Episode CCXCVII: FREEDOM!


Octopus escapes! Everyone cheer!


We caught this Octopus in a shrimp trap here in Alaska. It had crawled in through a 3 inch opening and terrorized our catch of spot prawns, killing and eating several of them, and then, attached itself to the bait jar and unscrewed the lid to open for dessert of prepared shrimp bait pellets! We decided to let this brilliant creature go (option was to eat it! …yum!) as I respected it’s intelligence and genius. We set it on the deck and let it “escape” on it’s own… Cool fun with a sea creature!

Episode CCXCVI: Cowboys & Creationists.

Comments

  1. Private Ogvorbis, OM says

    thanks to Ogvorbis for that compact, erudite summary of Amtrak. I learned more there than ever.

    No problem. That is, obviously (I hope, anyway), an extremely short and simple version.

    I am fascinated, though, by the conservative viewpoint when it comes to necessary public services. If private capital cannot operate it at a profit then, obviously, it is not needed and should disappear. If government operates it and it requires a subsidy then, obviously, the public does not need it and it should disappear. However, if a government operation breaks even then, obviously, private capital could be making a huge profit with it (due to the obvious innefficiency of government) and it should be privatized immediately. Amtrak, Conrail, the US Post Office, commuter rail, subways, street trolleys, you name it, the triple-standard of conservatism will always have the right answer (and it will usually be what will hurt the poor and middle class the most).

  2. dontpanic says

    Private Ogvorbis,
    Yes, I’d seen this explained similarly before (perhaps even by you), but I think it needs constant reiteration to drive the point home. As as you say it’s not just about Amtrack. Definitely not tl;dr.

  3. Classical Cipher, Murmur Muris, OM says

    JM, re: 421: Man, I don’t even fucking know. You were being dismissive again, I was being pissy again, it was this whole bad thing. “Why do you always have to be such an asshole about things that other people like?” was I think the gist of what I was on about.

  4. Pteryxx says

    Via Hank Fox: “They Fucking Hate You” by John Cole

    http://freethoughtblogs.com/bluecollaratheist/2012/02/05/they-fucking-hate-you/

    They hate you because you respect gay people as normal human beings.

    They hate you because you respect African-Americans as normal human beings.

    They hate you because you respect Asians, Latinos, and everyone else who isn’t a straight white male.

    They hate you because you respect a woman’s right to choose.

    […]

    They fucking hate you. They want you, and everyone who speaks for you, and every institution that represents your values, whether it be Planned Parenthood or food banks or ACORN- you name it. They want it destroyed.

    *headtilt*

    If this makes sense… and so far it does… then we’re not dealing with people who actually think we’re gender-traitors, or race-traitors, or patriotism-traitors, or marriage-traitors, or baby-killers, or whatever the shamename is for the particular issue under discussion.

    We’re hate-traitors, plain and simple. We betray the “value” of hating the Other.

  5. Private Ogvorbis, OM says

    We’re hate-traitors, plain and simple. We betray the “value” of hating the Other.

    I disagree. They view us as traitors to humanity (humanity, in this case, being those white Christians who adhere to fundamentalist literalism).

  6. walton says

    The same thing that she wants in every “discussion”: total and abject capitulation with a grovelling apology from the interlocutor for being so crass as to disagree in the slightest.

    Sorry, perhaps that’s marginally over-the-top, but SC has said some things over the last few weeks that reminds me of every one of her often played, extremist take-no-prisoners tactics.

    It’s more than “marginally” over-the-top, it’s a skewed characterization, and I don’t presently care to get involved in people’s personal disputes or grudges. There’s been far too much of this around here lately. Can we please just stick to the issues?

  7. Classical Cipher, Murmur Muris, OM says

    It’s more than “marginally” over-the-top, it’s a skewed characterization, and I don’t presently care to get involved in people’s personal disputes or grudges. There’s been far too much of this around here lately. Can we please just stick to the issues?

    This. Stop being such an obnoxious fuckhead, whoever-you-are.

  8. Pteryxx says

    (humanity, in this case, being those white Christians who adhere to fundamentalist literalism).

    The essay claims that fundamentalist literalism is an excuse to justify hatred, instead of the CAUSE of that hatred. That makes sense, considering how rabid the fundies are about literal reading of the hating parts of the bible (or whatever) while ignoring the love and tolerance parts.

  9. Private Ogvorbis, OM says

    The essay claims that fundamentalist literalism is an excuse to justify hatred, instead of the CAUSE of that hatred. That makes sense, considering how rabid the fundies are about literal reading of the hating parts of the bible (or whatever) while ignoring the love and tolerance parts.

