Someone on twitter complained that I was losing my edge. Then Rebecca Watson mocked me and posted this video.
If I weren’t so creaky and crotchety and feeble, I might stir myself to fight back. But no…there’s a beautiful woman in the bedroom who needs a massage. I have better things to do.
Thanks, opposablethumbs. It was a stress test where they took multiple sonograms of my heart before and after the test. Apparently my heart is in reasonable condition for a 98 year old man.
And for those of you who say that I’m heartless, I’ve got pictorial and other graphic evidence that you’re wrong.
Having just read the linked post, I’m in two minds. I’m all for calling out stupidity where one sees it, and if he were just complaining about people calling teabaggers zombies, I’d laugh and ignore him. (Personally, I’d use plenty of worse epithets, like “ignorant xenophobic morons.”) In the real world of politics, there are much more serious moral problems to get worked up about than a few petty insults. (The death penalty, say, and the racist and unjust treatment of migrants and asylum-seekers, and the prison-industrial complex, and torture, and the other human-rights abuses being perpetrated by our goverments.)
On the other hand, reading his description of the video game he’s criticizing…
…I do feel a little uncomfortable. Insulting teabaggers is fine, but this comes perilously close to advocating violence towards them, something which really isn’t okay in my book.
That said, I don’t think this is a big deal, given that it’s just an obscure game created by some random guy on the Internet; it would be foolish to try to draw some kind of equivalence between this and, say, the intemperate xenophobic hate speech of right-wing figures like Rush Limbaugh, who have a major national platform.
So… I’d say the game, if his description is accurate, was tasteless and stupid; that said, I can’t be bothered to get very worked up about it either way, since there are much more important issues to get angry about.
I’m wearing a dosimeter.
Are you an occupational radiation worker? Are you wearing a calcium fluoride or lithium fluoride thermoluminescent dosimeter or some more exotic form of TLD>
So apparently this Zvan (which I misspelled earlier) character is actually a blogger here on FTB. Gotta say, so far I’m only impressed with about half the bloggers here I’ve taken the time to look at.
‘Tis, did you do the treadmill? The hardest part for me was the damn treadmill, I’ve never been on one before. The nurse said I have the heart of a 17 year old boy. But she’s seen my basement.
Ms. Daisy Cutter,
I’m proposing a pseudonym change. Daisy Cutter, Ms. Violent Handle.
Sounds a bit Tarantinoish.
(I’m typing this in notepad because I can’t see to type in the comment box.)
So, just as a note for everyone here (because I doubt most people have thought about it).
At my job, we’re currently reviewing our policies and such regarding Advance Health Care Directives. AHCDs are documents that you fill out, while healthy, that designate explicitly and in no uncertain terms who is to make medical decisions for you if you are incapable yourself as well as some of those explicit wishes (levels of treatment, etc.). This is different from a DNR.
This is also very important, especially for those of us who are single and have substantially different values than our families. In most states, there is a very specific order of who gets to make your medical decisions. This order tends to be: married spouse, adult children, surviving parents. Note that this is “married” – civil unions, even if you have one, sometimes don’t qualify, and live-in partners usually don’t qualify. Now, different states (and likely countries) have different rules: for example, in California, because we have so many non-traditional family groups, the attending physician is allowed to determine who should make such medical decisions.
However, an AHCD is a legal document (at least in the US) that bypasses all of that. The main point is to designate a surrogate decision maker, in writing and witnessed or notorized. There’s no standard form, though again different states have different official documents.
I know this isn’t a topic a lot of people want to discusss (we work with cancer patients, so it’s a bit traumatic here), but it’s very important to have. If you get hit by a bus, get knocked unconscious, have a medical reaction to medication that makes you delirious, or whatever, you want to make sure the person making decisions for you shares your values and understands what you want.
Especially for those of us who are single and who have substantially different values from our parents and/or families, it’s important to officialy designate a surrogate. For example, my surrogate is my best friend, and not my parents.
Anyway, just thought it’d be worthwhile to bring up here. This has been a Public Service Announcement. You may now resume your regularly scheduled TET.
I really don’t like having to select the Comments tab every time I want to see recent comments (which is frequently). I liked it much better when it was its own section.
Speaking of zombies, does anyone have an opinion about this article from Cracked? The basic claim is that zombies and vampires in movies are symbolic of liberals’ fear of conservatives and vise versa, respectively.
I’m quite interested in how horror movies represent actual fears. BTW, I really recommend the docu “Hollywood between paranoia and sci-fi” on that topic.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/09/13/senate-republicans-block-fema-disaster-relief-funds/
Response to the Johnny Cash Tosh.
Hello,
I read your Open Letter to Atheists with some interest, being an atheist of some consistency and duration I tend to find myself attracted to how theists interact with the idea that not everyone believes.
It’s pretty difficult to deny that human’s operate at a narrative level, we see our lives as stories, our nation’s histories as stories, our species history as stories, and so on. Narratives are how we relate ideas and facts that may be too big to approach in the narrow time constraint of our short lives. We even use this to approach more abstract ideas, couching them in terms which triggers our narrative understanding so that something which was complex can be understood, whether superficially or deeply, in a shorter period of exposure than through raw unconnected facts.
So yes, stories are a powerful way to share information and ideas. That doesn’t mean that all stories share information and ideas which are true or meaningful. That same power, the ability to condense complex ideas to simple narratives for human consumption, works just as well on ideas which are not true. There are stories which don’t reflect how the world is, often showing instead how we wish it were, or (more often, as it seems to me)how we fear it to be.
So for this atheist, stories are useful, but they must also be approached with caution. We can ill afford to search for truth solely through narratives, any more than we can approach the world solely from a logician’s perspective or with a statistician’s approach. We must temper our vulnerability to narratives through these other approaches to truth lest we lose our way in story.
William Steele
It’s really a pity that they’ve shortened the season like that.
People insist on having their traditional Moomin dinner for Christmas, but there really isn’t time enough for the meat to cure that way.
You need to wait at least till Candlemass if you want real Moomin. So much sweeter and tenderer.
X-Ray crystallographers only need photographic film.
Hi there, you guys.
I had an atheist experience that I need to share (‘cos nobody else gets it). My father died two weeks ago. I was with him when he died (3 weeks in ICU with a gall bladder complication). He was also an atheist. And his last few days were a revelation for me. (Background: he was a loving and gentle man who was loving and loved in return by his 5 daughters and wife). He knew in the last days that he was dyeing and spoke about it in real terms. He spoke about his concerns of leaving us, he spoke about wanting it to be over (he was in pain). We were given the option on the last day of something called terminal weaning which involved increasing his pain meds and decreasing his blood pressure meds (which were basically keeping him alive).
But the biggest thing was his amazing calm, his total acceptance of what was happening to him, without a vision of some fucked up religious POV. I have been an atheist for about 20 years and I have never had my reality confirmed in as profound way as I did while I watch my Daddy die.
