I’m back from my brief diversion into the savage wilderness of Wisconsin, so I thought it only appropriate to tell you all about the wonders that Governor Scott Walker has wrought.
I saw a lot of “recall Walker” signs. How can they do that to such a sweet guy?
673 comments
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ChasCPeterson
26 December 2011 at 9:04 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
A Weapon Brown Xmas
not exactly feel-good
shouldbeworking
26 December 2011 at 9:12 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Wow. Is this a Wisconsin version of “for Brutus is an honourable man”?
'Tis Himself, OM.
26 December 2011 at 9:25 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hey, there’s good things in Wisconsin. Give me a few days and I’ll think of some.
shouldbeworking
26 December 2011 at 9:32 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Reasons why Wisconsin is good….
10. It’s not east Texas
9.
theophontes, Hexanitroisowurtzitanverwendendes_Bärtierchen
26 December 2011 at 9:49 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
More disconcerting than how bestial the Koch Brothers are in their feelings of entitlement, is how they pronounce their own surname. They owe absolutely everything to their predecessors, …really… everything. They should at least show a modicum of respect by learning to pronounce their own surname. Come on kiddies… KoCH…. with ending like the KH in Khartoum… at least get one thing right.
'Tis Himself, OM.
26 December 2011 at 9:51 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I might be banned from Ed Brayton’s blog. I just criticized Ron Paul and “his hateful ideology.” I know Ed doesn’t like Paul as a candidate but Ed is a libertarian who might not like someone calling his pet socio-political fascination “hateful.”
changeable moniker
26 December 2011 at 10:03 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Merry Christmas from the TSA: Cupcakes deemed a security threat. ;)
Happiestsadist
26 December 2011 at 10:12 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
‘Tis, that’s a pretty impressively dumb reason to ban someone. Hell, most of the libertoonians I’ve seen just try to somehow claim Paul’s not a true Scotsman anyway. But then, expecting much sense from a libertarian about libertarianism is a bit much to hope for. (And I say that enjoying many of Ed’s posts.)
Ms. Daisy Cutter
26 December 2011 at 10:22 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hell, Ed can’t even wrap his mind around the fact that a bigot who is “nice” to the people she believes should be oppressed is still a bigot.
alysonmiers
26 December 2011 at 11:13 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I might soon be the cause of a great deal of consternation on my grandfather’s part. He recently found my (atheist) novel on Amazon and I can’t stop him from reading it. My grandfather the Presbyterian minister’s son is about to find out that his granddaughter is a heathen. I’m trying to convince myself that he’ll be understanding. He’s a very loving grandfather, really.
Happiestsadist
26 December 2011 at 11:19 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Good luck, alysonmiers. If you’re already close, it could go well.
jamescasterlin
26 December 2011 at 11:31 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Atheist novel? What is the name I would like to read it?
alysonmiers
26 December 2011 at 11:42 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@happiestsadist Thank you. I honestly don’t know how he’ll feel about the philosophy involved. I’m hoping he just goes with the “oh, look, my granddaughter put a lot of effort into this story!” angle.
@jamescasterlin it is called Charlnder’s Walk.
@Tis, if Ed bans you from his blog, it’ll be his loss.
Psych-Oh
26 December 2011 at 11:43 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Good luck alysonmiers. Let us know how it goes.
Caine, Fleur du Mal
26 December 2011 at 11:47 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Happy Monkey, all! I hope the holiday was good for everyone. It was a nice, quiet one here, the Cephalopodmas trees were beautiful, the gifties appreciated.
We watched movies, Mister made his whiskey hamburgers and we had pumpkin pie for dessert. :D
We were going to go into town today to hunt for a blu-ray player* but it’s very, very windy, so we’ll go tomorrow instead.
*Any suggestions on this score?
jamescasterlin
26 December 2011 at 11:53 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Looks awesome can’t wait to read it
bastionofsass
26 December 2011 at 12:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ugh, this insipid comment about Christopher Hitchens was published today in The Baltimore Sun in Susan Reimer’s column:
Uh, Susan, Christopher is gone. He’s DEAD. There’s no need to “wonder where he is now.” He surely didn’t go to some mythological place ruled by a mysterious magical superbeing, nor is he partying in the equally mythological hell. His corpse has been donated to medical science.
I did chuckle at your implication that you have some population density data for both heaven and hell.
Your silly speculations about Hitchens’ post-death whereabouts are good examples of the kind of superstitious nonsense that exasperated Hitchens.
feralboy12
26 December 2011 at 12:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I see Newt Gingrich is comparing his failure to get on the ballot in Virginia with the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Oh, the humanity. It’s good to see the guy has things in perspective.
Caine, Fleur du Mal
26 December 2011 at 12:33 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hmmm. Seems to me it would be the other way around, no? (We have population stats for imaginary places now?)
Hell would seem to bear a resemblance to my everyday life.
Beatrice, anormalement indécente
26 December 2011 at 12:35 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
So… hell is populated by a few defiant atheists. Murderers, rapists, everyone but those nasty unrepentant atheists can be forgiven.
shouldbeworking
26 December 2011 at 12:42 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
If Beatrice is correct, a peaceful nonbeliever like me would be much safer in hell, as well as more entertained by the occupants and better educated by the books. Plus the booze? Where do I sign up?
Sili
26 December 2011 at 12:45 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Well, feralboy,
He is a
nhistorian. Don’t you do dare question his authority.The Sailor
26 December 2011 at 12:48 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Considering the people I’ve known and respected in life, who’ve all been told at some point we’re going to hell; I would rather serve in hell, than go to heaven.
++++++++++++
Caine, any rat stories from Xmas?
+++++++++++++
Religion ruins (almost) everything: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/26/jewish-gender-segregation-campaign-turns-violent/
Beatrice, anormalement indécente
26 December 2011 at 12:49 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hm, it is difficult to conclude who exactly goes to Susan’s hell only from those two sentences, but it does sound like an interesting place to be. If nothing else, it wouldn’t be too crowded. I hate crowds. Books, wine and interesting conversation on the other hand…mmm.
chigau (難しい)
26 December 2011 at 12:54 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Caine
I still own a VHS player.
I expect to get to blu-ray after the next innovation.
The Sailor
26 December 2011 at 12:56 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Aaaaaaargh; RULE in heaven!
(Jeebus, I’m easily distrcted today. I’m watching a marathon of Inside The Actors Studio.)
alysonmiers
26 December 2011 at 1:04 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Well, Susan Reimer makes Hell sound like a lot more fun. I’ll take the booze, books and good friends, thanks.
Caine, Fleur du Mal
26 December 2011 at 1:09 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The Sailor:
Oh, nothing standout. Rubin is still a major skitterbiscuit, but adjusting well. Chas kept busy trying to steal any cephalopod ornament I was working on (and did make off with a squid at one point) and stomping through my paint palette. Esme should be a carpet remover, she digs and chews until she gets sizable pieces up, given the opportunity. (No carpet in my studio, but there is carpet in the bathroom – which I intend to get rid of anyway.)
They all got a small plate of baked beans for an Xmas treat (all three of them think baked beans are the finest of foods) and peanut butter for dessert.
Chas & Esme both evinced interest in my, uh, smoking material and successfully stole a joint a few days ago, took me hours to find it. They only chomped on it a few times.
'Tis Himself, OM.
26 December 2011 at 1:10 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
So what? I still own a manual typewriter. That doesn’t mean I still use it.
I’m thinking of giving the keys to this guy to use in a steampunk keyboard.
Caine, Fleur du Mal
26 December 2011 at 1:11 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Chigau:
Yeah, we do too. I want Serenity* and Futurama 6 on blu-ray though, so it’s time for a player.
*I have the DVD, but they put all the good extras on blu-ray these days.
ibyea
26 December 2011 at 1:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@Tis
I really don’t get the love for Ron Paul. Even among liberals. Seriously, the guy is loony when it comes to economic ideas, and plus there are issues like abortion and racism which for me seriously discredits him.
The Sailor
26 December 2011 at 1:44 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thanks Caine, that was exactly the kinda fix I was looking for;-)
++++++++++++
I had a perfect Xmas, I didn’t receive any gifts and I got to not see my family*, hang out in my sweats watching Dr Who.
* I love my family, I just don’t like most of them
carlie
26 December 2011 at 1:52 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Today the radio show Tell Me More interviewed the doctor in charge of the adolescent gender transition clinic that was the focus of the NYTimes article I and a few other people linked to a week or so ago: website.
carlie
26 December 2011 at 1:52 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sorry, that was a link to the general show page. story link
Julien Rousseau
26 December 2011 at 2:16 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
HappiestSadist, can i take you up on your offer from a couple of threads ago:
I would have preferred to do it myself as seeing it in the flesh (quite literally) would be more impactful than a picture but my attempt was not legible enough.
So if you could do it for me that would be nice. My email is firstname.lastname and it is a gmail adress, or you can post it on the web and link to it in this thread if you want to.
I also have other various pictures from the web but like I said in my original post, what I am looking for is something which says:
“There is no god!”
With the exclamation point showing that they got it wrong when they said “there is no god but allah and mohammed is his prophet”, they should have stopped after the first 4 words to get it right.
Another I would like is:
“Skin writing is not a miracle.”
If they believe that skin writing is a miracle and the message says it is not a miracle then it is a logical contradiction.
There is of course an approximately 0% chance that they will stop being deluded about their god but if I can introduce a little bit of rational thinking so that when somebody claims something is a miracle they don’t take it at face value and try to first explain it naturally then that would be a good thing (and something with a small chance of happening).
Thanks in advance for the pictures.
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
26 December 2011 at 3:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@Caine,
I have to know what one of these is…
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
26 December 2011 at 3:35 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My 36:
Sorry… I am alcoherent today (out for boxing day lunch and drinking ever since) so that didn’t come out at all right…
Pray tell, what is a whiskey hamburger?
SC (Salty Current), OM
26 December 2011 at 3:40 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
…
1. CHEESE.
The Sailor
26 December 2011 at 3:50 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Reasons why Wisconsin is good….
9) it has shore on Lake Michigan!
Caine, Fleur du Mal
26 December 2011 at 3:52 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Serendipity, those are Mister’s hamburgers, done up with herbs and spices and flamed with whiskey at the end. Tasty.
John Morales
26 December 2011 at 4:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Is it bad of me to be amused at the strangely inappropriate spamming I see before me?
Recent Comments
Toy Story Party Ideas on Steve Jobs is dead
The Sailor
26 December 2011 at 4:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
2) It’s not west Texas.
a_ray_in_dilbert_space
26 December 2011 at 4:10 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
‘Tis Himself,
I think that to those on the left, Paul’s comparative pacifism is appealing. I have to say that I wish that we could pull back from our military commitments in Europe, Korea, etc. The US is no longer in a position to be the globe’s policeman…the Pax Americana–in all its bloody, war-filled glory–is over.
I also think that there is such disillusionment on the left with gummint, that many are tempted by the idea of shrinking it. Let’s face it, there are stupid folks on the left as well.
The problem with politics is that we all have things we value above all else, and the left is much worse at putting those aside so that something good can be achieved.
Frankly, I am wondering whether Paul might try a 3rd party bid when he fails to get the nomination, especially if he comes close. The most likely nominees are certainly no friend to his agenda.
kristinc, ~delicate snowflake~
26 December 2011 at 4:24 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’m feeling really very sorry for myself today. It’s just me and one sproglet in the house, and all I wanted to do was sit in my new jimjams and catch up on Mark Watches Doctor Who. But my connection is buggy and it appears to be entirely up to the whim of a capricious and sadistic interweb god whether I can stare slackjawed at what I want to any given moment.
Oh, my first world problems.
cicely, Disturber of the Peas
26 December 2011 at 4:35 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ginger was available at least as far back as The Forme of Cury, and was a component of the powder forte spice mixture that crops up in period recipes.
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Best of luck, alysonmiers.
-
8) It’s not Oklahoma.
-
The Sailor
26 December 2011 at 4:41 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
“the left is much worse at putting those aside so that something good can be achieved.”
ARID, nope. The right is fractured between crazy and insane. They are doubling down on teh stupid to win the primaries. No way in hell they can field a candidate that can win the general election.
shouldbeworking
26 December 2011 at 4:41 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Typewriter? I still have my slide rule and I know how to use it. One day I had just loaned out my two calculators to students for a physics quiz when I realized I didn’t have the answer key. Out comes the slide rule and I have the answers worked out. None of the students believed I had the right answers.
I didn’t know Wisconsin was known for its cheese. Must be some local fad.
carlie
26 December 2011 at 4:46 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Reasons Wisconsin is good:
3) Farmer’s market in Madison
2) all the restaurants along the way between the university campus and the farmer’s market in Madison
Weed Monkey
26 December 2011 at 4:46 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
shouldbeworking, see the Pffft of all knowledge
:)
Happiestsadist
26 December 2011 at 4:52 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Julien: as it turns out, our camera is not just out of batteries, apparently it’s broken. Sorry. :( (I wanted to use my Stupid Human Trick for good!)
Tethys
26 December 2011 at 5:00 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Reasons why Wisconsin is good….
9) it has shore on Lake Michigan!
8) And Lake Superior
7) apostle islands / sea caves
6) lake trout
7) blueberries
6) some of my best friends live there
5) football team owned by the city of Green Bay
4) Beer
3-1 Cheese
Rey Fox
26 December 2011 at 5:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Don’t forget the Dells.
changeable moniker
26 December 2011 at 5:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
7) I once bought a nice pair of shoes in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Rey Fox
26 December 2011 at 5:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh, and the House on the rock, and Taliesen. If I can get a few days off this year, I want to do a cheesehead road trip, since it’s not too terribly far from me.
changeable moniker
26 December 2011 at 5:24 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Damn you, Tethys! I thought #7 was unclaimed … ;)
Classical Cipher, Murmur Muris, OM
26 December 2011 at 5:38 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hahaha! I’ve been reading almost nothing but Mark Watches and Mark Reads for like, weeks.
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
26 December 2011 at 5:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@Caine,
I can’t even guess how one would discover flambé and hamburgers, I have never managed to actually light alcohol even on the xmas pudding :D
shouldbeworking
26 December 2011 at 6:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thanks for the link Weed Monkey. I really didn’t know Wisconsin was famous for its cheese. Occasionally I see plates from Idaho up here in Alberta so I know Idaho grows potatoes.
Caine, Fleur du Mal
26 December 2011 at 6:11 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Rev. BDC, thanks for the recommend on the bee book. Gave it to Mister last night and he started reading today and is almost finished now.
'Tis Himself, OM.
26 December 2011 at 6:14 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Nope, wrong. The Green Bay Packers are a publicly owned company.
Ms. Daisy Cutter
26 December 2011 at 6:15 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Good things about Wisconsin?
Um… it’s fuckin’ trippy!
Caine, Fleur du Mal
26 December 2011 at 6:15 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Serendipitydawg:
Mister’s a pyro.
'Tis Himself, OM.
26 December 2011 at 6:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Caine,
I love the drawing on your refrigerator.
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
26 December 2011 at 6:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Caine,
So am I but I draw the line at burning drinkable alcohol!
I can see I have missed out on a whole genre of cookery.
Caine, Fleur du Mal
26 December 2011 at 6:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
‘Tis:
Thank you. There are more on the walls and dishwasher.
Tethys
26 December 2011 at 6:50 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Lacrosse Wisconsin is home to the giant six pack
Well that’s even better. A publicly owned non-profit professional sports team.
Ing: I SPEAK FOR THE HIVEMIND GROUPTHINK
26 December 2011 at 7:15 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Mass Effect 2: No one left behind, woot go me.
——————————————
So what do people think about this Anonymous “lulzmas”?
kristinc, ~delicate snowflake~
26 December 2011 at 7:24 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hah, my feeling-sorry-for-myself post was originally composed at about 2 this afternoon and did not post because, yes, the co0nnection went down. Mr kristinc came home a few minutes ago and did some jiggery-pokery and now it’s popped up out of the ether. :/
Classical_cipher! High five for nerdy flailing and fansquee and gifs! o/*
a_ray_in_dilbert_space
26 December 2011 at 7:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The Sailor: “No way in hell they can field a candidate that can win the general election.”
To those of us old enough to remember the elections in 1980 and 2000, your reassurances are…well, not reassuring. Americans are stupid and getting stupider. They are also racist as fuck. If the wrong voters stay home on election day, we could easily have a President Gingrich or President Bachman. The only hope I hold out is a third party bid by Ron Paul.
Julien Rousseau
26 December 2011 at 7:31 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Happiestsadist:
Oh well, thanks anyway. I have a variety of samples from the web, just not as targeted.
kristinc, ~delicate snowflake~
26 December 2011 at 7:33 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
… and high five for getting Classical Cipher’s nick all fucked up! Sorry.
Classical Cipher, Murmur Muris, OM
26 December 2011 at 7:38 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
High fives! ^.^ \o
changeable moniker
26 December 2011 at 7:42 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
arids:
Some of us (even those of us outside the USA) remember them, and even (!) some of the the other elections …
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
26 December 2011 at 7:48 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Caine:
This is my preferred pyro. I am one of the bodies inside the oval and that is a seven pound gerb.
Happy days :D
shouldbeworking
26 December 2011 at 7:51 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Wow, the school board lawyers and the chemistry teacher next door would love to see that!
