June 14, 2017

Was that Uber board member's sexist remark just an attempt to make a subtle dig at fellow board member Arianna Huffington?

I'm trying to understand this story in the NYT:
David Bonderman, an Uber board member and partner at private equity firm TPG, resigned from the board of the ride-hailing company after he made a disparaging remark about women at an Uber meeting on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day at an Uber staff meeting to discuss the company’s culture, Arianna Huffington, another board member, talked about how one woman on a board often leads to more women joining a board.

“Actually, what it shows is that it’s much more likely to be more talking,” Mr. Bonderman responded.
So Arianna Huffington talked about the value of women, maybe — I'm thinking about her specifically — she held forth annoyingly. And the guy makes a wisecrack that's funny because what it really says is that Arianna Huffington has been talking too much.

It's still a sexist remark. He dragged in other women to take a shot at one woman, and the humor depends on stereotyping if the meaning is: If you're any indication of what women on the board are going to be like, there's going to be too much talking. Ha ha. Women! They talk too much. That's the standard stereotype about women that I remember growing up with, back in the 1960s.

How old is Bonderman? 74. I'm reading his Wikipedia page. The guy went to Harvard Law School. He's a billionaire. He likes to celebrate his birthdays:
In 2002, for his 60th birthday, Bonderman had The Rolling Stones and John Mellencamp play at his birthday party at The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. John Mellencamp played for an hour, The Rolling Stones played for an hour and a half, and comedian Robin Williams entertained guests between acts. The party cost $7 million....

In 2012, for his 70th birthday party, Bonderman held a private concert by former Beatle Paul McCartney at Wynn Las Vegas for 1020 guests. Robin Williams also performed a comedy routine.
Sorry. No pity for this guy. I tried a sympathetic reading of his remark. No. He's simply awful, even assuming Arianna Huffington is mind-blowingly irritating at a board meeting. And by the way, the meeting was about dealing with the sexist culture at Uber. The company got Eric Holder to produce a 13-page report on the subject, and they're supposed to do something about it, not go back to their old ways.

Bonderman's got his 3-quarters-of-a-century birthday coming up. What if — as with Donald Trump and the presidential inauguration parties — the big stars won't show up now?

99 comments:

Ralph L said...

"You can't handle the truth!"

David Begley said...

Maybe Bonderman's resignation triggered a contracual obligation to buy his stock and he wanted out at a high price. Or maybe at 74 he didn't care for being on a board with the insufferable and incoherent Huffington. Five minutes with THAT woman is five minutes too much.

Saint Croix said...

Arianna Huffington, another board member, talked about how one woman on a board often leads to more women joining a board.

“Actually, what it shows is that it’s much more likely to be more talking,” Mr. Bonderman responded.


Arianna Huffington is a political appointment (imho) not a business appointment. It's very similar to Kleiner Perkins giving Al Gore a job. It suggests a sort of unholy alliance between a company and government. It's PC, an ugly sort of socialism, for a company to put a visible leftist on the board in order to please the government. The hope is that they can get government money (in the case of Kleiner Perkins) or in Uber's case, to be left alone and not regulated. Leftists hate Uber, and putting Arianna Huffington on the board is an attempt to placate the left.

Amadeus 48 said...

"What if — as with Donald Trump and the presidential inauguration parties — the big stars won't show up now."

Maybe Donald Trump will show up.

I'm Full of Soup said...

I bet Eric Holder wrote his report before he did any reviews. And that is what the board wanted him to do.

robother said...

They change the "War Room" to the "Peace Room"? Wait'll Arianna finally notices what the company name means.

Owen said...

Bonderman, Huffington, their fellow board members: all cut from the same cloth. This is such a nothing. "Mommy! He rolled his eyes at me!"

Who cares? He's going to age-out. Already has. Arianna is also pretty old news. Why give prominence to a struggle that is already over? As I told my gay friend after Obergefell, "You won. Now the challenge is to stop pushing on an open door. If you start shooting the wounded, you will create huge resentment." He didn't listen. I suspect the same is true of feminists.

Jersey Fled said...