I am not Anonymous… I am lipwig… I just can’t seem to figure out how to log in with my lipwig name…
Pope accused of crimes against humanity by victims of sex abuse.
Lipwig,
Thank you for that. Death is hard, but it can still be a source of beauty in our lives. I would that I meet my end in a similar fashion, people who know me and care about me close at hand and clear mind about what is happening.
Hugs if you want ’em. It takes time to get used to such a loss and many of us here have been through similar if you need to talk.
Lipwig,
I’m so sorry to hear about your loss. I hope when it’s my time, I go out with as much grace as your father.
yeah, thanks Dhorvath, I do need to talk. It has left me with a huge realisation of my own end of life.
I just had one of those “Wow, anti-gay religious groups are aiming big here” moments. You see, the Alliance Defense Fund (the assholes who intervened in the Prop 8 case and who are currently trying to assert standing) have decided it’s not enough that they should be fighting to legislate their values on others under current laws and regulations.
They have decided a lot of their trouble comes from the restrictions preventing tax-exempt religious groups from openly campaigning and engaging in politics. (Even though the current tactics basically amount to doing precisely this in more coded language.) They don’t like that. So they are fighting to remove any burden placed on churches to let people make up their own damn mind without religious guilt, while retaining their tax-free privileged status.
This new layout looks awful to me. I thought something was broken with the code. With a left sidebar the comments were in the center of the screen; now they’re way off on the left. It feels unbalanced. Plus it feels like if there’s only one sidebar, it should be on the left, not the right.
Honestly, every “improvement” in web layout or software interface that I’ve seen in the last 10 years, other than those that were in direct response to massive complaints, has inevitably made them worse. Google, Microsoft, Adobe, practically every website. I don’t get it. Do developers’ minds work differently than people who actually use these things?
(partly xposted from CwH)
I’m sorry for your loss, lipwig. It’s wonderful that he died with his family around him, and was able to share his last moments with those he loved without anyone imposing their beliefs on you. Having the ability to say goodbye with dignity is vastly important.
Greta Christina recently wrote about the grieving process for those without belief in gods, and I believe she linked to some resources for non-believers, if you would like to check them out.
thanks slignot… those Greta links will tide me over for a while.
Midnight Rambler
Totally agree about the sidebar being on the wrong side. And I’m even a developer. And I hate the things I use the most being an extra click away than they used to be. You wanna bury the archives, fine. But the Recent Comments is how we find the trolls! Hell, that should be even more prominent, not hidden away in another tab.
Lipwig,
Is it that you now fear it more having been so close to someone as they died? Do you feel fragile or exposed by this experience? Or is it that you fear the harm to those you will eventually leave behind?
When my mother died I was sad, sad for things unsaid, sad for opportunities lost, and more than anything sad for my father who had to recreate his life without her. It was hard, but we have all passed through, life continues for us. You needn’t fear that people can’t cope, people who have been loved and cherished get an advantage going forwards. They know that people can and do care. Just as you know that and knowing it will move forwards after your father’s death.
This may seem trite, but it played a role in my grieving and recovery.
Sorry to hear your news Lipwig. I hope it helps you and your mother and sisters, knowing what a comfort your presence and love must have been to him. And that you have lots of support. It’s good that neither you nor he had to deal with the insulting intrusion of other people’s beliefs that you don’t share (siblings and I ran both our parents’ funerals entirely ourselves, and it was a comfort to us to have eulogies and stories from each other and from people who actually knew and loved them – no extraneous stuff).
lipwig:
You have my sympathy. Also cyberhugs and USBChocolate if you want it.
Lipwig, I am so sorry to hear about your loss.
Ms. Daisy Cutter,
Okay, now I’m getting really curious about why you chose your nym. Oven the author of the OP is saying that it “[suggests] that the holder of said name is predisposed to violence”. I’m trying to contain my laughter and be “civil”, but it’s hard.
Thanks for sharing that with us, lipwig. It stirred up a lot of emotions in me, including admiration for a man I never met and whose name I don’t know.
I prolly shouldn’t have read that while I still have work to do but what the heck, I can always call this a coffee break.
*hug* for lipwig. I’m sorry for your loss, but happy for you that you didn’t have to put up with a lot of religious bullshit, to make a sad occasion worse.
–
Lipwig, my sympathies. I’ve had a similar experience in the last two weeks with a dear family member. We knew this was going to happen, but it was hard. I’m glad they had that option and he was able to talk to you though. Thank you for sharing that story.
Good evening
Lipwig
I’m sorry to hear about your loss, but I’m also glad that you could be with your father and give him all the comfort possible.
Thank you for sharing your story with us.
My grandpa died last December, and I’m thankful it happened too suddenly for anybody to have to dwell on the prospect.
Is funeral was beautiful, if such a word can applied to such an occasion, a last celebration of his life.
SQB
Hihi, here it’s the other way around, I’m not fooled by my daughter any more, but the other kids in kindergarten are. Today one of her friends told me proudly that she had put on her rain-trousers all herself!
personal rant to follow, don’t read if you don’t want to
How much do you get for killing your mother? And do you get a discount if you join forces with your sister?
It’s bad enough that she wants to keep grandma in a chrystal tomb like snowwhite, it’s bad enough that she acts as if we didn’t notice that she’s drunk most of the time, but now she’s started to act out on my daughter.
While I was working the kids were there*. She told my sister to take daughter #1 upstairs with her, probably expecting her to come running down to grandma after 5 minutes.
Well, she didn’t when she came down she got ask “where have you been”. When we left she said her goodbye at the door.
Sounds pretty normal? It isn’t.
Ever since the kid was a few weeks old, she kissed her goodbye in the car and said one special phrase.
It hurts so bad.
*no, I’m not irresponsible to leave them alone with a drunk alcoholic. My sister and my dad were there.
On a similar note, I think I’d like to get something off my chest. I don’t usually like to talk much about people around me (myself sure… but I try to keep quiet about things that involve others or at least I mean to try…)
Anyway, I was really bothered by the funeral service. Religious and Baptist. The minister (who was a stand in who didn’t know our relative at all really) lectured us all on how my family member would have told us we had better be saved (never, never, never… just not that kind of person) and how we would only get to see our relative again if we accepted Jesus (in the right way) and waited for judgment (the rest of you are gonna burn, sorry).
It made me sick.
It was an insult, and the family isn’t even mono-religious so it was an *intentional* insult.
Fuck that shit.
It didn’t scare me, since I think it’s horseshit, but it did seriously get on my nerves.
(I’m sorry and don’t mean to shift attention onto myself… it’s just been bothering me in the meantime and that made me think of it)
@ lipwig — my condolences on your loss. Very much appreciated your sharing the experience.
Walton, thanks for the link and info. As you correctly surmised, I am in the US.
I would love to discuss Harvard in particular with you.
I flounced Facebook about a month ago, but my email address is bride of figg at gmail dot com.