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
26 December 2011 at 8:01 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Still brings a smile to my face. One of our final displays before winding the company up was this one. If it hadn’t been for 9/11 we would still be going but these days we just fire a couple of much smaller shows a year.
SallyStrange, Spawn of Cthulhu
26 December 2011 at 8:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I got lots of nice yarn for Christmas. So I can do lots of cool projects. :)
Also “Religion Explained” by Pascal Boyer. So far it’s awesome.
How about youse guys?
Benjamin "Killer Pawn" Geiger
26 December 2011 at 8:58 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Some photos from the past couple of days:
Buster being curious.
Rebel paying attention to the camera.
Buster afraid of a stray cat.
Yo dawg, I herd u liek gators…
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
26 December 2011 at 9:10 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Good evening SallyStrange…
Snuff (excellent), Last Continent (surprising omission from my bookshelves over the years)
Bottle of Merlot
Beer
2 chocolate santas (white with darker hightlights and dark with light highlights)
Assorted favourtite foodstuffs
Nice XD
SallyStrange, Spawn of Cthulhu
26 December 2011 at 9:16 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Favorite gifts given: plush E. Coli for mom (she’s a nurse), plush H. pylorii (ulcer-causing bacterium) for sister’s baby, and plush bright green nerve cell for brother’s baby.
Still haven’t gotten into Terry Pratchett. Oh well. At least I know I have something to look forward to someday.
kristinc, ~delicate snowflake~
26 December 2011 at 9:16 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Nice new pajamas, a cordless screwdriver, a block plane, some hard to find perfume decants I was wishing for, fantastic merino wool boot socks (my mother in law has been well trained in the art of gift socks and I look forward to them all fall and winter). I’m a lucky person.
carlie
26 December 2011 at 9:22 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ben – nice closeups!
I eschew gifts for myself at Christmas. That said, I got myself the comfiest pair of pajamas ever at Kmart the day after thanksgiving, so I think that counts, and I got myself the cookbook “Make the bread, buy the butter”, got a little money from my in-laws, and the package from my parents hasn’t arrived yet.
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
26 December 2011 at 9:22 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I got into him in the very early days when he was somewhat sillier – I was much sillier then, so his writing really appealed to me. Over the years his writing has matured and though it is still funny, the themes are more deeply developed. Snuff is another book centring around Vimes so it is somewhat darker than a book like Unseen Academicals (as was Nightwatch and Thud.)
SallyStrange, Spawn of Cthulhu
26 December 2011 at 9:29 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Nice, kristinc! I got some nice warm socks as well. But my brother-in-law got LOTS of socks. On account of all of his socks were ruined when Hurricanes Irene and Lee flooded Sis and BiL out of their house.
There was the usual Christmas eve party at the greenhouse filled with delicious seafood edibles.
Also, my mom insisted we go to Christmas eve service at the local UU church, and invited our friend Krishna, who is an awesome guy, Indian physics professor who’s interested in “spiritual ecology” and once requested to clean outhouses as a way of subverting his Brahman upbringing. I knew him when I was a kid, wrote him letters when I was in high school, but hadn’t seen him since before I went to India myself. So it was a good time. And the UU service was charming and hokey as usual. There was a modern retelling of the miraculous baby birth, with the birth taking place in a WalMart bathroom, persecuted Hispanic legal citizens Jose and Maria as the parents, and idealistic college students standing in for the 3 Kings and protecting the parents from nosy, prejudiced cops. Ahh, UU church. Nice to know some things haven’t changed AT ALL since I was a kid. They apparently have a new rug, but that’s about it.
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
26 December 2011 at 9:30 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Blimey, it’s 03:30 here. I think it’s time to go to sleep!
Goodnight all.
The Sailor
26 December 2011 at 9:31 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ben, it looks like Rebel posed for you. Nice shots. (I get the gator gator, cool presents for a kid.)
SallyStrange, Spawn of Cthulhu
26 December 2011 at 9:31 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Gnight S-Dawg.
You don’t mind if I call you S-Dawg, I hope.
Classical Cipher, Murmur Muris, OM
26 December 2011 at 9:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thanks to Cicely for pointing us toward The Spoon Theory. It is a fantastic article that I’ll be saving forever. It also almost immediately inspired me to write a blog post using a different spoon analogy.
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
26 December 2011 at 9:34 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I wouldn’t mind whatever you called me…
XD
ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Caine, Fleur du Mal
26 December 2011 at 9:46 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Xmas loot…I received a quarter of smoke, Mister got:
A giant remote controlled helicopter, the book The Beekeeper’s Lament, a Periodic beer glass, a gyroscope and bacon-flavour popcorn. :D
carlie
26 December 2011 at 9:51 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Looooove today’s teefury.com shirt: Horton heard a Who.
SallyStrange, Spawn of Cthulhu
26 December 2011 at 9:52 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Bacon-flavoured popcorn! Now I haz a jellus.
And the thing about the smoke reminds me: *pfffft* ahhhhhhh…
Caine, Fleur du Mal
26 December 2011 at 10:05 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sally:
Right here. Pretty good, too. :D
SallyStrange, Spawn of Cthulhu
26 December 2011 at 10:19 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hey, all I have to do for bacon-flavored popcorn is to save some bacon fat and use it instead of oil to pop my corn? Fuck this artificial flavor stuff! I think I have some bacon fat in my freezer RIGHT NOW! Back in a few…
The Sailor
26 December 2011 at 10:19 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Spooooon!
Benjamin "Killer Pawn" Geiger
26 December 2011 at 10:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’m debating getting a US passport, thanks to the ridiculous voter suppression law here in Florida. Are there any particular issues I’m likely to run into?
I’m going to get three copies of my birth certificate: one for my records, one for the DMV, and one for the Department of State. Should I get more?
Benjamin "Killer Pawn" Geiger
26 December 2011 at 10:24 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
SallyStrange:
If I hadn’t had that glass of whiskey, I’d go to Wallyworld and pick up some bacon just to do precisely that. (I guess I’ll do it tomorrow.)
cicely, Disturber of the Peas
26 December 2011 at 10:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I got The Poisoner’s Handbook, Black Bag Jobs, and much chocolate. :)
-
Not my doing, and I’m due no credit; someone up-Thread linked to it; I only adapted the idea for a D&D approach, as applicable to my out-of-warranty (60/40 blend of Suck and FAIL) knees.
-
NovaC
26 December 2011 at 10:31 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hiya folks! I’ll catch up with the thread in a bit but I’ve had an encounter with a woomeister. Gina Pera is a journalist (and now,apparently,an expert) who wrote a book called ‘Is It You, Me, or Adult ADD’. She seems to now be branching out into medical advice. The following is an account of a FB conversation with the name of a relative of mine removed.
NovaC
Nova Parrozzo Casterlin
Sorry to bring my aggravation with woomeisters here, but this woman is out of her tree…completely barking mad.
Nova
James: (Hubby)
Ok so pretend for a second there is a magical gift giving fairy the only thing I would ever ask for is for you or it to heal my wifes back and let her be pain free.Anything else I can get or achieve myself
Gina Pera(Author/expert): Give the gift of magnesium (and maybe Pilates!).
James: Gina if it were only that easy.five to seven herniated discs make that impossible. Surgery is the only option at this point and it brings tears to my eyes to think what she goes through everyday
Gina Pera: Poor thing. I hope she gets relief soon.
NovaC:
Thank you Gina..the degenerative discs are now up to twelve. The Thoracic spine is shot and I have Kyphosis of about 45 degrees with deviation towards the right.Lumbar spine has joined the party with deviation to the right as well. Was given the diagnosis of degenerative disc disease, osteoarthritis of the spine and kyphosis and they have no clue as to why. The thoracic spine is the worst off and the surgeons are a bit skittish messing about in that area until I absolutely cannot function anymore (risk factors are too high). I also have labular tears in both hips due to the imbalance in my stance and my walking. Long story short–I’m 40 and have many days where I move like an 80 year old. I used to be a highly active nurse and now cannot receive any govt. help because I can still walk without assistive devices and want to keep from doing so until it is again, absolutely necessary. I love my Husband dearly and he’s been my rock when my stubborness gives out.
Linda(Cousin): nova i feel your pain. Im 62 and i do take pain meds otherwise im disfunctional physically. Besides injuries, it seems that all my brothers and sisters are succuming to the same spinal dysfuntion. Have been for many years. Good luck nova take care and dont over stress your spine.
NovaC:Thank you Linda. I’m my own worst enemy in this. I know that I shouldn’t do some things but my stubbornness wins out against better judgement.
Gina Pera: So sorry to hear this, Nova.
Gina Pera: You know, I would take what the docs say with a grain of salt. Many years ago, the rheumatologists told me that my ankylosing spondylitis would soon leave me immobile because it was fusing my spine into a concrete-like rod.
Linda(cousin,again): i know what you mean. It takes awhile for strong independant women to finally ask for help. But you will one day and its ok.
Gina Pera:
I knew there had to be other answers, so I pursued them. Magnesium helps with many physiological functions. Not saying it will be a miracle cure for you but it might prevent further degradation. And it might even help reverse some damage. The thoracic spine registers the first major magnesium deficiency; in short, it is sort of the canary in the coal mine. At the very least, magnesium supplementation (my favorite is mag citrate but yours might be different) won’t hurt you and it stands to help not just your spine but the rest of your body. A good book on this is The Miracle of Magnesium by Carolyn Deane (hokey title but solid info).
Linda: anything that doesnt compromise other health problems is worth a try.
NovaC:Gina, according to all the research (all available peer reviewed medical published research…..amazing what you can get access to with the right credentials) and consulting with orthopedic specialists (my own GP has no problem with my asking for different opinions..in fact she encourages my research so that I may make VERY informed decisions) asking questions and sharing images of my spine with doctors from the Mayo Clinic and the Maryland Spine Institute the kyphosis is likely an inherited trait that may effect MANY members of my family to varying degrees. The Degenerative Disc Disease is speeding the problem along and increasing the angle of the kyphosis and causing my stance and gait to change putting pressure on my ligaments and causing labular tears in my hips as I try to stay as independently active as possible.Nothing that I have found in peer reviewed research gives any indication that any substance is going to “bring my discs back”. On top of the osteoarthritis of the spine I also have bone spurs that are doing their damnedest to stabilize my spine. My muscles in my back get one hell of a workout trying to keep me stabilized as well. This also leaves me prone to further injuries and permanent damage. The only supplement I was found deficient in was D2 which was causing osteomalacia.I also have RRMS and I’ve taken some time to look more into Carolyn Deane MD ND, and have not been impressed with what she has touted as evidence for her miracle. The only thing you get when you take supplements that you are not truly deficient in is very expensive urine. There’s also a false belief that” if a little is good for you more is even better”. More people get themselves into serious trouble with this kind of thinking. One last note:Magnesium Citrate is a wonderful laxative. And the disclaimer of, in your words, (hokey but solid info) is hardly an endorsement. In your place I would check in again with a few medical doctors(osteopaths are well versed in these things) about your diagnosis of ankylosing spodylitis. It is a slow moving and devastating condition. If you want an example of a well exposed human being with this disorder take a look at Mick Mars of Motley Crue…took years to show the worst of its damage and he can barely move. I think I’ll stick with the advice of people who have devoted years to studying these conditions and not put any stock in “miracle supplements”.
4 minutes ago · Like
The Sailor
26 December 2011 at 10:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I thought about buying a medium sized remote controlled helicopter for myself, but I can’t quite justify something so frivolous.
The other frivolous things I want to buy start at around $900. That’s really hard to justify. (A new mainsail or a flight sim w/ stick and rudder pedals and a second screen.)
Classical Cipher, Murmur Muris, OM
26 December 2011 at 10:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh! I mashed up my memories. Sorry, cicely and carlie, for confusing the two of you. (And thanks to carlie for the initial pointing.)
The Sailor
26 December 2011 at 10:38 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Benjamin, You probably only need one copy, they give it back after they see it. I got my last passport in about 2 weeks. My local post office was a one stop shop.
p.s Miami has a big regional office. I got my first one there in 72 hours, with prepaid FedEx hurry up fees. YMMV.
Caine, Fleur du Mal
26 December 2011 at 10:42 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Nova, I have degenerative disc disease too. Tons of fun, ennit?
Benjamin "Killer Pawn" Geiger
26 December 2011 at 10:44 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sailor:
Well, they’re only $3 each after the first, so it’s not a huge deal.
jimmauch
26 December 2011 at 10:44 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Now that I have my Supreme Leader in Madison I can not to see him with my belated Christmas present. His pink slip is waiting.
NovaC
26 December 2011 at 10:47 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Caine, SO much fun!! Don’tcha just love it when you get to know the distinct feeling of another one going to shit?
The Sailor
26 December 2011 at 10:52 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sometimes family is like when I lived in Hollywood: Who do I have to fuck to get off this movie?
Caine, Fleur du Mal
26 December 2011 at 10:56 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Nova:
Such a special feeling, that. If only it were so simple as magnesium – gosh, no one would have bone problems at all if we only taxed our livers even more with mega-doses of it! :eyeroll:
NovaC
26 December 2011 at 10:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thanks for the guffaw Sailor…I have felt that way too many times to count. Not all of my family are easily explainable other than “How the fuck am I related to you again????”
interrobang
26 December 2011 at 10:59 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Is Vince Megna really “Commander” Rick Green in a suit? Has anybody ever seen them in the same room? Have the Frantics gone Wisconsin?
NovaC
26 December 2011 at 11:08 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Caine:
Wouldn’t it just? Woo peddlers get up my nose in such a way that I CAN’T stop the urge to try my hand at Hitch Slapping. People like that are dangerous.
I have the health issues and a background in the medical field.The legitimate information is out there and surprisingly easy to find when you aren’t in denial.
DLC
26 December 2011 at 11:14 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Wisconsin: good points : the real people of Wisconsin who have shown that they will indeed come out for something besides Packers games or Cheese. The other two — Packers games and Cheese.
chigau (難しい)
26 December 2011 at 11:15 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I had a lovely evening.
I now have photographs of me, on the job, in 1978.
*hahahflipflopshohobikiniharahr*
not a trace of safety equipment
The Sailor
26 December 2011 at 11:17 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
10k in Virginia and Newt can’t get it. 1 million in WI and Walker is going to get it.
The Sailor
26 December 2011 at 11:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
chigau, I’m happy for you.
They used to tell us clipping on slowed you down too much.
+++++++++++++++++
I’m considering stepping out for a slurp at my local watering hole.
Caine, Fleur du Mal
26 December 2011 at 11:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Nova:
True. Good doctors are out and about, too. I ♥ my neurologist.
Wooists have no interest in reality, they go to great lengths to ignore it. “If I just take this, it will be alright! It’s a cure, I know it! :claps hands:“
chigau (難しい)
26 December 2011 at 11:29 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The Sailor
I am here.
You are here.
We got lucky.
Or we are smarter.
NovaC
27 December 2011 at 12:18 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Caine
I have a great team working on me. Started with my GP (brilliant woman and great fun to talk to) noticing I had an odd gait and I was rubbing my sternum quite a bit during my first visit (moved from TX to MN and had to find a new GP). She lined me up with an MRI after asking me if anyone had taken a good look at my spine. She got the results and made a few calls to get me in with a top notch neurologist (he found the RRMS and the osteomalacia)and an osteopath that has done all he can to keep me mobile. PT ended up giving me labular tears in both hips (that he needed to repair)and ended up shredding a few more discs. Since then the emphasis is “SLOW AND GENTLE, for cryin’ out loud woman!”
Surgery has been put on the back burner until absolutely necessary due to the area of worst damage being the thoracic spine. I’ve been given to understand that this area is high risk and more than a bit touchy.Plus I have a number of plaques from the RRMS there.
I try not to kvetch about it too much. I can walk, I have a great and hugely supportive husband, I’m mostly independent,if a bit slow, with most things and I have my mental faculties intact (although there are those that would debate that at length given some of the things I’ve done just for the hell of it). So,all in all, not too shabby for a lame horse.
John Morales
27 December 2011 at 12:22 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
NovaC:
Aaaaarrrgh!
Sympathy. I take it you’re doing whatever physiotherapy is possible under your circumstances.
(Best wishes, and may medical science advance in your lifetime)
chigau (難しい)
27 December 2011 at 12:26 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
NovaC
May the Forces of Science-Based Medicine be with you.
John Morales
27 December 2011 at 12:28 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
PS “and an osteopath that has done all he can to keep me mobile.”
Never mind.
Again, best wishes, and hang in there.
John Morales
27 December 2011 at 12:30 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
PPS Best wishes to your husband too, NovaC.
(Yes, you if you’re reading this. Kudos)
Alethea H. Claw
27 December 2011 at 12:40 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
While we’re doing gift reports: motorbike luggage from the bloke. Chocolate from the cats. Some cute kitchen gear from my sister – best of which is the Gingerdead men! They will be awesome when I get round to baking again. A pretty seashell bowl from my mum, and money, which I transformed (in part) into
* REAMDE
* Emperor of Maladies
* Wolf Hall
* Death comes to Pemberley (*spits, stupid book*)
Yay! REAMDE is grabbing my attention very well so I’m not spending much time online right now.
The Sailor
27 December 2011 at 12:40 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I iz back from the watering hole. Turns out they insist you buy alcohol to go with the water.