I don't get it. It was just a dumb joke. Hennie Youngman couldn't get a job as a waiter in today's PC world.

Lighten up, people.

Saint Croix said...

Before Huffington, the board probably met rarely and did little. "Uber's doing great! No worries. Rubber stamp."

You can tell from the quote that Huffington is trying to do the job that she is paid to do. Move them to left. Offer helpful suggestions.

"Let's get more women driving our private cabs. We can solve these problems. We just need more women around here. Lean in, Bonderman! Lean in!"

MikeR said...

A private meeting? Someone made a dumb sexist joke. Happens all the time, women making jokes about husbands, and vice versa. This is news these day.

Saint Croix said...

Earlier in the day at an Uber staff meeting to discuss the company’s culture

He's probably annoyed that he has to sit around a table and talk about relationships.

Tank said...

It's still a sexist remark.

A true remark is not a sexist remark, it is a true remark.

Funniest remark: Eric Holder produced a 13 page report. LOL. Jesus Christ, that bigoted POS couldn't produce an honest neutral report if his life depended on it. And what's with Eric Holder anyway?

What you got here is a company moving toward convergence. Get out now men if you can.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

Sorry. No pity for this guy. I tried a sympathetic reading of his remark. No. He's simply awful,

This is what passes for intellectual thought these days. It's just plan emotionalism. Eww, I don't like him. He's grody. Therefore I'll decide whether he crossed a line on my biases.

Let's try something different. How about establishing a standard and then equally apply the standard across the board. I wonder which system is more stable and would produce fair results.

And you a law professor!

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Women! They talk too much. That's the standard stereotype about women...

Stereotypes develop for a reason.

MadisonMan said...

My kids only use Lyft.

Uber is dead.

Saint Croix said...

For those who don't know, the taxi cab industry is heavily regulated by the state.

In many places you have to buy a taxi medallion. That gives you an opportunity to operate a cab.

In New York the number of medallions have been limited for decades. The number of medallions issued in 1937 was 11,787. In 1996 the number of medallions issued was 11,787. That's the number of cabs allowed to operate in the city of New York.

Not surprisingly, the cost to get a cab has skyrocketed. In 1947 the licensing fee to own and operate a cab in New York was $2,500. By 2014, a cab license was valued at $1.2 million dollars.

And then Uber hit.

Leftists hate Uber. And the people who hate Uber the most are those rich people who own the cabs in New York City. Should have sold, buddy.

sparrow said...

Granted he's a very unsympathetic charcter but such a big deal over a single tasteless comment? I expect there was a long history of minor issues that came to a head, perhaps his earlier behavior was part of the reason for the Holder review in the first place.

dreams said...

Women are just hurting themselves and other women and we know that they make sexist comments about men. Women just need special treatment and they demand it but they're hurting themselves. What goes around comes around.

dreams said...

Political correctness destroys.

stlcdr said...

What if he wasn't an awful person? Would the outcome still be the same? It seems like this is the standard by which we (sic) determine a course of action.

Trump is (must be made to be at every opportunity) an awful person so any action for any minor transgression is wholly justified. Hillary is (must be made to be) a really nice person, and you can't do anything to nice people regardless of who they kill.

Oh, but if you are an old white guy you are automatically an awful person. Was his wisecrack funny? Most people half) would probably think so. Obviously a joke at the expense of someone else. Those who are the butt of the joke almost never see the humor, of course. While it was crass and inappropriate, it exemplifies that men and women are not 'equal'. You can have diversity or equality but not both.

Hagar said...

Woke up a little cranky this morning?

Arianna Huffington is an annoyance anytime, anywhere.

Birkel said...

One wonders why a company would hire any activist. One wonders why a company would hire anybody with a history of bombast. It might be better to hire people who are less interested in fame or making a name.

Congratulations to those who made it and pulled the various bridges up behind themselves. Jerks.

Amadeus 48 said...

In my professional experience (transactional lawyer), female lawyers were and are, by and large, the best--reliable, prudent, thorough, and full of problem-solving common sense. There is no reason to generalize negative, out-dated stereotypes in professional settings.