———–
Lipwig, Giliell, and Algernon *hugs*
———-
And now I need to get back to work. Have a good evening, folks.
@ Josh — forgot — always fill the oil lamp in the sink, the oil is very hard to clean up. I think that covers all the wretched mistakes I remember making.
There’s no way I can catch up on this entire thread and I totally missed the original post, but CC I’m truly sorry you’re finding out that your former friends aren’t as cool as they used to seem.
It seems to be something alot of us are going through lately, though maybe it’s just ‘Blue Car Syndrome’ due to me going through it myself recently.
For 10 years I watched my friend devolve from ‘a decent guy’ to a foolish, selfish, self-righteous morally repugnant drunken asshole. It was such a slow process I didn’t notice for much of the time, but towards the end it became painfully obvious I needed to step back and re-evaluate my life.
Right now it seems my only close IRL friend is my ex girlfriend. I’m not complaining, since she’s awesome, but how fucking weird is that?
Algernon, I’m sorry you had to put up with that crap. *hug* For so many preachers, a body in a casket seems to be like blood in the water for sharks.
–
Ack! I do not like the menu on the right side!
Anyway, I just heard this on NPR’s All Things Considered: SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) is asking the international tribunals at The Hague to investigate the Vatican for clerical sex abuse. They’re (rightly) saying that it’s a crime against humanity.
Algernon, Cicely, Well, it seems nothing fills pews more effectively than fear of death and especially fear of hell.
I like to tell christians I know that if I ever DO stand in front of God in judgement, I’m gonna spit in his face. A big wet one right in the mouth. I’ll probably go to hell, yeah, but I imagine there’ll be a moment or two where yahweh looks like the universe’s biggest toddler that just dropped his ice cream cone.
Lipwig: I’m sorry for your loss, and I admire the perspective you take on it. My grandmother died surrounded by family, including 14 year old me. Afterlife or no, her last moments in this one were spent surrounded by her descendants who loved her dearly.
*shrugs*
These days my best friend is Walton.
I don’t have many friend friends anymore, ever since my BFF went into rehab (much needed) and the over the years I’ve just kind of drifted.
I don’t really know *how* to make long term connections with people. Like, at all. Though I’ll talk to, hang around almost anyone who asks (seriously).
Add me to the list of social misfits too. I get sick of people acting like I’m just supposed to know the rules. Look, assume I was in fact born and raised in a barn and go from there. I feel for you, CC. I had a friend who did something like that years ago.
lipwig:
My condolences for your loss… and my admiration for your father, in meeting his end with clarity and peace: That, it seems to me, is a true… err, what’s the secular equivalent of blessing? (Odd, isn’t it, how all our words for happy happenstance — blessing, good fortune/fortunate, etc. — evoke the supernatural, innit?)
My own father never called himself an atheist, but I’m sure he was: My parents were founding members of the Episcopal parish in the town I grew up in, but I’m pretty sure that was mostly on my Mom’s account, and mostly social, at that: I never heard Dad talk about God or theology at all, and never heard him talk about religion except to snark. His death came at the end of a years-long slide into illness and dementia, and when he finally passed, my dominant emotion was relief that Mom had been relieved of the weight of caregiving. I almost envy you the sharp sense of loss you feel: I grok that right now all you feel is pain, but certainly you will, as time goes by, cherish these days.
Algernon:
We had (you should pardon the expression) the devil’s own time trying to arrange for a nonreligious memorial service for my Dad: He didn’t have any sort of preacher or “spiritual” advisor who could officiate, of course, and so we had to rely on people who didn’t know him. As it turned out, the fellow we got to do the memorial didn’t quite believe we wanted a secular service, and snuck a couple Jebus references into the proceedings. Nowhere near as obnoxious as the tale you tell, though.
Audley: Makes me think of this article I read once on WHY the vatican covers up sex abuse. I don’t even need to tell you it was a disgusting piece of apologetics that basically boils down to “The church doesn’t want people to worry about their confessions, baptism, confirmation, etc being nullified by being performed by a ‘sinful’ priest. After all, we have eternal souls to think of here!”
I can’t remember exactly how they worded it, since I read it years ago, but yeesh.
Algernon: The basics of human behavior have always eluded me too. I’ve learned LOTS over the years. You guys would be shocked if you knew me a year, two years, or especially five years ago. Still, sometimes it just feels like a well trained animal performing a particularly elaborate trick that human beings find mildly endearing. Kinda like a chimpanzee wearing clothes and smoking cigarettes, or a dog that can stand on his hind legs.
/issues. :/
Algrenon:
I don’t doubt that, and I think you’re lucky to have him. But he is not your only friend, as long as you’re here.
I’m mildly perplexed by what this relationship we electronic ghosts share is, but it has at least as good a claim on the term friendship as all but a tiny few of my meatspace relationships. For many of you — even those I’ve never met IRL; even those I’ve had rending fights with here — I would give my time and treasure more readily to assist you than most folks I know face-to-face. Outside of my family, this place has been my most enduring personal relationship during the period since I started posting here.
Urk!
Alg
reernon <— I blame the beer!We had a funeral for my mother without mention of deities, it was excellent. I am troubled when people bring their personal agenda to an event that is really not about them, and I hate that they would do so at an event that is really about someone else. To those who have had to fight this battle, it is possible to win and I am sure people very like yourselves somewhere in my past pushed back enough for my mother’s funeral to proceed the way her family wished. So thank you for doing the same, someone soon will benefit from your efforts.
Cross-posted from the kitsch thread for sheer… FOR GREAT JUSTICE. *headshake*
BTW, poopyhead, while you’ve fixed the column width and the “recent comments” feature, on this thread I still have to type blind as if it had 2500 comments, and the browser freezes in the meantime. How come?
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Oh for Benny’s sake. It’s incredible. Catholics pray to him, and he works miracles, up to and including healing the lame.
Somebody should officially propose him for sainthood, under the new, much easier rules. And somebody else should make tons and tons of popcorn.
Hey, some of the Copts are uniates. Don’t they need a patron saint of the revolutionaries?
Tell me about it! I’m usually just sort of trying to audition for a part.
My work computer is still barfing on this thread. My home computer has no problem with it, but the window is still extra-wide. *shakes fist in the general direction of down under*
New thread early please.
Sorry it’s taken me a while to get back to everyone, but when the site format changed, my brain kind of freaked out and I started randomly refreshing the page hoping it was some sort of temporary screw up. I had to walk away.
Gilliel:
It’s the revenge jerkishness. And it’s pretty terrible. I mean, we’ve been together since right after high school graduation. It’s quite a long time. I just don’t understand how he could be this cruel to me. And it seems like he’s doing it just because he can. One thing I’ve learned from this whole situation: I will never, ever be dependent upon anyone ever again for anything.
crowepps, the advice is actually appreciated but I’m ahead of you. :) I started keeping notes when he started doing stuff right before I was able to actually move out.
SQB
Aww, ya’ll are awesome!
*hugs* to everyone who needs it, especially you, Classical Cipher. I’ve only caught snippets, but it seems like you could use a very large hug right now. And I don’t think you’d break anything if you met anyone from here in meatspace. :D
And thanks to everyone for the cyber hugs, advice, etc. And especially just for listening..err..reading…my endless whining about this whole situation.
And since I can’t seem to find a job, my Mom came up with the perfect costume for me to wear to their Halloween party:
A homeless, tattered Indiana Jones with a sign that reads: Will dig for food.
And now that my brain has adjusted to the changes, I need to get caught up.
Lone Coyote:
Oh barf. It’s shit like this that makes me want to see the Vatican burn.
It will be interesting to see if the tribunals at The Hague will actually investigate, but my money says no.
Awwww… thanks Bill.
David,
Possibly; if so, it indicates a problem that should be fixed.
When you think the LDS Church has been sullied by the evils of liberalism, then, and only then are you truly the most right-wing of the right-wingers. You are wearing your Tea Bagging mormon ass for a hat.
This is a Moment of Über Right-Wing Mormon Madness. Arizona State Senator, Karen Johnson has come to the conclusion that her dear church has been brainwashed, possibly by the liberal media, and possibly by a cabal of liberals in general.
The reason Johnson is sounding the alarm? Leaders of the LDS Church dared to suggest that mercy and human kindness be shown to illegal immigrants.
From journalist Paul Rolly’s column in the Salt Lake Tribune:
I think Senator Johnson should reexamine the issue. Her church is engaged in its usual doublespeak, using the word “compassion” when it means “protecting a tithing source” and “keeping the Church out of the courts for aiding and abetting illegal immigration of mormon converts.”
Senator Johnson also thinks Paul Mero of the Sutherland Institute is a liberal. Mero heads a conservative think tank that advocates for removing whatever equal rights gays have in Utah, including rights to work, and to housing. Mero also thinks, like Michele Bachmann, that getting rid of the Department of Education is a good idea. Mero is too liberal for Johnson’s taste. I bring this up to give you a taste of what it’s like to live among conservatives who are also über mormon. The combination of ultra right-wing brain damage with mormon brain damage is a wonder. It will leave you awestruck.
Lipwig, my condolences. He sounds like a great guy, (I write this as I look at my fav pic of my Dad on my bookshelf and sit in his old office chair). Your sense of your own mortality seems natural to me, it doesn’t go away but it does take a background to everyday life.
+++++++++++++++++
Ms. Daisy Cutter, I’ve always known the macabre double entendre of your ‘nym, I find it amusing, and I’ve seen live demos of such hardware.
They really had their knickers in a twist over there.My reaction to the game was basically “yeah, so what?”
Maybe we should call it the “Move On Betrayus syndrome”. But it already has a name IOKIYAR. showing up with actual guns at a Dem event is exercising your 2nd Amendment, ‘Don’t retreat, reload’ is your 1st Amendment, putting cross-hairs on a US Rep that gets gunned down … well those were just surveyor’s marks.
Nothing is beyond the pale for rethuglican politicians and their supporters, but if one single blog comment on a left wing site is offensive, it means all lefties are guilty.
I think the Brits could teach us a thing or two about how to handle mormon missionaries.
From the Readers Comments section:
I agree. By its very nature, a mormon missionary’s “conversation” is not polite. They are peddling their wares, and they have been taught all kinds of pressure tactics to employ while doing so. Unless one rides the bus in order to buy religion or other products, the proselytizing would be highly annoying.
And the bus is actually the private property of the bus company. LD$ Inc. can buy ads on the bus if they want to work within the parameters allowed by the bus company.
As you might imagine, all kinds of mormons are up in arms about this so-called restriction of free speech.
[rant] Horde, the Chicago Tribune isn’t running the comic strip Doonesbury this week due to what it calls “fairness issues”. Given the story line is of a book critical of Sarah Palin getting accidentally into the hands of a Faux News like network correspondent Roland Hedley, I smell a rat. Do what you can to publicize this by linking to web sites carrying the strip, or newspapers that do, when you think of it. [/rant]
Squigit, I was kind of that asshole, tho even then I would never take it out on a dog. Good luck, and I’m so sorry it’s come to this.
++++++++++++++++++++
In a related subject: I too learned how to try to make people like me. Even then they didn’t. I think it’s much more a part of the human condition than a defect.
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
No. This is incorrect. All are travesties; there is not a single one that would not be better without the pumpkin in there. Beer and the Family Cucurbitaceae do not mix! Never should the twain meet!
blah blah body blah richness
It gives it the flavor of fucking pumpkins!
Nice. They used it when they so fucking desperate for beer that they’d throw anything in there! Giant squashes? Corn? Rice?
Bah, I say: Bah!
I’ve tried some too, and in my opinion not a single one wouldn’t have been better without the fucking coffee flavor. bleh!
[Next somebody’s going to step up to defend the fruit-flavored wheatbeers like Sunset or Ithaca Apricot or Purple Haze and the like–don’t bother! They suck! Drink a goddamn cider if you like fruit so damn much, I say.]
In conclusion, RHEINHEITSGEBOT!!!
My dosimeter is a photographic-film-type.
lipwig, your dad sounds like a gem.
The random god-botherer who presided at my father’s funeral got his name wrong. (Daddy had a lot of names. The one I knew him by is not the one the shamen used.)
I have no plans to go out with dignity. I plan to rage against the dieing of the light.
Chas:
Oooooh, like Wachusett Blueberry? One of my favs!
:P
[naming names]
In local news: Xenophon names priest accused of sex abuse
Beer should taste like beer.
I can tolerate variation in hops or malts.
Not raspberry and rutabaga.
This pumpkin beer concept has me instantly intrigued. I must try it if I can.
Just out of boredom, I’ve decided to try carving a small wooden bowl for camping. Pics, possibly, if I succeed.
Lipwig: I’m very sorry to hear about your father. I am glad you were able to find comfort in lack of belief.
Erulora & The Sailor: I used to hang out on alt.tasteless. I picked the nym because the weapon was in the news, and I thought the pun was clever. Still do. The idea that it makes me a “violent person”…. jeez, what a pants-wetter.
Algernon: That sucks. And, yes, it is an insult. It’s typical tribal American xtianity, putting more emphasis on proselytizing than on comforting the bereaved.
David M: “Saint Che” reminds me of the narco-saints of Mexico.
Audley: I’m not a beer drinker, but a late friend of mine was, as well as a brewer. I introduced him to Wachusett IPA a few years ago; can’t remember whether or not I ever brought him some Blueberry. He would have enjoyed the article about the high-test squirrel beer.
Boy had a beer with dinner (I am still on no beer because I am still, occasionally, taking pain meds) called Raftman. It is made with peat smoked whiskey malt and smells wonderful.
No pumpkin in it, though.
=====
Is anyone else noticing that as you type in the commetn box, it goes very very slowly? LIke I finished the previous sentence, and the screen was only at ‘type’? or is this my connnection? My email is working fine.
I don’t know what it is specifically, but it seems the single thing that unites all beer is the thing I hate.
The closest to beer I can get is champagne or decently dry sparkling wine and that’s even occasional. So to me, the further away and less beer-like a beer is the better it gets! But honestly, if it tastes like beer at all I hate it. I actually don’t care for cider that much either (too sweet… blech).
@ Algernon
I don’t like beer either. It tastes bitter and weird to me.
All this beer talk has got to me.
I am now quaffing a most excellent brew — Cooper’s Sparkling Ale. At 09:25 local time.
(I’m different; I treat it like a home-brew.
Let the bottles sit for a day or two, then decant carefully so the yeasty sediment doesn’t pollute the flavour)
Cheers.
:-( Sympathies and support. He sounds like an ass.
If there’s one thing that we’d be better off without, it’s the whole concept of revenge. As a species, I just wish we could get over this ridiculous and self-destructive desire to make others suffer in retribution for some perceived wrong or other.
====
Count me in as one of the people who dislikes beer. I’ve just never liked the taste, and drinking it makes me feel ill very quickly, even in small quantities. On the rare occasions when I drink (which I haven’t been doing at all since arriving in the US), I prefer wine, or gin-and-tonic. But really I don’t drink often. Too expensive, and I don’t find it the best way to relax.
Algernon,
You need educating.
Beer is much like champagne (or, these days, in-bottle secondarily-fermented bubbly wine) — the degree of sweetness is in direct relation to the proportion of the sugars fermented by the yeast. (Yeasts eat sugar and shit alcohol)
With careful fermentation, hardly any sugar will remain and you will have a ‘dry’ version, with hardly any sweetness.
(Brut vs. sec)
[erratum]
Bah. Brut vs. doux.
I don’t like cider because I tend to dislike the flavour of apples. (I can’t eat raw apples at all – even the sight or sound of somebody eating one makes me feel ill – and I don’t like apple juice or anything strongly-apple-flavoured.)
I don’t drink to relax, relaxing comes pretty naturally.
Much to my surprise I find there are beers that speak to me. Growing up in a Labatt Blue and Carling Black Label household all my knowledge of beer was based on boring, fizzy, bitter bottles drunk largely for hydration and sense of drunkness. This held little appeal and I thought for years that beer and I were incompatible.
Enter microbreweries, suddenly a whole world of new flavours opened in front of me. Beer could actually taste like something more than beer, it could vary in texture and carbonation, gone was thinking that beer needed to be thin, fizzy, and bitter, and in it’s place I have discovered much to enjoy, malty darks, hoppy tans, cloudy yeasty liquid breads, and more. It is now my pleasure visiting the often neglected corner of my local liquor stores.
(Note, I had a similar experience with wine.)
Walton:
Or greed. Or envy. Or shame. Or anger. Or [insert your emotion].
(Yeah, we humans have issues. Perhaps you will be the one who develops a real Kolinahr)
If thhat fuckuing thing was any closer the tail rotor would be in mytent.
Dhorvath:
I am exactly the same way. My parents drank Schlitz until I was 7, then they went totally dry when Mom was pregnant with my little sister. (They didn’t start drinking again until about 4 years ago.) My first experience was Coors Light out of a can– it’s no wonder that I hated beer until I had some of the good stuff.
But in the case of beer you still have that yucky beer taste. I’ve been all over Europe with people buying me this beer or that because the minute people find out you don’t like something that’s all they want to let you drink!
I don’t know what exactly it is I don’t like, just that it seems to be there in one way or another in all beer.
As for cider, I don’t know. You’re right. I’ve only tried cider once, and it was weird and sweet but rotten tasting at the same time. It wasn’t that strong though so perhaps harder cider tastes better.
Oh, that is fortunate.
Relaxing does not come naturally to me. Relaxing does not come from drinking for me. Relaxing is elusive after many many tranquilizers for me.
In fact, WTF is “relaxing” anyway?
Another one here who doesn’t much care for beer. Taste like piss to me.
Algernon: I wish I knew what “relaxing” is, myself. Especially since I’m the type who feels guilty if I’m not “making the most of my time” by getting X, Y, and Z done on the weekends or in the evenings. I can get X and Y done, then feel bad about not getting Z done.
Oh, well. I personally subscribe to the Fran Lebovitz quote about how there’s no such thing as inner peace; there’s just nervousness and death.
I don’t suppose you would fall for the “No True Beer Tastes Like Piss’ fallacy?
Yep, I’m beating myself up inwardly right now because it’s already almost 8 and since I got home I didn’t do half the things I meant to (including piano practice) that I promised myself I’d do in lieu of the gym if I didn’t go to the gym.
I fed the cats, emptied the trash cans, put up the dinner dishes, wiped up the kitchen, put up the towels from the dryer, and put my stuff on the calendar for the rest of this week (I was behind on that) but I still haven’t practiced voice or piano, mopped, dusted, or done anything particularly interesting either.
Arrrrrrrgh…
I guess what I’m saying is I ought to go.
In the meantime I am trying so hard to figure out how to make a treadmill desk. This is truly brilliant, considering all the time I spend on the computer. I have just got to make that happen! I could be getting exercise *while* I drain my SIWOTI gland at the same time!
Algernon, yeah, the beer taste is there. (My wife hates it!)
Also, you’re quite right about the “rotten” taste of cider no less than Walton is about its appleness; it’s a feature, not a but. I was just addressing the sweetness issue.
(sigh) but → bug
Bill Dauphin @545: Me, too. :)
The sense of “community” here is stronger and better than anything I ever got from a church-based group.
–
So, it’s not just me, then!
*relieved sigh*
It seems able to handle about one typed character per second.
(Do I smell an equine plot to discourage long posts?)
–
+1
–
In other words, not a real dosimeter. Back in the days when I was a nuke, we had dosimeters a man or woman could be proud of. Genuine LiF TLDs, not some bit of plastic with a scrap of film inside. The yoof of today, they don’t know what it was like when men were men and women were women and dogs were dogs and guinea pigs were guinea pigs and death’s head spiders were death’s head spiders and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were Pseudomonas aeruginosa and like that there.
I’m not liking this everything moved to the right thing. Think left!
My dosimeter is actually a little gray plastic box, sealed with a barcoded tape.
If I was slightly less mature I would have opened it by now.
In fact, WTF is “relaxing” anyway?
sandiseattle, very sinister of ya.
I don’t find any slow-down in the comment-box at all.
(But then, I have a decent box and run it lean)
Hey, slow down. Don’t type so fast. Some of us majored in history and don’t read too fast.
So, apparently Michele Bachmann is an anti-vaxxer now.
Try a P4 from 2002 with 100 MHz bus, 20 GB HD, and a Rage 128 video card from the same era. Corporate required McAffe anti-virus running in the background. Not to mention OS software from the same vintage. Molasses in July for those down under.
The iMac at home has dual 2.93 GHz processors, a 1 GHz system bus, 8 GB memory, a 640 GB HD, and a NVidia GT 120 video card. Performance differences that make short work of anything PZ throws at it.
John @591: Ooh, I think you might be on thin ice now.
I always suspected Spanish speakers spoke quicker:
The information density (information per syllable) is relative to that of Vietnamese (which apparently is known for being quite information dense).
_ _ _
From Why Evolution is True:
Free will: the neuroscientists versus the philosophers
(I’m bring this up not to rehash an old debate here, but because some may find it interesting.)
_ _ _
I had suspected it was only in the case of preventing women from getting sexually transmitted disease (see #413), but this:
makes me wonder. Greg Laden has a clip from NBC News talking about it.
First Approximation quotes:
Salient: “decisions [are] made”.
(Note the semantics of ‘decision’)
Clearly an anecdote from a random person overturns all scientific studies on the subject.
I saw that, young man!
:)
–
Outside the tent it’s 3°C and falling,
inside it’s 18°C and rising.
I ♥ technology.
@ chigau
Tent? Why is it so cold there?
WRT beer. I’ve never been a beer drinker, but back in my wild, misbegotten youth, the guy I was sleeping with couldn’t quite make himself invite me over for sex so he would call and ask if I wanted to stop over for a beer. For a while there, I really liked beer.
Anyone on here have thoughts on the whole flylady thing? I have mixed feelings. On one hand it seems to be a pretty nice system. On the other hand… something… scary… can’t quite put my finger on it. Am I just that scared?
Precisely why I like coffee stouts: The bitter, slightly burnt flavor of coffee is (IMHO) a perfect match for the way a dark beer is supposed to taste. Bitterness is A Feature, Not a Bug®… and the fact that Chas doesn’t like coffee stouts is also A Feature, Not a Bug™, because it simply leaves more for me.
Now, I’m with you guys on coffee there. I prefer tea, honestly. But coffee should taste like coffee.
Nice, strong. I like espresso, just a plain shot with that nutty brown bitter froth that forms on it. Or Turkish style, but undersweetened (because sugar is the devil).
starstuff91
I’m at 62.3°N.
Everything in this camp is in a tent.
“Black as the devil, Hot as hell, Pure as an angel, Sweet as love.”
@ chigau
Oh. It must be cold there all the time. Cold=bad for me.
I’m quite the opposite: Coffee is nasty by itself. My favorite “coffee” is the “cappuccino” that gets sold in convenience stores. Frappucino isn’t horrible; I tend to buy the small bottles in 12-packs (Sam’s has ’em for $14, which isn’t bad considering they sell for $2.40 individually).
At home I make “death mocha” when it’s cold: Prepare instant hot chocolate, with strong coffee instead of water. Drink. And be assured that you will be able to sleep again, someday.
I’m definitely a coffee-drinker. (I prefer it strong, but I can only manage two or three cups in a day before I start feeling ill.*) But it has to be black; coffee with milk just tastes like coffee-flavoured milk to me, and coffee with sugar or sweetener is an abomination.
(*It’s not the caffeine: I can drink any amount of diet cola in a day. There’s something specific about coffee that seems to unsettle my digestion when consumed in large amounts.)
Cold beverages, on the other hand, I prefer really sweet. I adore diet sodas made with lots of aspartame (yes, I really like the taste), and I like Lipton’s iced tea because of the sweetness. (I find other iced teas too tea-flavoured and not sweet enough for my liking.)
Walton:
Try making your own iced tea. That way you can control the strength and sweetness yourself. (Personally, when I drink tea, I drink it very strong. Cold-brew tea isn’t great, but if you make it strong enough and add enough sugar, it’s drinkable.)
@ Walton
You seem to have a lot of stomach issues.
How can anyone drink diet drinks? I can’t stand them. All I can taste with diet soda is the fake sugar.
Walton, it’s the acid in the coffee. Switch to espressos and you won’t have a problem.
Weird, can people actually drink that much coffee? Drinking three cups of coffee on an empty stomach = vomit.
But I always just assumed that was caffeine related. Drinking that much diet soda would also make me puke. Actually, drinking even an entire diet soda makes me sorry I did that to myself.
Eeeeew… really!? How about Arizona teas or Snapple?
OK, on the note of coffee: Is instant coffee made from real coffee or is it a mix of flavoring and pencil shavings? I swear it was either that, or the double latte I had one day that left me with my first caffiene high, which left me unable to drink coffee for a while. I had much the same problem as Walton does, only my bouts came with the lovely side effect of a long visit to the bathroom.
———————————-
Sierra Club membership came today! Wheeee!
———————————-
I’m trying to decide, which would be cooler/cuter? A crocoduck as a plushie, a hand puppet, or a pet?
———————————-
I don’t remember if I commented earlier, but CC, your Jamestown “friends” suck. You can probably find better ones in LA. Do you think the one person you could have had a nice time with is worth keeping in touch with?
Crocoduck puppet, definitely. That way it can prosthelytize.
PTI, instant coffee.
(Read up on WW2 and wonder at the various ersatz* ‘coffees’; acknowledge the inventiveness of the Nipponese)
—
* German is good for these sort of words.
I actually much prefer the taste of aspartame, sucralose, etc., to that of HFCS. Diet Coke tastes better than regular Coke to me.
(And it has negligible calories, as opposed to 100+. Not that I have any urgent need to be weight-conscious, but I just like to be able to drink unlimited amounts of soda without having to think of it as part of my dietary intake.)
PTI,
A pet.
(Would be a triumph of genengeneering, to have such as a pet!)
I live about 3 blocks away from the best coffee in town. When I go to pick up some beans, they were roasted that day or the day before. Yes, I’m smug.
I drink coffee with a little half and half and tea with a little milk; not so much to dilute the flavor (which I don’t actually want to do) but because the dairy and its fats create a pleasant, more luxurious mouthfeel.
Mr Kristin drinks a lot of iced tea, and he likes to cold brew it: throw a jar full of water and the appropriate number of tea bags in the fridge, fish the tea bags out 6-8 hours later, drink.
“Instant coffee” is to real coffee as a plastic Yamaha keyboard is to a real piano. Or, perhaps, as a school kazoo band is to a symphony orchestra.
(I know what I’m talking about. I once drank instant Nescafé for an entire month, in a misguided attempt to save money by not buying real coffee. Never again.)
Walton, soda, eh?
(Strangely enough, you may thank the theologian Joseph Priestley for it)
Audley Z. Darkheart
Oh barf. It’s shit like this that makes me want to see the Vatican burn.
It will be interesting to see if the tribunals at The Hague will actually investigate, but my money says no.
It’s especially bad (is that possible?) because such a defence is actually heretical according to their own canon law. Augustine made his bones fighting against it (the technical jargon is Donatism). The orthodox doctrine is that the efficacy of the sacraments a priest administers has nothing to do with the sins or lack thereof of the priest.
Argh. Blockquote fail. Everything after Audley saying no is mine.
While I’m rather impressed with the history of instant coffee (as per John’s link), I’ll have to admit to being more in agreement with Walton:
————————————
Funny, I was thinking more along the lines of someone taking such a puppet out and waving it at some random moron’s face while saying, “I mock your stupidity! Mock mock MOCK!” /end high cartoony voice.
kristinc:
They sell cold-brew bags that somehow do the same in much less time.
My standard tea recipe is to fill a ‘water’ bottle almost all the way with lukewarm water, drop in a few cold-brew bags, and let steep for about 10m. Once the tea is suitably strong, remove the tea bags, add sugar, and place in the refrigerator. (Though, in honesty, I usually didn’t even bother to chill the stuff; I’d drink it lukewarm.)
####
Walton:
I don’t really taste any of the sweeteners (other than as ‘sweet’). But I’m not fond of Diet Coke; it just tastes wrong to me. Coke Zero is damn good stuff, though.
Benjamin, I wonder if the cold-brew bags are spiked with instant tea or something of the sort?
The regular bags are so cheap that making tea with them costs next to nothing (especially since he drinks it unsweetened). He replaced an expensive near-constant soda habit with them.
For me, I drink Mexican Coke from Costco. I buy a case a month and have one soda a day, except for the occasion where I might go out to eat or to a party. I’m not concerned with calories and I’ve given up on having nice teeth but that helps keep the soda bills down, and it means I really enjoy my delicious Coke when I do have it.
I tried the “throwback” Pepsi made with cane sugar, and it was gross, not at all like real Pepsi *or* Mexican Coke; it tasted like it had artificial sweeteners in it.
BTW. . crowepps. .thank you for the tips about lighting with kerosene lamps!
I drink iced tea barely sweet; about a quarter cup of sugar for a pitcher. Hot tea has to be drunk straight, nothing added.
The only canned pre-prepared tea I’ve ever been able to stomach is Sweet Leaf mint and honey flavored. It’s odd, but I like it.
Hate coffee, but love chocolate-covered coffee beans.
Beer – Saranac has a pomegranate wheat that is good; other than that must be stouts. I can’t stand light ales in general.
I was going to ask if by canned pre-prepared you meant loose tea blends (in a can) but then I realized duh, people do buy brewed tea in cans.
I was going to launch into telling all about the oddest premixed loose tea I’ve ever had, which contained cocoa nibs, pink pepper and ginger, and … I forget. Something else. No actual tea leaves. It was odd indeed but nice. A little astringent (from the nibs, I think).
Indeed – instant coffee is fuckin’ disgusting. Strangely, though, it’s just the perfect ingredient for mocha cake frosting. My mother makes the most excellent chocolate mocha frosting using a concentrated shot of instant coffee. Thinking myself clever, I decided to make it myself when I went out on my own only using real espresso. It’s not as good. Srsly.
I should have said bottled, I guess? Things like Lipton and Snapple and the like.
@lipwig…
My condolences on your father’s passing. He sounds like a wonderful guy and someone to be very proud of.
@Algernon…
Sorry for butting into your conversation, but your remark about feeling like you’re auditioning for a part just smacked me right between the eyes. I spent most of my adult life watching, copying, trying to emulate the ‘normal’ people around me. Did a fair job, I guess; I managed to come across as merely eccentric. Then about three years ago, a series of events pushed me right off the stage and into the orchestra pit. I haven’t been able to deal with people in RL since. That whole ‘fitting in’ thing just sucks the life right out of you. I always felt like I was reading the wrong lines…
You cannot strike up an unsolicited polite nature about religion with total strangers on busses. ’tis simply not possible.
Beer
Beamish Irish stout or Guinness. Or other black and rich ones. The brewed some good ones in the small breweries in Scotland, if they would only stop to serve it warm (yes, Asterix got it right).
Why doesn’t that surprise me?
coffee
The elixir of life. My only problem is to make the first cu in the morning without having had it before. It’s amazing how many things you can get wrong with a Senseo-machine.
I actually prefer the taste to the real sugar ones. Not that I drank much of either, the most soda I had this year was tonic water in combination with gin.
If I make ice-tea, I usually brew a very strong cup and then mix with cold water.
I don’t care much for it, but the kids do.
Iced tea. Iced. “Iced” describes how the tea is served. It does not describe a tea made from ice. There is no such thing as “ice tea” unless we’ve come up with a tea that can be made directly from ice.
No. Do not start carping about “ice cream” and propose that I’m an idiot and hypocritical if I don’t also insist on “iced cream.” Because a similar term has been degraded and worked into the parlance does not invalidate any contemporary complaints.
Yes, I’m being extremely pedantic, and no, I don’t care that linguistic descriptivists have got their panties bunched up so hard they’re chafing right now. I fucking hate that kind of word “sliding;” it drives me nuts.
Not directed at you, Gileill, of course. It’s not personal, just my own pet peeve.
But if any
extreme linguistic relativistsdescriptivists take exception, then yes, it is directed at you, and it is intended to piss you off. Snookums.Fuck. I’m dealing with an asshole who is trying to deny religious privilege. We atheists need an equivalent of Feminism 101 ><;
Beer? My favorite is a German wheat doppelbock, Aventinus. Not only is it one of the best beers I have tasted, it is one of the best things I have tasted. It is dark, slightly sweet with what seems like chocolate, bananas, vanilla, coffee and other favors. If anyone were to ply me with this drink on a regular basis, I will follow that person almost any where.
I like dark beers, stouts (Goose Island had a very nice oatmeal stout. I wish they would bring it back. Also, Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout.) and porters. (I feel in love with a Estonian beer, Saku Porter.) I also like wheat ales, especially Edelweiß Weißbier.
Josh
Iced tea. Iced. “Iced” describes how the tea is served. It does not describe a tea made from ice. There is no such thing as “ice tea” unless we’ve come up with a tea that can be made directly from ice.
Just take it to Lipton, will you?
Back from Sydney. I can report that the Casino there still doesn’t like me. It’s just not working out between us. Did I miss anything ?
LOL. Touche!
From the context, I’m assuming the casino likes you very much, it just happens to not be mutual.
Haha, yes, exactly ! I play recreational Blackjack sometimes, just as Ed Brayton plays Poker, but for me Sydney remains the one place where I can’t seem to win.
Anyway, no big deal really.
I am so tired of working. Tired enough to quit for the night. Time to find a book and head for bed. I did get three likes on a work post, so that was cheery and nice.
G’night all.
And the batshit quote of the day comes from Ellis Washington at World Nut Daily in an article entitled Liberal fascism through the ages :
Wow….
Ugh. Privilege-denying religionist just left. Hate.
In other news, church down the street from me is advertising a “Creation Vs Evolution” event on the 28th. Heh.
I love you, Josh.
*sigh*
Some people shouldn’t be allowed near children and I’m not talking about priests.
Wednesdays we go to a playgroup. Since 3 or 4 weeks, there’s a grandma taking her little granddaughter there. Today, when the conversation was about colours, she asked the girl:
“Can you tell us what your favourite colour is?”
Well, nothing wrong with the question. Only what followed was horrible. The little one didn’t want to tell a pretty strange lady, but the grandma insisted. No matter how many times I said “please, don’t, it’s ok”, she went on “tell her, say it, what is your favourite colour, now, you can say it, tell her…”
Even when I left because I really didn’t want to put the kid through more of this, she tried to push her after me and make her tell me.
At least I told the girl clearly that it was perfectly OK if she didn’t want to tell me and that it was her decission.
hehe, the add-bar just confirmed that I like my own style.
When it’s not offering voyages to the “holy land”, it nowadays often has an add from DaWanda, the German equivalent of an etsy-shop.
So, based on the data they have, they just offered me my own stuff :)
And now we’re curious. Linky, please?
Here you are
*blush*
Ehm, here you really are
Giliell,
Love the baby dragon.
I like that joyful Godzilla. Or, as my youngest would exclaim, “dinosaurus!”
Trey Parker och Matt Stone from “South Park” are going to make a film about Mormon missionaries in Africa. Alas, I can find no English-language links on the subject.
— — — — — — — —
“NASA unveils giant new rocket” designhttp://www.physorg.com/news/2011-09-nasa-unveils-giant-rocket.html
I suspect the design was chosen for political rather than technology optimisation reasons.
Orac on the anti-vaccine nonsense from Michele Bachmann.
Birger,
It’s an adaptation of their musical (which has some pretty funny numbers in it) (although possibly less funny if you have to live with them).
The Book of Mormon – Hasa Diga Eebowai
Serious rofling occurred the first time I heard this.
@Giliell:
I agree with Therrin! The baby dragon is cute. The corsets are pretty, too.
+1!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you for the praise, but before you think I were the talented artist, unfortunately I only stich out patterns I’ve bought.
Not that it doesn’t require creativity or skill, but I can’t draw a recognizable cow :)
During the worst days of the US/USSR Cold War, one of the ways to spot where and how the soviets were about to start stirring the pot was reading Pravda. If the Soviets began complaining that the evel capitalists were throwing an election, assassinating labour leaders, or some other nefarious deed (and, to be fair, we often were), it was virtually gauranteed that, within a year, the soviets would use the same tactic they decried earlier. In post-glasnost writings, it turns out this was an accepted tactic; the idea was to innoculate yourself so that, when you got caught doing bad things, you could point to the articles from a year before and claim either it is a lie to cover up what was described in the article, or claim that the proletariat is doing it in self-defense.
Every time I read a right-wing vomit cloud such as this, I figure the conservatives are either already doing whatevery it is they condemn, or are planning to. In this case, both.
Ms. Daisy Cutter,
Have you read his most recent reply to you? I get really sick of his sarcastic “pardon me” this and “how dare we” that. His latest ends with:
To which I replied:
First of all, you’re not butting in.
Secondly, let’s start an orchestra!
@Algernon –
Thank you! I had a tuba around here somewhere… Oh, wait. I fell on it. Eh, it still makes noise. :)
I hate SIWOTI syndrome. Why can’t I stop myself?
The Rachel Maddow Show opened last night with a round up of some of the non-facts that Republicans used to support their candidacies in the recent debate.
Just a few examples:
Michele Bachmann followed up her debate statements with a statement on a morning talk show that implied that HPV vaccine, which protects females against cervical cancer, causes mental retardation. (Maddow did an excellent job of presenting the replies from the CDC and several other scientific organizations. Republicans are especially up in arms over the fact that the vaccine is given to 11 and 12 year old girls, which is, of course, meant to encourage 11 year olds to have sex in their minds. The vaccine is given to 11 and 12 year old females because that produces the best results from the body’s immune system, and because females need to have that immunity built up well before they become sexually active. And, no, it does not cause mental retardation.)
They all hate Ben Bernanke, the head of the Federal Reserve, with most of them saying Bernanke should be tried for treason. Perry wants to send him to Texas where a mob will “treat him pretty ugly.” Newt Gingrich wants to fire Bernanke tomorrow because he’s “been the most inflationary, dangerous, and power-centered Chairman of the Fed in the history of the Fed.” Maddow followed those statements with a graph showing exactly how inflationary each Fed Chairman had been since the 1970s. Guess what? During Bernanke’s service as Chairman, inflation has been so low that it barely shows on the graph. In fact, Bernanke is the least inflationary Chairman of the Fed, the least by far. The least without question.
They all say that the economic stimulus package did nothing to create jobs. In fact, the Republican candidates were in agreement in saying that the economic stimulus “did not create one job.” “He [Obama] has proven once and for all that government spending will not create one job.” According to the Congressional Budget Office, the stimulus package created between 1.0 and 2.9 million jobs. Yes, Rick Perry, it didn’t create one job. It created a whole Texas-sized lot of jobs.
As Maddow summarized, “Republicanland is not Normalsville. …. They all debate on the basis of what they all agree to be facts, facts that are not true…”
There’s an alternate set of false facts (otherwise known as “lies”) based on which the Republicans are all operating. They are repeating these lies over and over. Fox News doesn’t call them on it. These are not matters of interpretation, or facts in question. Real facts, non-faith-based facts, are non-partisan. Facts that are true according to non-partisan reports are not allowed to live in Republican Land.
Maddow makes the point that the debate shows us Republicanland is not grounded in facts. What this means is that, quite apart from selecting a presidential candidate, they will prevent us from governing in the meantime. For the next 14 months we will be trying to govern this country based on facts, and they will be preventing governance because they are working from a set of false premises.
Argh, about once every year I run into that middle-class arrogance better-than-thou asshole deprived of any sense of live and let live that’s living on the way to the kindergarten.
Yes, I’m offially trespassing. The kindergarten is 3 parallel roads away. So, to walk along the road I would have to go down our entire road, then go along the main road for a while and then go up the entire road where the kindergarten is located.
But fortunately, when the whole residential area was built in the 1960’s, people thought of it and built a way directly from the main road, through the park, alongside and behind the houses to the kindergarten. So people living in our house or in the main road have to walk around the other house to get to the kindergarten and they have to walk around our house to get to the wood or the park (or indeed to get to their cars which they park in the car-park that belongs to our house).
Sounds like a perfect win-win situation, doesn’t it?
Only that our house and the main road are rented houses and partly even public housing and the other house is privately owned flats.
So that idiot thinks it’s OK to forbid us poor people (not that I am) who live in rented houses to walk past their precious privately owned house, but totally ok that they walk past our publicly owned house, park in our car park, let their dogs shit on our lawn.
I swear if they should one day insist on their right of way I’ll make sure that the housing company insists on their right of way, too.
On a lighter note: a tad more creative
NEW ESPECIALLY HIDEOUS THREAD!