NovaC
27 December 2011 at 12:47 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thanks John and chigau! I take a very aggressive approach to my care and the team (GP,Osteopath,and Neurologist communicate with each other constantly and keep me in the loop as well)are very supportive. They give me new information as they come across it and are always willing to give me a return call when I have questions.
I’m lucky to have found them all and I feel lucky to be able to face the reality of my situation with courage and dignity. There’s so much out there in the world and the universe to be in awe of to feel sorry for myself.
PS: Way too many awesome people to get to know and learn from as well!
NovaC
27 December 2011 at 12:48 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
John
He’s out cold at the mo’ but I’ll pass it along!
NovaC
27 December 2011 at 12:58 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sailor
Those bastards!
The Sailor
27 December 2011 at 1:00 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
NovaC, I know, right?
andyo
27 December 2011 at 1:04 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hello, everyone
Not for someone who is such an asshole that for her taste, too many people are going to heaven and too few to hell.
The Sailor
27 December 2011 at 1:05 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Silly me, I thought since it was raining and the students were out o’ town, and it was the day after Squidmas, the place would be dead. As it turns out it was hopping.
I’m guessing a significant amount of people between 21 and 60 are sick of their family at this point.
NovaC
27 December 2011 at 1:12 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sailor
Can you blame them? I have family that,if I didn’t look so much like them,make me wonder just how the hell we’re actually related.
Alethea H. Claw
27 December 2011 at 2:03 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Malls are often packed with the post Xmas sales and people returning unwanted gifts, I hear. Not that I’ve ever done that.
Nova, I’m sorry to hear you’re having such trouble. I’m pretty sure that a nice hefty dram of whisky will help more than any tedious vitamin supplements, so cheers!
NovaC
27 December 2011 at 2:12 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
And cheers to you Cath! And I’m quite sure they’ll ensure peaceful deep naps pain free.
Sir Shplane, Grand Mixmaster, Knight of the Turntable
27 December 2011 at 3:42 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
So, I don’t know why I never realized this before, but some of you guys would probably really like this manga.
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/oyasumi_punpun/
Warning: Grimdark.
birgerjohansson
27 December 2011 at 4:01 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
“No way in hell they can field a candidate that can win the general election.”
-Assuming sanity automatically will prevail is wishful thinking. These guys have resources Göbbels would die for. Expect a hard struggle.
— — — — —
Good TV series viewed during Xmas holiday:
“Dead Set”, about a group that long remain unconcerned by the zombie apocalypse unfolding around them in Britain.
This is because they are isolated in a “Big Brother”-type set, only noticing something is wrong when just about everyone else is dead.
Trust the Brits to come up with an original angle on an otherwise worn-out trope.
The people recruited for reality TV are usually picked for having various dysfunctional traits that makes for conflict in a “Big Brother” context -and thus good ratings- but those personality traits make them pretty useless for working together for survival. The many and varied fuck-ups followed by blood and gore made this almost as fun as watching “Severance”!
Spoiler: The survival rate among the contestants is not high.
— — — — — —
PS -If you want to see how Dilbert-type managers raised on management clichées handle getting isolated in a forest surrounded by insane killers, “Severance” is for you.
Giliell, the woman who said Good-bye to Kitty
27 December 2011 at 5:38 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
HI there
What Santa brought me?
A dragon necklace, handknitted socks, Harry Potter cookbook, a DVD, awesome handpainted dragon-glasses, vouvher for my favourite thread-dealer, money.
Now, it’s the time for the usual end of the year cleaning, since we’re expecting guests. Additionally I have to take care of grandma in the mornings.
rorschach
27 December 2011 at 6:25 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
A Sydney pediatric neurosurgeon might be singling out the inoperable ones, operate on them for lots of money, and then send them to that Burzynski guy to be milked some more : The Burzynski – Teo connection
echidna
27 December 2011 at 6:32 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Well, JW Loftus is up to his old tricks of censoring comments that disagree with him. He claimed that he does not censor posts. I said that he knew as well as I do that this was not true. I took a screen print.
He deleted the comment.
I commented on this. He deleted the comment.
Pathetic.
rorschach
27 December 2011 at 6:37 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hi echidna, can you send me the screen prints ? FTB is not supposed to be North Korea, bloody hell.
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
27 December 2011 at 6:46 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Caine & SallyStrange:
Lots and lots of bacon products but they don’t have international delivery… sad, sad, sad.
NovaC
27 December 2011 at 7:01 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Serendipitydawg
You would have to link to that I have a TON of family in Italy and Sicily that would go absolutely mad for those products. Now I’ve got to figure out a way to get those to them.
NovaC
27 December 2011 at 7:11 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
WTF is wrong with Loftus???
Respect their delusions? Don’t hold them accountable?? They’re mentally ill (THAT I can somewhat agree with…but they constantly reinforce their own delusions and then try to force them on others)??
Letting them get away with bad behavior hasn’t worked in the past and it isn’t going to work now. I also take issue with his view of respect. Respect (to me) is being able to stand face to face with someone and voice your disagreements freely. No pussyfooting around, just “You’re wrong and this is why I think so”.
To borrow a phrase from John Morales…..BAH!!
And yes, I’ve read the blog post in question, witnessed the behavior of the blogger, and have come to the conclusion that I have no use for his philosophy.
rorschach
27 December 2011 at 7:14 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
echidna, addressed.
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
27 December 2011 at 7:24 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sorry NovaC; PZ linked to their inflatable beard for JT and I went to have a look… I couldn’t believe that anyone would have a bacon button on their online shop. After drooling for a while, I was crestfallen to discover that they don’t deliver outside the US.
Bah, Humbug!
XD
NovaC
27 December 2011 at 7:35 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
S-Dawg
There’s a way…I just haven’t figured it out….yet. Ohhhh, but I will! With enough coffee and determination, I will!
rorschach
27 December 2011 at 7:41 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh and Echidna, in case you care
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
27 December 2011 at 7:42 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
That’s the spirit, go NovaC!
NovaC
27 December 2011 at 7:59 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
rorscach
Just read you address to Loftus….Well said and well done!
NovaC
27 December 2011 at 8:04 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
S-Dawg
My mother sees this as a personality flaw,but I take the phrases “No” and “You can’t” as personal challenges and retort with variations of “You just hide and watch me”.
NovaC
27 December 2011 at 8:07 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
BTW calling me Nova is perfectly fine with me. It is my name after all.
True story behind the name: My father named me after the woman in the movie ‘Planet of the Apes’. The Nerd runs strong in my family.
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
27 December 2011 at 9:00 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
That is so cool, Nova!
Giliell, the woman who said Good-bye to Kitty
27 December 2011 at 9:16 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Uff, mission accomplished.
Nursery tidied up, cleaned out and repaired.
I am impressed with the Little One’s ability to tear things out of the fucking wall and break massive wooden objects in two. Not amused, but impressed. Credit where credit is due, that’s some achievement at age two.
If she can keep up that power and determination and channel it into something less destructive she’ll kick ass.
Nova
That’s cool. I like names with a story.
Muse
27 December 2011 at 9:34 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I will point out that the standard way to get around shipping only to the US is to know someone friendly in the US…
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
27 December 2011 at 9:50 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@Muse,
It’s a good point but the cost of international money transfers would need a large bacon themed order (and with bacon air fresheners among so many wonderful products, that isn’t totally out of the question.)
cicely, Disturber of the Peas
27 December 2011 at 10:26 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
NovaC: what chigau said. And supportive husbands are so awesome.
-
The Sailor
27 December 2011 at 11:39 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Santorum is frothing again:
I’m pretty sure santorum will be involved if you’re sticking it to the man. At least I hope he used lube.
Benjamin "Killer Pawn" Geiger
27 December 2011 at 12:02 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The Sailor:
But what if you’re sticking it to yourself?
The Sailor
27 December 2011 at 12:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Benjamin, I’m not going to go there. Really, there is a where of which I will not go. ;-)
chigau (難しい)
27 December 2011 at 1:18 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
TheLaughingCoyote
Are you by?
Are you OK?
Did you get the wind?
echidna
27 December 2011 at 3:30 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Rorschach,
Thanks. I do care, and I appreciate your post.
Sili
27 December 2011 at 3:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
In case any Danes are reading there’s a documentary about the intelligence of octopusses on DR2 in 20 minutes.
kristinc, ~delicate snowflake~
27 December 2011 at 4:07 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Good thing I went for nerdy science gifts (mine your own gems kit, break your own geodes pack and book on evolution) for the 7-year-old girl this year. The rest of the family went nuts on the sparkly pink fashion-and-beauty-obsessed stuff. She just walked out the door looking like a sequin factory vomited on her and smelling like 40 fruity cocktails.
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
27 December 2011 at 4:54 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yay kristinc, let’s hope she only walked out the door looking like that to appease the others. In the privacy of her own space she can marvel a your wonders :D
Alethea H. Claw
27 December 2011 at 4:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Muse, there are also remailer companies that will do it for you. I don’t bother, because the one time I looked into it, they were very expensive. So I can’t recommend any. (Also we have very serious quarantine rules for food and plant & animal matter here. Which are good.)
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
27 December 2011 at 5:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The Infinite Monkey Cage… Richard Dawkins dismisses substitutes and says Merry Christmas.
kristinc, ~delicate snowflake~
27 December 2011 at 5:33 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Serendipitydawg, she did put “science kits” on her wish list, and she was so jazzed about the rock gifts she carried them around with her for an entire day and told everyone she could find all about them. Score.
kristinc, ~delicate snowflake~
27 December 2011 at 5:50 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Annnnd after a year of saving I have enough money to have all my wisdom teeth removed and finally scheduled the appointment. Gulp.
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
27 December 2011 at 5:50 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Score indeed.
It’s hard for young girls to get away from the pink princess role, so the fact that they were on her wish list raises a cheer from me.
The Sailor
27 December 2011 at 5:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
kristinc, I assume they’re giving you problems. It’s a case of short term discomfort over long term misery. (I bet you knew that;-)
Pro note: If you can, get the meds before the procedure. Adding to the miserable index is standing in line at the pharmacy with a mouth full of blood and cotton wool trying to get the Rx filled.
carlie
27 December 2011 at 6:12 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Glad to see you, Nova! There are so many people I miss now that I’m not on FB.
kristinc, the only advice I have is to keep drinking water after it’s all over, even though you might not want to. I didn’t heed that warning, and woke up at midnight thirsty the night after I got it done, only to get up for a drink and manage to think “too late” as I went down in a heap of dehydrated faint.
Serendipitydawg – I literally *just* discovered the monkey cage podcast a couple of days ago whilst searching itunes for something new to listen to! I’ve listened to about four of them so far.
Today was quite exciting for me. I’m allergic to the new cat, which of course I knew I would be; interestingly, the reaction seems to be concentrated in my eyes. Much better than in the throat, definitely. Anyway, this morning around 8 she was sitting on me and started self-suckling (AGAIN, she does it all the freakin time), and I tried to distract her and got slobbered all over. Then, like an idiot, rubbed my eye. Over the next half-hour, I couldn’t get up because she was lying on me, and I rubbed my eye a few more times. Yeah, stupid. By the time I got up to take a shower it was pretty bad, and by the time I got out of the shower it was almost completely swollen shut and my eyeball was bulging out all over. I had to wake up Spouse to ask him to drive to the pharmacy for allergy eye drops (which I thought I had but couldn’t find), and more Benadryl (which I had just finished off) because I couldn’t drive by then. Two doses of Benadryl, one Allegra-D, one Zyrtec, several allergy drops, and some Flonase later, I took a brief nap (gee, wonder why) and woke up to it at least holding steady, if not getting any better. It’s just now back to almost normal, but my eyeball is still sore and a bit swollen (almost 12 hours later).
Silly kitty.
NovaC
27 December 2011 at 6:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Glad to see you too carlie! I’m usually on both keeping up with the Horde I love! Sorry about your allergies. I live on zyrtec as mine are seasonal and pretty random. Conga rats on the new kitteh!
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
27 December 2011 at 6:42 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@carlie,
Excellent! I posted the link in the hope that radio broadcasts are available worldwide… good to know they are at least available by some means.
Part 6 does feature a truly terrible muon joke but is still worth listening to (it’s a cracker joke so it has to be bad…)
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
27 December 2011 at 6:58 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I am currently watching a programme on BBC2 called The Toys That Made Christmas and it just featured a toy from the 50′s that is totally “OMG, I wish had been born in the 1940′s instead of the 1950′s!”
kristinc, ~delicate snowflake~
27 December 2011 at 7:10 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Serendipitydawg: it is! I’ve told this story before but she used to be utterly comfortable in her own body and personality, loving her mohawks and buzz cuts, fond of every color in existence, wearing utterly absurd clothing combinations, into all sorts of games and activities. Then I sent her to school, Kindergarten wasn’t too bad but by first grade I started hearing talk about being pretty and not pretty, and things for girls and things for boys. Now in second grade she talks about popularity and whether clothes are “fashionable” and “hot”, she’s absorbed that she ought to pick (pretty much at random) a boy to have a crush on and hope he wants her to be his girlfriend, and everything must be pink, purple or turquoise blue. And sparkly. Fortunately, she doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo that pretty =/= smart and interested in science, nor that she shouldn’t be opinionated.
carlie and Sailor: noted. The surgeon did recommend having the pain pills at home ready for me. Mr kristinc will be taking the day off to babysit me. I am fully prepared for total suckage. (But completely ready to have these teeth gone. They have been significantly decayed and sore for years. OMG! I’ll be able to eat ice cream again!)
NovaC
27 December 2011 at 7:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Having a conversation and trying to educate a godbotherer high school classmate of mine about Atheism….You can imagine her shock and horror “But you were always such a good person with strong morals…You did your best not to hurt anyone and always stood up for the people being bullied!” She didn’t like the answer that there was no need for a deity for this to be possible.
*headdesk*
Maybe I just should have charged out of the gate with a resounding “Fuck You and your twisted sky fairy!”?
Lesson learned…true believers skulls are made of titanium.
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
27 December 2011 at 7:33 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@kristinc,
Phew! Let’s hope it is lost in the post forever.
Brother Ogvorbis, OM: Reading Comprehension Fail Warning!
27 December 2011 at 7:35 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Absolutely and totlly Thread Bankrupt.
I am in Florida visiting the in-laws. This year, the weather is nice. And my new* car got 29 mpg on the trip from Pennsylvania to Florida. And a lot of it, I was cruising at 75 to 80 mph (have I mentioned I love this car?). And that was with Boy, Girl, presents for neice and sister-in-law (she has Down’s Syndrome and still professes a belief in Santa . . . ), a large wooden skittles game and a wooden soccer game, and the clothing (Girl (almost 19) is a bit of a clothes horse).
So, did I miss anything?
* well, new to me — it is a 2008
NovaC
27 December 2011 at 7:39 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hiya Brother Og!
Could you do me a small (tiny really) favor and dip your toes in the ocean for me…I used to live in Homestead,FL as a sproglet. Any ocean water will do! I do miss the ocean quite a bit
1
Brother Ogvorbis, OM: Reading Comprehension Fail Warning!
27 December 2011 at 7:42 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
NovaC:
Sorry. No can do. I am in a town called DeBary — halfway between (shudder) Orlando and Daytona. And I don’t think we are going near the ocean.
Brother Ogvorbis, OM: Reading Comprehension Fail Warning!
27 December 2011 at 7:44 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Actually, I take that back — right now, I am in my hotel room in Orange City.
NovaC
27 December 2011 at 7:45 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh well….(kicks dirt). Thanks for replying and considering. I don’t blame you for the *shudder*. I remember those places well…even from childhood. I’m sure they haven’t gotten better over time.
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
27 December 2011 at 7:50 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
If I get out to shop for a new laptop tomorrow, Nova, I will slip down to the North Sea and see if the tide is in. Should it be so, I promise to dip a toe in, along with a thermometer because I suspect that it will be around 10°C if I am lucky. XD
NovaC
27 December 2011 at 7:52 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Brother Og
I shoulda hit refresh.
S-Dawg
You rock! But no frostbite on my account!
The Sailor
27 December 2011 at 7:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Bro Og, welcome back to the intertubes.
Nothing has happened in your absence, our lives were on hold until you resurfaced.
Congrats on the ‘new’ car, it’s newer than anything I’ve ever owned.
I think a belief in Santa is cool.
StarStuff! Because f**k you, that's why
27 December 2011 at 7:56 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
We’re talking about oceans, are we? Well, I don’t have an ocean near me, but I do have a gulf. I think I might take a trip to the beach while I’m home for break. It might be a bit too chilly to swim, but I still enjoy walking along the beach.
NovaC
27 December 2011 at 7:59 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Starstuff
I’ve lived most of my life near the Pacific Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico. I can’t get people here in Minnesota to understand just how wonderful the feel of the water and the sand on your feet is….or the sounds of the waves.
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
27 December 2011 at 8:00 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
All of my holidays were spent on the North Sea and the temperature is pretty much the same all year round… it’s just that in summer you are warm while drying off.
I will definitely have to take pictures if I do it…
This reminds me: a few years ago, Mrs S and I used to spend xmas away in various places to avoid family. One year we spent it in a very nice hotel in Criccieth and on xmas day, the sea was warm so we had a paddle, much to the amusement of the locals.