Arianna Huffington may well be annoying. Bonderman made a lame joke and dropped a brick on the conference table.

Eleanor said...

Driving a cab can be a dangerous job. Driving a cab can be more dangerous for a woman. Talking about the culture of a company where more men drive cabs than women isn't going to change that. It's not the culture of the company that's the problem.

holdfast said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
holdfast said...


If I see Bonderman at any of the big P/E fundraisers this year, I will have to give him a high-five.

Uber probably needed his experience a lot more than he needed the gig.

Fernandinande said...

Attendees were aghast at the exchange,
Mr. Bonderman quickly apologized for his remark.


Broken country. Sorry 'bout that.

Rae said...

You either adapt to the new rules or perish. There are groups you can't criticize, women being the first.

Saint Croix said...

There are vast gender disparities in the people who drive cabs.

From that Wikipedia article: 97% of New York City taxi drivers self-reported as male.

In the UK the figure is 98% male.

I suspect we see these ratios because cab-driving is perceived as risky and unsafe. So it's like the ratios in the coal-mining business or other industries where the risk is high.

It's risky because of the high number of intoxicated customers. Hence, not many women drivers.

dreams said...

"From that Wikipedia article: 97% of New York City taxi drivers self-reported as male."

It's a fact of life that women have to be more careful about being in dangerous situations than men.

Etienne said...

You can bet TPG will pull their investments. He bought his way onto the board, now he can cash-out.

Anonymous said...

Ha ha. Women! They talk too much. That's the standard stereotype about women that I remember growing up with, back in the 1960s.

It's still a standard stereotype in 2017 among people who have to sit through business meetings. "Stereotype" does not mean "perception that has no basis in observable reality".

You know who's really "simply awful"? The women who contribute to the stereotype that women prefer gabbing to getting stuff done. I'll take working with an old fart who makes innocuous "sexist" jokes over working with the "we'd rather talk about doing what we're supposed to be doing than do what we're supposed to be doing" ladies any day.

MayBee said...

This is not something we have to care about.

Henry said...

Lyft is loving this.

The reason Bonderman resigned is about marketing. You can't market a product to young urban professionals while acting like smarmy entitled dinosaurs.

Let's hear it for a competitive market!

rhhardin said...

There would be a lot more nagging too.

rhhardin said...

Uber needs an umlaut, us what I always think.

Ken B said...

He makes a joke you don't like he's "simply awful". Then you cite Eric Holder, who illegally smuggled guns to Mexican cartels. He's not "simply awful."

tcrosse said...

Arianna needed another women on the board so she would have somebody to go to the Ladies Room with.

rhhardin said...

It would be great if both women accidently came in wearing the same dress, though.

That's always the high point in the office.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

He isn't all the way wrong, you know. Many women do talk too much. They take the long way around instead of getting straight to the point.

Saint Croix said...

Average man speaks 7,000 words a day.

Average woman speaks 20,000 words a day.

That's a biological difference that scientists think is caused by the Foxp2 protein

rhhardin said...

Women talk about what's interesting to women.

There's so much more to say.

Robert Cook said...

"Leftists hate Uber. And the people who hate Uber the most are those rich people who own the cabs in New York City. Should have sold, buddy."

The people who own cab medallions in New York are not rich if they're also the drivers. (There may be rich people who own medallions and hire others to drive their cabs.) For drivers who are also owners of their medallion, it is a hard-bought investment in their livelihood. Drivers work long, grueling hours in sometimes dangerous areas and they don't get rich. They make a living.

Fuck Uber. I would never use them. I don't want to give my personal information to a company who employs god-knows-who as drivers and who could decide to target me for criminal gain. I also don't want to use a credit card to use a cab. I always prefer to hail a yellow cab.

dreams said...

It's a known fact that women have better verbal skills than men and some have speculated that fact might be a contributor to domestic violence.

Ken B said...

" I would never use them." Your choice, as it should be. What's objectionable are attempts to block me from using them.

tim in vermont said...

For drivers who are also owners of their medallion, it is a hard-bought investment in their livelihood.

