I’m in Orange County today, and I heard an odd comment that there was a dearth of godless music. I beg to differ: most music is godless, and I would point to rock as a genre that is almost entirely secular. You know, it doesn’t have to be overt and announce that god doesn’t exist to be compatible with freethought.
Anyway, among the vendors at this conference was a band, Galt Aureus — I bought one of their “Arrest the Pope” t-shirts and they were nice enough to give me one of their CDs, which I’ve loaded up unto my iPod Touch for the flight home. And as long as I’ve been unforgivably neglecting the endless thread, I might as well use one of their videos to reset it.
(Current totals: 10,185 entries with 988,253 comments)
If this policy will help the working poor, I don’t see why the fact that it will also help the middle classes should be seen as a point against it. – Walton
Because there is abundant evidence that economic inequality is itself destructive – which I’ve pointed you to more times than I care to remember. Moreover, the policy has been sold as targeted at helping the working poor, but since only £1bn of the £17bn or so will do so, this presentation is dishonest, and the same amount of money could be used much more efficiently for that purpose.
Yep, didn’t happen on my first visit but as soon as I tried to leave a comment, bam.
First link appears to be clean. But the video is the money shot. Trying to find it elsewhere.
Here we go. It’s at Minnesota independent also.
http://minnesotaindependent.com/58396/religious-right-asks-god-to-forgive-minnesota-for-electing-a-muslim
Good luck with the whole thing – maybe try keep a list of things your husband doesn’t do that follow the Jewish tradition (there must be some… thats a longass list of rules right there) which in no way approach the severity of permanent removal of a body part to at least get him out of the realm of mumbo-jumbo and into the realm of sensible discussion on the subject. – Ewan R.
Could try telling him you’ll agree if he will henceforth follow Biblical law in all particulars.
Knockgoats
As I said somewhere previously I support the raising of the tax threshold to about £15k, but only if the tax rates above this point are progrssively increased. Merely increasing the threshold without higher rates for bigger earners means that everybody pays less tax, and therefore all the inevitable cuts to come will fall disproportionately on the lower paid (again), and those cuts will need to be greater to pay for this tax break to the rich.
No wonder the Tories conceeded to the LibDems on this policy. Surprised they didn’t include it in their own manifesto.
It’s still better than the rather silly Tory proposal to raise the inheritance tax threshold to £1 million (which has now been dropped), which would have been of benefit exclusively to the middle and upper classes and would have done nothing to help the poor. So I still think this government’s tax policy is an improvement over what we could have had.
But yes, there are other ways that the working poor could be helped. One possibility would be a VAT reduction on some consumer goods. This could stimulate consumer demand, and would also help the poor more than the wealthy, since, like all sales and consumption taxes, the burden of VAT tends to fall more heavily on the poor than on the rich.
The trouble is, of course, that major tax cuts are not easily compatible with the overriding need to reduce the deficit (lest we end up like Greece). Which is why I think that cuts to front-line services are regrettably going to be necessary.
Damn. I’ve just realised that my post at #506 actually sounds more than slightly left-of-centre. The trouble is that arguing with hardcore socialists on Pharyngula has shifted my personal Overton window somewhat leftwards; I’m now reduced to arguing for moderate social-democratic policies in opposition to the anticapitalist left. :-)
Some of my Tory friends in real life now think I’ve turned into a bleeding-heart liberal.
Knockgoats and Walton – I was pretty awful at understanding the British tax system while I was over there (to the extent that 6 months before I left I realized I’d overpaid to the sum of thousands over my time working, which was a nice bonus) is my assessment correct in thinking that at present the first ~7000 of earnings isn’t subject to income tax, whereas under the new policy the first ~15000 isn’t subject to income tax (across the board, so if you make $15000 p/a you don’t pay a thing, and if you make $1M p/a your first $15000 is still free (which I’m guessing is where the animosity comes from in terms of helping everyone rather than just the poor?)
One question/observation/ramble… (assuming I am not just spouting nonsense about how taxes work in the UK, which may be the case) – using a tax rate pulled essentially out of the air (20%) this break would give those earning exactly 15,000 (and indeed everyone earning over 15,000) an extra 1600 pounds a year (ish) right? Which obviously will help out somewhat people in the 7000-15000 range, and also those in the 15000-30000 range (which I’m going to guess starts to get more middle class, but in my experience still isn’t exactly that comfortable to live on) and will essentially be like a nice bonus to anyone making 30,000+ – which I’m guessing is where the main criticism is coming in – wouldn’t it be better to balance the system whereby the benefit from the non-taxation of the first 15,000 started to be reduced as you approach 30,000 (or some other arbitrary number that marks some sort of decent living wage) such that anyone who is already completely comfortable isn’t going to be getting a benefit which is at least being sold as a tax change to benefit the workign poor?
Ok guys i have a problem. My best friend is a full-on fundamentalist KJV creationist total-antiabortion (including rape and incest-not the babys fault you know /sarcasm)Christian. I am terribly afraid she is going to fail her Science yearlies because of the way she puts blinkers on whenever i mention logical fallacies with her Bible (she also gave me one for my birthday because i wanted to learn about different religions. ). How is she going to study evolution? I am going to send her one PZ article about it to read so she can adjust to the curriculum. She told me she might not read it so i told her, lets have one chance each to convert each other, last year at camp she subjected me to this several-hour verbal and mental grilling AND took me to her Church so this year it’s my turn and i read her Bible anyway so to be polite….
She gets all angry and punchy and her voice goes funny and loud, it’s like her brain just shuts down. She says her faith is so strong that no scientific “evidence” and “reasoning” (her audio quotation marks) will shake it. It doesn’t matter now accurate it is. Her emotional FAITH is stronger. It comforts her.
except…
She’s already got doubts about the Bible but she’ll only discuss them with her moderate Christian friends for fear the atheists will make fun of her (we will, can’t help it) and the fundies will shun her (ohh and they are hypocrites too. she told me this story where at the pastor’s house at a sleepover the nice innocent Christian girls talked about masturbation and sex dreams they had – in year 7 – and it was the pastor’s daughter’s birthday! (not her, she doesnt want to marry so she’s gonna be a virgin her whole life)).
She has a fucked up home life, totally and utterly repressed, most of the reason being they are Southern Baptist type fundies and half baggage from the old South Africa. Her mum has forced her to internalise idiotic gender roles and now everytime we compliment her swimming-honed six-pack she screeches in irritation because girls aren’t meant to be fit.
What on earth could i possibly do?
(apart from this rubbish she is quite rational)
GRRR!!!! /vent
I once threatened (((Girl))) with a convent. She smiled and said, “Wow. A Unitarian convent. That would be better than any party at school! Do it!”
I backed down.
Ishtar and Robocop (well, (((Wife))) and I walked out of Robocop. Twice.). Both are so bad that they left a lasting impression. Similar to the lasting impression left by a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster. Not good.
Oh. Wait. As in a good movie that was too powervul/depressing to watch again. Schindler’s List and Platoon.
Happy My Monday.
I’m sorry but when I hear the name Clegg I get a distinct picture of a Pirate in my mind.
not sure why
There’s already a new ‘I’ve never voted Tory but….’ poster. ‘I’ve never voted Tory but it turns out I didn’t need to, thanks to Nick’. – Jessie
An alternative I could use: “I’ve never voted Tory or Lib Dem – so don’t blame me!”.
Cannot help with that, but “cleg” is an old word for a horsefly.
@Rev BDC:
Holy crap, me too!
Is your Clegg a dude with a tri-cornered hat, pegleg, and a long red coat?
No. He looks like he should still be at school.
In fact watching the press conference he and Cameron had just now they reminded me of a Public School Head Boy, and deputy Head Boy.
So, to contribute to the most boring topic ever on the thread just because I can, I heard parts of Cameron’s and Clegg’s conference just then on the way home from work, and they seem to be best chums, and getting along so well ! And all the commentators were positively drooling over that fact(this was BBC radio), and how it is a new quality in british politics, and all that jazz.So, is a new age dawning there or what?
Clegg cannot be a pirate. If ‘twer so, all comments from said Clegg would be rated ‘Aaarh!’
sorry.
Ewan – the threshold is to be raised to £10k, not £15k. £15k is my preference, because at £10k people still have to apply for rebates because we realise it isn’t enough to live on (certainly if you have dependents), which seems a little dumb to me.
However, without compensatory tax rises for the better off, we will now be cutting frontline services even deeper now to make up for the lost tax income (£16 billion?) from everyone.
Basically this is a rightwing tax cut masqueraiding as “fairnes” and help for the poor.
@Matt:
No no, the pirate Clegg, not the British Clegg.
Walton,
I agree with reducing VAT – at least selectively on essentials. Increasing tax rates for the rich, and more important, closing loopholes and tax havens, could remove any need to cut services. The upper-class twits are certainly not going to do this of course – though I did see something about a tax on financial transactions, which if it’s more than a token (I doubt that it is) would certainly be good.
Ewan R. – median household income in the UK (I think this is post-tax) is £24,700. The LibDem proposal does include some compensating measures for high incomes, but still benefits richer households more – mainly because more of them have two incomes over £6490 (the current threshold).
BTW, I see there is to be a committee to consider an upper house fully elected by PR. So that won’t happen. I do applaud the commitment to fixed-term Parliaments.
Clegg the pirate?
I just think of Pink Floyd when I hear the name.
Reading the full text of the agreement I see they confirm we are to get a referendum here in Wales on further law making powers for the Assembly.
It is not much of a surprise, since there was a unanimous vote in favour of the referendum in the Assembly.
So, another vote for me come the Autumn.