Brother Ogvorbis, OM: Reading Comprehension Fail Warning!
27 December 2011 at 8:00 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The Sailor:
Thanks. You may now have a life for the next half hour or so. Then I need to shower and will be off line, most likely until tomorrow night. Sorry bout that.
It wasn’t the car we were looking for, but the price, mpg, and miles for the age were really good and we ended up with a bourgeois-mobile.
StarStuff! Because f**k you, that's why
27 December 2011 at 8:09 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@ Nova
Yeah, I lived up in Indiana for a year once. It was awful. I missed swimming in the ocean most of all. Lakes just aren’t the same.
NovaC
27 December 2011 at 8:16 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Starstuff
No! They aren’t. Not even close.
Alethea H. Claw
27 December 2011 at 8:16 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’ve never been one for much swimming, but I do love walking on a beach. And jumping up and down in the surf if it’s warm enough.
Brother Ogvorbis, OM: Reading Comprehension Fail Warning!
27 December 2011 at 8:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
G’night, all.
Sorry I sent the conversation into the drink.
Ms. Daisy Cutter
27 December 2011 at 8:26 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Can we nuke Reddit from orbit plz?
shouldbeworking
27 December 2011 at 8:31 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
From orbit may prevent any Mythbusters style”oops” moments, but there is something to be said about feeling the blast wave. I can assure that having eyebrows are over-rate and do grow back.
The Sailor
27 December 2011 at 8:31 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The conversation, not so much. Me? I’m well on my way. Didn’t need your help.
NovaC
27 December 2011 at 8:33 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ms. Daisy Cutter
As in nuke it from orbit…just to be sure? The Warhammer 40K fangirl in me LOVES this!
StarStuff! Because f**k you, that's why
27 December 2011 at 8:34 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
G’night Ogvorbis! And I like where the conversation has gone.
StarStuff! Because f**k you, that's why
27 December 2011 at 8:41 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I think I’m going to (try to) take a break from crocheting. I’ve made almost 20 things in two and a half weeks. I’ve become mildly obsessed.
NovaC
27 December 2011 at 8:52 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Starstuff
I started teaching myself a few months ago by reading books and watching the Youtube channels (It’s been good therapy for my hands considering the RRMS) and I’ve become positively obsessed! Next project to learn is knitting.
'Tis Himself, OM.
27 December 2011 at 8:56 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’ve lived within an hour’s drive of the ocean since I was 28. Right now I’m sitting less than a mile from Long Island Sound. When the weather is nice I spend much of the weekend sailing.
Lakes are nice. I grew up on the shore of a large lake (where I also did a lot of sailing). But lakes aren’t the ocean.
StarStuff! Because f**k you, that's why
27 December 2011 at 9:09 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@ Nova
I learned about two months ago and I’ve spend a lot of time and money on it since. It’s a really great hobby. I crocheted all my christmas gifts this year (total price for 6 gifts: ~$15). I made a pair of fingerless gloves earlier today for myself (I’m getting really quick). I think I’m just going to stick to crocheting, at least for now. I want to get really good at it before I learn another craft.
Benjamin "Killer Pawn" Geiger
27 December 2011 at 10:00 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ms. Daisy Cutter:
I think it’s more a matter of the GIFT.
janine
27 December 2011 at 10:39 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
StarStuff! Because f**k you, that's why
27 December 2011 at 10:50 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
So much for taking a break from crocheting. I got bored and started another project. I’m making Kirby!
chigau (難しい)
27 December 2011 at 10:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I once knit about 40 child-sized sweaters in about 60 days.
It prevented me from killing my self.
NovaC
27 December 2011 at 10:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Starstuff
My next big project is a T.A.R.D.I.S. afghan for the Hubby. I love to crochet there’s something almost zen-like about it.
StarStuff! Because f**k you, that's why
27 December 2011 at 11:01 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I made a tardis phone case for a friend of mine. It came out pretty cool. I think once I get better I’m going to make the Doctor (the 11th, that is).
NovaC
27 December 2011 at 11:17 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
You rock!
Speaking of finding out pressies (ours will be late due to being broke to the point of eating boxed mac’n'cheese for extended periods (copays and meds are killer on one income)).
I had a FB chat with an old and much admired teacher asking me when I was going to try my hand at writing.
My answer: When I talk pretty one day.
I DO love writing,but I don’t feel I’m good enough and tend to toss much of it in a box.
My Hubby has revealed plans to get me into the Loft in Minneapolis,MN or into Chuck Palahniuk’s group!
Squeeeeeeeee!
And now I’m worried about how the hell we’re going to afford it.
The Sailor
27 December 2011 at 11:26 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
‘Tis, I’ve got some pics of me in an E-Scow. One race it looked like we were in the pack, (what a still photo doesn’t show is that we’d been lapped).
Another pic is when we were short handed, just me and the owner/helmsman, and the wind knocked us down. The masthead was floated so we just went horizontal. Great pic of us balanced on the rail.
crowepps
28 December 2011 at 2:58 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Crochet fun:
http://www.amazon.com/Creepy-Cute-Crochet-Christen-Haden/dp/1594742324/ref=wl_it_dp_o_npd?ie=UTF8&coliid=IHL8AETEYXG1M&colid=31N8M8N98FAY
Brother Ogvorbis, OM: Reading Comprehension Fail Warning!
28 December 2011 at 7:25 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Wife crocheted a Nancat scarf (looks like a cat with a cherry pop tart for a body and a rainbow coming out of its ass (arse for those English talker types)) for FutureSonInLaw. And she had enough left over that she made a second one. She is currently crocheting an open scarf/shawl out of crochet thread (size 10 (I think)).
Today we head for Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge to see Actual Wildlife(TM) in its Natural Habitat(R)! One of my favourite places (can’t hold a candle to Hayden Valley, but Hayden Valley is subzero and has five to ten feet of snow right now).
I’ll check in tonight and find out who is doing what to whom.
Brother Ogvorbis, OM: Reading Comprehension Fail Warning!
28 December 2011 at 7:36 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sorry. That should be: I’ll check in tonight and find out who is doing what with whom.
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
28 December 2011 at 7:53 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
No luck today, Nova… my eyes aren’t good enough for me to drive safely with the low, winter sun. I really would like to try and get a new laptop: this one is Mrs S’s old laptop, and it is soooo sloooow – it is also several years old and lacking in memory, so this is hardly surprising.
Fingers crossed for tomorrow… though high tide is 08:07 and when the tide goes out it really goes out.
carlie
28 December 2011 at 8:33 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
No crochet here, but I just started knitting one of these blankets for an upcoming baby. I went with a vibrant 70s kind of theme, so it’s this yarn, with the yellow 1382, red 9601 (which is actually a bright red), orange 1383, blue 515, and white.
NovaC
28 December 2011 at 9:06 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Looks like it will be gorgeous carlie!
Sailor
Many thanks for trying!
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
28 December 2011 at 9:43 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Back home from my Christmas break.
First, getting disrespected and treated like a child is not an endearing method of treating a family member. Second, I have the frickin’ cutest and most well-behaved nephews ever. Thirdly, kitty!
Hokay, so on Christmas Eve we were with my father’s side of the family and I had brought along my cell phone and Kindle – my grandmother’s house is somewhat dull, and I did want to catch up on some reading. My uncle decides to explain no less than four times that I’m not to bring my electronic devices to brunch the next morning. It was incredibly disrespectful. My grandmother asked about three times about why I have long hair and whether I have a girlfriend yet or not – although the former reason I gave was untrue, the latter she already knows I’m bisexual so it was meant as a direct dig at that, I know. At brunch, I didn’t bring my electronic equipment, not because I didn’t want to, but because I never planned to. My aunt, first thing she says to me is “I don’t know why you like your hair long, your father looks so handsome with short hair.” My response, “So you’re saying I’m not handsome?” is met with abject silence.
Nephews now. They’re both so goddamned adorable – I know it’s a bit of family bias, but my 2-year old nephew is so cute, curly dark hair, big eyes, cute round baby face. And he’s also polite – saying please and thank you. My 3-month old nephew was so quiet, except when he was babbling incoherently towards my family. I love the both of them.
Lastly, my kitty was happy to see me when I got back, I left him at the vet for boarding and when I got him, he sulked in the corner of his cage for a few minutes, but then came to the front and started meowing at me, licking and nuzzling against my fingers when I stuck them through the bars. He sat on or with me for the rest of the day.
KG
28 December 2011 at 9:56 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
*Guffaw!*
A Christmas tradition is enacted in Bethlehem.
Giliell, the woman who said Good-bye to Kitty
28 December 2011 at 9:56 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hello, everybody
Back from our final shopping trip for this year which took us to France. Thankfully New Year’s Eve is in the middle of winter around here so I can use the balcony as a second fridge.
So, tonight we’ll have Crevettes cuites geantes avec baguette. (Giant prawns and baguette)
Tomorrow we’ll have grosse truite rose avec champignons à la crème et pasta fraiche (large trout with mushrooms with cream and fresh pasta)
Day after tomorrow there’s jambon en croute avec crudités (ham in pastry with salad)
And that’s only before I start cooking the big dinner
#1 got herself a bad abrasion right underneath the eye, poor thing, but she freaked out so much that the only thing that worked was threatening her that she could go to the car and sit there all the time (with dad waiting outside of the car) until we get back.
I always feel bad about those situations. I already tried all the usual things like comforting and cuddling her, trying to distract her, briding her and so on. The moment I announce bad consequences she calms down just fine :(
kristinc
That sounds sadly familiar :(
At least most of the family is just as annoyed at the girlie-girl stuff that we’re working in the same direction.
I’m soooo jealous of those dig for your own gems and excravate your own dinosaur bones sets. I’d have loved to have them as a kid.
Good luck for the wisdom teeth. Once mine were out they were like no problem at all, I went off painkillers the second day. I hope you’re seeing a surgeon on the first try, my problem was that although they looked like the dentist should be able to get them out, they weren’t.
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
28 December 2011 at 10:03 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
From KG’s link:
This just doesn’t do it justice, the video is hilarious.
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
28 December 2011 at 10:06 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Deep-sea creatures at volcanic vent.
Some great pics of the weird and wonderful fauna colonising hydrothermal vents.
Rey Fox
28 December 2011 at 10:23 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I think they might be laboring under the common misconception of the meaning of “bemused” here. I know if it were me, I would have been Amused.
Thbbbt.
Moggie
28 December 2011 at 10:25 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
KG:
“No one was arrested because all those involved were men of God”, said the police spokesman. It’s almost literally a get out of jail free card, isn’t it?
cicely, Disturber of the Peas
28 December 2011 at 11:09 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ah, the ol’ Religious Immunity Trick. I wonder…would they, somehow, figure out a way to get along in peace and harmony (sing Kumbaya!) if there were consequences of their misbehavior? A little public embarrassment might be good for their “souls”.
-
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
28 December 2011 at 11:11 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The first of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures was screened last night, this year’s series centres on the brain and is presented by Professor Bruce Hood.
Excellent first part: it made the point that we are our brain’s functions and that what we perceive is determined by the brain’s model of the universe. The best bit for me was when he said that he would conjure a real ghost and proceeded to arrange four circles of paper with 90° segment missing to conjure a ghost square which can be demonstrated to activate the areas of the brain that detect squares. There was a subsequent demonstration of a piece of apparatus that I have never seen before: three groups of said circles in a row that are geared to revolve in tandem that produce the illusion of a square that shrinks and moves before shrinking and moving, repeated ad infinitum. The best bit of this is that it activates the areas of the brain associated with moving objects, a true ghost in the machine.
These days, there tend to be only three lectures. Shame, in the days when Richard Dawkins and Eric Laithwaite delivered them there were five.
slignot
28 December 2011 at 11:47 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hello TET, I’ve missed you.
You know, as a kid the month of December was always pretty busy because there were lots of different family events, but I am still amazed at how frantic Christmastime feels now that I’ve doubled my obligations through marriage. I feel like I’ve been running nonstop for weeks now. It was wonderful to see family but I’m a little fried.
Hey, did all of you know that Democrats are just like Nazis according to tea-party Jew Don Feder? Seriously, I think people like this need some psychological evaluation.
The Sailor
28 December 2011 at 11:54 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oggie, I love me some Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, tho mostly I visit the area for NASA launches and tours.
One of the great things about my ex-GF was that she liked the NASA stuff as much as me. The pass works for 2 days and she was just as enthusiastic as me to go for both days. When we went into the gift shop at the end of the 2nd day she bought xmas presents for her nieces & nephews, and a NASA jacket for her self.
It’s a shame there aren’t any launches while you’re there (I checked;-)
janine
28 December 2011 at 11:54 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Same-sex marriage supported are infringing upon your religious liberty
Because a couple of dykes having legal equality will take away from one’s ability to worship.
janine
28 December 2011 at 11:59 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Slignot, that list by Don Feder is as ahistorical as any David Barton screed or Jonah Goldberg book.
Ing: I SPEAK FOR THE HIVEMIND GROUPTHINK
28 December 2011 at 11:59 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
And over on other threads people are bitching about using Ad Homs in response to nonsense like this.
I hate everyone. It seems like those who aren’t deplorable are pathetic some days.
SC (Salty Current), OM
28 December 2011 at 12:05 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
It’s so Wild Kingdom.
slignot
28 December 2011 at 12:15 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@janine, the horror!
I’m sure that’s completely true and not at all a distortion. After all, religious people wouldn’t lie because godiswatching.
That’s as good as insinuating that gay people will literally start hunting newlywed straight couples.
janine
28 December 2011 at 12:22 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I saw that ad. Damn it! How did they find out the truth about we queers. The only reason why any of us supported the concept of LGBT marriage was to destroy straight marriage.
You know what happens when a married gay couple moves next door to a straight married couple with children. The parents get divorced, at least one of the kids turns queer, the dog and cat shares a bed and does strange things with the gerbil and the lawn dies.
janine
28 December 2011 at 12:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Remember the good old days when a good christian would shun a papist.
chigau (難しい)
28 December 2011 at 12:29 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I thought The Gays™ are out to convert The Normals™ not kill them.
Or is the gun loaded with gayification darts?
shouldbeworking
28 December 2011 at 12:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
When the gays take over America, will they allow straight marriage, or will they see it as an abomination and a threat? Paranoid minds want to know.
slignot
28 December 2011 at 12:35 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@chigau, now I totally want to modify all my Nerf darts at home and label them gayification darts.
janine
28 December 2011 at 12:39 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Slignot, how can they be penetrated if you are using Nerf darts?
(I am almost ashamed of this.)
shouldbeworking
28 December 2011 at 12:41 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Almost ashamed? I thought it was funny!
slignot
28 December 2011 at 12:43 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@janine, I laughed. I was trying to come up with a way to shower the target with glitter when struck. I’m kind of embarrassed my mind didn’t immediately head into the gutter.
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
28 December 2011 at 12:51 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My xmas beer is TINS’ALE’ brewed by Shepherd Neame. From the front label: “A cracker of an ale for the festive season” and “A little bit of magic”, which is monstrously twee. From the back label: “A deliciously fruity, spicy, festive ale that will leave a warming glow and make your baubles sparkle”, which is alarming… I will check for sparkling when I Have finished it.
For all the xmas hype it is a splendid beer that delivers.
shouldbeworking
28 December 2011 at 12:59 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Mine is Howe Sound Rail Ale, a brown ale tht was highly recommended. Hints of licorice and chocolate.
The Sailor
28 December 2011 at 1:00 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
“lawn dies”!?
Are those what you throw before the lawn darts?
++++++++++++++
They never get their memes right. It’s atheists that hunt down straight newlyweds. But that’s just to tag and track them for when they spawn.
janine
28 December 2011 at 1:01 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Rick Perry has seen the light!
“It was … when the lady who was in (The Gift of Life) was looking me in the eye and said ‘you really need to think this through,’” he said. “She said ‘I am the product of a rape’ and she said ‘my life is worth (it).’ It was a powerful moment.”
After the town hall ended, Verwers said Perry’s answer was “perfect.”
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
28 December 2011 at 1:10 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@shouldbeworking,
Oddly enough, mine also has definite hints of licorice and chocolate – I guess these must be festive requirements!
The smell is supposed to be Hoppy, Toffee, Fruit and the taste is supposed to be Spicy, Bitter, Hoppy, and I agree with both of these, but there is a definite hint of both licorice and chocolate.
janine
28 December 2011 at 1:13 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Find a bottle of Aventinus.
StarStuff! Because f**k you, that's why
28 December 2011 at 1:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
One of the Skepchicks is asking for personal examples of sexism in the atheist/secular/skeptic community, if anyone here is interested in sharing.
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
28 December 2011 at 1:24 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm
cicely, Disturber of the Peas
28 December 2011 at 2:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh, but janine—it isn’t the physical penetration of the (mere) body that counts; it’s the persyckical “penetration” of their souls that’s important. The lack of a perceptible wound is evidence of the insidiousness of your plot!
Y’all just…won’t…stop “touching” them. And they can’t stand it.
-
slignot
28 December 2011 at 2:34 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh, and it’s a couple weeks old now, but I haven’t been around. Have we talked about the school in Kentucky that put a nine year old autistic child in a bag as “therapy?” I’m still shocked and horrified that any teacher could do this not once, but apparently make it a routine part of dealing with students.