Bought from whom? Somebody who created something? No, bought from the government which used their powers to restrict access and extort these kinds of exorbitant payments from people just trying to make a living

I would almost say this is a teachable moment for Robert Cook, that the all powerful government he regularly advocates, even though he seems to have this theory that you can coerce economic behavior without state power and a surveillance state, ends up harming the "working people" he professes to care about.

MayBee said...

Imagine if it would have been Huffington saying something about mansplaining. That would have raised not one eyebrow.

tim in vermont said...

Judging by my Millennial children, all the people who would have left Uber over this for Lyft already have because there was a Trump supporter on the board at one time. Diversity uber alles? eh?

SGT Ted said...

They only put women on the BOD to placate women who never stop talking about how sexist men are.

And yes, women run their mouths endlessly where guys tend not to. I've seen it in action.

Maybe Althouse doesn't hang out with other women?

SGT Ted said...

Women can't handle strong, opinionated men these days. They are always trying to get hem punished.

Unknown said...

I'm surprised women haven't begun a reparations movement for their millennia in bondage and servitude. Oh wait they have.

David said...

It's never a good idea to offer a dog turd at a cookie exchange.

Saint Croix said...

The people who own cab medallions in New York are not rich if they're also the drivers.

Cookie, they own a medallion that is selling for $1.4 million dollars on the market.

That is rich, dummy!

Imagine a millionaire driving a cab and saying, "I got to keep doing this because it's my livelihood."

It's like Sam Walton driving around in a pick-up truck. He's picking that means of transportation because he wants to. Not because he has to!

Clyde said...

It looks like Bonderman contributed mostly to liberal causes, so he won't have any problems getting big stars for #75. That's just the way it is.

tim in vermont said...

Feminists think that a fair and loving God created men and women equal in all respects except for those that are either physically undeniable, sexual dimorphism, ore those where women outperform men.

Feminists are either clueless idiots about the implications of their beliefs, or creationists. They clearly deny the power of evolution.

Saint Croix said...

(There may be rich people who own medallions and hire others to drive their cabs.)

I love that "may be." As if it's possible that a millionaire who owns a medallion might pay some poor immigrant who doesn't speak English to drive his cab for him.



Peter said...

I'd guess Bonderman is a joy to work with compared to the late Steve Jobs. Yet Jobs was tremendously valuable to Apple, so valuable that his seriously nasty behavior could be (and was) overlooked.

Because, promotion and retention at successful businesses are all about the value contributors bring to the business (and not so much about visibly observant of PC). Because, how stupid would it be for a successful business to fire a high-performer who occasionally says (or does) something that might offend?


Saint Croix said...

Drivers work long, grueling hours in sometimes dangerous areas and they don't get rich. They make a living.

Yeah, no shit. Maybe you ought to distinguish between "owners" and "drivers."

PB said...

Uber is about to be crushed by all the professionals being brought in to help

cubanbob said...

Robert Cook imagine NYC taxi cabs without medallions and you would find that would be Uber or Lyft or the other ridesharing services. Imagine....it's easy if you try.....

Levi Starks said...

What percentage of men making sexist remarks make it ok to stereotype men in general as being sexist?

Sebastian said...

"So Arianna Huffington talked about the value of women, maybe — I'm thinking about her specifically — she held forth annoyingly." Putting her on a board is protection payment to the left. Except it doesn't work: the left will still destroy you if they like.

"It's still a sexist remark. He dragged in other women to take a shot at one woman, and the humor depends on stereotyping" So any comment "dragging in other women," even if true, is "sexist"? A comment aimed specifically at Huffington, "you talk too much," "stick to the point," would have been fine and non-sexist? Pray tell, how many instances are there of a woman "dragging in other men" in, in a way that causes her to lose a job or position, due to "sexism"? Actually, the real pragmatic criterion for 'sexism" is: any damn thing a man says that a woman doesn't/women don't like, ands can bitch about in public.

"That's the standard stereotype about women that I remember growing up with, back in the 1960s." Quite a lot of research on the subject now. Try Lee Jussim.