34jlg34 – you can’t do much to her mindset right now, but you can try and set up some cracks for things to leak in. Remind her that her grade is important, and tell her to approach the subject in any way she needs to in order to learn it without shutting down because of her disagreement. Tell her to pretend she’s an anthropologist studying another culture’s views on life, or a book author setting up a fictional sci-fi world in which this is true, or whatever. The biggest problem isn’t her learning it, but staring at it with “I hate this and it’s dangerous and wrong” foremost in her brain (as you alluded to), because then she can’t even learn it well. If she opens herself up to it even under a framework of a fictional construct (like studying a foreign culture) she’ll learn it better, and might even have her defenses down enough to realize it makes sense.
The parties have agreed to increase capital gains tax, which will mean that some wealthy people pay more – but the problem is that it will also make investors less keen to invest in startup companies, since they will now pay a higher rate of tax on their dividends.
Increasing tax rates substantially for the very rich would simply mean that they all move overseas. And increasing tax rates on businesses will self-evidently lead to job losses.
Obviously, closing loopholes in the tax system is a good idea – but bear in mind that there are a lot of very clever tax lawyers out there, and it isn’t so easy as you think to stem the flow of tax-avoidance. As to “closing tax-havens”, are you advocating the invasion of Belize? :-/
Ultimately, cuts to front-line services are bad but necessary.
I have never understood why money earned from setting up a company and later selling it should not be treated the same as earned income and taxed at the same rate.
Well, the new government evidently agrees with you. :-)
But the actual reason for the lower rate of CGT is to give investors an incentive to invest in startup companies, knowing that, if it pays off, their profits will be taxed at a low rate. I don’t know how much difference it really makes, though.
Walton & Ewan:
This has been going on for about 300 years in the US. Lower taxes on everyone (makes it more palatable), though of course the wealthiest get the biggest tax break. Then increase fees (driver’s license, auto registration, camping at state parks, and (especially) higher education) and soak the middle class. In 1980, two semesters at a state university cost $480 plus room and board. It is now $7000 plus room and board. But we get lower taxes, right?
On a semi related note – never was sure why the Conservatives of all parties were opposed to Scottish/Welsh independance – they’d benefit hugely from this (losing what, a single seat in Scotland cf a whole bunch for Lab/Lib)
On taxes – I’d agree that 15,000 would be better than 10,000, with the provisions that there was a compensatory measure in place such that people earning a lot more than is actually necessary don’t reap the benefits – having lived under 15,000 p/a my whole time in the UK (although over 10) it was frankly a laughable wage (but at least it got me out of the house!) cutting frontline services (which generally (in my experience) help the poor first) to push through a tax cut to all seems totally counter productive – particularly if the shift is only from 6500 to 10000 (which by my back of the envelope calculation amounts to what, ~60 pounds a month? (700p/a))
I know that is the reason often given but I do not give it much credence.
There is something seriously wrong with a tax system that allows a venture capitalist to pay less tax than his cleaner.
Oh, and one name I have noticed missing from the list of those given jobs in the new Government is that of Chris Grayling.
It seems that comment he made about how B&B owners should be allowed to discriminate against gays has cost him.
When the alternative is not making a damn thing I still think you can increase capital gains without killing the system – so long as there is money to be made, money will be made.
Really? And are they all going to commute from Belize to the office to earn their ludicrously high wages. Perhaps you’d lose a few (toodles, have fun!) but I’d guess that most would grumble and just get on with it – obviously dependant on what the tax hike actually was, but to not look at the option because some level of tax increase would make people leave is silly, particularly when the alternative is to fuck over people who have no option to go live the life of luxury in a another country as a protest at having their services reduced.
Also – I always assumed that lower rates of capital gains tax were generally because those likely to be taxed on capital gains were in power and really didn’t like having their cash taken away.
Although that might be because I never had to pay any capital gains tax.
Yes – though Theresa May is hardly much of an improvement. :-(
Is it me or is Pharyngula loading incredibly fucking slow today?
Matt – but is Theresa May an improvement?
While we’re on “things I’ve never understood”, I’ve never understood why people with mortgages get tax relief on their payments, but (the generally poorer) renters don’t. Apart from being unfair it just contributes to the house price bubble, which hasn’t done the country any good.
Chimp – it’s you.
No, Theresa May is no improvement.
On the World at One on Radio 4 there was a suggestion Cameron has some kind of moral debt to her, hence why she got the job.
IDS as Work and Pensions is not much better either.
MIRAS (Mortgage Interest Relief At Source) was stopped in 2000. You can no longer get tax relief on interested payments on a mortgage.
Gordon was behind putting a stop to that.
True. But let’s look on the bright side – Ken Clarke as Justice Secretary was a good choice. And balancing Osborne as Chancellor with Vince Cable as Chief Secretary will provide some degree of ideological equilibrium at the Treasury.
Ever since switching to Chrome it’s been a real bitch.
Cable is Sec of State for Business and Investment, or some such.
Laws is Chief Sec. Still Lib-Dem of course.
Sorry, my mistake. But the general point stands. It was certainly right to balance Osborne with a Lib Dem Chief Secretary, as economic policy is the most likely area of controversy within the coalition.
That is OK, Cable was being tipped for the Chief Sec job this morning.
And I take on board your general point. I will reserve judgement on whether it is correct or not.
On a totally unimportant note, I noticed that the photo of my MP in yesterday’s local paper shows him looking worryingly like Chris Mooney. I think it is the rather smarmy grin and the teeth on show that does it.
Anyway it gives me another, if somewhat irrational, reason to dislike him (The MP that it is.) (Actually Mooney as well).
Cornell Birds Web Site Wins a Webby
Walton,
Some bad news for you. That waste of space, Baroness Warsi has been made Conservative Party Chair, with a sear in the Cabinet.
Matt,
And I mean no disrespect in this at all whatsoever. In fact I don’t picture you as this type in reality.
But every time I read your name, this guy comes to mind.
I used to get that a lot at school.
At at uni I got called DM, in reference to the program.
I take no offence at all.
Apropos of nothing in particular, now that’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout!
Obama: “Limbaugh can play with himself.”
What? Oh… play golf, you say? Even so…. ;^)
Also to Walton (@507):
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy!
And I mean that without the slightest hint of snark.
This just in: Elena Kagan is completely heterosexual!
I’m trying to resist making the obvious jokes about the fact that one of the people vouching for Kagan’s heterosexuality is her old friend from her Princeton days… Eliot Spitzer!
Also, the quoted Media Matters article has an interesting analysis of why calling the right out for its gay-baiting of Kagan is not itself anti-gay.
I have to admit that, in a sick sort of way, I admire the way the right wing whackos work. I don’t approve, and I think it to be slimey and sleezy, but, in a sick way, I can admire the method:
Step 1: Out a supreme court nominee as a lesbian (makes no difference if she is or not). All radical right wing Christians will immediately decide she will never be a valid justice and, even if confirmed, will be an implacable enemy for all time and must be treated as such. Even after everyone in the world knows that the initial column was wrong, and despite repeated attempts to set the record straight, the rrwCs will not believe it.
Step 2: Wait for the President (or one of his staff) to explain that no, she is not a lesbian.
Step 3: Accuse all liberals of anti-gay bias for assuming that calling someone a lesbian is some sort of insult. This, they hope, will turn off the GLBT community and make Obama look bad to liberals.
Step 4: Do everything possible to draw out the confirmation process to maximize the circulation of rumours.
Step 5: Rather, rinse, repeat.
Fish Tank
Vera Drake
Are there any movies you have never seen and never will?
I nominate:
“The Sound of Music” and “Gone with the Wind”
apropos of nothing:
To those who know and love heddle: when I tried to formulate a response to his presuppositional arguments, all I could think of was this.
@MrFire:
Wait, is heddle around somewhere? I love his arguments, they make me laugh!
iambilly (@550):
Yeah. Imagine what the world would be like if even a fraction of the talent and energy the right devotes to demonizing liberals were put to some humane, life-affirming purpose instead.
I think this is a bit of a broad-brush characterisation of “the right”.
Perhaps it’s better-formulated as a criticism of partisan politics in general. In my experience, there are a lot of intelligent, decent people in politics on all sides of the political divide. But in a lot of cases, the system forces them into a position where they have to spend most of their time fighting one another instead of doing anything constructive. (Which in many ways is by design rather than by accident, and perhaps for good reason: people who are both intellectually brilliant and sincerely well-intentioned can still get things catastrophically wrong, if given too much untrammelled power.)
This is, of course, only true of some politicians and aspiring politicians; I’ve also known some who are power-mad careerists with no principles, and others who are simply idiotic. As with any other profession, it varies from person to person.
Bill:
Yeah, that would be nice. It’s also about as likely as giant winged porcupines flying out of my ass backwards.
Argh. Why should anyone care whether Elena Kagan is gay? It’s her business, not anyone else’s, and it is in no way relevant to her ability to be a Supreme Court justice. I just don’t give a damn whether she’s gay, straight or bisexual: she’s under no obligation whatsoever to talk about her sexuality. The right-wing pundits speculating about this should be told, in no uncertain terms, to mind their own fucking business.
I wish Obama had nominated someone with a better record on civil liberties and with some solid judicial experience, and I won’t be particularly sorry if her nomination fails to pass the Senate. But her sexual orientation should have nothing whatsoever to do with this.
Yep. Man created the God that created Man.
Walton:
First, please note that up in #550, I specifically used the term ‘right wing whackos’ in order to specify a subset of conservatives. It was not a broad brush condemnation. Though, here in the US, given the extreme nature of current conservatism, it is a large group.
