Don't Know Much About Algebra: Maureen Dowd, NYT

[Demeter]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/20/opinion/20dowd.html?oref=login&hp
Don't Know Much About Algebra
By MAUREEN DOWD

Published: January 20, 2005


"Lawrence Summers, the president of Harvard, has been pilloried for suggesting that women may be biologically unsuited to succeed at mathematics.

He may have a point.

Just look at Condoleezza Rice.

She's clearly a well-educated, intelligent woman, versed in Brahms and the Bolsheviks, who has just been rewarded for her loyalty with the most plum assignment in the second Bush cabinet.

Yet her math skills are woefully inadequate.

She can't do simple equations. She doesn't even know that X times zero equals zero. If you multiply 1,370 dead soldiers times zero weapons of mass destruction, that equals zero achievement for Ms. Rice, who helped the president and vice president bamboozle the country into war."

[Demeter]

1. Critique of Dowd

While this column may in part atone for last week's disaster (smart women and marriage), it points out the problem Ms. Dowd has: Queen Bee Syndrome.

Maureen (if I may be familiar) loves to get out the sharp knives and exercise her cutting wit. One could only wish she were on target all the time. The difference between a life-saving surgeon and a murderous cut throat is, to be blunt, aim.

If Maureen exercised her 4th estate responsibilities responsibly, she could be an effective and respected, even feared leader of public opinion. But her efforts are inevitably scattershot: 8 years of her savaging the Clintons on the most spuriious and bitchy of pretenses contributed to the horror that is Bush.

Still, nice knife work, Maureen!

[Demeter]

2. Other Op Ed Writers

By comparison, William Safire seems to be suicidal, or perhaps one of those "cutters" who slits his wrists to relieve the psychic pain, or just totally befuddled and clumsy with his knife.

While Thomas Friedman and Nicholas Kristoff tend to make a hash of everything they touch.

[Demeter]

3. kick