white maleness), JFK was and John McCain is bad sheepdog alpha (see "Babe"). Ron Paul might even be considered an alpha in his intellectualism and his individualism in resisting popular opinion.
I've noticed comments on several posts discussing how nice it would be if Americans were prone to electing nice, stable, boring business types who would run the country well though probably not get much credit for their good work. Maybe we're closer to this ideal than some think.
Perhaps the problem in qualified betas is that the humility that makes them good at delegating and taking advice keeps them from entering the fray in American politics. A popular mindset among pundits developed no doubt from their studies of what makes a viable candidate could be another obstacle. OTOH, THE PEOPLE might prefer a nice competent beta president who won't smirk at their lack of sophistication or give bone crushing handshakes.
"but it's safe to assume that anyone who has achieved prominence is "alpha" for your purposes (i.e. it would only take eye contact to get someone like you to submit and offer a courteous blowjob)"
ReplyDeleteWorks for John Travolta.
"his thing is straight guys," Randolph says. "He pulls them in because they're shocked and impressed that it's Travolta and that they're hooking up with him."
How on earth does the actor seduce all these straight guys? The lure of celebrity plays a big part. "In the beginning, he would come in and people would recognize him and he would let people approach him," Randolph says of Travolta's seduction technique. "He's very personable, and he would use the fact he's a star to reel guys in."
http://m.gawker.com/5685811/the-secret-sex-life-of-john-travolta
Bonecrushing handshakes are "alpha" now? I thought that was social retardation.
ReplyDeleteplease stop speculating about this subject as if you are flipping through the dungeon masters guide
ReplyDeleteAhahaha!
And seriously, bone-crushing handshake guys, ease up. That shit is not normal outside of your Yankee (or wherever you get it) blue-collar circles. I have a grip like Popeye but a handshake is not a wrestling match.
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm old school. To me, "a homosexual seducing straight guys" is an oxymoron.
ReplyDeleteAlright, finally it makes sense:
ReplyDeleteMultiple US presidents and the richest man in the world: Betas.
Some anonymous Chav in London on welfare who has lost his front teeth in a prison brawl: Alpha.
Why couldn't you just say that to begin with, Whiskey?
"I have a grip like Popeye but a handshake is not a wrestling match."
ReplyDeleteSvigor has another hangover and hasn't been laid in a while either. I'd direct you to Roissy's site but unlike Sailer, I'm a chick and know that the guy isn't the Cassanova he claims to be. Sorry, Roissy.
FYI, some old school Texans don't know their own strength. The grip isn't necessarily intentional. I mean these guys could actually be accidental alphas I dunno.
"Thanks for the invite Kylie, but I'd only rob you at gunpoint, it's in the genes."
ReplyDeleteBut you could compensate by giving some pointers on basketball. That too is in your genes.
If the story was from an elementary school teacher, I might have bought it, but from a HS teacher? I know the educational system is going down the tubes, but that's a bit too much to believe...
ReplyDeleteAll this alpha/beta confusion arises from semantics. You guys have different definitions of it, so come to different conclusions. Is alpha/beta about personal achievement (wealth, power, etc) or is it about character and brawn? Some believe one, some believe the other. Probably the people choosing wealth/power for the definition are more likely to be academic achieving types since it allows them to think of themselves as alpha. The people choosing 'character and brawn' are probably more likely to be average or low achievers, who extend the label based upon the implicit rules we all learned in middle school instead, so they can think of themselves as alpha.
ReplyDeleteContext is important here. You might be the alpha guy at the high-stakes business meeting, but beta in a Superbowl party at your brother-in-law's party.
Kylie, with an Irishman it would be at knifepoint.
ReplyDeleteIf we have to a leftist troll around here we could do a lot worse than Truth. That latest post made me laugh really hard.
ReplyDelete"Kylie, with an Irishman it would be at knifepoint."
ReplyDeleteOr, if my Irish former in-laws are any indication, with bare fists if nothing more lethal was available.
Whiskey wrote Windows Mobile sucks ass, because the OS is not tuned like iOS, Android, etc
ReplyDeleteWhiskey, I’ve never seen you utter a single curse word ever. I can’t believe it.
Anonymous If money was the only goal of education, EVERYONE would study to be lawyers or CEOs.
half sigma DEAD FAINTs*
*chic noir pulls smelling salts out of her bosom*
Mr. Anonymous, Law School unless it’s a tier 1 top three is good for nothing but endless debt.