By osmosis? Doesn't that mean you'd have to be rubbed by another man's missile to gain knowledge of them?

okay i know this isn't the point...but like, i know nothing about defense issues, but im pretty sure i can tell you the difference between a "carrier" and a "destroyer" and that when a destroyer is "launched to a certain area," it's probably not good.

OK, Ms Perino, you don't know this stuff because you didn't learn it through osmosis like all the boys. There's this thing called "the Internet," and another thing called "the library"--I bet there's one available to you in the White House. In fact, as a senior official in the White House, I bet you could get someone to tutor you in these complex defense issues. Unless, of course, what you're really saying is that girls can't understand military matters. But you wouldn't say that, right--it would be insulting to all the women in the United States armed forces, some of whom are risking their lives every day in wars overseas. I'm sure your boss, President Bush, wouldn't approve of you saying that. So I suggest you go do a little research and pretty soon you can giggle over the word "Scuds" just like the boys in the White House do. "He said 'Scuds'!"

The part that made me foam at the mouth the most was in another article, linked from the above one...wherein she did not know what the Cuban Missile Crisis was. So she went home and consulted her "best source." Her Husband. Her freakin' husband.

Best source for the freakin' white house press secretary is her husband? WTF? Who writes this drivel? Who publishes it? Why?

Damn, this makes me angry.

-Nick

leave it to someone in the Bush administration to make women appear uneducated. I agree, books, tutors and libraries are all at ones disposal... and I have yet to run across research indicating that women are "unable" to learn this information. but thank you, Ms. Perino, for reinforcing negative stereotypes we educated women are trying to break!

OK, Ms Perino, you don't know this stuff because you didn't learn it through osmosis like all the boys. There's this thing called "the Internet," and another thing called "the library"--I bet there's one available to you in the White House. In fact, as a senior official in the White House, I bet you could get someone to tutor you in these complex defense issues. Unless, of course, what you're really saying is that girls can't understand military matters. But you wouldn't say that, right--it would be insulting to all the women in the United States armed forces, some of whom are risking their lives every day in wars overseas. I'm sure your boss, President Bush, wouldn't approve of you saying that. So I suggest you go do a little research and pretty soon you can giggle over the word "Scuds" just like the boys in the White House do. "He said 'Scuds'!"

This is the woman who didn't even know what the Cuban Missile Crisis was (she admitted it during a game show on NPR/affliates). She has no idea what she's saying, ever. She's just another White House embarrassment.

Well, now, let's be fair. Hands up if you think that Bush knows what the Cuban MIssile Crisis was.

Anybody?

Aerospace is already a field with a big male:female ratio, and then this idiot shows up to make things harder for those of us who aren't too dumb to know the difference between a carrier and a destroyer? Thanks, Dana Perino. And fuck you.

I'm sure she similarly enrages intelligent, young, blonde women for doing such a bang-up job perpetuating the dumb blonde stereotype.

Where does Bush keep finding these people?

Where does Bush keep finding these people?

Ms Perino's ascension in the communications office should be proof enough that the Bush White House isn't "stupid". Mindless Pro-War Rhetoric and shockingly ignorant worldviews have never been so attractively proposed.

of course, never before has there been such a painfully unqualified press secretary. confidential to mrs. perino--the words "I don't know what that means" should not be in your motherfucking work vocabulary.

Well, now, let's be fair. Hands up if you think that Bush knows what the Cuban MIssile Crisis was.

I don't think comparing Bush's lack of knowledge to hers is much of a reprieve. :)

" I really have to work at — to know the difference between a carrier and a destroyer, and what it means when one of those is being launched to a certain area."

Really?! I know next to nothing about the military, and I could tell you what those things are, and what they probably do, and what it probably means when they go somewhere. I mean, hello? If the word "destroyer" alone does not tell you, I think perhaps it's time to quit.

There are so many obvious issues with this. How did she get this job? Clearly she must know someone, 'cause she doesn't know donkey.

Further evidence that only the stupid people are getting ahead in this lifetime.

At least I finally know a couple of smart people who've had or are having kids, so at least there's that.

I don't get it. I honestly just don't understand. How can the White House possibly let their own press secretary say that defense stuff is hard for girls when the Secretary of State is female. I mean, I get that they're all about the Patriarchy, and it's good for all the girls out there to know they aren't as smart about this stuff as the boys, but she's implying that some one else (a man) would automatically do a better job than Ms. Rice. How can the White House think that's a good idea?

Maybe we're just being too hard on her. After all, let us not forget that those ships? Well, they're cleverly named so-as to confuse the enemy to their purpose- the way that the "aircraft carrier" is used to, uh... carry aircraft, and the "destroyer" is used to, well... destroy enemy targets...

This was an asinine and moronic thing of Ms. Perino to say (certainly not the first instance of that). It speaks, though, to a problematic underlying assumption that even goes beyond gender. It is probably empirically true that men in this society are socialized from a young age to pay more attention to all things military, encouraged as they are to play with army men, GI Joes etc. and to watch military-themed movies as they get older (note that this doesn't happen by "osmosis") than their female counterparts. It is probably also true that if you surveyed a random sample of men and women, men would, empirically, be more likely to be able to tell you what an F-22 is vs. and F-35 and other such things. To label such superficial crap (which is roughly the extent of my own understanding of defense issues) "knowledge" is absurd. "Knowledge" of defense issues comes from being in the military, or working in a defense-related field, or getting an advanced degree in strategic studies, or being an engineer for Northrup-Grumman, or from doing SOMETHING that actually imparts knowledge at a more advanced level than you'd get from watching "Top Gun." To say that men have any advantage in this area is pretty insulting, and also pretty dim-witted.