The Sailor
28 December 2011 at 3:13 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
slignot, you haven’t missed much for at least a week. Slow comment flow. I blame it on people who had to spend time with their families even when they didn’t want to.
Therapy bags, the new free speech enclosures.
slignot
28 December 2011 at 3:17 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@The Sailor, given that I was among those who spent all their time juggling holiday events and parties, I understand. It’s an incredibly busy time of year. Spouse proposed that we climb into bed and refuse to get out until Christmas was over about halfway through.
In return for not letting him hermit his way through Christmas, we celebrated Scotchmas, where he received at least four bottles of scotch (only two of which were from me), molds for spherical ice and some new glasses.
shouldbeworking
28 December 2011 at 3:24 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@slignot
There are some things that should remain private between consenting adults (alleged adult iin my case).
slignot
28 December 2011 at 3:30 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@shouldbeworking, Wow, my brain is very nearly clean today. That’s twice that I swear I normally would have gone to dirty thoughts and completely missed them. Sadly, I wish I was talking about private actions between consenting adults.
Spouse is fairly socially anxious, and sleeps. A lot. He would happily sleep 16 hours at a stretch on daily basis and would probably still be sleepy. (It’s not sleep apnea that we can tell, at least according to oxygen saturation tests.) He really did just want to try to sleep for four days or so.
carlie
28 December 2011 at 3:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Heh.
British slang creates irony.
But seriously, the fuck. I would NOT be satisfied with “the school board is investigating”. I doubt I would have the wits about me to have done it right then, but I wonder how it would have gone if she had called the police right then in the hallway and reported an abuse in action. That is absolutely not the kind of thing you let the school decide whether it was a problem or not. The only thing I can think of that is remotely similar to that being “therapeutic” is bodysox, which are entirely different because they are a) see-through and b)stretchy and c) easy to get out of and d) NOT A PUNISHMENT.
The Sailor
28 December 2011 at 3:38 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
It sounds like a very, merry xmas to me! (aside from the hangovers, which is why you have 4 bottles not 2. (Pain delayed is pain denied;-))
I finally got old enough to outright refuse family gatherings. I used to just volunteer to work the hollow days so my co-workers could do the ritual Festivus celebration.
++++++++++++++++
As much as I tried to avoid my family, on the 26th I got an email from my eldest sibling where he complained the family was fractured and it wasn’t his fault. He’s the only one we agree upon not to invite to family gatherings.
He’s a bully, and since adulthood he’s proved it over and over. He’s only nice when he feels injured. He’s one of those folks that when they offer to do you a favor you have to ask yourself “what’s in it for you?”
I don’t like having to think that way. Also, too, I’m very bad at it. I just don’t calculate things in those terms. He thinks everyone does.
slignot
28 December 2011 at 3:41 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@carlie, I’m so angry. that would be traumatic for a neurotypical child, let alone a boy on the autism spectrum. The school’s response is nothing short of insulting.
It looks like there was small update on Change.org’s site where the bag was not technically a duffel bag, but was in fact a sensory bag used in therapies by clinicians. BUT, when used properly by people who are trained, it’s supposed to be soothing and the patient is always to be allowed to leave when they desire. In this case, someone with no training forced a child into a bag designed to press in on them and used it as a restraint and punishment. It was used against the use guidelines for the device and against normal clinical practice.
slignot
28 December 2011 at 3:46 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
That’s always hard, but I’m glad you had a nice holiday otherwise. We have a similar situation with a childless great aunt who used to be part of our family gatherings until she started attacking people. She was a bit like your brother in that she tended to evaluate whether something was of benefit to her before doing anything. I think it’s simply alien for most of us to weigh friend and family relationships that way.
carlie
28 December 2011 at 3:52 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I would assume without parental permission, either. My son’s IEP has always been very explicit about what would be done in what circumstances and has always had a behavioral plan laid out that we agreed to. Something off the list like this? They would be in for a huge fight.
slignot
28 December 2011 at 4:03 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@carlie, It only makes sense to me to have a behavioral plan. This is unconscionable. I worry what (if any) specialized training special ed teachers in this district are required to get if the officials are backing this as normal and therapeutic.
John Morales
28 December 2011 at 4:08 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
For real? Wow.
Tarzan’s chimp Cheetah dead at 80
slignot
28 December 2011 at 4:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Wow, I thought I remembered hearing that chimps in captivity rarely lived past 50. That’s surprising.
kristinc, ~delicate snowflake~
28 December 2011 at 4:30 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Wow, I was have been fully prepared for a physically-wince-inducing story of Cheetah’s life once he was not longer in showbiz — so often they end up in roadside “animal parks” and shit like that. What a lucky chimp.
kristinc, ~delicate snowflake~
28 December 2011 at 4:31 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
“was have been”.
Thhpppppppbt! I’m just too cool for coherent grammar, mannnn. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, mannnn.
love moderately ॐ
28 December 2011 at 6:22 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
NovaC,
If this conversation continues, you might try forwarding her this recent essay by Louise Antony.
kristinc, ~delicate snowflake~
28 December 2011 at 7:04 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
AUGH! Bella took scissors to her hair! What the hell are kids thinking? It’s not that I care about her hair being long — SHE spent the last year growing it out because she wanted it to be long! She wanted to wear barrettes! she wanted ponytails! So naturally, chopping off chunks of it so she could no longer do any of those things is a completely reasonable plan, right?
And now I’m the bad guy because I’m telling her that of course most what she left will have to be cut off to even things up. *eyeroll*
changeable moniker
28 December 2011 at 7:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@kristinc, it happens.
Even it up, take photos, move on. My #2 did it, now she’s Rapunzel.
changeable moniker
28 December 2011 at 7:35 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
(In the interim, she did a mean Lady Diana Spencer. ;)
cicely, Disturber of the Peas
28 December 2011 at 7:46 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
:( :( :( :(
My youngest brother is ADHD. Back in the day (late ’70s or possibly early ’80s) his teacher wanted to keep him isolated in a refrigerator box.
-
Brother Ogvorbis, OM: Reading Comprehension Fail Warning!
28 December 2011 at 7:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
kristinc:
Part of me is so glad that Kids are now 21 and 18. Part of me is scared by it, but then I read accounts such as yours and, well, damn.
Went to Merritt Island NWR today. Saw Great Blue, Little Blue, Tricolour and Night Herons, Snowy and Great Egrets, roseate Spoonbills, White Pelicans, four alligators, a shitload of Buffleheads, some grebes, a few other ducks, a Wood Stork, a Northern Harrier, and a Red Shouldered Hawk. I love that place.
Brother Ogvorbis, OM: Reading Comprehension Fail Warning!
28 December 2011 at 7:56 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh, and Boy (21 years old) is, right now, watching Fox and Hound.
Brother Ogvorbis, OM: Reading Comprehension Fail Warning!
28 December 2011 at 7:58 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
And saw a Bald Eagle standing on a mud flat. And some black vultures and a buzzard. And some brown bird with a vicious looking beak. And a Boat-Tailed Grackle.
And I also got a new Cowboy Hat today.
It was a good day.
changeable moniker
28 December 2011 at 8:18 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
“Boat-Tailed Grackle”
I’m actually surprised that that’s a real bird. It has such an epic name.
Brother Ogvorbis, OM: Reading Comprehension Fail Warning!
28 December 2011 at 8:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
changeable moniker:
They are a beautiful irridessant (sp?) black, ant eh tail feathers form a very obvious v-shape.
Ms. Daisy Cutter
28 December 2011 at 9:02 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thought everybody here would appreciate this.
On xmas day, WTF Fanfiction posted the following quote: “He cried, masturbated, cried and masturbated again.”
Turns out it was from a slashfic with Jesus as a character.
kristinc, ~delicate snowflake~
28 December 2011 at 9:10 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
changeable moniker: yeah, this is not the first time. When she was almost three she gave herself Bettie Page bangs. When she was five she ended up with a #4 clipper cut because it was the only way to even up a “trim” she gave herself (and she kept that clipper cut for almost 2 years because she loved the whole no-combing-or-washing thing).
I just can’t wrap my head around the whole “Yay, my hair is getting so pretty and long … what now? … let’s chop it off!” thought process. Kid, I didn’t make you grow the damn stuff. *I* tried to talk you into keeping the buzz cut. Or a nice bob, a bob would have been cute. But no, I wasn’t even allowed to trim up the growing-out-mullet. And now this. Gah!
Part-Time Insomniac, Zombie Porcupine Nox Arcana Fan
28 December 2011 at 9:18 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ohhhh . . . I feel like I gained ten pounds or more. So much food, so much dessert. All crammed into what, four days, though not consecutive?
Anyway, food, family, friends, way too much booze. And gifts. And hot chocolate. It’s not the bounty I mind so much, it’s the fucking aftermath! Even with all the fun, the aftermath!
————————————
Anyone know of a bank that’s good to do business with? I’ve been with Bank of America since I had enough money to act as reason for opening an account. But with all the brouhaha I’ve been hearing, and particularly how they’ll be hiking their rates, I’ve been thinking about switching. My cousin uses Wells Fargo, says it’s a good bank, Mom uses Citizens. Any other suggestions?
——————————–
Aside from just not liking the way I feel when I’ve eaten too much for several days, is it horribly paranoid of me to have the thought, “Must not get out of shape, must be able to outrun the fundies if they take over”?
Benjamin "Killer Pawn" Geiger
28 December 2011 at 9:41 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
PTI:
Skip the banks. Find a credit union.
chigau (難しい)
28 December 2011 at 9:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
kristinc
It sounds like Bella is ready for a wild, retro, waxed, coloured “mohawk”.
Would that work?
Pteryxx
28 December 2011 at 10:19 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Greetz and happy dark time y’all. I’m back and here’s my report.
I bailed on internet and everything and drove cross-country, there to spend a week in a cabin with dearly beloved partner who hasn’t seen me in meatspace for a year. Xe gifted me with my first ever console (old and used but still good) and a starter kit of games, including Metroid Prime and some Zelda or other. I dragged a TV with me in the car (to a campground yet!) specifically so we could game together.
As for my gift to partner, as it was NSFW, I’ll just say that it was… ahem… very well received. Yowza.
kristinc, ~delicate snowflake~
28 December 2011 at 10:24 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
chigau: oh no, no, no no no. That would not work at all. Because, you see, mohawks or indeed any kind of short hair aren’t “pretty”. And it is of supreme importance that she be “pretty”. Only Disney-teen-actress style hair will possibly be adequate.
Can’t wait till she grows out of this.
janine
28 December 2011 at 10:49 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
c.r.e.e.p.-The Fall
God Box-The Fall
Lay Of The Land-The Fall
Disney’s Dream Debased-The Fall
chigau (難しい)
28 December 2011 at 10:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
kristinc
So Doris Day is out, too?
—–
I hope that works.
IE and Windows hate me today.
John Morales
28 December 2011 at 11:05 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
kristinc:
She’s right; you don’t have to.
(What’s so necessary about evening things up?)
kristinc, ~delicate snowflake~
28 December 2011 at 11:15 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
oh yeah, chigau. Totally out. It must be long, swishy and shiny.
janine
28 December 2011 at 11:15 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Cherry Coloured Funk-Cocteau Twins
Violaine-Cocteau Twins
Crushed-Cocteau Twins
Blue Bell Knoll-Cocteau Twins
kristinc, ~delicate snowflake~
28 December 2011 at 11:17 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Technically nothing, since it’s not endangering her health. But it looks awful. She has a bizarre three-level mullet going on. And, well, I have to be seen with her, and unfortunately people do judge mothers for their kids’ lack of haircuts. I let her wear practically anything she wants but letting her walk around looking like a badger chewed her head is a bit much.
janine
28 December 2011 at 11:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Let’s Lynch The Landlord-L7
Police Truck-Didjits
California Uber AllesThe Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy
Winnebago Warrior-Mojo Nixon & The Toadliquors
chigau (難しい)
28 December 2011 at 11:45 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
kristinc
SHAG!!!
I had something like this when I was 12ish and I was adorable!!!11!!!
Tethys
28 December 2011 at 11:46 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I adore Cocteau Twins! Thanks Janine.
The Thinner the Air
John Morales
29 December 2011 at 12:04 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thanks, kristinc, your honesty is refreshing. Really.
(I’m so, so glad I chose not to become a parent!)
janine
29 December 2011 at 12:07 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hallelujah-Christine Collister
Who Knows Where The Time Goes-Christine Collister
Dirt In The Ground-Christine Collister
Songbird-Christine Collister
kristinc, ~delicate snowflake~
29 December 2011 at 12:22 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yep chigau, I’m thinking that’s about the way to go. I like my haircutter a lot and she’ll figure something out. I’m sure the kid will look adorable but she’s going to be sad she can’t wear her hair elastics anymore (it’ll probably be too short for even stubby pigtails). Well, kid, nobody made ya chop at it.
John: I did have a friend whose kid got lost in a crowd and she was so frantic the only thing she could think of to describe him was “he has a really bad home haircut”. He was found in about 5 minutes, so apparently there is that benefit of looking like a badger chewed on your head.
janine
29 December 2011 at 12:25 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I Specialize-Gregson & Collister
I Will Be There-Gregson & Collister
Not A Day Passes-Gregson & Collister
I Could Be Happy-Gregson & Collister
John Morales
29 December 2011 at 12:43 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
kristinc, :)
A parents’ dictum: Great responsibility but small power.
chigau (難しい)
29 December 2011 at 1:31 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I like this song.
garfunkel
janine
29 December 2011 at 1:41 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Who Knows Where The Time Goes?-Fairport Convention
Autopsy-Fairport Convention
I’ll Keep It With Mine-Fairport Convention
Tam Lin-Fairport Convention
love moderately ॐ
29 December 2011 at 2:01 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Let it again be entered into the record that I defend Maoist suppression of religion, and am ultimately in favor of a communist state which mandates atheism by force, although I believe successful implementation of such a program will take several generations, the first of which should focus on suppressing clergy rather than all believers.
rorschach
29 December 2011 at 2:05 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Where, as everyone knows, Jesus of Nazareth was born.
janine
29 December 2011 at 2:09 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I find that just as distasteful as mandating religion by force.
So, how much force. A simple beating. Detaining. Imprisonment. Torture. Death.
What are the acceptable lines here?
John Morales
29 December 2011 at 2:11 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
ॐ, indeed, real life has a way of asserting itself, even unto zealots.
Religious Confucianism.
rorschach
29 December 2011 at 3:10 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Curtain Call for the King
rorschach
29 December 2011 at 3:12 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My Way
rorschach
29 December 2011 at 3:14 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I hope you’s are not Lonesome Tonight
rorschach
29 December 2011 at 3:19 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The weirdest thing, that one, and yet I remember fondly : Give Me Your Heart Tonight
rorschach
29 December 2011 at 3:21 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
For the Liverpool fans : Elvis-You’ll Never Walk Alone
Giliell, the woman who said Good-bye to Kitty
29 December 2011 at 3:31 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Good morning
Damn, I just broke a plastic bit off our washing machine :(
kristinc
I usually make sure that people who really deal with us are informed about what happened and give a fuck about the rest.
So, I wouldn’t take her to the hairdresser until she wants it and inform her teachers and say, friends’ parents.
#1′s kindergarten teachers know that she dresses herself and that I only veto if it is indeed not weather appropriate, and that I don’t beg her to let me comb her hair, so if she doesn’t show up when I call her, she goes unkempt.
That’s not my problem.
drbunsen le savant fou
29 December 2011 at 4:57 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
janine:
\o/
Amazing how a song from the early 90s, sampling a song from the early 80s, is still so relevant. In the words of a net-famous protest sign, “I can’t believe we still have to protest this shit.”
Banging tune though :)
Hello again, TETlings. I’ve missed you all.
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
29 December 2011 at 5:51 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
2011 celebrities and science
Dr Simon Boxall, oceanographer, tackles
And Dr Chris Lintott, astrophysicist, tackles Bill O’Reilly’s claim that we have no understanding of how the tides work.
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
29 December 2011 at 6:46 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@serendipitydawg:
The sea is salty because… runoff and calcium deposits? (Correct me cause I’m probably wrong)
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
29 December 2011 at 7:19 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Kat, pretty much. As the good Dr says:
I was sorry to read your tale of xmas… at least nephews are awesome and cats are cute!
carlie
29 December 2011 at 7:37 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
kristinc, is she acting out about something else that’s really bothering her? I wonder if she isn’t subconsciously objecting to her own adoption of the princess-pretty meme. She might like a pixie cut like Ginnifer Goodwin for the cut fix (she’s had several lengths, all of them cute). I got my hair all chopped off yesterday too, although on purpose. Went from just below my shoulders to an angled layered bob thing that barely reaches my chin in front. Not quite sure about it, but you know, it will grow. Hers will too.
PTI – I second the credit union. Ask around town about it, though; we went with one and ended up being not all that pleased with the service (we refinanced our mortgage, were told by the credit union that it was serviced through another company that never never sold off their mortgages, and it was sold not two weeks after it went through). But in general, credit unions are definitely the way to go.
