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"An eighth-grade language arts teacher from Maryland has been placed on administrative leave after school officials learned he allegedly authored two books containing questionable content under a pseudonym.
Local network WBOC News reports that the investigation concerns two books published by McLaw under the nom de plume “Dr. K.S. Voltaer,” and one is about a fictional, futuristic school shooting that goes down in history as being the largest ever in the United States.
http://rt.com/usa/182964-teacher-leave-shooting-book/"
This is lunacy. School administrators are terrified there will be another Columbine or Sandy Hook and are overreacting, or are they. What could they do to prevent one. Nothing, nil, zero. No need to ask yourself 'why', say thank you to the traitorous NRA , the propaganda arm of the small arms manufacturing industry, for blocking any form of gun control. They have successfully infected the country with The American Disease™ almost unfettered access to weapons of war that kill with brutal efficiency. Sadly there appears to be no cure.
[EDITOR'S NOTE: The preceding paragraph was not up to our standards. The comments to this story are spot on. You expect better than this and we let you down. There are so many comments referring to this paragraph, we cannot just delete it, hence the strike-through. More to follow.]
(Score: 2) by cafebabe on Tuesday September 02 2014, @12:52AM
I'm glad this gained your interest.
Regarding age differences, this is part of the equality dissonance. Males and females grow to different sizes over different timespans, mature at different rates, gain verbal fluency at different rates and have different reproductive lifespans. Historically, a man would obtain one or more women after an extended period which allowed selective pressure. This model is akin to a silverback gorilla who gains access to a harem. More recently, a man would have established himself as a craftsman before seeking a wife. Nowadays, a man is shamed if he dates a younger woman while cougars are borderline acceptable.
Regarding genetics, my scenario makes many assumptions but I'm not aware of any limitation which prevents XX or XY cells splitting to X or Y gametes at the final step. Assuming this process works, hypothetical Y eggs would only be viable with X sperm. Therefore, XY women would have reduced fertility with XY men and the sex of children would be skewed to approximately 2/3 male and 1/3 female. Taking into account weight of Y sperm, this would be further skewed by a small factor. Overall, we would have situation where XY women are more likely to have XY children and XX men are more likely to have XX children. So, any swing in the male/female demographic due to fertile transsexuals would have a mild opposing effect in the following generation.
Ignoring genetics, the adage in transsexual urological surgery of "It's easier to dig a hole than build a pole" is going to be broken. Cell culturing and 3D printing will make it easy to produce a penis of any size. (Expect future pornstars to have two or more because, well, why chance having the old ones removed?) However, grafting a 3D printed uterus will be significantly more awkward than grafting a 3D printed penis.
To add further assumptions, the general level of homophobia and transphobia may relax if they weren't regarded as an evolutionary dead-end. This means people who come out of the closet may be less likely to be forced out of their homes, dis-inherited or killed. Likewise, I would hope that people would be less homophobic and transphobic about sexual relations if anyone could procreate with anyone else. (To add a further assumption of political, financial, environmental and social pressure to have two children or less, dis-inheritance may be counter-productive if a homosexual or transsexual child is your only surviving offspring.) Well, that's the rational view. However, you note that it is one of those hot-button issues in which a subset of people lose rational thought. However, I see militant feminists and regressive religious people being fragmented by these advances.
Most feminists accept transgendered women due to their common experiences of sexual assault, attempted rape, rape, sexual objectification and economic opportunities. This acceptance will progress as the next generation of feminists mix with openly transgendered children. Germaine Greer's definition of female (XX, functional uterus) will become a fringe concept or functionally irrelevant. Oh, and the womyn-born-womyn festivals have already been invaded by the clandestine agents of the patriarchy. (Actually, I find this amusing because it riles almost everyone but for different reasons. In an age of equality, many people find womyn-born-womyn festivals to be gratuitous offensive discrimination. My opinion on this is fairly moderate. After reading blog posts about a woman who wanted some space at a gay festival and sex-segregated gymnasiums [soylentnews.org], discussing matters with rape victims and other experiences, I am convinced that sex-segregated activities are healthy for many people. However, it shouldn't be done in a discriminatory manner with no alternative. This is especially true if it involves the public sector. For example, a female-only space at a festival is acceptable if there are other restricted spaces and no-one gets to access all areas. The womyn-born-womyn festivals don't do this. Indeed, their policies for Female To Male transsexuals is mixed. Also, their existence is divisive to Male To Female transsexuals because some would never be able to slip in, many wouldn't want to be involved and others wouldn't be able to bring their friends. And then there's the people who don't self-identify as male or female.)
Regarding figures, approximately 1:3000 is the lower bound for self-identifying transsexuals and, yes, the ratio of 3:1 has been found between Male To Female transsexuals and Female To Male transsexuals. However, many transsexuals self-identify as gay or lesbian. In countries like Thailand, they don't make a big distinction between homosexual, transvestite, transsexual or other. Worldwide, it may be that more than 10% of males have transvestite tendencies and more than 1% of "males" are transsexual. The corresponding level of transvestism in women is unknown. However, I know from the experience of a Female To Male acquaintance that attempting to dress in a masculine manner can be maddening when all masculine fashions are socially accepted.
The common assumption is that Male To Female transsexuals are more common but this may be due to transvestism being more obvious and feminization of masculine features being less successful while Female To Male transsexuals have more limited surgical options, more relief (or not) via accepted fashion and/or self-identify as lesbians. If we consider the developmental effects of hormones in other animals [wikipedia.org], it may be the case that Female To Male transsexuals may be very common. Although self-identity and mate attraction are distinct, disputed figures for PCO [PolyCystic Ovaries] and PCOS [PolyCystic Ovary Syndrome] in lesbians may emphasize the significance of hormones. From http://lezgetreal.com/2008/10/lesbians-and-pcos/ [lezgetreal.com], http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15533359 [nih.gov] and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycystic_ovary_syndrome#Epidemiology [wikipedia.org], 80% of lesbians may have PCO. The 80% incidence of PCO appears to be widely cited by lesbians but the corresponding figure for heterosexual women from one source is 8-25% and 32% from another. Reports of PCOS cite 38% for lesbians and 3.4%, 14% or 18% for heterosexual women. It is noted that some of the ambiguity derives from vague diagnostic criteria. Regardless, it could be an evolutionary advantage. If a woman has reproductive problems, it may be advantageous for such a woman to adopt masculine behaviors, such as attraction to women, for the benefit of a group.
Regarding access to healthcare, Cuba demonstrates that poor countries can provide good access to healthcare if there is political will. Even without this, the advance of stem cell biology, material science, 3D printing, robots and niche gadgets will make advanced surgery cheaper. I liken the current 3D printers to Johannes Gutenberg's first printing press. They will advance but their full potential may takes hundreds of years. Fortunately, we won't have to wait for their full potential to arrive. It is likely that limbs and organs will be widely available to patients within 20 years. This will be for essential surgery and cosmetic surgery. Perhaps you'd like smaller hands, catgirl ears or a tail? This is all possible. In the longer term, I believe that Iain Banks [wikipedia.org] suggested that people could transform themselves into a really outlandish form, such as a cloud.
Anyhow, if transsexualism became almost universally accepted and there was surgery which retained fertility, the number of Female To Male transsexuals may exceed the number of Male To Female transsexuals.
More to follow.
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