Occupy Wallstreet people are Nucking Futs!

[Fitzy]

Professional sports aren't payed higher wages because of scarcity, it's because of a skills gap. Not like finding scabs for a labor dispute in the pros would be difficult.

A skill gap is a scarcity

Society pays wages based on supply and demand. It's not about who does the role.

Certainly there are some things we can do as a society to increase men's role as caretakers, and encourage women to do science and engineering (though even then women are more likely to work pediatrics and men are more likely to work surgery). But that puts the onus on us as a society, not on employers.

I completely agree, it is on society. Employers and the government can do nothing beyond trying to make sure that pay is based on performance and not on gender.

That doesn't make the gender gap, across all positions, a myth. It just means that it is an ingrained societal issue. That requires cultural change. This is something people should push for by working to increase the value of the important positions that women are more likely to take. I would argue that a teacher, a nurse, a social worker, or a doctor are far more important to society than ceos, wall street workers, or professional athletes ( though they have their importance as well). That an individual is willing to spend thousands of dollars to watch football, but will turn around and complain that the school district is paying teachers too much is a sad commentary on the state of our society.

[Isgrimnur]

Oh, yeah, pepper spray is harmless. Except to all those pasty, white kids with asthma:

My own purpose here is to focus on the dangers of a high level of capsaicin exposure. But as pointed out in the 2004 paper, Health Hazards of Pepper Spray, written by health researchers at the University of North Carolina and Duke University, the sprays contain other risky materials:

Depending on brand, an OC spray may contain water, alcohols, or organic solvents as liquid carriers; and nitrogen, carbon dioxide, or halogenated hydrocarbons (such as Freon, tetrachloroethylene, and methylene chloride) as propellants to discharge the canister contents.(3) Inhalation of high doses of some of these chemicals can produce adverse cardiac, respiratory, and neurologic effects, including arrhythmias and sudden death.

WaPo

The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday restricted the use of a toxic chemical used in paint and coating strippers that has been linked to dozens of accidental deaths. But the agency stopped short of the total ban proposed by the Obama administration and pushed by some health groups, instead allowing commercial operators to keep using the chemical so long as they are trained.

Alexandra Dunn, assistant administrator of EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, said the agency has determined that methylene chloride — a controversial product that major home-improvement retailers, such as Lowe’s and Home Depot, already have pulled from their shelves — presents “an unreasonable risk of injury."
...
The agency will solicit comments over the next 60 days on whether to impose new federal training requirements on commercial operators, Dunn said, to determine if it needs to limit access under those circumstances. That move drew immediate fire from public-health advocates and the family members of those who died after being exposed to its fumes.
...
The EPA proposed an outright ban on methylene chloride and another lethal solvent, NMP, on Jan. 19, 2017, the day before President Barack Obama left office, saying they posed “unreasonable risks” to human health. Trump administration officials have repeatedly promised to remove methylene chloride from the market, while remaining silent on the fate of NMP.

The regulation EPA finalized Friday reflects a compromise with the Pentagon, which lobbied for a carveout given the military’s widespread use of paint strippers on bases across the globe. Under the Obama administration’s proposal, the Defense Department received a 10-year exemption on the grounds of national security.

[Blackhawk]

That was a sideways necro!

[Isgrimnur]

I aim to please.