Open Thread March 7, 2022

Yesterday, I took some time to look up interesting women for this month. My collection is rather personal – mostly women I had never hear of myself, but also a few whom I had heard of but who have been forgotten since. Perhaps we can all learn something.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks and Liars – GOP Senators Ripped For Reckless Tweets During Zelenskyy Zoom Call
Quotes – “The Ukrainian Ambassador very intentionally asked each of us on the zoom to NOT share anything on social media during the meeting to protect the security of President Zelenskyy. Appalling and reckless ignorance by two US Senators.”
“Why the hell would you risk that man’s life by tweeting this in real time when you were specifically asked not to?!”
“Still on the payroll, I see. Couldn’t follow directions on the Zoom call, huh? Is Pootie paying you in crypto now that the ruble has tanked?”
Click through for more. You probably heard that this happened (although Grassley was not included when I first heard it.) And the volcano of fury it stirred up among all decent prople will do nothing to help keep him alive. But ti’s good to know decent prople are out there. (Is there any difference between this and Bo ebert tweeting out Speaker Pelosi’s location on January 6?)

Letters from an American – March 5, 2022
Quote – Aaron Blake of the Washington Post reported on Thursday that after Trump won the 2016 election and we learned that Russia had interfered to help him, Republicans’ approval of Putin jumped from about 14% to 37%. In the Des Moines Register today, columnist Rekha Basu explained how the American right then swung behind Putin because they saw him as a moral crusader, defending religion and “traditional values,” from modern secularism and “decadence,” using a strong hand to silence those who would, for example, defend LGBTQ rights. [emphasis mine]
Click through, and you’ll learn a lot about tha conflict in Ukraine. But it’s the conflict in the United States I wanted to highight. Wingnuts were not brainwashed by Trump**. They were brainwashed in advance to accept Trump**. At least that goes to explain why so many who are now turning on him over vaccines are not letting go of the tiniest fraction of the insanity.

Women’s History – Wikipedia – Hypatia of Alexandria
Quote – Hypatia was renowned in her own lifetime as a great teacher and a wise counselor. She wrote a commentary on Diophantus’s thirteen-volume Arithmetica, which may survive in part, having been interpolated into Diophantus’s original text, and another commentary on Apollonius of Perga’s treatise on conic sections, which has not survived. Many modern scholars also believe that Hypatia may have edited the surviving text of Ptolemy’s Almagest, based on the title of her father Theon’s commentary on Book III of the Almagest.
Click hrough for bio. Her name survived into my lifetime as a decriptive term applied to a woman who was a teacher of, and or inspirational to, some dude (e.g., “His wife iwas his Hypatia.”) But that seems to have dropped out of common use, at least in the U.S.

Food For Thought: