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Why the Widening Gender Gap In Computer Science?
ruheling writes "From yesterday's New York Times: ' What Has Driven Women Out of Computer Science?' In many US universities, over the past decade, there has been deliberate effort to integrate and encourage women and girls to get more involved in the 'hard' sciences, engineering, and math. However, instead of the proportion of women to men increasing, in Computer Science the opposite is actually true. Specifically, in 2001-2, only 28 percent of all undergraduate degrees in computer science went to women. Now many computer science departments report that women now make up less than 10 percent of the newest undergraduates. What's going on here, folks?"
Publicly dentifying as a Protestant Christian to win over an electorate is nothing new. I'm baffled that you would claim that. Carter made much of his Protestant religious beliefs. Eisenhower tried to keep his Jehovah's Witness family under wraps. Look back through history and you can see many presidents who probably weren't devout Protestants, but in that case they never confessed their religious beliefs to the public.
As long as it's a fair question then here's a fair answer - I'm working on it, I anticipate emigrating in 6-12 months.
Fair enough.
I still don't get this loyalty thing though. What's it supposed to count for? I mean, if the government goes to war am I supposed to join in, not because I agree but because of loyalty? I need some help with the concept, if it's not just tribalism and it's not supporting the government, and it's not just agreeing with what the people decide?
I can only speak for myself here. For me, there are things I don't like about this country, and things that I do. I have no doubt that'd be true anywhere -- no place is perfect. The things that I do like about this country win; if they didn't, I too would look for a place with which I'd be happier.
Once I've made that choice -- the choice that the good things about this country are more persuasive than the bad things about it, and therefore I do want to live here -- then I personally feel that I owe a debt. I feel like I owe a debt to those who came before me who worked to create a place, a society, in which I'd want to live my life, and to those here now who maintain it and try hard (and often fail, but they're trying) to improve it. Otherwise, I'm a freeloader: I'm simply taking advantage of someone else's hard work. And so I work that debt off: by showing honest gratitude for the opportunities I have here which I might not have elsewhere; by doing my tiny, tiny best to help the society and the country function; and by contributing what little I have towards leaving this place better than I found it. Doing those things, and not giving up on them, is loyalty to the country, for me -- it's saying "I love what I've got here, and am grateful for it, and so I'm going to keep trying to help it get better and I'm not going to give up on it."
In answer to the specific question you asked, no, I don't think loyalty to a country *necessarily* requires one to go to war for it; but it's not a simple question. If I were English, for instance, I would feel differently about the loyalty of someone who chose not to fight in WW2 than I would someone who chose not to fight in colonial India.