Giliell, the woman who said Good-bye to Kitty
29 December 2011 at 7:37 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hmmm, where do the whales get all the salt from?
carlie
29 December 2011 at 7:54 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hi, drbunsen! Good to see you.
theophontes, Hexanitroisowurtzitanverwendendes_Bärtierchen
29 December 2011 at 8:32 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@ John M. & kristinc
Danish/Scandinavian proverb:
opposablethumbs, que le pouce enragé mette les pouces
29 December 2011 at 9:22 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Dear fellow Brit Pharyngulites: for your delectation, and another opportunity to express your righteous opprobrium -
.
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/18914
Almost 22k signatories so far, and it hasn’t been up all that long – I’m sure a little pharyngulation wouldn’t come amiss (and it’s so nicely written, too …)
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
29 December 2011 at 9:29 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@Serendipitydawg:
Yay I was right! *throws confetti!*
I love my family, despite their many flaws. I just wish that it was better since this year I’m going to seriously look into a counselor for my gender problems *remains terrified*
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
29 December 2011 at 9:49 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
opposablethumbs,
Signed!
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
29 December 2011 at 9:53 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Kat,
They may cause problems because of other people but they are most definitely not problems intrinsically.
I don’t know what gender counselling in the US is like but my own transgender friends in the UK found theirs useful…
opposablethumbs, que le pouce enragé mette les pouces
29 December 2011 at 10:10 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh, and I quite forgot to add the traditional exchange:
“Should Thatcher have a State Funeral?”
“Yes, why wait ’til she’s dead”
aaand … rimshot
@Katherine,
I remember what you wrote earlier about some of your family members in “holiday” mode – particularly your uncle, who sounds like an obnoxious overbearing self-satisfied paternalistic arse – and I just wanted to say, go you for surviving it ::clenched tentacle salute::.
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
29 December 2011 at 10:13 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@serendipitydawg:
I merely fear that having to come out to family as transgender may make a solid wall between us. I want to stay in their lives, be a part of the family still, but I don’t know how they’d react and it scares me.
Anyway, lunch and a Toastmasters meeting. Back later.
Giliell, the woman who said Good-bye to Kitty
29 December 2011 at 10:27 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Katherine
Although I cannot relate to your level of difficulties, I know how hard it is to take steps that are good and necessary but that might break family connections.
You have my hugs and sympathy.
+++++
I hereby declare Giliell’s Law: the more stupid an argument adressed to me is, the more crudely the author will misspell my nym…
Serendipitydawg (Physicists are such a pain sometimes)
29 December 2011 at 10:39 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Kat,
I can certainly understand that and only you can judge their likely reaction. Certainly my own friends’ experiences have been very mixed, one losing contact with her brother for several years before a recent tentative reconciliation.
onion girl, OM; imaginary lesbian
29 December 2011 at 10:48 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hey folks, Protoplasmoid is visiting DC next week, and we’re organizing a meet-up. Go here to vote on the dates and possible activities:
Choices include:
Movie matinee
Dinner
Ice-skating
A night walk around the monuments
Email me with questions, I’m still not able to keep up TET. :(
The Sailor
29 December 2011 at 11:08 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
PTI, I third the credit union suggestion. Not all are equal, but at your bank you are a customer, at your CU you are a member. In theory you can vote for who’s on the board and you can become a board member. Your money is also federally protected, just like in a bank.
++++++++++++++++
kristinc, to any stranger that says anything, just smile sadly and whisper “chemotherapy.”
chigau (難しい)
29 December 2011 at 11:35 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The Sailor
That is soooo much better than “None of your fucking business!”
The Sailor
29 December 2011 at 12:05 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The Art Garfunkel was very nice.
He also did one of my favorite renditions of I Only Have Eyes For You
++++++++++++++++
After taking a couple of days off I went into work this morning. I first tackled a
solutionproblem left behind by a computer scientist that works on a CORE grant that is supposed to provide solutions to programming problems that multiple research groups have in common.Her solution was to write it in a C flavor compiled for Ubuntu.
None of us have that flavor of *nix, the closest we come is OS X, which has a BSD base.
So here is her solution for our Windoze:
1) Buy VMWARE ($200 per machine)
2) D/L Ubuntu and install this OS in the VMWARE partition. (You may have to reboot twice to change the BIOS settings of the PC.)
3) D/L OpenCV client and install it.
3) Use the Ubuntu CLI to install a Bourne shell script she wrote that resides on her CVS.
4) That shell script calls a (probably C flavored) executable.
Total installation time for an experienced user? About 2 hours.
Once I had a hold of the shell script I installed it and the executable on my Mac locally, fired up Terminal, and attempted to run the script. Access not authorized, so I sudoed as root and set everything in the path to 777 (kids, don’t try this at home).
Ran the shell script again … but it won’t run the exe code she produced and the source code isn’t there so I can’t recompile for OS’s that we actually use.
BTW, she shit this turd on the Friday before her 2 week holiday vacation and isn’t replying to email.
++++++++++++++++++
My solution is to fire her and get someone that understands that we can’t spend $200 for software, 2 hours of labor, (billed to our grant at about $100/hr), for something that the non-sophisticated end user needs clumsy CLI commands to operate.
We spent at least 6 hours to have this capability on 3 machines. I was so pissed that I left early. (It helps that there were zero cars in the faculty parking lot;-)
OK, slash rant. (I was kinda first drafting this email I want to write to my boss but I have to phrase it much more politically. My boss is a feminist (yea!) and an atheist (yea!) and keeps trying to support this programmer, but a lot of researchers are complaining about her work. Men & women.
The CS MS doesn’t understand how to transpose coordinates between XY to X’Y’.
The CS MS doesn’t understand that you program in the OS and language people use, not expect them to spend hours of arcane commands and spend hundreds of dollars per workstation to use your tool.
OK, now /rant.
The Sailor
29 December 2011 at 12:14 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
chigau, it’s at least one step above “well, bless your heart.”
Alternative: “I’z going to Beauty School, can I give you an appointment card?”
pelamun
29 December 2011 at 12:40 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
not feeling too well, so just as a drive-by:
my Christmas wasn’t so swell, this song sums it about up ;), but I got a neat Christmas present, a manga set in a (Japanese) Catholic all-girls schools originally for nobility. This manga, called Maria-sama ga miteru (literally “Lady Mary is watching”), is famous for being a trail-blazer in the field of LGBT manga (I was never a big shojo manga fan, so I might have missed earlier works). This led to a session of downloading all kinds of LGBT-themed raws (because what was given to me was a translation, it’s just too weird when the junior students use “Sie” when speaking to the senior students (“senpai”), while the senior students use “Du”)
North Korea: it is a monarchy, even in legal terms. In communist systems, the most important post is that of the secretary-general, while the presidency (or chairmanship) is really just window-dressing. And just have a look at who’s just been appointed SG, after his father and his grandfather before him. The funeral was like a soap opera to me, all these question whether (a) Princess Tenko, (b) Kim Jong-Nam, (c) Zhang Dejiang would attend (all no-shows in the end). German newspaper christened Kim Jeong-Un “Pu das Brot”, a blend of “Pooh the Bear” and the “Bernd das Brot”
Gender neutral pronoun: Again, I ask: what’s wrong with singular they? It’s only been around for 600 years or so?? But to those using “xe/hir”, I’ve read up now on how these are supposed to be pronounced, but why do you advocate the usage of pronouns that completely look out of whack from the p.o.v. of English orthography. English orthography has rules (or broad tendencies), and I don’t think it’ll be helpful to use forms that slow down the reader (initial x) or mislead them (hir, often misread as “her”, because that’s how the sequence /ir/ is usually read!)
But re theophontes’ proposal of using Mandarin ta: I’ve thought of the same thing, but then I thought of how the reader would be thrown off by it, and just decided to use singular they whenever possible, including “themself”. But I’d also like to add that in writing Chinese does differentiate a LOT:
these are all read ta1, and are 3rd p. singular pronouns
他: “human radical” referring to a man
她: “woman radical” referring to a woman
牠: “cow radical” referring to an animal
祂: “religious radical” referring to god
它: “house radical” referring to an object, and abstract concepts
(apparently the PRC doesn’t use the animal and religious ones)
plural can be created by adding -men. Respectful pronoun tan 1 怹 (the only time I’ve seen this is in a MA thesis dedication to the author’s parents)
K-Pop Anyone listen to Kanto-Pop? I don’t because I don’t understand Cantonese. But so many people claim that the Cantonese versions ALWAYS sound much better than the Mandarin ones (and probably Cantonese singers, especially from HK, will be more comfortable singing in their mother tongue, I presume)
Eason Chan, “the King of Karaoke”
Cantonese
Mandarin
Jacky Cheung, “Every Day I Love You a Little More”
Cantonese
Mandarin
pelamun
29 December 2011 at 12:44 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
not feeling too well, so just as a drive-by:
my Christmas wasn’t so swell, this song sums it about up ;), but I got a neat Christmas present, a manga set in a (Japanese) Catholic all-girls schools originally for nobility. This manga, called Maria-sama ga miteru (literally “Lady Mary is watching”), is famous for being a trail-blazer in the field of LGBT manga (I was never a big shojo manga fan, so I might have missed earlier works). This led to a session of downloading all kinds of LGBT -themed raws (because what was given to me was a translation, it’s just too weird when the junior students use “Sie” when speaking to the senior students (“senpai”), while the senior students use “Du”)
North Korea: it is a monarchy, even in legal terms. In communist systems, the most important post is that of the secretary-general, while the presidency (or chairmanship) is really just window-dressing. And just have a look at who’s just been appointed SG, after his father and his grandfather before him. The funeral was like a soap opera to me, all these question whether (a) Princess Tenko, (b) Kim Jong-Nam, (c) Zhang Dejiang would attend (all no-shows in the end). German newspaper christened Kim Jong-Un “Pu das Brot”, a blend of “Pooh the Bear” and the “Bernd das Brot”
Gender neutral pronoun: Again, I ask: what’s wrong with singular they? It’s only been around for 600 years or so?? But to those using “xe/hir”, I’ve read up now on how these are supposed to be pronounced, but why do you advocate the usage of pronouns that completely look out of whack from the p.o.v. of English orthography. English orthography has rules (or broad tendencies), and I don’t think it’ll be helpful to use forms that slow down the reader (initial x) or mislead them (hir, often misread as “her”, because that’s how the sequence /ir/ is often read!)
But re theophontes’ proposal of using Mandarin ta: I’ve thought of the same thing, but then I thought of how the reader would be thrown off by it, and just decided to use singular they whenever possible, including “themself”. But I’d also like to add that in writing Chinese does differentiate a LOT:
these are all read ta1, and are 3rd p. singular pronouns
他: “human radical” referring to a man
她: “woman radical” referring to a woman
牠: “cow radical” referring to an animal
祂: “religious radical” referring to god
它: “house radical” referring to an object, and abstract concepts
(apparently the PRC doesn’t use the animal and religious ones)
plural can be created by adding -men. Respectful pronoun tan 1 怹 (the only time I’ve seen this is in a MA thesis dedication to the author’s parents)
K-Pop Anyone listen to Kanto-Pop? I don’t because I don’t understand Cantonese. But so many people claim that the Cantonese versions ALWAYS sound much better than the Mandarin ones (and probably Cantonese singers, especially from HK, will be more comfortable singing in their mother tongue, I presume)
pelamun
29 December 2011 at 12:45 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I thought the limit was at six links? Or was it four? Anyhoo, here are two songs, in both Cantonese and Mandarin versions:
Eason Chan, “the King of Karaoke”
Cantonese
Mandarin
Jacky Cheung, “Every Day I Love You a Little More”
Cantonese
Mandarin
chigau (難しい)
29 December 2011 at 12:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hi pelamun!
pelamun
29 December 2011 at 12:54 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hi Chigau!
いいお年を！
pelamun
29 December 2011 at 1:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
oh right, Alethea: I think we did reach the point of diminishing returns wrt the question of Roman (non)democracy. But I just wanted to add, that I’ve studied Latin for enough years in school to find many admirable things about the Roman empire, but democracy was never one of them. (Maybe the struggle of the plebes for more representation that’s something I could identify with as a social democrat, but that this struggle was necessary does not work in favour of the Roman system in my eyes)
janine
29 December 2011 at 1:19 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I cannot say I know anything about K-Pop. But I did enjoy this collection of Chinese rock bands from a few years ago.
Look Directly Into The Sun
Panda-Carsick Cars
Mario And Peach-Caffe-in
Do not know the title-Voodoo Kungfu
pelamun
29 December 2011 at 2:00 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ah, Chinese rock, a topic I don’t know much about. Hüsker Dü?
(I usuall listen to (foreign) music in order to learn the language, so I need to be able to follow the lyrics)
There’s a Taiwanese alt rock band though I like, Mayday (五月天)
瘋狂世界 (Crazy World)
They also sing some of their songs in Taiwanese.
HoSee
This was one of the Taiwanese expressions Japanese exchange students in Taiwan found immensely funny: ho i si 呼伊死 sounds similar to Japanese “oishii” (delicious), but the Taiwanese phrase means “kill him/her/it”
The Sailor
29 December 2011 at 2:01 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
pelamun, ‘they’ is a plural. I do use it to denote singular when I’m trying to be gender neutral, but it is incorrect.
pelamun
29 December 2011 at 2:03 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
this reminds me of a German greeting Chinese exchange students find very funny:
tschüß (good bye) sounds like qu4si3 去死 “go die”
and this reminds me of the German woman in Australia who was telling her son to “be careful” on his way to school by saying “pass auf!”. Her Australian neighbours thought she was telling him to “piss off”. So she started saying “Achtung” like in a bad Hollywood Nazi movie.
pelamun
29 December 2011 at 2:13 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
TheSailor,
incorrect according to who?
English speakers, including Chaucer,*) Shakespeare**) and various babble translators, have been using it in the singular for 500 years.
Even the Canadian Department of Justice now recommends using singular they in legal texts. http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=26
*) Chaucer example:
“And whoso fyndeth hym out of swich blame,
They wol come up [...]“
**) Shakespeare example:
There’s not a man I meet but doth salute me
As if I were their well-acquainted friend
No babble quotes, but as a bonus, even the dreadful White and Strunk use singular they, when they don’t pay attention to it:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2420#more-2420
opposablethumbs, que le pouce enragé mette les pouces
29 December 2011 at 2:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I have long loved singular they – and I had no idea that it had quite such a long and “respectable” pedigree. Thank you for that interesting info, pelamun et al
pelamun
29 December 2011 at 2:46 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
oh the Canadians also cite the Australian Attorney-General’s example, quoting them
So kudos not only to the Canadians, but also to the Australians!
The Sailor
29 December 2011 at 2:49 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Shakespeare & Chaucer cuun’t spell gude. (p,s WS was referring “not a man” meaning multiple men, => plural.
Chaucer … I’m at a loss as to what the fuck he meant. Is Hym plural? Or did he just fuck up his antecedents? Kinda hard to tell when speakers & writers were both illiterate.
At any rate, My Fucking Wagnalls tells me “used as third person pronoun serving as the plural of he, she, or it or referring to a group of two or more individuals not all of the same sex”
(I prevaricated, I no longer own a Funk & Wagnalls, Online Merriam informed me. ;-)
pelamun
29 December 2011 at 2:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
oh oops, my one link about Strunk and White was actually not about them using it.
It has happened for other rules they posit, I think the split infinitive, that they do use it in other parts of their book. So it’s totally conceivable they’d do the same for singular they, but the link isn’t about that.
Strunk and White, if I understand correctly, would advocate the use of “gender-neutral” he.
pelamun
29 December 2011 at 2:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Another Shakespeare example then:
More on this here: http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002748.html
And to quote their conclusion:
changeable moniker
29 December 2011 at 3:20 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
“particularly puristic pusillanimous pontificators”. Heh.
But they missed “pedantic”. ;)
The Sailor
29 December 2011 at 3:22 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Bah, bah, I say, your human chortle is benieth contempt.
For you Squire, I submit,
we only speak … we do not aquit.
++++++++++
It’s actually kinda fun when cunning linguists are not a party to our chores.
Pro scriptive, and pre scriptive are just a burden to my brain
I tend to write and speak so others will obtain.
(It scanned in the original Latin;-)
pelamun
29 December 2011 at 3:26 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
wouldn’t “pedantic” imply that they were correct about their particularly puristic pusillanimous pontifications?
changeable moniker
29 December 2011 at 3:41 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@pelamun, prolly not. My Concise OED sez: “a person who [1] insists on strict adherence to formal rules; [2] who rates academic learning above everything; [3] who is obsessed by a theory, a doctrinaire”.
Of course, my appeal to the authority of the COED makes me a pedant. ;)
pelamun
29 December 2011 at 3:48 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
fair enough, changeable moniker. in my mind though, a pedant obsesses about trivial matters which nonetheless are correct. but I guess singular they could be “incorrect” within a faulty framework, like that of Strunk and White.
Note: I’m not talking about idiolects here, for some people, singular they might indeed be incorrect, we’ll have to take their word for it. I’m talking about standard English here.
The Sailor
29 December 2011 at 3:49 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’m currently watching “That’s Entertainment, Part 2″
That is all.
love moderately ॐ
29 December 2011 at 4:38 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
janine,
A criminal should always be regarded as a person, who can still be treated unjustly, therefore some line should be drawn. Torture is a perpetual temptation to cross a line into inflicting pain because it’s exciting to inflict pain, inherently a dehumanizing activity for the victim and usually the torturer as well. I would oppose torture.