"No. He's simply awful, even assuming Arianna Huffington is mind-blowingly irritating at a board meeting." Sure, it's awful when men speak truth about women. And you can tell male awfulness from a single comment at a single meeting, men are easy to read that way.

"And by the way, the meeting was about dealing with the sexist culture at Uber." Why is it not sexist to impose a culture that prevents men from expressing themselves humorously, in a way that no man would ever take offense at? Why is it not sexist to assume that women are so fragile that a single "awful" comment should lead to dismissal because the ladies can't handle it?

"The company got Eric Holder to produce a 13-page report on the subject, and they're supposed to do something about it, not go back to their old ways." Another protection payment that backfires.

If women don't like to work for all these sexist companies, and are suffering under gross oppression, why don't they mobilize all the undervalued and put-upon female talent and set up their own damn companies?

Bandit said...

Har-dee-har-har!

People seriously need to get over themselves

Arianna Huffypants didn't like it? BFD

urbane legend said...

Virtually Unknown said...
Feminists think that a fair and loving God created men and women equal in all respects except for those that are either physically undeniable, ...
There isn't any of that physically undeniable anymore, is there? I thought that's what transgenderism is about. Well, that and mental illness.

Feminists are either clueless idiots about the implications of their beliefs, or creationists. They clearly deny the power of evolution.
Clueless for $2,000, Alex.

William said...

He's a billionaire. He's used to people laughing at his jokes. That gave him a false sense of security......It was a lame joke, but it wasn't especially hateful. I suppose you could say that if he showed such bad judgment in making such a joke, his bad judgment would bleed into other areas of board affairs but, again, it's not like he arrived at the board with a mock up of Ariana's severed head.......Well, he's a billionaire, and he can retreat into some enclave where people will continue to laugh at his jokes, so this is not such a sad story for him.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Ann Althouse said...Sorry. No pity for this guy. I tried a sympathetic reading of his remark. No. He's simply awful, even assuming Arianna Huffington is mind-blowingly irritating at a board meeting.

I make it a policy to avoid feeling sorry for billionaires. This guy said a stupid thing in pretty close to the exact wrong context to say that kind of stupid thing, so resigning feels appropriate. I don't own any Uber stock so the fortunes of their executive board mean nothing to me.
Still--"He's simply awful?" This is a 74 year old man. He's done things in his life and presumably had a lot of success. I don't know anything about him other than what you've presented, and maybe you know a lot of other stuff about him, but it seems very harsh to conclude he is "simply awful" just from what's stated here. What he said was awful, especially in the context it was said, sure. Is that really enough to condemn the man himself, as being awful?
Seems harsh, ma'am. I read a lot from nice left-centrist types about how I have a duty to not judge, to forgive, to look for root causes and excuse small lapses (usually int he context of criminal activity, mind you) while adopting a loving attitude toward my fellow man. Concluding a guy is "simply awful" just on the (alleged) facts presented here seems counter to that spirit.

fivewheels said...

Anyone here heard of Colin Moriarty? He was a videogame journalist, worked at IGN, then started a YouTube company with some friends. He was a significant figure in that community, but he's a vanishingly rare specimen: A libertarian/conservative in the games industry. That earned him a lot of enemies.

On the day of the women's march, he tweeted: "Ah, peace and quiet. #ADayWithoutAWoman" The shitstorm that ensued cost him his position at the company he founded and resulted in SJWs hounding him to the ends of Twitter.

Later that week, he set up a Patreon for his new YouTube channel, which would focus on politics and history rather than games. After seeing how he had been treated by the bullying left, that Patreon rose to $40,000 per month, because most people are not delicate flowers who wilt in the face of a '50s-style quip, and the hysteria caused pushback and support. All's well that ends well.

Anonymous said...

It's funny cause it's true!

Anonymous said...

Saint Croix:

Average man speaks 7,000 words a day.

Average woman speaks 20,000 words a day.


Fake news.

That's a biological difference that scientists think is caused by the Foxp2 protein

Not really.

FIDO said...

This is an awful lot of hate for what is an incredibly mild 'sexist' comment, Ann.