Second: I agree with your take on Kagan regarding civil liberties. However, the homosexuality angle really is a politically calculated tactic which has been used, successfully, by the afformentioned whackjob subset of American conservatives. Her sexuality does not matter unless you are trying to influence lawmakers or raise money! Then it, or rumours of it, is paramount.
Not that I know of. Hence, apropos of nothing. :)
Increasing tax rates substantially for the very rich would simply mean that they all move overseas. -Walton
Fine, so long as they leave their assets behind. If there was any serious intent to tax them properly, there would be ways to make it more costly for them to try and avoid than to pay. Ideally, of course, there would be a network of international agreements to ensure they cannot avoid.
And increasing tax rates on businesses will self-evidently lead to job losses.
Not self-evident at all: a lot of their profits are currently distributed as dividends, or as bonuses. It was “self-evident” that a minimum wage would cost jobs: it didn’t.
As to “closing tax-havens”, are you advocating the invasion of Belize? :-/
No. Economic sanctions.
Ultimately, cuts to front-line services are bad but necessary.
No, they are not. They are preferred to proper tax on the rich by the right and the rich themselves, that’s all. You’ve just fallen for their propaganda.
Mr. Fire:
So you contend that Heddle is to Circular Reasoning as Circular Reasoning is to Heddle?
Therefore: Heddle.
Heddle
Definition: See: Heddle
No wait… that’s recursion.
Walton (@555):
Admittedly I used a generic term, but in context, I think it was pretty clear I was referring to iambilly’s discussion of a particular tactic used by some in the American right.
I disagree. The point we were making was not about the adversarial nature of “the system” (i.e., the actual processes of getting elected and making law and policy), but the cynical and machiavellian manipulation of public opinion on the periphery of “the system”… and on that score, I think anyone who asserts that the left and right are essentially similar is (at least WRT American politics) guilty of the same sort of false equivalency as those who say Olbermann and Maddow are merely the ideological mirror images of Limbaugh and Beck.
Sometimes I wish American liberals would employ the same tactics as our adversaries across the aisle… but the very value system that makes us liberals in the first place makes it difficult to lie and ratfuck with quite as clean a conscience as our opposite numbers. My favorite line from The West Wing — “You’re the good guys; you should act like it!” — neatly encapsulates this dilemma: Being “the good guys” implicitly limits your ability to fight as dirty as your opponent.
(@557):
Indeed… that accounts for the snarky tone of my post (you did catch the linguistic nod to Ted Haggard via Roy Zimmerman, right?).
It actually might matter if she were gay, in the same way it matters that Sotomayor is a Latina: Yet another marginalized and dispossessed constituency might have an empathetic ear on the Court, and a voice in their private deliberations… but, of course, when the right-wing noise machine brings it up, they’re just ratfucking, not engaging in anything resembling substantive political discourse (see above).
You should be: A failed confirmation would weaken the Obama administration and embolden its enemies… and however much the left grumbles about Obama, this outcome would not favor the values you hold dear.
:) And in the picture, the divine grace that has it all make sense lies in the plane of the paper – orthogonal to your line of vision.
Yes, I know… I was complaining about the right-wing punditosphere and its bizarre obsession with her sexuality, not about you. Sorry my post wasn’t very clear: I’m too tired to make sense. :-(
(I was fairly energetic today for the first time in ages, so went for a run this afternoon. This may have been an error, as I’m now exhausted again and seem to be unable to communicate coherently.)
Yes, you’re probably right. It’s a bit different in British politics, which is, of course, the only political scene of which I have any direct experience.
I suppose. I’m just annoyed that Obama didn’t nominate someone with a strong judicial record on civil liberties, like Diane Wood (who, while somewhat to my left, has a clear record of standing up for individual constitutional rights and limiting executive power). Since anyone nominated by Obama was inevitably going to be attacked by Republicans and right-wing pundits as an eeeeebil liberal activist judge, he could just as easily have nominated a real liberal to the Court, rather than a “pragmatist” with authoritarian leanings.
But I don’t have much faith in the Obama administration when it comes to civil liberties: as Ed Brayton has documented, he’s continued many of the Bush-era abuses. The trouble is that any government in power, if not sufficiently checked, slides into authoritarianism. So I’m not at all surprised at his choice of Kagan.
Which route do you like to take? Christchurch Meadows and down by the Cherwell?
Please don’t say you use a treadmill in your college gym.
Trying to outrun your increasingly liberal destiny must be tiring ;)
Walton:
As strange as America’s politics have gotten, Kagan is a flaming liberal. We have gone so far to the right that most staunch English Conservatives would be considered liberal. And your average American Democrat would be considered conservative in England.
Re Elena Kagan – I share concerns about her fondness for a strong executive, but she seems also to be exactly what we need on the Supreme Court right now – someone who can argue with conservatives and use their own language to bring them around to a different opinion. What we truly don’t need is a liberal martyr who will write stirring dissents when the court does something reactionary but couldn’t argue their way out of a paper bag (or at least couldn’t convince anyone else to follow them out of the paper bag). From what I’ve heard, she is actually quite good at arguing with conservatives and actually changing minds.
Like I’ve said before – there are actually places where being a pragmatic consensus seeker is useful, and on the Supreme Court might well be one of them.
I would have preferred Diane Wood as well, if only because I babysat her kids while in school, years and years ago. (Was that Kw*king?)
Walton, let me give you an example of just how much and how relentlessly the right demonizes liberals.
I recently started working again with someone I’ve had a friendly relationship with for 14 years. Two weeks ago, she stopped speaking to me. Why? Because she was railing about liberals, and I said, “Why are you saying such things? I’m a liberal. Do you think I’m evil?”
She literally dropped what she was doing and walked away.
What would make her do that, Walton? Why would someone cut off another human being, much less one you’ve been acquaintances with for 14 years, unless the former has been convinced that the latter has somehow become contemptible? I wasn’t contemptible before that. Hell, she didn’t even care about politics in the first five years we knew each other. But that’s obviously changed.
And I know what changed her mind. The reason I had to get her to stop bashing liberals was because she was spouting the exact same rhetoric as Beck and Limbaugh about liberals. She didn’t talk that way 10 years ago when I knew her best, but she’s doing it now. She has literally been told so many times that liberals are evil that she believes it well enough to cut all ties to any liberals she knows.
These fuckers are poisoning every part of the country, and into its very roots.
I do indeed use a treadmill in my college gym. (Last year I used to go to the University gym at the Iffley Road sports complex, but haven’t had the time this year – something I really miss.) I’ve always preferred running on treadmills to running outside; it makes it easier to pace myself, and treadmills have shock absorption which reduces the risk of leg or knee injury.
Sadly, my fitness has declined markedly this year, due to too much work and lack of time to exercise. :-(
@ Walton
YOur fitness may also have declined because of lack of sleep. Seriously, lack of sleep messes with various hormones that affect weight gain, fitness, etc. Now GO TO SLEEP.
Well, I haven’t gained weight – quite the opposite. I seem to keep getting thinner, to the point where I can now count several of my ribs. I suppose the excessive caffeine intake speeds up my metabolism.
And as much as I’d love to go to sleep now, I have a legal philosophy revision class tomorrow and need to do some reading. :-(
As for the title of this thread, I’m hardly in a position to bash anyone over John Denver, when I’ve happily had the chorus from this song stuck in my head for days now.
Walton (@567):
I’ve read/heard very persuasive rebuttals of the Obama is just another Bush meme and, in the last couple days, also of the notion that Kagan is insufficiently progressive… but I don’t have the references or facts necessary to argue the point cogent at my fingertips right now. Plus which, I’m going to have to sign off and go to a meeting in a few minutes anyway.
“See” y’all later….
Oh, I certainly don’t think he’s “just another Bush” – he’s far more intelligent and capable, for a start. But he just isn’t particularly strong on civil liberties. He has been marginally better in that regard than the Bush administration, of course (though it would be hard to be worse on civil liberties than the Bush administration).
I don’t think this is a big failing of Obama personally; I’m sceptical that any administration, once in power, is really inclined to give a damn about civil liberties. The natural incentive for any government of any political stripe is to expand its own power and control. Which is why I advocate strong judicial protection of basic rights and liberties against the executive.
Argh. I’m actually about to fall asleep at my computer. Despite having accomplished nothing, I may have to go to bed soon.
Good night Walton.
What time is your class? Maybe you can set your alarm and get up a few hours before it?
Oh it’s back to work in just a few days. Sitting here listening to T. Rex of all things…
ooooh you’re strange
don’t lame me baby strange oh …
drinking some wine I bought at the shop across the street and thinking.
7 years.
7 years in business max and I then I will kill myself or do something better with my life.
It’s all for the money.
Very true – it’s just that in my case, I find the monotony to be an overwhelming negative. I’ll use a treadmill when I have no other option (e.g., in the winter), but as soon as temperate weather comes around, I’ll drop it like a bad habit.
If I had the chance to run around Oxford, I’d also try tackling that big hill near Botley.
Er, please don’t to the first option.
Invest in the dream bakery that my wife and I will hopefully have up and running by then!
A bakery, really?
Any specific kind?
Mattir @ #495:
Thank you! This is exactly my point. He was raised to be Jewish (with all of the religious teaching and Hebrew school and whatnot), but he hasn’t been to temple* since his bar mitzvah. I would be a little more understanding (but a hell of a lot less likely to have married him) if he practiced his faith. But then he brings culture into it** and it strikes me as a wee bit hypocritical.
Ewan @ #498:
If I can figure out how do this without coming off like I’m attacking him, then that’s not a bad idea. I just don’t want to make an already bad situation worse by acting like a total jackass.