+++++
John,
I’m not sure what your point might be here. I did indicate that the Confucian revival encouraged by followers of Deng Xiaoping is a problem. Maoists during the Cultural Revolution were not so tolerant.
pelamun
29 December 2011 at 4:45 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
but love moderately,
you are aware that by defending the Maoist stance against religion, you also condone one of the most extensive excesses in human history of destroying cultural artifacts from all periods of Chinese history? And don’t tell me you only like the anti-religious bits of it. The Red Guards didn’t care about pesky distinctions like that.
I hope I misunderstand you here that you intend to defend the Cultural Revolution. If you indeed do, then I’d have some epithets for you.
NovaC
29 December 2011 at 4:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Drive by Hi and how are ya?
Tired….waaaaay tired. Just got through writing, editing,and rewriting a piece that was supposed to be small (100 words or so) but ended up being me spilling my guts all over the place. Posted in P.E.T. Docs for review and because quite a few folks were demanding it.
I need a drink.
Kat, sorry about your holiday. But YAY kitteh and nephews!
Glad to see everyone back.
Going to be a bit spacey for a bit while I think of an idea for another piece.
I will also publicly acknowledge on T.E.T. (I’ve already done this on P.E.T.) that the Horde was right and I was wrong. I may have a modicum of talent for writing and should not have thrown my writings in a box and declared them crap.
love moderately ॐ
29 December 2011 at 4:58 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
pelamun, like anything else, I could only give certain answers about particular cases. I’m sure many mistakes were made. I said what I said about the anti-religious bits of it. But since you ask: in general, I can see a case for destroying the secular monuments and artifacts of imperial dynasties, so I would not object to this in principle.
Cannabinaceae
29 December 2011 at 5:07 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Drive by gift report.
Well, nothing much to report. I forgot to get B.I.L. anything special (I got all the adults, including him, big herkin’ ice scrapers for their cars), so I gave him a lump of coal (well, chunk charcoal but he got the idea). By complete coincidence, his parents (who have their own giftie thing on the eve), who for some reason adore me, got be a bunch of “Lump of Coal” English Stout. Quite hilarious, and quite good.
John Morales
29 December 2011 at 5:11 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
ॐ, isn’t it obvious that your hope for ongoing Chinese communist anti-religionism* is not exactly well-founded, and that their Maoism is mutating (becoming more pragmatic and less ideologic)?
Cannabinaceae
29 December 2011 at 5:22 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
On wisdom teeth.
The most pleasurable moment in my life was when, after the X-rays were taken, I was injected with a local anesthetic, which silenced the pain from a wisdom tooth that had come in sideways, gotten cracked, and then impacted. Painful pain of extreme painfulness.
Note 1: chewing your tongue while trying to eat when half your jaw is asleep is kind of like eating tripe.
Note 2: the local they used didn’t seem to have any combinatory effets with cannabis.
pelamun
29 December 2011 at 5:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
love moderately,
first off about anti-religious measures: even if the Cultural Revolution was fully peaceful in its means, and “only” imposed fines and jail on believers, what good is there to be found in coerced atheism? I fail to see how that would benefit the cause of skepticist atheism.
But on to the you condoning the Cultural
pelamun
29 December 2011 at 5:35 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
love moderately,
first off about anti-religious measures: even if the Cultural Revolution was fully peaceful in its means, and “only” imposed fines and jail on believers, what good is there to be found in coerced atheism? I fail to see how that would benefit the cause of skepticist atheism.
But on to the you condoning the Cultural Revolution. You seem to have chosen enough weasel words so I hesitate to direct my epithets at you, but:
- many people were killed. In June 1966, in Beijing alone 100 school teachers were murdered by the Red Guards. Watch this documentary, banned in China (Eng subtitles). There were no Cambodian style killing fields, but who knows what would have happened if Mao hadn’t died in 1976?
- many more were forcibly moved from cities to the countryside. Many were publicly humiliated (this video shows some of this, though I don’t know the wider context of this material)
- and many, many artifacts and documents were destroyed. You know that I’m passionate in my disgust of and opposition to monarchy and nobility, but how can you condone destroying artifacts and documents? What purpose is there to erase a country’s history and culture? I find this kind of thinking bordering on totalitarianism. (also to further Godwin this: Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen.)
Anyway, how anyone can condone the Cultural Revolution is just beyond me. Even the CCP has acknowledged this. They ban films like the one I linked, but enough of their cadres have suffered through the horrors of it that they are well aware of how devastating it was. The official party line is 毛泽东七分功三分过 (Mao Zedong 70% success, 30% mistakes). The Cultural Revolution is firmly in the mistake rubric.
pelamun
29 December 2011 at 5:39 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
due to some posting difficulties, a correction I’d made didn’t make it back in: “in Bejing, 100 school teachers were murdered by their own students (who also happened to be Red Guards).
Here’s also an article with more info on the documentary
changeable moniker
29 December 2011 at 5:44 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@pelamun, I’m a lapsed Scouser. We don’t have a particularly consistent view of language, other than that Mancunians and the Welsh talk funny.
chigau (難しい)
29 December 2011 at 5:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
If this works, I will be surprised.
Posted from my book reader.
pelamun
29 December 2011 at 5:54 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Some more figures on the estimated victims:
official numbers at the trial of the Gang of Four:
Other sources differ wildly, but are all much higher than the official numbers
Alethea H. Claw
29 December 2011 at 5:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
On a pessimistic day, I can see Love Moderately’s point. I can also appreciate the classic plan of strangling the last king with the entrails of the last priest. Though for “king” we need to read more broadly than Diderot – last Koch brother, last plutocrat.
On optimistic days, one can hope for non-violent revolution. I’m not sure that’s realistic, though.
pelamun
29 December 2011 at 5:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
changeable moniker,
I love Labskaus, the dish the term “scouse” is apparently derived from.
Trick to remember when trying to get Japanese exchange groups to eat it (the dish at first glance can look like vomit, at least in the North German variant): make them all cook it together, it’s a fun communal experience and they’ll know what’s inside…
Alethea H. Claw
29 December 2011 at 5:58 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
BTW, that’s specifically the point about outlawing religion, not the whole “cultural revolution”. I don’t think LM said anything about that horror, but maybe I missed something.
pelamun
29 December 2011 at 5:59 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
This has always been the credo of the Social Democratic movement (known as Labour parties in the Anglo-Saxon world). Or rather non-violent reformation through the system. Prior to WW2, many Social Democratic Parties actually wanted to achieve socialism through the democratic process, but this is a goal most parties no longer follow…
pelamun
29 December 2011 at 6:04 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Alethea,
I’m not sure. But I find it hard to try and just separate the acceptable bits out of Maoism (ignoring for the time being that I don’t think outlawing religion is particularly useful either).
The idea behind the Great Cultural Revolution was to eliminate anything connected to the feudal past, and this included not only religion and other types of non-Communist ideology, but also monuments, artwork, buildings, books and documents, and ultimately, people also (in Cambodia this was done to perfection, I think they killed 25% of their population IIRC).
But probably LM knows much more about Maoism than I do, and might be able to shed more light on the finer distinctions here.
pelamun
29 December 2011 at 6:24 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
weird: interest rates on Danish bonds:
three months: -0.21%
six months: -0.07%
nine months: +0.03%
(total volume, sold on Thursday: 310 million EUR / 2.32 billion DKR)
chigau (難しい)
29 December 2011 at 6:26 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I think I’ll stick with the netbook.
love moderately ॐ
29 December 2011 at 6:39 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
John,
Oh, yes! It certainly looks that way. Rather, when I say I “am ultimately in favor of a communist state which mandates atheism by force, although I believe successful implementation of such a program will take several generations, the first of which should focus on suppressing clergy rather than all believers“, I’m expressing a general hope about the communist states of the future.
We Are Ing
29 December 2011 at 6:47 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Morally disgusting and utterly unethical. The tactics of an intellectual coward.
You do forget, there COULD be a god or some force. Replacing them with a dogma of atheism is disgusting, just vile.
I think I’ll keep you in my kill file, clearly you’re not on the side of angles.
We Are Ing
29 December 2011 at 6:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Clarification: I feel any utopia or improved state would have significant education on rational thought and science and history and enough egalitarian laws and protections against violence to render the danger of religion obsolete.
Ms. Daisy Cutter
29 December 2011 at 6:54 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sigh…
love moderately ॐ
29 December 2011 at 6:56 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The good is in the lack of religious organizations which can threaten the people’s revolution.
Neither am I content to stomp out racism by merely arguing skeptically against racism.
I suspect that was unnecessary brutality. If it was necessary to get them out of their occupations, they could have been sent into other lines of work.
I won’t condemn those tactics, although I would stipulate that the forcible moves in particular may have often been unnecessary.
You already know the purpose — “to eliminate anything connected to the feudal past” — you apparently just don’t agree it’s a useful goal. I think there’s an argument to be made for it; by eliminating old objects of veneration, nostalgia may be minimized after the generations who remember are gone.
Yes, but I wonder if that’s because so many people died unnecessarily during the Cultural Revolution. That may be reason enough for the modern party to condemn it.
Nah. I think you’re probably better informed than I am.
I don’t do the sort of apologetics which require a “right-thinking Maoist” to learn a bunch of point-counterpoint by rote. That’s terribly boring. I just hear of something that sounds to me like a good idea, or something that sounds to me like a bad idea, and I say so.
love moderately ॐ
29 December 2011 at 7:00 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Presumably, if it is a benevolent god, it will regard the fact that people were raised under the coercion of state atheism to be a mitigating circumstance which should count against their eternal damnation.
love moderately ॐ
29 December 2011 at 7:03 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
And if that day ever comes, then I will be happy to admit I was unduly pessimistic.
We Are Ing
29 December 2011 at 7:04 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Did I mention damnation at all? Or even any threat from the god? I was mentioning you basically squashing honest pursuit and truth for the sake of purity.
I guess having the state stomp people into the ground is fine as long as you’re the one wearing the boots.
I’m done. The blog just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Later.
NovaC
29 December 2011 at 7:10 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ms. Daisy Cutter
Of course these fools think herd immunity will protect them when they’re the ones actually decreasing the effectiveness of it. Thanks for bringing whooping cough back you sacks of human offal!
Alethea H. Claw
29 December 2011 at 7:17 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
One of the bitterly amusing things about Maoism is that the Little Red Book is so lovely. It’s all in favour of tolerance of various ideas and education and stuff. Pity Mao didn’t practise what he preached.
love moderately ॐ
29 December 2011 at 7:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ah. Sorry. I assumed wrongly.
It’s not for the sake of purity, though. It’s for the sake of taking power away from religious organizations. Wrong or “impure” ideas which do not threaten humanism can be ignored by the state.
Alethea H. Claw
29 December 2011 at 7:22 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Daisy, your link just goes back here. Antivaxxers make me fume. HULK SMASH!
kristinc, ~delicate snowflake~
29 December 2011 at 7:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’ve decided that from now on when someone asks my religion I’m going to respond “Chanel No. 19″. Mmmmmmm.
NovaC
29 December 2011 at 7:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Now that I’ve made it loud and clear that I’m an Atheist I can only use Sith or Jedi with folks that don’t know me.
Alethea H. Claw
29 December 2011 at 7:30 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
To conflate the topics, I don’t see anything wrong per se with outlawing some kinds of religion – it goes right along with having antiquackery laws, and truth in advertising laws, and consumer rights laws. It’s about protecting the public from exploitation by harmful liars.
changeable moniker
29 December 2011 at 7:33 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@pelamun, “Labskaus”. Ick. ;)
This is the real stuff: http://eatthechef.com/recipe.aspx?id=248
And for the lulz: Liverpool, 2005
changeable moniker
29 December 2011 at 7:40 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@pelamun: “weird: interest rates on Danish bonds:”
Paul Krugman explains …
carlie
29 December 2011 at 7:47 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Book rant:
I wanted a book. Went online to amazon, book is on sale cheap! Decide no, I should buy it at my local bookstore, which is a chain, but still employing people in town. Looked at its own online site, and it’s on sale there too, yay! Go to the store, find out no, not on sale in store itself. But I have a membership, which gives me 40% off of bestselling hardcovers, which this is! Yay! But no, it’s classified as a YA book, so not eligible for the discount.
Got annoyed at the whole thing, went home, logged into the library site and put a copy on hold.
This is why booksellers are going out of business. Hmpf.
(I can understand it costing more at a brick and mortar store than on amazon, but it cost more than its own website, and was classified as to be ineligible for the discount based on a membership that I paid for to get discounts. That’s just aggravating.)
carlie
29 December 2011 at 7:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ms. Daisy Cutter, Feministe just linked to a NYTimes op-ed about why you should get vaccinated here.
excerpt:
John Morales
29 December 2011 at 7:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Alethea, I’m entirely in favour of outlawing specific activities — but not of outlawing religion(s) per se.
(Smacks too much of thought-policing, to me)
shouldbeworking
29 December 2011 at 7:56 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@382: my religion is Jameson Irish, the old country religion is bet.
Alethea H. Claw
29 December 2011 at 8:12 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yeah, John, that’s why I said “some kinds” not “all”. It would be tricky to codify, but some form of consumer protection does seem in order. Selling pie in the sky when you die is a lot more nebulous than selling cancer-curing apricot pits and piss. But the sorts of scam that Mother Theresa pulled off should be liable. Taking millions for the poor and spending it on other things entirely is clearly deceptive.
changeable moniker
29 December 2011 at 8:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Just because:
Depeche Mode – People are people
(One of the better bits of the 80s.)
Enjoy the silence
(One of the better bits of the 90s.)
changeable moniker
29 December 2011 at 8:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
OFFS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyTlgOCU1b8
That’s 1st link.
kristinc, ~delicate snowflake~
29 December 2011 at 8:41 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
shouldbeworking: heeeeeee. Gimme that old time religion!
After all, it was good enough for Isis. And whatever else you may say, you do have to admit she came through in a crisis. Plus, she never raised her prices. So, yeah, it’s a fair bet to say it’s good enough for me.
:P
We Are Ing
29 December 2011 at 9:02 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Seriously. Fuck evopsyche in all it’s bullshit psuedoscience forms.
Benjamin "Killer Pawn" Geiger
29 December 2011 at 9:11 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
<rant>
This family is so damn dysfunctional.
Mom works a full time job and still maintains the house. My brother works as many hours as he can get and takes care of his son when he’s home.
Then there’s my uncle and my brother’s girlfriend. The biggest difference is that my uncle at least tries to help around the house. (Frankly, he doesn’t leave his room very often, and when he makes a mess elsewhere in the house, he cleans it up.) My brother’s girlfriend doesn’t even do that.
Case in point: a short while ago, she turned on a stove burner, despite seeing cat urine dried onto it. Her exact words, after I had evacuated the house because of the smell: “Well, I’m not gonna clean it!”
She lives here rent-free, doesn’t do a damn bit of housework here, but is willing to go do housework at her cousin’s house…
</rant>
Happiestsadist
29 December 2011 at 9:56 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Depeche Mode has its good songs, but Enjoy The Silence ain’t one of them. But then, it is the thing most guaranteed to cause a PTSD flashback.
I’m not even going to touch all their songs about 15 year old girls.
Happiestsadist
29 December 2011 at 9:58 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Also, though I’m not surprised Love Moderately is a nasty authoritarian piece of work (having been here long enough to know), fucking hell, it’s still surprising when the apologetics for the Cultural Revolution come up.
kristinc, ~delicate snowflake~
29 December 2011 at 11:03 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I wonder: if it were only illegal for a church to receive money from its congregation in any way, wouldn’t most of them just dry up right there?
cicely, Disturber of the Peas
29 December 2011 at 11:09 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Howdy, drbunsen, and welcome home.
-
firstapproximation
30 December 2011 at 12:12 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Whoa. sgbm can sometimes take some radical stances, but wow….
chigau (難しい)
30 December 2011 at 12:14 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Well, I’m back.
An hour late due to an accident on Highway 2 northbound just south of Leduc.
Almost everyone on the bus had some kind of Device™ and we were sharing info but I still don’t know what happened.
By the time we got to The Scene it was all tidy.
It was the Middle of Nowhere
amblebury
30 December 2011 at 12:33 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
So, I see two reviewers where I am have made Blue Valentine their movie of the year. I couldn’t agree more, I thinks it’s the most carefully crafted and poignant flick I’ve seen since Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas.
Benjamin, that’s not dysfunctional, it’s disgusting.
SallyStrange, Spawn of Cthulhu
30 December 2011 at 12:37 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I just recorded some music with my band.
That’s the worst thing about leaving Vermont. I’ll miss my bandmates. I think this is the best band I’ve ever played in, not in terms of musical talent (that ranges) but in terms of commitment to having lots of FUN and not being assholes.
I’ll be sure to post some links once the recordings are finished. :)
chigau (難しい)
30 December 2011 at 12:54 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
feh
Brownian
What are you doing for New Year Eve?
Can I get an invite?
are there other Edmontonians?
amblebury
30 December 2011 at 12:59 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I loved it Sally.
amblebury
30 December 2011 at 1:08 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My day. Signed up a woman for a library visitor’s card – she was from Christchurch. Waived the usual $20.00 fee, told her she’d been through enough. She burst into tears. Not the first refugee from Christchurch who needed someone to have a debrief with.