So should you lose your pension if you ever spoke disparagingly about men?

No sympathy for women anymore on 'ugly things said about the gender' considering the Gender Civil War going on.

Anonymous said...

Saint-Croix: Imagine a millionaire driving a cab and saying, "I got to keep doing this because it's my livelihood."

A million dollars ain't what it used to be. Especially in an expensive city.

(That said, one would be surprised to find someone with a net worth of a million dollars driving the cab themselves. On the other hand, I wouldn't be shocked, either, to find one cab driving, or in any other "poor person" occupation. The flip-side of the over-extended "comfortable" person with McMansion, new cars, and seriously negative net-worth.)

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
n.n said...

[class] diversity (i.e. race, sex, color) is a legal and progressive standard of judgment. Another doctrine normalized/promoted under the Pro-Choice religious/moral/legal standard.

Todd said...

FIDO said...

So should you lose your pension if you ever spoke disparagingly about men?

6/14/17, 9:54 AM


You mean like referring to men as a "splooge stooge"?

TestTube said...

The issue isn't so much pity as it is empathy.

I am not a billionaire, nor do I sit on boards. I am a working schlub who could easily be replaced. I am a lot less powerful and a lot more vulnerable than this guy, should anyone on a rampage be looking for an easy scalp to take.

So when I see witch hunts like this, I figure I could be the next one on the pyre.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Fuck Uber. I would never use them. I don't want to give my personal information to a company who employs god-knows-who as drivers and who could decide to target me for criminal gain. I also don't want to use a credit card to use a cab. I always prefer to hail a yellow cab.

It doesn't happen in this comment, but in many like this one the expressed sentiment is immediately followed up with "I support laws and regulations that prevent Uber from operating." I don't want to put words into another commenter's mouth but I wouldn't be wholly surprised if this commenter felt that way, too.
If you don't like a company or their service, don't use 'em. Lots of people do like the company and their service and do use 'em. Market capitalism, baby!

HoodlumDoodlum said...

This is a useful data point for calibration purposes, though.

1 seemingly off the cuff sexist remark (in a particularly bad setting/context) = "awful person" in the eyes of a nice left-centrist like the Professor.

Noted.

tcrosse said...

I can imagine it sounding like and exchange between Merv and ZsaZsa.

n.n said...

referring to men as a "splooge stooge"

Good example. Also "mansplaining".

And wives and mothers at home as "barefoot and pregnant", implying rape or perhaps rape-rape.

Human life from conception to birth as a quasi-human entity, "fetus", that can be deemed unworthy/unviable and summarily aborted and/or cannibalized (a la Planned Parenthood).

Pro-Choice is a many selective thing run amuck.

Beach Brutus said...

"'Actually, what it shows is that it’s much more likely to be more talking,' Mr. Bonderman responded."

"I am woman -- hear me roar."

... oops

Michael said...

Bonderman is right, of course. I have been on a couple of boards with female members and they do talk. Ditto female Uber drivers.

Michael said...

Robert Cook

I use both Yellows and Uber when in Manhattan. UberX is borderline cheaper and always cleaner and a smoother ride. I am of the opinion that the suspension systems are removed from Yellows the day they are purchased. I can get seriously carsick from LaGuardia. Cabs now take credit cards but it is an excruciating process. Uber a much better way to go. And they do not give one shit about your "personal information"

Todd said...

Michael said... [hush]​[hide comment]
Robert Cook

I use both Yellows and Uber when in Manhattan. UberX is borderline cheaper and always cleaner and a smoother ride. I am of the opinion that the suspension systems are removed from Yellows the day they are purchased. I can get seriously carsick from LaGuardia. Cabs now take credit cards but it is an excruciating process. Uber a much better way to go. And they do not give one shit about your "personal information"

6/14/17, 11:02 AM


And you don't have to fight with the "mini-TV" [behind the front seats] to turn down the volume (cause you can't turn them off).

Not sure of many of the NY cabs have these but I have encountered them in other cities...

Big Mike said...