* And he eats bacon. And he’s tattooed. And he ignores the non-fun holidays. You get the idea.
** I’m seriously thinking of bringing hippy culture into the argument. No no no no, I’m not a hippy, but my parents sure as shit are and they raised me to be respectful of other people and, above all else, to be nonviolent.
aaah! my boyfriend accidentally threw out the paper I was supposed to mail out to get a $1200 state grant for college!!
*in physical pain*
Ohh a bakery. Like this?
Apropos of nothing:
The first trailer for Machete* was released a few days ago. Not surprisingly, Robert Rodriguez is super pissed off at Arizona.
Side note: I heard that Chuck Norris dresses up as Danny Trejo every Halloween.
* Sorry to link to *shudder* Ain’t It Cool News, but that’s where I found the video.
sorry for the delayed reply, Ol’ Greg.
Mrs. Fire does cupcakes, muffins, cookies etc. par excellence. Give her baking powder, and she’ll MacGyver up about ten different things.
I try to do anything yeasted: bread (various), bagels, croissants, Vienna breads (a.k.a. Danishes?), pizza.
We intersect at warm, gooey, yeasted cinnamon rolls, drizzled in butter, nuts, and sugar icing.
So that’s the pitch. Neither of us has much of a head for business, and we may need to rope in a partner if we want to get it off the ground.
[Funny thing about our baking methods: she’s the biologist and I’m the chemist, yet she uses chemical leavening while I rely on biological leavening.]
Nothing wrong with a treadmill. Constant feedback, cushy surface, instantly controllable incline, it doesn’t rain or snow on you, and people don’t look at you funny or yell rude things (it’s amazing how amusing a fat person running seems to be to some people). Best of all, if the treadmill is in your house, you can roll right out of bed and run in your pajamas. Oh, and when you get tired you can stop, rather than realize you’ve gone too far and now have to go all the way back to get home.
(can you tell I love my treadmill?)
Jadehawk:
Eeeep! Is there a deadline coming up quick, or is there a way to get a replacement in time?
Either way…. yipes. That’s sucky. :-/
@581 re: running on treadmills being boring – that’s what an iPod loaded with audiobooks is for.
ODS – I wasn’t as well-versed in the whole circ debates when my boys were born, and my husband preferred to have it done, so we did. It still hurts to think I let that be done to them. (we’re not Jewish, either, just midwestern fundagelicals)
Jadehawk – aaaaaa!!!! Is it retrievable?
I first heard of the circ. debate when my son David was born, and the doctors wanted to circ. a premature, fragile and sickly baby without pain control. I called my husband (I was in Kentucky and he was in Michigan at the time) and asked him what he thought about it, and was rather surprised at how adamantly against it he was. It was fine by me, and David’s never been hassled or anything about it in spite of being in small-town school gym classes.
SteveV @586: that looks awesome.
Crap! Ol’ Greg, are you still in Paris? Go here!
Aaaaaaaaah!
*empathising with your pain*
What does that mean?
:-D :-D :-D
Seconded. I’ve had the displeasure of watching a few seconds.
I’ve watched that one in full. It was not worth it.
Heh.
Oh shit! I suppose you have already rummaged through all available trash cans?
What next – can you get a new one, is there a deadline…? Should we start setting up a Get Jadehawk to College fund?
Immediately after Jurassic Park 3 came out, they started spreading rumors about 4. They kept doing so for years. Nothing has come of this, and almost certainly nothing ever will.
Such callousness is hard to imagine.
What? WHAT?? The doctors wanted you to do it to your baby?!
That’s… horrifying.
Sitting in the back yard, staring at the garden, twitching to plant…
Movies I’ve not seen and don’t plan to:
Forrest Gump
The Passion of the Christ
MrFire re yeast bread
Have you tried “Jim Lahey’s no-knead bread”?
(I don’t know how to post a link, and there are a bazillion sites…google)
I’ve tried a sour-dough version a few times and produced something very tasty but strangely un-bread-like.
Also awesome: Guinness bread.
Mmmmmmm mmm m!
@597 – this was an inner-city Louisville hospital, who were being very punitive over the fact that 1) this was an adoption, and 2) that his birthmother and I knew each other and 3) that I was on the phone constantly to a *good* doctor and hospital for advice. They also wanted to do open heart surgery on him, which they knew would kill him, but they figured he’d be a vegetable anyway and it would give the surgeons some much-needed practice operating on such a small infant.
One doctor actually said to me “You know, if God had wanted you to have children, he would have given them to you.”
the one time in my life I had the proper come-back: I said “he did – *this* one.”
but they were still terribly punitive over the whole thing. Oh, the stories I could tell you about those 3 weeks!
ps: David is not a vegetable. He has some neurological deficits, but otherwise he’s just fine, thank you.
Becca:
Holy hell, I don’t even know what to say. I just can’t imagine someone (let alone a group of people) acting so callously towards a helpless infant.
I am glad that David is okay now. When was he born? How long ago did you have to deal with sure idiotic and uncaring doctors?
We’re going through he same argument here in NZ. The budget is due next week and the Govt has signaled a 2.5% rise in GST (Goods & Services Tax) to 15% which is to be offset by a reduction in income tax and a lift in benefits such as dole and superannuation. The opposition have just released an “alternative” budget which sees GST removed from fresh produce.
It won’t work.
The cost of Produce, like everything else, is market driven, supply and demand, which is why off season produce is always more expensive than new season produce which is always more expensive than mid season produce. The growers, traders and store owners/supermarket chains are all rubbing their hands together thinking there will be more room for profit for them, unfortunately for the growers and store owners only the traders or middlemen will boost their pockets. The poor consumer won’t notice one iota of difference in the medium term.
If you want to reduce the cost of the likes of produce you need to flood the market to the point where the middle class can have more than their fill leaving plenty left over for the lower classes etc. Of course this means the growers will get virtually nothing for their toil.
This was spring 1991. And it was an inner city hospital – you know, the kind where big black limos with darkened windows drop 13yo blond girls off at the hospital during visiting hours to see their premie babies for an hour or so every other day. No, I’m not kidding. Pretty, bouncy little girls with long blond hair, who just loved to dress their babies up in doll clothes, because they were too little for even premie baby clothes. it was…. eye opening.
My doctor friend says that that hospital was maybe 20 years behind modern times in the equipment and facilities. I suppose the doctors there were just so burned out from dealing with situations like the above that they had to take it out on somebody– fortunately, I wasn’t about to let them take it out on David.
I think the pain relief / anesthesia issue with circumcision is by far the biggest issue. Physiological stress from severe pain has long-lasting effects and there is really no reason to impose it on them, even if one does circumcise. That was where I drew the line, but then I married someone with more Jewish observance than Mr. ODS. Not sure where I’d draw the line now, but I’d be closer to ODS now than I was then.
OMG! It’s all true! PZ really is a baby-eating monster!
Here’s the proof, a photo of him in Australia.
I have finally read every single comment in an Endless Thread™. That and $4.39 will buy me a latte.
You sound like an awesome mom. :D I hope I have your strength when I start having kids.
@RevBigDumbChimp
Thanks for defending me over on the first Alabama thread. Nothing like getting accused of making fun of the entire state because I confessed a funny story about my crazy relatives. I’m sure I could find plenty of similar stories within 20 miles of the officially north place I live now.
I forgot to mention on that thread that the minister of this weird little church had the most severe facial tic I have ever seen, wore a brown polyester leisure suit, and played the electric guitar badly. Plus he leaned over Mr. Mattir and asked, in a weird leering tone of voice, “Son, are you a Born Jew?” The whole experience was totally surreal.
A more intelligent lying, warmongering, torturing, environment-destroying asshole is in charge. Hooray!
Doubleyou.
Tee.
Eff!!!
“Sure thing, Doc! And, say, right after the surgery, how’s about we go use your kid for target practice? After all, he’s gonna die some day anyway….”
As differentiated from a Hatched Jew or a Cloned Jew.
@ Tis
I think he meant as opposed to me, granddaughter of a member of his pentacostal congregation and obviously some sort of faux converted Jew. Seriously, this little church seemed to spend a truly alarming amount of time considering the plight of the Jews, which was ridiculous given that Mr. M was the first one any of them had ever met in the 60 years the church had been in existence. They really should have spent a bit more time on things like, oh, learning to read on more than a 5th grade level.
It’s one of my standbys! I have a cast iron pot for that very purpose. My home oven barely goes to 500 deg F though…so the crust I get is wonderfully crunchy, but it’s not quite the holy grail, exquisitely-shattering crust like you might get from a baker’s oven.
? Do tell. So you know, Sili is a commenter who likes making sourdough, along with some others…I’ve tried, but my breads are never remotely sour enough for my liking. I want to move to San Francisco, where the wild yeast is supposedly as good as they say it is.
We (the Significant Other and I) have an extensive collection of cast iron; frying-pans, dutch-ovens, bread-pans, etc. Mostly gleaned from the garage sales of damn-fools “up-grading” to modrun appliances. At least half of all our cooking is done using them. (that was almost an english sentence)
My sourdough is about 23 years old. It’s had a half-dozen near-death experiences but it is a direct lineal descendant of the batch started in 1987.
@kiyaroru and MrFire:
I have all my cast iron from when my grandmother and, later, my father foolishly “upgraded” from cast iron to Teflon.
I found a wonderful starter recipe online. I’ve only had it since November, but it’s doing quite well. I haven’t been able to keep starter for more than 3 or 4 years at a time, because (being a military family) we keep having these international moves. Customs seems to frown on jars of starter. And movers seem reluctant to pack them.