Dealt with an evidently fragile, scared woman. After a little while, discern she’s looking for books on dealing with childhood sexual abuse. She says people must think she’s mad. I give her a hug and tell her she most certainly isn’t.
And, total crazyness – public holidays and foul weather. Anyone who says that libraries are dying institutions will be bludgeoned with an encyclopedia. When we have time.
SallyStrange, Spawn of Cthulhu
30 December 2011 at 1:17 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thanks amblebury!
I have to say though, I didn’t realize the damage in Christchurch was bad enough to have refugees. Whereabouts are you?
amblebury
30 December 2011 at 1:30 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’m in the north island – New Plymouth. people come up here to visit friends or relatives, but really it’s just an escape. The ongoing problem with Christchurch is the duration and severity of the aftershocks – imagine being traumatized, trying to recover, and the trauma going on and on. The last big shocks were on 23rd Dec. The woman I was dealing with was at the airport, which had to be evacuated, at the time.
theophontes, Hexanitroisowurtzitanverwendendes_Bärtierchen
30 December 2011 at 1:37 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@ Kitty 316
Not a “gender problem” but a “gender solution”. You are being honest with yourself and improving your life. That is 100% good. Kudos.
It is society that has the problem and perhaps, though hopefully not, members of your family in particular. My take is that you are right in seeking a councilor though – not because you are wrong in anyway, but rather that they (singular) may be of great help in dealing with those mistaken individuals around you.
@ The Sailor 326
Sounds like you have got the problem the wrong way round. Rather than spending $200 on a vm for windose, you could be installing a vm for FREE on Ubuntu. (There is a lot to be said for stopping the bus and fixing the real problem before continuing…)
@ Love Moderately 350
I just had a delectable meal at Deng Xiaoping’s favourite restaurant in Shekou (one of his pet projects in Shenzhen). The spicy crab was to die for…
@ pelamun 358
Sorry, can’t comment on that… youtube itself is banned in China.
love moderately ॐ
30 December 2011 at 1:40 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
New(ish) pages at PharynguWiki include Ray Comfort, crazy-blaming, libertarians, alternative medicine, The Trouble with Physics by Lee Smolin, and some recipes in the Cookbook.
SallyStrange, Spawn of Cthulhu
30 December 2011 at 1:40 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Mt. Taranaki! Well, I’m glad you librarians are there to help people through the trauma.
I can tell I’m up too late when the only other people posting are in NZ and Australia.
Bon soir everyone.
love moderately ॐ
30 December 2011 at 1:41 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
New(ish) pages at PharynguWiki include Ray Comfort, crazy-blaming, libertarians, alternative medicine, and some recipes in the Cookbook.
SallyStrange, Spawn of Cthulhu
30 December 2011 at 1:41 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
And China.
theophontes, Hexanitroisowurtzitanverwendendes_Bärtierchen
30 December 2011 at 1:44 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@ Caine
Article on teh laughing animulz…. scroll down to the vid on the laughing rodent. (Linky to Beeb) squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
theophontes, Hexanitroisowurtzitanverwendendes_Bärtierchen
30 December 2011 at 1:46 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Cheers Sally!
Slaap lekker… & schone traumen
pelamun
30 December 2011 at 1:51 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
changeable moniker,
thanks for the Krugman link. I knew why the Danish bonds are considered stable, but the question is more why would institutional investors go for negative interest (I assume individual investors wouldn’t go for that)
LM,
Yes, it is fine (for me) to penalise ideologies if they endanger other human beings’ lives. I fully support the hate crime laws in various European countries, especially the anti-Nazi laws in Germany and Austria.
I also could behind a consumer protection law as suggested by Alethea.
But a revolution people are forced to support, or an atheism people are forced to embrace as their “belief system” is worthless to me.
I guess this is the difference between communists and social democrats..
I freely admit that as a social democrat I am biased against communism, but to me, looking at all the instances where communists have been in power, this what you call “unnecessary brutality” reeks to me of “no true Scotsman”. From where I am, the brutality and countless lives taken look like a feature, not a bug.
This is a totalitarian and for me totally despicable position. Have you learnt nothing from reading Nineteen Eighty-Four? The damage the CCP has dealt the Chinese culture is unimaginable. Studying history and historical objects isn’t just done for nostalgic reasons (and even if it were, again, a revolution that needs to eliminate its rivals by force and cannot succeed by persuasion is worthless to me). History helps us understand our past, and through it we can understand our present (and future) better.
Ya think? /sarc
Anyways, I can imagine being in favour of various anti-religious measures such as:
- getting rid of all privileges, such as tax exemptions, or state-paid salaries for clergy and other religious employees
- “consumer protection”: state supervision of church finances (I don’t think you could outlaw giving money to churches, but maximum scrutiny of this should be called for), anywhere clergy deal with children
- state observation (and intervention if possible) of all religious groups that seek to take over their members’ lives. Probably through child protection laws, education laws (outlawing home-schooling for instance, or even when allowing home-schooling, implementing a state-controlled curriculum and exam system ensuring that a proper scientific education) and maybe inheritance laws (I’d include cases of seniors signing away their money to a mainstream church too, that whenever this occurs, it should be flagged)
- I’m also supportive of Dawkins’ stance that educating children from a young age in a specific religion borders on abuse, but we walk a very fine line here between coercion and liberty. If the parents wish to educate their kids in a specific denomination, and as long as it doesn’t cross the thresholds outlined above, then I’d have a hard time arguing against it. Maybe one could mandate that children could not register a religious affiliation until they’re adults (in countries where there is such a registration system). Maybe the state education could emphasise that it is a right of every person to choose their religion or non-religion freely (and teaching that there is no scientific evidence for any religious claims might be a countermeasure to religious parents trying to steer their kids towards their own religion)
pelamun
30 December 2011 at 1:55 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sally,
you’re up so late that it is morning already in Europe XD…
theophontes,
what about the various solutions to circumvent the GFWoC? At least 1-2 years ago it was said that no teach-savvy person would be stopped by it…
pelamun
30 December 2011 at 1:57 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
“intervention if necessary” the point of having state observation of extremist groups, and harmful religious groups is to be able to intervene, after all..
pelamun
30 December 2011 at 2:10 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
in fact, religious education classes in some European countries no longer teach the dogma of the dominant Christian denomilnation, but take a more clinical look at various religions. One could develop this further to a pro-atheist curriculum, but not based on coercion, but on reasoning:
- explaining how the dogmas and claims of all religions can’t be proven scientifically.
- studying the harm religions have brought to the world
- making this mandatory, with no religious opt-out (and no home-schooling/or home-schooling only with the constraints as outlined above)
love moderately ॐ
30 December 2011 at 2:21 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Under liberal capitalism, everyone is forced to support, via taxes and laws against treason, a great many state institutions that they don’t agree with. Lately this practice has often been justified by John Rawls’ work on “legal obligation”, but one fanciful lie or another about the “consent of the governed” has been with us for centuries.
I hear your complaint, but it is misleading to suggest that anything except anarchism offers a real alternative to state violence.
You’re confused. It’s precisely the opposite. It is an acknowledgement that communists have done bad shit, and should do differently in the future.
I didn’t say it was.
Of course, I didn’t advocate the erasure of history. I said there’s a case to be made for destruction of artifacts and monuments from imperial dynasties, so that people do not venerate these objects. I don’t have a problem with keeping documentation on what is demolished.
theophontes, Hexanitroisowurtzitanverwendendes_Bärtierchen
30 December 2011 at 2:22 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@ pelamun
People certainly do get around it. I guess I could if I had the time. I have pottered with TOR (worked in HK but not Shenzhen). I could also try paying for an overseas VPN but haven’t bothered. To me it is not such a big thing as I spend a lot of my time in Honkers. I have heard that kindle can leap it in a single bound via 3G (which I have, though again have not experimented.)
…………….
Re: Mao. We must bear in mind that for Mao, it was all about Mao. If he didn’t like jeebus, it was because he couldn’t stand competition in the personality cult stakes.
Also he did not think much about the peasant in the field. He watched the clique around him like a hawk and governed his every move around oneupmanship of this small group of very powerful (and to him potentially dangerous) people. The whole gang-of-four cultural revolution can be understood in this light. “I stepped aside and see what happened!” He could also use the tumult and time to consolidate his position.
Do not underestimate what a genius he was for political close fighting. I trust SGBM does not have an over-romanticized impression of what made the man tick.
love moderately ॐ
30 December 2011 at 2:26 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Such must entail allowing fundamentalists to homeschool their children according to whatever nonsense curriculum they dream up, else you’re talking about coercion.
But you don’t want that:
So you want coercion, you just don’t have the courage (or perhaps even the introspection) to call it what it is.
pelamun
30 December 2011 at 2:27 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’m not confused. As a leftist, I regard communism as a “noble idea” worth striving for. It’s the communists I have problems with. Show me one example where communists in power have NOT been authoritarian.
For me the debate about the feasibility of communism came to a negative conclusion in 1989. The social democratic alternative is to work within the capitalist system to improve conditions from within. (Probably communists regard this kind of stance as cowardly accommodationism, along the lines of “Wer hat uns verraten – Sozialdemokraten”, but I’ll live with that)
I’ll take Sverige over 조선민주주의인민공화국 any day…
pelamun
30 December 2011 at 2:31 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
LM,
no, now you’re confusing my position. There is something called mandatory education, usually nine years, in most countries. This is certainly based on coercion (home-schooling is outlawed in many those countries, people can get fined or go to jail for not sending their kids to school, or even lose custody)
I advocate teaching atheism as a rational stance in a mandatory education system. What I don’t advocate is to make atheism the only legal option to take. What I mean is that children after being exposed to the pro-rational curriculum, would still have the right to choose to be religious. And they shouldn’t be forced here to adopt atheism, this is the type of coercion I absolutely oppose.
pelamun
30 December 2011 at 2:33 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Gah, don’t know what happened there.
I’ll take Sverige over 조선민주주의인민공화국 any day.
In Sverige, they even abolished the Privy Council and took away the King’s role in appointing governments (something done by the Speaker now). If I had to live in a monarchy, it would be Sweden. (of course my Swedish relatives still hate the King, because he says stupid things)
pelamun
30 December 2011 at 2:35 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
OK, it seems to be a problem on FtB’s end: 조선민주주의인민공화국 Chosŏn Minjujuŭi Inmin Konghwaguk, the official name of the Kim Hermit Kingdom…
love moderately ॐ
30 December 2011 at 2:36 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
That misunderstands why most Marxists are atheists: because Marx advocated historical materialism.
Had Marx advocated religion instead, Mao may still have developed a personality cult, but it would more likely have included religion.
You’re not wrong about the existence of Mao’s personality cult, but it’s almost certainly incorrect to attribute any Marxist leader’s anti-religious stance to their own personality cult, when Marx’s own atheism, the doctrine of historical materialism, and the anti-revolutionary tendencies of most religious organizations are such obvious causes.
I have no care for or against Mao himself, in any case.
theophontes, Hexanitroisowurtzitanverwendendes_Bärtierchen
30 December 2011 at 2:39 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Aaah! Him Kermit! (Yes I had those for lunch too,..*BURP*
love moderately ॐ
30 December 2011 at 2:44 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
You are confused, if you regard “communists have done bad shit” to be equivalent to “true communists would not do bad shit”. The latter is a No True Scotsman, and I’m obviously doing no such thing.
Why on Earth would I do that, when I’m not claiming otherwise? See, you are confused.
pelamun
30 December 2011 at 2:45 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
sorry theophontes,
another Youtube song:
(starting with: “[...] so when I wished I had cancer, that was the moment I was inspired to write a song about the SPD”)
Wer hat uns verraten – Sozialdemokraten (who betrayed us – Social Democrats, only in German it rhymes)
theophontes, Hexanitroisowurtzitanverwendendes_Bärtierchen
30 December 2011 at 2:46 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@ ॐ
General point taken, I was referring only to Mao’s particular case (where I suspect less Marxist conviction and far more personal forces at play).
As an aside I must say I am impressed that you are so into Marxism. It is just so out of keeping with the general creep show that is today’s “Merkin politics. Good on you.
pelamun
30 December 2011 at 2:46 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Now I’m confused. Are you saying that it was to be expected that any communist government would rule in an authoritarian way?
love moderately ॐ
30 December 2011 at 2:50 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I don’t know. I only know that they have. I am not very confident about predicting alternate histories.
John Morales
30 December 2011 at 2:59 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
for Himself: Top 10 charts of 2011 By Alan Kohler at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
pelamun
30 December 2011 at 3:00 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
well, then spell out exactly what you think I’m confused about.
I said that whenever communists have been in power, they have turned out to be authoritarian. While this doesn’t mean that it is a absolute necessity that future communist regimes wouldn’t be, I’d think I’d not want to take the risk.
We can discuss the role coercion and authoritarianism play within communist ideology. FWIW, to me 1989 has demonstrated that the problem posed by Quis custodiet ipsos custodes (in the modern sense re political corruption, not the marital infidelity problem) can only be addressed in a liberal demcracy, whatever its flaws…
pelamun
30 December 2011 at 3:05 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
theophontes,
have you read Governing China by Ken Lieberthal? he describes the process how one-man rule from Mao to Deng to Jiang became more and more collegial quite well.
Caine, Fleur du Mal
30 December 2011 at 3:13 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Theophontes, that’s been known about rats for a very long time. At least it’s known among rat owners. Rats also have an audible chirp. Chas often chirps and lately Esme has started chirping, but only to Chas.
love moderately ॐ
30 December 2011 at 3:17 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The part where you claim I’m doing a No True Scotsman. That term has a meaning, and I can’t be doing that if I’m acknowledging that the communists who did bad shit were indeed communists.
That’s more attributable to the consolidation of power in the executive, which is why the same problem is more prominent in some liberal democracies than others.
A strong judiciary which can enforce constitutional guarantees of personal freedom — such as the Bill of Rights Socialism proposed by the CPUSA — is possible and probably desireable in any revolution.
theophontes, Hexanitroisowurtzitanverwendendes_Bärtierchen
30 December 2011 at 3:18 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
No, but I shall spoil myself when I am back on my (financial) feet.
……..
On whether or not communism dooms a country to authoritarianism:
I don’t think that this question matters in the context of American politics (it being so unlikely). On the other hand it IS important to have people within government who see things from a communist perspective.
(Like frogs …*burp*) A good indicator of a healthy political eco-system. Let a hundred flowers bloom …
theophontes, Hexanitroisowurtzitanverwendendes_Bärtierchen
30 December 2011 at 3:20 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@ Caine
Rodent Romance? ;D
consciousness razor
30 December 2011 at 3:34 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
It would be misleading to suggest that all “state violence” is equivalent, or that forced atheism is necessary for a society to function with minimal negative consequences. This is beside the fact that attempting to force any belief would itself be negative, and if not impossible then quixotic. And stupid.)
How does it harm anyone if someone venerates an object?
pelamun
30 December 2011 at 3:36 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Question to all:
is there anything like German cabaret in an English-speaking country, and available on youtube? Preferably something other than the “Daily Show”? Kabarett involves a comedian on the stage making fun (often in an acerbic way) of politics. Even under the Nazis and the SED cabaret existed, though treading a very fine line. (Karl Valetin, a Bavarian cabaretist in the Nazi era, once famously said when power was cut during one of his performances, “it’s because of the Leitung”, Leitung being ambiguous between “power circuit” and “political leadership”)
I really enjoy this type of art performance, and wish there was something comparable criticising American, UK or Japanese politics (for the latter, I’ll have to make to with watching Aibo)
love moderately,
All right then. But I did use a weasel word, namely “reeks of”
As I said, I acknowledge liberal democracies have a lot of flaws. But look at the rights guaranteed by the constitutions of the PRC, the GDR, the USSR. The gap between constitution and reality was wide. And if the CPUSA should come to power and erect a one-party state, the same would happen.
In a liberal democracy, change of power (however cosmetic this might be in some cases) occurs from time to time, and parties of different political stripes keep each other at bay. Again, this doesn’t work perfectly, but I still think it’s the least bad system we have.
theophontes,
oh don’t spend to much money on Lieberthal. In the world of American China strategists, he’s known as an unabashed panda hugger willing to sell out Taiwan in a New York minute ;)
pelamun
30 December 2011 at 3:46 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I sometimes wish Bernie Sanders would join the Social Democrats, USA, but it appears the party is dead…
Alethea H. Claw
30 December 2011 at 3:59 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
pelamun, I adore cabaret of the political stripe. But it’s not very common, sadly. Most of the cabaret performers I go to see do pieces by historical artists like Brecht & Weil or Jacques Brel.
We do have some good musical political satire in Australia – you could look on YouTube for Keating the Musical, or The Wharf Revue – but you’d really need to know about our pollies for it to make any sense. Not just feds, either, the latest wharf revue was heavily NSW-centric.
love moderately ॐ
30 December 2011 at 4:08 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
We know that it works; the results of a natural experiment demonstrate this.
Depends on the object. Exposure to symbols of traditional authority probably increases right-wing self-identification.
love moderately ॐ
30 December 2011 at 4:14 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
pelamun, Bernie Sanders associates himself with the Democratic Socialists of America. (I don’t think he’s a member per se, but he goes to their conventions and gives speeches.)
pelamun
30 December 2011 at 4:23 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Alethea,
I did follow Australian politics intensively in 199