    I can see that. Especially as the parts about love and tolerance are the only parts of the bible which are not viewed as literal.

  10. Classical Cipher, Murmur Muris, OM says

    *hugs to Caine* Why thank you ^.^ That made me feel very better.

    *very belated hugs to Nerd and Redhead* Everyone above is right – it’s wonderful that Redhead has such a caring companion.

    Stupid Satyrica. *kicks it* I’m frustrated because I just discovered that my adorable OTP couple becomes problematic in later chapters. Encolpius has definitely been a little controlling and possessive, but I figured that was just standard-issue Roman stuff so I kinda overlooked it. But no, apparently he hits Giton later :( Jerkface.

  11. kristinc, ~delicate snowflake~ says

    Grrrrr. Apropos of nothing at Pharyngula, being deprived of access to antidepressants/psych meds has certainly made me aware of how much stupid bullshit there is surrounding them in popular conception. It is so frustrating to me to see people resist taking meds they clearly could really use because of anti-med bullshit when I would probably cheerfully cut off a toe for access to a prescribing physician. Fucking be grateful for what you have, people!

  12. says

    dontpanic:

    Sorry, perhaps that’s marginally over-the-top

    Who the fuck are you and why are you in our lounge moaning about a regular commenter?

    I suggest putting that shovel away and leaving.

  13. says

    theophontes @461:

    Oh, okay. For a second there I thought it was something I could do to fix my mistake. Was awake way too long yesterday, and not very with-it. Again, sorry for possibly depriving you of your fabulous prizes. Hee.

    It is so frustrating to me to see people resist taking meds they clearly could really use because of anti-med bullshit when I would probably cheerfully cut off a toe for access to a prescribing physician. Fucking be grateful for what you have, people!

    This. This, this, a thousand times this!

  14. David Marjanović says

    Multiply large numbers without actually calculating! OK, you may have to occasionally add 1 to something. Video.

    one more for the rage-file:

    http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/02/04/catholics-still-trying-to-kill-the-indian

    HULK SMASH

    Marjonovic

    Still not.

    I got it I just didn’t find it that mind blowing

    I still don’t get it. What’s the insult to him (not praying for his mother?), and what’s the insight?

    So maybe I’ll explain gently how she’s wrong, then very politely warn her that this is not a road she wishes to go down with me.

    Yes yes yes!!!

    Meditate on this: “Flectere si nequeo superos, Achaeronta movebo.”

    And eat your rainbow cake. *handing rainbow cake over, whatever that is* :-)

    (Sorry ’bout the tl/dr.)

    On the contrary, that was fascinating and illuminating.

    Seconded!

    FYI: Ulysses is probably the most brilliant piece of art ever written in English language. My stance on this is definite, anyone disagreeing will have their bacon rights provoked immediately.

    (emphasis added)

    Now that’s interesting. *disagree* *disagree* :-)

    By 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead.

    Reminds me of my parents’ friends from Rwanda. They visited last summer and told a few stories of people they had known… each ending in il a été tué, “he has been killed”.

    Interesting article I came across that ties the freezing conditions in Europe to the lack of sea ice in the Barents. Or, how global warming can make things colder for people.

    Impressive! I’ll pass this on to the deniers over at Tet Zoo. :-)

    Not surprised Rahmstorf is working on the research.

  15. Weed Monkey says

    As the pre-vote results are out, I’m sad to tell that it seems very unlikely that the next First Lady of Finland is a male hairdresser from Equador :(

    -Minnie

    Yeah, it didn’t happen this time. I take solace in the fact that more than one third voted for the openly gay, green Haavisto. And I don’t think Niinistö is truly evil like all US Republican candidates seem to be.

    It’s still disappointing. Niinistö is a banker, Haavisto a peacemaker. Talk about priorities.

  16. chigau (違う) says

    dontpanic
    I you have received such treatment from SC, you should identify which ‘nym you were using at the time so the rest of us can evaluate it for ourselves.
    If you type as a concerned by-sitter, why are you bringing this up now?

  17. changeable moniker says

    John Morales: “I see my question @420 remains outstanding.”

    Well, I slept, woke, ate, drank coffee, took the kids sledging, took smallest kid to the hospital to get her forehead glued together (yes, those two are related), bathed her, put the others to bed, and now, I’m back on the computer.

    If you’re going to snark, I’m disinclined to reply.

    *petulant pout* :)

    “Insight” was an inadequate formulation. I want to upgrade it to “ability to convey insight into his characters’ psychological state through inner monologue and smash-cut literary and philosophical allusions”.