Here’s the link to the starter I found:
http://www.sourdoughhome.com/startermyway.html
I hadn’t heard of “Jim Lahey’s no-knead bread” so I looked it up. I’ll be trying that one next.
I just did a “Tuscan Sourdough” two days ago that is nearly gone.
It might have been posted already, but Zimmerman finally finished his latest piece.
And now for something completely different…
Man fights for life after slug-eating dare.
If my sourdough actually died, I think I would have a funeral.
MrFire: if it’s not sour enough, leave your sponge a bit longer. I usually leave it overnight, at least 8 hours. (I don’t have a regular job, so I can spend any amount of time I want babysitting the baking.)
Katrina: I have thought long and hard about how to pack / mail / transport / smuggle sourdough. I haven’t come up with a method. I once tried drying and re-hydrating my sourdough. It didn’t work.
Irreversible
I’d meant to rent The Butterfly Effect but misremembered the title, and the plot summary on the box was vague. Got as far as the fire extinguisher before ejecting.
college grant update:
the boyfriend was at work when I discovered the missing papers, so I …”informed”… him of what he’d done over messenger, and then went out to the coffee shop to dull the pain with fat, sugar, and caffeine.
In the meantime, the boyfriend apparently got off work immediately, and went dumpster-diving. He delivered the papers entirely intact, albeit somewhat dingy looking around the edges, at the coffee shop (the return-envelope is missing though, so I’ll have to call them tomorrow to confirm the address).
And then we went to see Iron Man II. I confirm that Robert Downey Jr. carrying a huge pipe wrench is scrumptiousness.
erm… i guess that should be “discovered the papers were missing”
Phew. That right there is an impressive save. Glad it worked out. :-)
I saw that this week as well, and really liked it – which is saying something; I’m quite brutal with sequels. Re: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – I wish I’d paid Michael Bay 12 bucks to set me on fire and piss out the flames instead.
Samuel L Jackson was excellent but I was disappointed he didn’t find a way to slip in ‘motherfucker’ or some variation thereof. Lousy PG-13.
Jadehawk,
Good to hear.
I watched Iron Man II last Friday and thought it was alright. The first one was better though.
Ooooh. I just invested in my first good cookware, including a Le Creuset dutch oven. I’ll need to try out that no-knead bread recipe. :-D
Interesting: The Crystals at the Center of the Earth.
Australians have been warned to stop eating slugs so they don’t get rat lungworm disease.
D’oh! John M had already posted the slug thing. Note to self: read thread before posting.
OT: One of the texts on my legal philosophy reading list is an insane article from 1965 by Patrick Devlin, an English judge, arguing against the legalisation of homosexuality. Devlin argues (idiotically) that the state should enforce moral standards because society has to be bound together by a common morality, and somehow leaps from this to “OMG teh ghey!!!!!111!” It’s irrational homophobia disguised thinly as philosophical reasoning.
But what I noticed today is that Devlin described homosexuality as “addictive”, in part of his argument that it was a threat to the common values of society. Hmmm… maybe Haggard’s Law (the more vocally homophobic someone is, the higher the probability that he is a closet case) held true even as early as 1965…
Australians have been warned to stop eating slugs so they don’t get rat lungworm disease. – ambulocetacean
I hope they have also warned slugs to stop eating Australians :-p
In fact watching the press conference he and Cameron had just now they reminded me of a Public School Head Boy, and deputy Head Boy. – Matt Penfold
I see Clegg more as Cameron’s fag* – and I’m pretty sure Cameron does too! A nice Steve Bell If strip in the Grauniad today – with Cameron appointing Lib Dems as Minister for Paperclips, Minister for Tiredness, etc. Last frame:
Clegg: “What can I do?”
Cameron: “You can bring me a small Scotch and soda.”
*Note for non-Brit readers: A lot of private boys’ schools have (or had – not sure how prevalent it still is) a system where junior boys act, effectively, as servants to (and often, allegedly, perform sexual services for) the “prefects” – selected senior boys who are responsible for a lot of the discipline. The junior is the “fag”, the senior the “fag-master”.
Yes, it is all as weird and perverse as it sounds!
aaah! my boyfriend accidentally threw out the paper I was supposed to mail out to get a $1200 state grant for college!! – Jadehawk, OM
Eek! And he’s still alive? And still your boyfriend? What a generous and forgiving nature you have!
Cable is Sec of State for Business and Investment, or some such. – Matt Penfold
Sec. of State for Paperclips, actually. It has emerged this morning that no, he’s not in charge of banking reform. That will be the Right Honourable George Gideon Oliver Osborne MP (Eton and Magdelen), Chancellor of the Exchequer, and heir to the Osborne baronetcy of Ballentaylor in County Tipperary, who has never done any job other than Conservative Party researcher and MP.
That’s the banking system fucked then.
Or rather, even more fucked than it already is.
@607 *blush*
I don’t know about being an awesome mom, but I try. You just deal with the cards you’re given. We don’t make a fuss about David’s deficits, but we don’t let him get away with stuff because of them either.
I’ll make a gift to you, ODS, for when you’re a parent. We have 2 major rules in the house: Nothing permanent, and nothing with sirens.
My kids’ friends think that we’re really cool for being so laid back, but at least with our kids, it works, as long as we define our terms carefully. Not doing your homework is permanent, for example, and therefore not an option. Getting multiple piercings or tattoos is permanent… and the prohibition against same led to Tori getting really interested in henna, and she’s made a fair bit of money doing henna at festivals.
we do consider emergency room runs to be both permanent and involving a siren, even if it doesn’t necessarily involve an ambulance and a literal siren.
My husband has one additional rule: if you don’t let your child win on occasion, by definition you’re raising a loser. Our kids are not us; they’ll make different decisions for themselves, and that’s ok. It doesn’t invalidate any decisions we made for ourselves, and anyway, our kids’ job isn’t to validate us, only to validate themselves.
[/pontificate]
Reminds me of this crazy place
No problemo!
Seconded. They wanted to punish you and the baby for an adoption?!?
*phew*
The idea that the inner core is a single crystal of iron is at least 10 years old, probably quite a bit more; nice to see some confirmation.
LOL! Full of win.
Well, either that.
Or she meticulously planned her revenge in the coffee shop, just in case. Her boyfriend seems to have understood very well that he had one chance, and acted accordingly.
Forgot to mention these two cartoons my dad found yesterday evening. The first is titled “Sirtaki”. The second, “Sisyphus”, shows the president of Serbia, Boris Tadić, pushing Serbia uphill in two parts: the Kosovo is dragged behind on a rope and acts as an anchor.
Seen “CIR” and “LAT” in the page title? You can switch the text between Cyrillic and Latin letters. In Serbia, you need to know both alphabets to be literate.
QFT.
What… the fuck.
From there: “Geologist Juan Manuel García-Ruiz calls it ‘the Sistine Chapel of crystals’, but Superman could call it home.”
Eleven-meter-long gypsum crystals. :-o Incredible.
I do indeed use a treadmill in my college gym. – Walton
There was some research reported very recently (sorry, can’t recall exactly where) claiming that exercise in green spaces has considerable benefits in terms of mood. Come on, Walton, plenty of lovely places to run outside in Oxford!
There was a NG special about it I saw a while back. The cave itself is like 115 degrees F and to get into the meat of it the scientists have to wear cooling suits and can only be in the actual cave for short periods of time.
Here’s a link to the NG online page for the show.
John – damn. That’s the kind of thing I look at and go “why the hell didn’t I know about this before??????” I’m sad that it’s not accessible to visit, but then kind of glad too – that way it doesn’t get destroyed.
Knockgoats, to Jadehawk,
Really? It would have been incredibly harsh to break up a relationship just because one’s significant other accidentally threw out an application form, surely? Is love worth no more than a $1200 grant? :-/
(As a chronically disorganised person myself, I can easily imagine making the same kind of mistake. And from Jadehawk’s second post, it sounds like her boyfriend did everything possible to make amends afterwards.)
Walton,
My #633 was not seriously intended! I recall my wife telling me, when we heard a tragic story of a man who had accidentally dropped his son over the side of a ship (he’d been holding him while the son sat on the rail – the son drowned) – that if I had done that, she would have found it very hard to forgive me, but would have done her best.
David @ 639 – yeah, really. Who knows what was going through their heads? We were obviously two adult women who both wanted what was best for the baby, and agreed on it… you’d have thought they’d be pleased the baby was going to a good home. nope.
and I’ve only touched on a little bit of what went on during those three weeks. I had to fight every inch of the way to make sure David got appropriate medical care.
but.. I lived in the Ronald McDonald House, rent free, for 3 weeks. and got some free long distance calls, courtesy of MCI. And a lot of organizations brought in free meals. This saved my life. If you ever go to McDonald’s and see one of their donation boxes, throw in a few cents and think of David and me.
Regarding crystalline iron in the inner core. I remember this from back when I was reporting/editing for Physics Today–so it has to date from the 95-96 timeframe. I wrote a couple of articles on the core, mainly dealing with some neat simulations that Gary Glatzmaier was doing. One of these simulations showed that the inner core acts like an inductor, and so stabilizes the geomagnetic field so that it flips only every few hundred thousand years, rather than every few thousand.
It’s not hard to understand how the growth of large crystals happens at the inner core. The iron from the outer core is continually condensing onto the inner core (and the latent heat of condensation also contributes significantly to the energy driving outer core convection, btw). Since the convection is pretty stable on timescales of a few hundred thousand years, you expect pretty large crystals to grow. Pretty cool stuff.