@Althouse, you women will be the equal of us men when you learn to take a joke instead of running around yelling "Sexist! Sexist! Sexist!"

FWIW, I rather doubt that David Bonderman became a "billionaire businessman" by talking instead of doing. If you were as cruelly neutral as you imagine yourself to be, you might have considered that angle.

Big Mike said...

I had been resisting putting the Uber app on my iPhone, but now that I see Cookie is opposed to Uber I am obliged to rethink my position.

holdfast said...

Recent mayors of NY have caused the value of medallions to decline to a relative fraction of their prior value - by issuing a bunch more medallions. Which was good, because the people of NY needed more cabs, and anyone investing in a government-granted cartel should know it's a risky business. That said, a lot of medallions were owned in shares by upper middle class folks - 10 friends all put in a $150k investment to buy a medallion, and then they lease the use of the medallion to a taxi company which owns the cars and hires the drivers, the vast majority of which are the freshest off the boat immigrants, though also occasionally college students or working class guys doing it as a second job.

NY yellow cabs (and yellow-green cabs, for outer areas of the City - a good innovation) now all smoothly take credit cards and most are reasonably well kempt these days. The TV can be shut off or muted, with a little digging for the correct button.

I use both yellow cabs and Uber in the city - both have their optimum uses.

Jeff Brokaw said...

Lighten up, Francis.

Robert Cook said...

"'I would never use them.' Your choice, as it should be. What's objectionable are attempts to block me from using them."

And how have I attempted to block you from using Uber? Or is it others who are trying to block you?

Robert Cook said...

"I had been resisting putting the Uber app on my iPhone, but now that I see Cookie is opposed to Uber I am obliged to rethink my position."

Well that's a dumb reason to change your mind.

Big Mike said...

@Cookie, just s little bit of humor.

Robert Cook said...

Yes, I know.

Todd said...

Big Mike said...

I had been resisting putting the Uber app on my iPhone...

6/14/17, 11:50 AM


I installed and signed up for Uber earlier this year. Have only used it a few times but had extremely pleasant experiences every time. I tend to reserve Uber for when I know I will over indulge so as to not take the risk of trying to drive myself home. Simple, convenient, and responsive. What more could you ask?

Bad Lieutenant said...

Dust Bunny Queen said...
He isn't all the way wrong, you know. Many women do talk too much. They take the long way around instead of getting straight to the point.

6/14/17, 8:16 AM
Saint Croix said...
Average man speaks 7,000 words a day.

Average woman speaks 20,000 words a day.

That's a biological difference that scientists think is caused by the Foxp2 protein

6/14/17, 8:24 AM


Ann...can't handle...the TRUUUUTH!

Ann...can't handle...the TRUUUUTH!

Ann...can't handle...the TRUUUUTH!

Bad Lieutenant said...

Oh, sorry Ralph.

readering said...

Bonderman was attending an all-hands meeting following issuance of a legal report on pervasive sexism at his company and an announcement is being made that a woman is being added to his board. And in that context he feels privileged to make an insulting, sexist comment ostensibly directed at both the person speaking and the new board member. You have to wonder if there is senility involved, which is not a good look for a hedge fund entrusted with the big bucks of rich people and pension funds. No wonder he promptly "considered his position", as the Brits say (with his seat no doubt to be filled by someone else at his hedge fund).

Bad Lieutenant said...

But readering, if no one has the courage to tell the truth, how are (some) women ever going to learn to put a cork in it? Bonderman showed the kind of bravery that comes with wealth and age.

Real American said...

it's funny b/c it's true.

cf said...

"even assuming Arianna Huffington is mind-blowingly irritating at a board meeting."

Really, Ms. Althouse? I would have to say, that is exactly when this wiseCrack would be splendid, like an ice cold glass of lemonade after a sweltering afternoon.

Simplistic, maximum righteous judgment words like sexist and racist have fenced off vast tracks of our frisky minds and spirits, golly gee.

It has almost been 60 years since the 60s. We are liberated already, can't we take a joke?

Biff said...

The whole idea of getting "Eric Holder to produce a 13-page report on the subject" is to avoid having to do something about the subject.