    There’s an earthy, immediate, physicality to his writing that I love (one favourite: “grilled mutton kidneys which gave to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine”), and a poetic sensibility (“He turned abruptly his great searching eyes from the sea to Stephen’s face.”), but y’know, if you don’t like it, it’s OK.

  18. kristinc, ~delicate snowflake~ says

    Kid was satisfyingly surprised and impressed with his rainbow cake — I frosted it with plain white and told him I had racked my brains till the night before trying to figure out the perfect themed cake for him, and well, he was 13, so I decided it was time for a classic adult cake. Then we cut it. Hee.

  19. dontpanic says

    kristinc,
    We are grateful … as long as those antidepressants/psych meds aren’t somehow serotonin related, in which case “itz ‘da evil” … or so some would argue ’cause “[they] have a book”.

    walton,
    For the most part I thought you held your own in the “is it a good novel” discussion. I’ve argued the same point before; still wondering why Moby Dick is so highly regarded … read it, didn’t get it. On the other hand, I thought LOTR was tosh.

    Caine,
    Piss off. I’ve been reading and commenting on PZ’s blog since before he moved to SciBlogs; long before SC showed up. I’ll comment on SC’s take-no-prisoners tactics if I like — when several instances pile up over the course of a week or so to the point I can’t ignore it any more. I don’t particularly care that she’s a “regular”. And you can try to bully me back into silence, it might even work; it would be fitting with her usual style. Ah, yes, I forget, only she (and those on her side) are allowed to be hyper-aggressive, everyone else must be calm and reasoned and never say anything a mite bit hyperbolic.

    For those that are confused: “perhaps that’s marginally over-the-top” might perhaps been a bit of an understatement. But it doesn’t mean that there isn’t a core truth to my comment about how she approaches discussions. Then again that’s another of her tactics: an apparent willful misunderstanding what the other is saying. Anyone who took my “marginally” literally without a hint of sarcasm deserves the moniker of “dim”.

  20. Sili says

    Just watched Up, With Chris Hayes for the first time, and I cheered a bit when I suddenly noticed that all the four experts and authors he had as guests, were women.

    It’s a bit sad that that’s something to notice, but here’s to progress! *swigs beer*

  21. kristinc, ~delicate snowflake~ says

    519: nuh uh, you’re not sucking ME into this. I said it was apropos of nothing at Pharyngula and I meant it.

  22. walton says

    There’s an earthy, immediate, physicality to his writing that I love (one favourite: “grilled mutton kidneys which gave to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine”),

    You’re not kidding about “earthy physicality”. As I recall, the part about kidneys for breakfast was followed later in the same chapter by a detailed description of the protagonist’s bowel movement.

  23. says

    changeable moniker
    Best wishes for the kid with the damaged forehead

    kristinc
    Hope you took pics of the face when you cut the cake

    +++++
    OMG, I’ve just read the birth anouncement of a poor child called Malicia. Some parents need to be hit over the head with a dictionary.

  24. Classical Cipher, Murmur Muris, OM says

    I’ll comment on SC’s take-no-prisoners tactics if I like — when several instances pile up over the course of a week or so to the point I can’t ignore it any more.

    And we’ll comment on how you’re a fucking asshole and we’d prefer you to quit treading shit all over the lounge, if we like. I don’t give two microfucks who you are or how long you’ve been here. Your comments under this nym in this thread have been worthless, shitty blather, amounting to nothing more or less than baiting of a commenter. Go work out your issues someplace that’s else.

  25. chigau (違う) says

    Giliell

    OMG, I’ve just read the birth anouncement of a poor child called Malicia.

    Are they Mormon?

  26. dontpanic says

    chigau,
    I wasn’t commenting on things she’s argued with me here, and I never claimed to be doing so, but on how she’s dealt with others recently here in the TET. SciBlog’s search capabilities suck too much to be useful for pointing out old instances if you’re going to argue that I can only comment if it’s happened to me and I can point to it. If that’s the case then, well, it’s pretty weak sauce.

    The tactics I saw are the same as they were back on SciBlogs and are a primary reason I chose to reduce my reading of comments and stopped posting in Pharyngula completely (which admittedly wasn’t all that often). I’m not asking to re-fight old arguments from SciBlogs, I’m calling out bad behaviour that I came upon when I decided to refamiliarize myself with the TET. I even linked to one case in my post, and referenced another (her creepy<eyeroll> “creepy” comments) as well as what seemed to be bullying of walton. Also above in this episode you see her dredging up the old serotonin fight as a cudgel. Well, I’m just playing the same game. Goose, gander and all.