As an aside, I don't mind that the White House press Secretary isn't up on defense issues. It isn't her job to send troops into battle, it's her job to spin the news and brief the press. It would be nice, though, if she acknowledged that her lack of defense knowledge came by virtue of her position, rather than her gender.

If she doesn't know the difference between a carrier and a destroyer, maybe Ms. Perrino should ask one of the women currently serving in the Navy to explain it. I'm sure they'll set her straight. Sheesh.

Where's C.J. Cregg when we need her?

She obviously never played Battleship for 5 hours straight with her sister when they were both sick with the flu. I haven't been able to look at that game since, but I could name which ship is what without a second thought.

Somebody needs to tell Charlotte Allen and Dana Perino to speak for themselves.

Actually, she's right.

I have a 2 year old son who is just learning to talk. And yesterday I could see his penis thinking, and osmosing, and next thing I knew he was going on about oilfield development and economic restructuring and Patriots and whether the potential strategic use of nuclear artillery justified the risk of deployment on the North Korean border.

When my girls were that age, though, all they would talk about was social justice, communism, and Yeats. Not a single mention of

Biology really is weird.

Sailorman,
My son just turned 2, I'll have to keep an eye out for that! Thanks for the heads-up.

(seriously though, I needed that laugh. Thanks)

Dear Dana,

I really don't think your vagina has anything to do with the fact that you are incompentant and don't know how to do your job.

I think it's the fact that you are stupid.

Cheers!

I think this woman may very well be completely stupid, but I also think that she may have made these statements purposefully. I believe that the Bush administration is greasing the wheels so-to-speak for McCain's entrance into the white house and the continuance of the war in Iraq. What could be more helpful to this cause than to have the current female press secretary undermine her own intelligence thereby playing into assumptions and stereotypes about a general lack of female military intelligence and ability? A wonderfully backasswards, cynical jab at Senator Clinton's candidacy to boot!

MLEmac: Simple, he finds them in the 'Mommy and Daddy bought me this college degree for my birthday!' club.

Dubya: "Daddy says that this neat piece of paper means that people have to listen to me!"

Dana: "Yah, I know, right?"

What an embarrassment.

CJ Cregg, why aren't you real?!

This is coming from the same women that said global warming would be a good thing for humankind because less people would die cold related deaths. I'm not surprised by this 'cause she's always saying idiotic things, its actually a requirement for working in the Bush Admin. One thing is sure though, her ridiculous statements have nothing to do with the fact that she's female and everything to do with her own personal knowledge (or lack there of) as an individual.

EG--haha seriously.
it just goes to show how honestly hellbent this administration is on hiring complete and total braindead wackjobs for every position, including press secretary.

for the record--if you are a human being who speaks fluent english and you can't even come up with a probable distinction between a "carrier" and a "destroyer", you officially should not be employed in any position that requires a high school diploma, much less the appearance of any knowledge about military defenses.

With all of the military knowledge that I, as a man, have absorbed, shouldn't I be running the war?

Yeah, I'm thinking Condi probably doesn't appreciate that comment very much. :-)

Plus, since no one else has mentioned it yet, she should have said that "I think that men just by diffusion understand all of these things." Diffusion is the transferal of molecules in general. Osmosis is specifically diffusion of water molecules.

Well, you know how it is. She's a girl, so she can't possibly know the difference when it comes to all that science stuff.

Seriously, at least she's bothering to make up an excuse for her incompetence. That sets her apart from the rest of this "recession? what recession?" administration.

MLEmac, the administration actively recruits graduates of bogus Christian colleges like Regent and Liberty - where the students are trained to take over the government "for Christ." Yeah.
This woman is such an embarassment. OSMOSIS?! Not only is this remark incredibly insulting in a sexist way, she's demonstrating her abysmal understanding of simple scientific terms.

Would it have been better if Teen Talk Barbie said "Gender studies is hard"?

I haven't quite heard anything so ridiculous, and as a woman--better yet, one who did several years of research to write a book on WWI including battles, the nature of trench warfare and all--it's a personal affront to hear another woman make excuses about not knowing the basic information necessary to do her job. Any woman who has a problem learning the nuts and bolts which are necessary for even cursory tasks necessary for her position shouldn't be there in the first place. It's her responsibility to learn, on the job if necessary, the basics. I would think a sense of personal responsibility would cause her to know the job and its nuances better than expected, not suddenly want to plead ignorance because she apparently doesn't have any semblance of the work ethic.

Besides which, consider all of the women who are serving for the US Armed Forces among both the enlisted and officer ranks. This is an affront to them as well. And they pride themselves on being as capable as any man when it comes down to the moments between life and death in the trenches.

No excuse for this one.

I haven't quite heard anything so ridiculous, and as a woman--better yet, one who did several years of research to write a book on WWI including battles, the nature of trench warfare and all--it's a personal affront to hear another woman make excuses about not knowing the basic information necessary to do her job. Any woman who has a problem learning the nuts and bolts which are necessary for even cursory tasks necessary for her position shouldn't be there in the first place. It's her responsibility to learn, on the job if necessary, the basics. I would think a sense of personal responsibility would cause her to know the job and its nuances better than expected, not suddenly want to plead ignorance because she apparently doesn't have any semblance of the work ethic.

Besides which, consider all of the women who are serving for the US Armed Forces among both the enlisted and officer ranks. This is an affront to them as well. And they pride themselves on being as capable as any man when it comes down to the moments between life and death in the trenches.

No excuse for this one.