Also the gypsum crystals in the Cave of Swords–absolutely awesome. I’d love to see that place.
Knee-jerk reaction alert:
“Money isn’t everything! But without money everything is nothing!”
– Framed, on the wall of Scrooge McDuck’s office.
As another chronically disorganised and lazy person myself, I basically don’t throw stuff away. In Paris, paper I was really sure I wouldn’t need anymore went into the paper-and-plastic trash bag (just some plastic bag), then I waited for weeks or months till that bag was stuffed while I started the next one, and once every few months I threw some of the bags away.
Of course, being really sure doesn’t mean being right. I remember one similar mistake, fortunately without long-term consequences.
That’s normal. Over here, it happens in the very few cases (1995 and 2002 were the last times) when the coalition breaks down. What else should be done in such cases?
The fact that single-party governments are so rare may be why elections aren’t held more often, but the single-party governments that have existed didn’t do it either; why bother campaigning and making the entire country tired?
So… from an Austrian perspective, what the UK needs aren’t fixed-term parliaments but proportional representation.
Only been there about twice in my life so far :-)
A belated thanks to Sven for the Eyes of the World and ‘Tis for the amazing Bluenose video on the previous incarnation.
***
Relatives of a friend of mine are now convinced that their son is not well enough, er, endowed. Why? Because the mohel made a comment to that effect. At the ceremony. About a baby. Talk about adding insult to injury!
***
Two of my favorite people rebelled against this sort of bullshit.
http://www.sociological-imagination.org/short_biography_of_c_wright_mill.htm
He later transferred to UT Austin.
Kropotkin also fought against similar practices in the Corps of Pages, as he describes in his Memoirs.
There are not enough wtfs in the world for that.
@ Matt #537
(just seen your reply)
Sorry, I should have been clearer. I wasn’t referring exclusively to the UK. Many countries still have mortgage interest relief schemes. EG, it’s currently an election issue in the Netherlands, which is going to the polls next month. The (ruling) Christian Democrats, the VVD and the Freedom Party oppose any change, the Socialist Party, the Labour Party and the Green Left want to phase it out.
@ Walton
I seem to recall you saying you disliked nearly all fruit. (Madness!). I hope you eat some vegetables, but I’m guessing you probably don’t eat enough of them. More of both would solve some of your tiredness/lack of energy problems. Go to Argos, buy a cheap blender (under £5), go to the market, buy lots of fruit, and have a big smoothie (with oats if you wish) for breakfast. I can buy 3 melons for a quid at my market. Chop up lots of fresh ginger, simmer slowly in a cup full of water, add to blender with melons, drink, and feel alive again.
(Never thought I’d turn into Walton’s mother).
^ sorry about bold fail. Almost as bad as CAPS.
You know what they say, it takes an internet village…
arids
That was interesting. Some time ago I asked some questions on BAUT about why the magnetic fields of the Sun and Earth behaved so differently. Never got a reply :(
Maybe I should have asked here instead. Can you tell me why the Sun’s field always (as far as we know) reverses itself at the end of its cycle, whereas the Earth’s can either reverse, or regenerate with the same orientation? Presumably it’s something to with the greater complexity of the internal structure of the Earth, and its components. (Btw I understand why there is a cycle, but feel free to explain that too, in case I’m wrong).
@ Walton –
I dimly recall reading Devlin in law school and thinking that he really did view homosexuality as irresistibly yummy and thus a threat to his everyday heterosexual routine. It’s really a very common view, which seems to me to be rooted in a deep sort of misogyny. It takes the traditional “women are bad and evil and dirty” rhetoric and extends that into the idea that no man would ever have sex with a woman if they could do it with a man. Perhaps if people could grasp the idea that people come in two basic physical forms, rather than one ideal and one non-ideal, we could get over this whole “homosexuality as irresistible yumminess for straight guys” problem.
Then the only guys who would be having irresistibly yummy gay sex would be the ones who were, you know, gay or bi, and everyone else could just move on and stop writing stupid articles.
A Teabagger’s wet-dream:
1) Make it illegal to teach anything but abstinence-only birth control. (Because that works so well.)
2) Make abortion for any reason at all illegal. (But with, of course, individual examples granted on the sly to Right People.)
3) Assign legal guardianship of all the unwanted newborns to the Gubment.
4) Carefully tailor these kids’ education, exposing them intensively to religious dogma indicating that the Gubment reflects and rules by the Will of God. Oh, and teach them about Guns. Lots and lots of Guns.
5) Graduate the results straight into the military at age 18 (because they’ve got to pay back the public investment in their education and upkeep, don’t they?).
6) Take over the world, with God’s blessing.
Knockgoats @641
Interesting, I still call going outside to exercize ‘going out to play’ and I’m in my 50’s. :) Also renamed the treadmill a ‘dreadmill’ a long while back.
So Walton, drink your fresh fruit smoothie and go outside and play! :)
Knockgoats and Matt: I really don’t know why you’re so obsessed with the class backgrounds of the new Cabinet. George Osborne did not choose to be from a privileged background and heir to a baronetcy; nor does this make him intrinsically incompetent.
So far, I like most of what I’ve seen of the Conservative-Liberal coalition. There are a few things with which I’m not happy, but it was never going to be perfect. But all in all, it’s a huge improvement on Labour.
If anyone needs more weirdness about the papacy, here it is.
Since most of the examples are from the golden age of knighthood, perhaps I should forward this to my acquaintance who lectured me about how teen boys needed to have the image of the knight held up as a role model and no curvy girls to distract from the whole knight idea. Several of these popes would seem to agree…
Falyne, I have some Le Creuset, love the stuff, the doufeu in particular.
I’m off to have my torture session with my neurologist, back later on this afternoon sometime.
Our local newspaper ran an article today about a religious class that takes place during school hours (strictly voluntary of course). Rambling and I are arguing over it (sort of) but I find it skirting the edge of violating keeping religious teaching out of public schools. There also happens to be a poll.
Some of you may remember me mentioning a family member voicing some opinions on Facebook that I found annoying. Well, his recent blog post takes the cake. Here it is:
So much wrong there. And that last paragraph makes it obvious that he either doesn’t remember that I and his brother’s wife (to whom I’m not related) are both descended from people who grew up on reservations. You didn’t “discover” this country. You fucking stole it. That would be like me taking a shotgun next door and “discovering” my neighbor’s house.
@664
Goddamned Gnostics demanding constitutional protection for their fucking Demiurge and whatnot. I thought those heretics had been wiped from civilization. This country wasn’t founded by a bunch of dualists, I can tell you that much! Why don’t they go discover their own country?
Also. Damned Atheists. But for different reasons.
And I just got in an argument with a coworker who apparently thinks atheists should just ignore things like NDP because “you have the right not to participate.” Yeah, sure. And you have the right not to participate in National Day of Goat Sacrifice. She doesn’t agree that it’s best if government just stays out of religion and lets people do what they want. I can’t understand that.
What a terribly cutting remark.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that when I said “first amendment” the coworker said “which one is that?” And when I mention the Freedom From Religion Foundation, you should have heard the tone of voice when she said “they’re atheists?” I’ve never been so glad to have my desk so far in the back.
ZING
But she still expects us to help pay so that she can participate, right? I pay for things that the federal government does with which I do not agree — for instance, having a military budget as big as the rest of the world put together. But to ask me to help pay for someone elses religious worship is absurd.
Octopus vs. shark, here
(Fast-forward to about 1:40 for the action shots.)
One of the parties that seems grossly disadvantaged by the unfair system of representation in the UK seem to be the Greens, heard an interview with their new MP from Brighton on the radio today.Parties that have been represented in other European parliaments for 30odd years are effectively out of luck in the UK due to the undemocratic electoral system.Germany had a Green foreign minister 10 years ago !
Looks like my comment to my uncle isn’t going to make it out of moderation. Go figure.
Ok, apologies to all for returning to the subject, (particularly probably 2 threads on after I finally get finished on this) but SC OM and I were having a nice civil debate about the merits, and otherwise, of Roundup usage in various environments, and I wanted to return for a further mauling, or something. Also apologies for the length of this one, this is what happens when I do posting via word across a few days rather than straight into the comment box – no doubt I will learn not to do this when a couple of poorly phrased bits become the prime focus, although maybe not.
To deal first with SC’s main repetition in the prior posting
Admittedly yes, poor debating technique on my behalf here to a certain extent – as I had to actually look up Tu quoque to figure out exactly what it was I was being accused of perhaps a tad bit leniency in debating skill can be extended here by any non-partisan reader. I’ll attempt in future not to rely overly on such a comparative fallacy, although I still feel that in terms of perspective it is important to recognize that POEA is a detergent, and does fall within the sort of aquatic toxicities one would expect to see from detergents (not to use this as an argument for the use of POEA, just as a defense against taking toxicity at certain concentrations to certain organisms as necessarily making the toxic agent completely awful and beyond even considering that it may be used.