  27. dontpanic says

    Caine,

    dontpanic, yeah, yeah, you are the original commenter, that’s why everyone knows who you are. :eyeroll:

    Did I claim to be the original commenter? No, all I claimed to be was a long-time reader, occasional commenter. One who’s competent to comment on SC or any other “regular”‘s behaviour. You know, that thing you tried to be so dismissive about?

  28. Antiochus Epiphanes says

    changeable moniker: Thanks. I feel energized to give Ulysses another shot.

    Otherwise: The contributions of many of the commenters here are worthwhile even if it sometimes takes a little work to understand them. SC, walton, KG, consciousness razor, dhorvath, Chas, drbunsen (welcome back) and others have embiggened my spirit of late. I appreciate your take-no-prisoners approach, and willingness to deal with complexity head-on. Thanks to you all.

    FWIW: I could use someone like SC, KG, or walton kicking my ass daily. If I had scads of money, I would gladly take any of you on retainer as my metaphysical personal trainers.

  29. says

    Giliell:

    OMG, I’ve just read the birth anouncement of a poor child called Malicia**.

    I’m reminded of footnote in Lords and Ladies:

    Bestiality Carter.*

    *Well, it’s like this…The Carter parents were a quiet and respectable Lancre family who got into a bit of a mix-up when it came to naming their children. First, they had four daughters, who were christened Hope, Chastity, Prudence and Charity, because naming girls after virtues is an ancient unremarkable tradition. Then their first son was born and out of some misplaced idea about how this naming business was done he was called Anger Carter, followed later by Jealousy Carter, Bestiality Carter and Covetousness Carter. Life being what it is, Hope turned out to be a depressive, Chastity was enjoying life as a lady of negotiable affection in Ankh-Morpork, Prudence had thirteen children, and Charity expected to get a dollar’s change out of seventy-five pence – whereas the boys had grown into amiable, well-tempered men, and Bestiality Carter was, for example, very kind to animals.

    **Morticia would have been better. ;p

  30. Tethys says

    Well, I’m just playing the same game. Goose, gander and all.

    AFAICT you are making a personal attack on SC. You aren’t the threadcop, and Walton is quite capable of defending himself.

    I’m not familiar with your nym at all, but I am finding your unprovoked attack far more annoying than the regular tl/dr debates between SC and Walton.

  31. chigau (違う) says

    dontpanic

    If that’s the case …

    Nope. The first word of my #516 was supposed to be “If”.

  32. cicely (Vitamin Fortified!) says

    carlie, we used to have a kitty who liked to hole-punch paper with his teeth. Single sheets, mostly, but he did manage to get hold of the occasional few pages of a paperback. We think that he did it for the crunchies.

    Is this or is this not the frickin’ 21st century, people?

    Not in the Catholic Church, it isn’t.

    Private Ogvorbis, thanks for the bit on Amtrak. Not at all a teal deer!

  33. chigau (違う) says

    and * sigh * this is why I rarely even try to follow the long point/counterpoint debates.
    My poor, aged brain just can’t keep up.
    I thought SC was “bullying” Josh.

  34. Tethys says

    OMG, I’ve just read the birth anouncement of a poor child called Malicia.

    Good grief, that’s a horrible name. I can’t help coming up with names for future siblings.

    Invidia, Odium, Atrocitas…..

  35. says

    Chigau, there was a discussion, argument, whatever between Josh & SC. It’s been let go.

    As for ‘dontpanic’, there was someone posting as ‘Don’t Panic’ at sciblogs, from ’06 to ’09, a sporadic poster, by no means prolific or regular. They seem to be under the impression they were incredibly memorable. *shrug*

    What the grudge against SC is all about, I don’t know and I don’t care.

  36. dontpanic says

    Caine,
    I don’t think I expressed any indication that I thought my past was “incredibly memorable”, but if that’s how you read it then perhaps you should work on reading comprehension. I only mentioned my history because of the casual dismissal of my concerns because they were against a “regular”. Hmmm, your search-fu is better than mine I guess, though I thought I’d commented in both ’10 and ’11, whatever

    As for the last line, I’ll tell you even if you don’t care: SC’s tendency to hound, berate, and bully. That you don’t care: that says something about you. *shrug*

    Tethys,
    Oh, I have the highest confidence in walton. That was just the ‘final straw’, the last of several instances of SC’s behaviour that I found objectionable. But I don’t think it was so much a personal attack, but an attack on the way she frames issues. Maybe it all just PTSD from the serotonin wars and I’ve never recovered. I guess I shouldn’t let it trigger me so.