Relyea 2009 – The Toxicity Of Roundup Original Maxh To 13 Species Of Larval Amphibians Rick A. Relyea and Devin K. Jones Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Vol. 28, No. 9, pp. 2004–2008
For a more up to date look at Relyea’s experiments and a mini-review of the literature around POEA toxicity to amphibians – a brief rundown of what I view of the key points made follows:-
States that use of herbicides is useful (both agriculturally and for forest management) – other literature around also suggests roundup is an important tool in terms of habitat protection against invading species, so environmental impact isn’t necessarily always negative
Mortality not generally observed until 2.0mg/L AE other than for two species where mortality at 1.0mg/L AR were observed
LC50 (96h exposure) values for toads and frogs generally in the 0.8mg/L – 2.0 mg/L range, salamanders and newts seem more tolerant with values generally higher than 2.0mg/L (only 4 species of salamander/newt tested however)
Points out that to date amphibians have largely been ignored in tox studies, and should be looked at in future – totally agree this should be the case when assessing environmental impacts (although just because they are impacted doesn’t necessarily mean the substance in question shouldnt be used – all the evidence should be considered)
Direct overspray of wetland areas in Canada had a mean concentration of 0.3mg/L, – which had no real effect on mortality of the single species tested in this case
If direct overspray is only causing concentrations in groundwater to be ~0.3mg/L and adjacent wetlands to be around 0.18mg/L (which maybe gives a good model for runoff under high rain conditions)(although in one case the concentration was greater than 1mg/L)– which is significantly lower than the LD50 then despite the fact that yes, POEA is toxic at some concentrations it does not necessarily follow that use of roundup formulations containing POEA will cause massively significant mortality in amphibian species in the area.
This is supported further by the capacity of sediment (and I’m going to guess soil also (it’s just somewhat dry sediment right….?), although don’t have peer reviewed literature to back this one up) to significantly reduce the concentration of POEA in water with a half life of between 13 and 18h dependant on total organic carbon %age in the soil (1.5 and 3% tested in this case – higher OC leading to lower half-life) – which should have some impact on the LC50 values for a 96h exposure (if my math is right 96 hours after addition of POEA to waters sitting over 1.5% OC sediment you’d have approximately 3% POEA remaining assuming the half-life remains constant and the sediment doesn’t end up saturated)
which is utterly besides the point when specifically addressing one persons guilt about using roundup to control a few weeds,
The spraying your yard/Columbia reference was more an off the cuff remark, and my opposition to spraying in Columbia is bugger all to do with toxicity of POEA but with the spraying of any herbicide onto someone else’s crop and potentially endangered ecosystems (as glyphosate is a complete bugger if you happen to be a plant) – so no, I wasn’t presenting a dichotomy at all(just picking two examples from complete opposite sides of the usage spectrum), and no, it isn’t a case of risk be damned, it is a case of in the first instance someone is knowingly spraying a broad spectrum herbicide on their own property, hopefully following the guidelines (which read – do not apply directly to water, to areas where surface water is present, or to intertidal areas below the mean high water mark. Do not contaminate water when disposing of equipment washwaters) and in the second instance we’re talking about knowingly applying a broad spectrum herbicide, at concentrations above those generally used, onto someone else’s property, on the suspicion that they’re growing something you don’t agree with, in an area containing a great deal of biodiversity which may be under threat. My entire point, which I think is fair (albeit not overly amusing at all, one of the many reasons I am not a professional comedian I guess – I figure if I keep firing them out there one or two might hit the target) being that just because use in one situation is bad, doesn’t mean it is in all situations.
Ok – accepted (I think I lost what I said first, something along the lines of not releasing CO2…) however the evidence is that spraying roundup until it accumulates to certain levels for certain time periods at specific times in an amphibians life cycle has a direct effect on some species of amphibians – it does not necessarily follow that household usage has any appreciable effect on levels of POEA in groundwater considering that aerial spray results in accumulation levels significantly below LD50 levels and pretty close to NEOAL levels where you spray it, and ~50% of that level in areas where runoff is likely (and that is in a wetland area where mobility of chemicals is likely to be a lot higher than off of someone’s property)
No, I’m too lazy to campaign. There is a huge difference between speaking out, and campaigning. I’ve made inquiries internally, and dependant on the responses will express concern internally. What I spend my time doing otherwise is entirely besides the point – although to contradict this point I will now elaborate on my activity… GE is an area I have a high level of interest in (as previously were evolutionary biology, and atheism – both also topics I have wasted vast quantities of my time debating online) and therefore it is hardly surprising (to me at least) that I’d spend my time going on about that, and attempting to point out what I see as wrong in the anti-GM side of the debates argument, why you feel the need to keep bringing up the fact that I am active in the debate is beyond me – for full disclosure of the various timelines and reasoning, just to assuage your morbid curiosity and save you any more time on Google searches, or private detectives, or whatever other bizarre lengths you wish to go to in uncovering the nefarious role I play in the pro-GM side of the debate – I became more active when the Monsanto blog was set up, because it was linked from the internal Monsanto intranet, and in the process of debating there I followed various links (either on the sidebars, or linked through articles) and commented on them also, Monsanto also provides a daily newsfeed concerning articles about the company, and GE in general, and thus I found my way into various other debates (notably on Forbes, and in STL today) – interestingly discovering Pharyngula in the process (linked from Biofortified, who benefitted from a poll pharyngulation not too long ago) and subsequently various other scienceblogs – my current faves being Casaubon’s book, and Tomorrow’s Table (after Pharyngula) – it’s not quite the conspiracy it could have been, but hopefully that little meandering killed off any interest whatsoever this post had for anyone who remained after 1600 words….
As a final point (probably… I may meander off and forget to edit this bit) I don’t know that I’ve portrayed Roundup as non-toxic (I came close to it once on the monsanto blog, but luckily the moderation police, who like me, spotted the error and asked if I’d like to change it before it was posted) just less toxic than the alternatives that would be used (as supported by peer reviewed literature – although it does appear that perhaps glufosinate used in systems with glufosinate resistant crops may have a smaller environmental impact again) and I stand by this statement completely – it’s why roundup use in Ag is on the whole a good thing rather than a bad thing when you look at Risk vs Reward – yes, it can be classified as slightly toxic, through moderately toxic (possibly to severely toxic for amphibians, I’ve lost the paper I was looking at) but looking at the whole picture, and not considering roundup in a vacuum – it is the best option we currently have for utilization in the system we have, both in terms of economics (hence its widespread adoption) and in terms of the environment (yes, using absolutely no inputs would likely be a lot less impactful on the environment, but without a wholesale change in the way the world works this isn’t going to happen) – both points which are supported by the literature.
674 tl;dr
I’ve found a new way to proselytize for secularism in the US. I’m a merit badge counselor for our Boy Scout troop and do a required badge called “Citizenship in the Nation,” which requires boys to discuss the Constitution, among other things. So I’ve started asking “Does the Constitution mention god as a basis for the US government?” When they learn that it doesn’t, their ears steam a bit, but I think that’s from the mind opening up a crack.
Last night I did this right after gutting some fish and identifying various organs for another group of boys. What a great life – fish guts and secularism.
Mattir if the HQ of the Boy Scouts hears about this they’ll have your swiss army knife and tin cup.
Simply saying “Madness!” doesn’t solve any problems. I found out I’m allergic to apples (and pears and the like, and nuts – all connected to hazel pollen and birch pollen allergy) when I was something like 2 years old; I think I even remember it, and it’s my first memory. The allergy manifests as a scratchy feeling in the throat. It went psychological; since then, all fruits and many vegetables are irredeemably yucky. If I were somehow forced to eat strawberries or… any salad, I’d probably barf (as my brother once did when a silly teacher on a ski course or something didn’t understand he doesn’t like salad). So, if Walton has this kind of condition, to say “buy lots of fruit” is just laughable.
It’s dead obvious why Walton is so tired: he simply doesn’t sleep enough.
I can drink orange juice and pasteurized apple juice, but I don’t find the latter worth it most of the time, and don’t often encounter the former either.
Vegetables? Almost entirely limited to carrots, leek, celeriac, onions, and broccoli, all in soup. My mother bought me a tiny blender that I took to Paris last or next-to-last time I went there; one Saturday, I bought an entire kilo of deep-frozen carrots, boiled them with lots of salt and spices for a surprisingly long time, blended the result, and had soup for 3 days. (I should absolutely have added onions, though it was entirely edible nonetheless.) I didn’t do it again, because it just took far too long – and I’m not (yet) under extreme time pressure like Walton is!
I do recommend ginger as a spice, though. For some time, perhaps 2 years, I used curcuma and ginger instead of curry for potato purée and rice.
Ginger is also said to have caffeine-like effects. Candied ginger is now sold over here for this purpose.
(…And, like for caffeine, I haven’t noticed any effect on me.)
Walton, do you eat in a canteen? What is the food like?
I had to use google-fu here
curcuma?
Seems like it might be what I refer to as tumeric, but maybe not. Maybe just close.
Can anyone verify?
:-) :-) :-)
Rev. BDC:
A woman I know from Malaysia refers to turmeric as red ginger (confused the heck out of me with one of her recipes). Does that help?
At first glans, this seemed awfully rude. But then again, maybe the baby should develop a thicker skin. I hope the parent’s remembered to leave a tip–otherwise the mohel may feel shafted.
Yes, turmeric, the yellow color of curry.
ooooooooooooooof
And did the mohel show up in one of these?
Wow. Romantics.
Et tu, Walton?
Meh… love is fleeting. It’s then either backed by a resolute sense of duty, shared goals, or desperate insecurity. Hopefully #2, but usually 1 or 3 :(
As a chronically organized person I seem to always have an index of where everything was and has been. I always find myself managing other people’s papers and things, not to mention their data. I don’t mean to, it’s just hard for me *not* to keep track of things.
@ 682
Woah dude. Just woah.
674 tl;dr
Me too, Rorschach, me too. I haven’t been involved in that argument and I’m currently on vacation anyway.
You’re probably right. I can’t exactly claim wide experience in this particular area of life. :-(
Gah! No no no.
The proper response is “I know how well I could love some one and that’s all I need to know you jaded wretch!”
Then I’d have to say “Ah… whatta mensch.” And leave it at that.
You’re going to have to stop squeaking when squeezed or some one down the line is going to mistake you for a chew toy.
:D
lol
Now who’s the romantic!?
? I’m confused. Were you expecting me to be a sweetly naive hopeless romantic?
Hahaha!
No, not at all. It’s just that I am!
The words “hopeless” and “romantic” can be used to describe me, too. But the proper way to construct that description is “when it comes to being romantic, KOPD is hopeless.”
:-D :-D :-D
A friend of mine has a daughter with attention deficit, severe enough to be an issue but not debilitating. She is looking for non-drug ways to deal with it and asked me about NeuroBioFeedback. I don’t know anything about this treatment. Closest I could come was a successful biofeedback treatment I had years ago to help me relax damaged muscle tissue in my back. Anyone know anything about this? Is it pure woo woo with a big fancy sciency sounding name?
LMAO!
To be honest, most things people consider being romantic I don’t get. Flowers and the like.
Oh, and I’m sorry Walton.
I could play chess with myself.
Don’t let it confuse you :P
Is love worth no more than a $1200 grant? :-/
Love that demands you give up a grant is rarely love. OTOH $1200 is a pretty small grant. Won’t buy more than a couple of antibodies and an epindorf tube or so.
I’m more easily confused than usual, since I’ve been trying to get to grips with legal philosophy all day. You’re certainly less confusing than Joseph Raz. :-)
And I’m STILL tired. (Incidentally, one of my friends was telling me today that short-term tiredness is not about how much sleep one gets; rather, feeling tired all day is apparently caused by waking up at the wrong stage of the REM sleep cycle. So what I’ve been doing – having very irregular sleep patterns and forcing myself to wake up at certain times – is actually the worst possible thing, allegedly.)
Stress, depression, anxiety also cause this and then the lack of sleep or oversleep exacerbates it, creating a wonderful loop. Your friend is right though, regularity does help.
I’m getting this incredible urge to become the Dear Abby for the lovelorn here…
We’ve got a live one! Trinity, the up-to-then insipid resurrector of this thread, has outed himself as a creationist (comment 443).
He teaches American history, but knows neither spelling nor history nor physics nor… you get the drift.
That seems to depend on a couple of things, like how autistic one is for example, in addition to more obvious factors like how consistently and persistently awesome the other is.
…But I’m not speaking from experience.
~:-|
Ha! Molecular biologists and their oodles of moolah! :-D
(…psssst… Eppendorf. If there were an i in there, it’d have to be pronounced; the -pen- part, however, shrinks to [pm]. – But then, of course, most people just say Eppi instead of Eppendorf tube most of the time.)
I don’t actually know, but it wouldn’t exactly surprise me. I avoid that whenever halfway possible.
Oh dear. Let’s talk sports then.
NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
Au contraire, Aquaria. I’m getting a huge urge to find and beat up whoever it was that let dear Walton out into the world with absolutely no idea – sleep, nutrition, exercise – how his body works and how to keep it in good enough order to get that 2:1 he wants and, dare I say, deserves.
Well good David M. I wouldn’t have anything to say about it anyway!
This is going to have to be a multi-part response.
I’ve now skimmed it. The key points of all of the Relyea articles are in the abstract, discussion, and conclusion. Anyone with access to these articles can read them. In the one you just cited, what’s the last sentence before the conclusion? Care to tell people, Ewan?
Before I return to all of the other nonsense in Ewan’s comment…
This is such patent horseshit. First, decisions about our tools and techniques have to be based on an honest evaluation of the evidence concerning them (and no one’s fooled by your strawman “using absolutely no inputs”). This companies like Monsanto have long fought. They should never have been able to sell this stuff without a full evaluation of potential environmental impacts, and nor should any other corporation. Methods of pest control can’t be compared and contrasted without a comprehensive scientific evaluation of their risks, of which Relyea’s work (as he recognizes) is only a small part. Until you have this, you should stop making claims about the toxicity of Roundup. It is irresponsible and immoral.
Second, this “without a wholesale change in the way the world works this isn’t going to happen” is garbage as well. Whether such a change will occur is a completely separate issue from the science and social factors on which decisions need to be based. It’s pathetic for people to alternate between “The system we have now works well” and “The system we have now isn’t going to change anytime soon.” They’re different claims. And in fact, the system needs to change and change soon. It is unsustainable, bad for the environment, bad for democratic governance, not feeding people (see any of the FAO State of Food Insecurity reports from the past decade), and not responsive to disruptions. The only people apparently unwilling to recognize this are the corporations profiting hugely from it and those in their grasp.
It should be a simple enough matter to get Monsanto’s official statement on the use of Roundup (with, evidently, Cosmo-Flux 411F) in Plan Colombia. People testifying before congress have asserted that it’s totally safe, since it’s used in gardens across the US and approved by the EPA (ha). Does the corporation stand by this? What is their position on its safety, and on what is it based?
No, it isn’t. Not when what you spend your time doing is posting on comment threads across the internet defending Monsanto.
Don’t get the wrong impression – my family and friends also tell me that my current lifestyle is not sensible and that I should get more sleep and eat more and generally take better care of myself. Indeed, the advice I’m getting here is pretty much identical to what my parents and my friends keep telling me.
But the way I see it, I just need more willpower.
And then “Timber”, as the mind and body collapses…The Redhead went that route when she did her student teaching. When she returned home, for about a month all she did was get up, cook and eat dinner, watch a little TV, and then go back to sleep. Not useful if you are out looking for a job (she wasn’t).
OK, Walton, I won’t beat anyone up – not tonight, anyway.
As I’m now everyone’s grandma – bows – am I allowed to suggest that you try to work with your body rather than against it?
Oh, and willpower is over-rated. I started actually achieving – quite a bit in fact – as soon as I learned to stop worrying about whether I was doing enough and doing it well enough. You’d be surprised how much extra brain space that releases!
Happier, too, for that matter.
By the way, also useful for context in reading the Relyea articles is his response to Monsanto’s reaction to his first article:
http://www.pitt.edu/~relyea/Site/Roundup.html
in which he refers to the Canadian study.
Ewan’s posts might lead some people to think the matter is more complicated than it is, but in fact it’s summed up quite clearly in that sentence I mentioned in the article Ewan cites. Furthermore, even if things were as unclear as Ewan tries to make them out to be, this alone would be reason for extreme caution with regard to this set of products.
As I’ve said before, self-discipline is way overrated. Use your willpower for a bit of hedonism instead.
I can only repeat: when you’re too tired and hungry, you can’t learn. It especially sucks during exams.
Well, if I wasn’t convinced that mohels were the wrong way to go, I certainly am now. What. The Fuck.
Walton:
Why are you torturing yourself? Willpower won’t replace sleep– you’re going to do some serious harm to yourself and for what? We’ve all been there and we’ve all made these mistakes*, please learn from us and GET SOME DAMNED REGULAR SLEEP!
You have at least cut down on the caffeine, right? Or at least the diet soda. That shit is nothing more than rot-gut and caffeine.
* While I was in college, I was lucky enough to be able to stage one of my plays for an actual real audience (ie- not just a theater class). I was so nervous beforehand and so pumped afterward that I didn’t sleep for about 60 hours. Trust me, when you get past the 24 hour mark, shit gets seriously surreal.
Meh. I guess that’s true.
I should really go to bed. Goodnight, everyone.
Ah, wangst.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Wangst
I have a friend who kept chanting that mantra. Eventually, he convinced himself that willpower was the only thing worth having, and to this end he chose to pursue activities that he was completely unsuited for to the exclusion of those things he was good at. (For instance, though he was a talented and skilled visual artist but completely tone-deaf and rythmically challenged, he thought it was a much better use of his free time outside his office job to try to learn to play the violin than to pursue a job in which his artistic skills might be of use.) Eventually, he began to purposefully make simple tasks more complex and difficult—whether consciously or not it was difficult to tell—and mentally and emotionally berate himself when he inevitably failed them. Of course, the way he saw it, every time he failed it was the result of just needing more willpower. As a result he became severely depressed and prone to emotional crises and suicidal ideation every time he felt he’d failed in some aspect of his life, which was often.
Have a good sleep, Walton!
@697
Depending on the severity of the attention deficit, diet can go a fair way to help alleviate symptoms.
Friends of mine have a daughter with ADD – mild to moderate – and are having some success by just controlling the diet – natural foods only – butter instead of margarine for example – no sweets, coloured drinks/fizzy drinks etc.
Just a thought.
you’re a fucking idiot. there’s no such thing as “mind over body”. willpower is not magic; you gonna continue fucking your body up, best case you’ll fail your exams, worst case you’ll do permanent damage to yourself and end up in an early grave.
Ol’Greg:
My husband makes me custom silver jewelry. I consider that to be romantic. ;)
@ODS –
FWIW (nothing), I would take the Orthodox mohels I’ve observed over the obstetrician who did our son’s circumcision any day of the week, both in terms of delicacy of surgical technique and overall tact and grace. It’s sort of like seeing a surgeon who specializes in doing one thing over and over until it’s perfect rather than a generalist who sees your particular condition once every 6 months.
Not an argument for circumcision, just an observation based on way too small a sample size to mean anything at all.
@719
I don’t know what my friend has done about diet. I know she limits sweets because she has talked about how excited the kids are at holidays when they get their own supply of chocolate. I will ask if she has looked into any diet changes.
I’m not sure why she asked me except that I am a science teacher and so must know the answer to all science questions. I hadn’t heard about the therapy before and so figured I’d ask here where someone might have encountered it. I am generally skeptical when someone starts talking about a “new” therapy since there is so much out there NOT based on good science.
Scoot on over to some new thread.