  37. dontpanic says

    Okay, I apologize to any and all. I was probably over-the-top for a variety of reasons including suffering sleep deprivation (due to sleep apnea) and having to take a weekend 08:00-16:00 shift sitting in an overheated control room with a very noisy air conditioner 5 ft away. Yeah, it’s 40F outside but we’re running an air conditioner because they turn of the building’s HVAC on weekends and a room with ~30 computers in it gets hot. Grumpy me. Sorry.

  38. Classical Cipher, Murmur Muris, OM says

    I don’t know about anyone else, but here’s why I’m going to casually dismiss your concerns: I have no respect for you. I don’t know who you are. You have built up absolutely no cushion for me or anyone else to put up with shitty, stupid assholery from you. See, your behavior would be shitty and stupid coming from anyone, but from a lot of commenters, I’d chalk it up to them having an off day, or a bad week. I’d tell them to back off, address specific problems I have with their comments, but I wouldn’t be ready to tell them to fuck off. You? You started at ground level, and as Caine pointed out, you’re digging. You came in here and your first act was to start flailing at a respected commenter in a way that was both completely over the top and clearly based on a personal grudge. Nice job. Now fuck off.

  39. Classical Cipher, Murmur Muris, OM says

    Ah, now we’ve cross-posted… Yes, that makes slightly more sense. I’m still irritated with you for being an asshole. But at least it makes sense. So to my “fuck off” I will add “and hopefully get some rest soon.”

  40. dontpanic says

    Yes, I was being a bit of an asshole. Sorry. Now that I’ve had some time to literally “cool off” I think I can put old grudges sufficiently behind me to not comment on them further.

  41. says

    dontpanic:

    Yeah, it’s 40F outside but we’re running an air conditioner because they turn of the building’s HVAC on weekends and a room with ~30 computers in it gets hot.

    My sympathies, I’ve worked in those conditions before, they’re made for misery.

  42. dontpanic says

    On a different topic. Can I rant a bit about schools? Fucking IEP’s, how do they work? If a child isn’t making it in regular 8th grade classes because of pyscho/social issues and you put them in a smaller “self contained” class, don’t treat them as if they were literally retarded (if it isn’t the issue), giving them 5th/6th grade work they’ve already mastered. All after having reassured us during the IEP meeting that he’d be doing the same work just in a setting more suitable to his needs.

    And don’t go into a panic every time he mentions “bashing his head in”; yeah, we don’t need to go to the suicide prevention services for the 10th time for an “evaluation” just for you, the school, to know that that exact expression is his way of expressing frustration. I could tell you that; I have told you that. Use a little reasonable judgement of your own. sigh.

    Okay, looks like we’re in the market for woo-less homeschool material to finish out the year. A child that is very smart and quick to learn, but hates to read and who’s handwriting and spelling is atrocious. We’ll try to re-integrate him next year w/ high school, but we’ve got to squeeze all of 8th grade into the rest of the year. Suggestions?

  43. says

    Okay, looks like we’re in the market for woo-less homeschool material to finish out the year. A child that is very smart and quick to learn, but hates to read and who’s handwriting and spelling is atrocious. We’ll try to re-integrate him next year w/ high school, but we’ve got to squeeze all of 8th grade into the rest of the year. Suggestions?

    I think the best person to talk with about homeschooling issues would be Mattir, but she hasn’t been around lately. Perhaps someone on PET can put out the signal for her.

  44. changeable moniker says

    Randomly jumping around:

    The Lord of the Rings is a pernicious confirmation of the values of a declining nation with a morally bankrupt class whose cowardly self-protection is primarily responsible for the problems England answered with the ruthless logic of Thatcherism.

    I think that says more about Moorcock that it does about Tolkien.

    @Walton, I’m reassured (and: happy, pleased) that you know Alan Garner. (Weirdstone, Gomrath, and Elidor are still on my shelves after many “can these books go in boxes in the loft?” purges.) The connection between reality, sense-of-place, and magic, is something he does really well.

    Yeats. Well, that would fit with Joyce. :)

    Related: Louis MacNeice – Thalassa:

    Run out the boat, my broken comrades;
    Let the old seaweed crack, the surge
    Burgeon oblivious of the last
    Embarkation of feckless men,
    Let every adverse force converge —
    Here we must needs embark again.

    Run up the sail, my heartsick comrades;
    Let each horizon tilt and lurch —
    You know the worst: your wills are fickle,
    Your values blurred, your hearts impure
    And your past life a ruined church —
    But let your poison be your cure.

    Put out to sea, ignoble comrades,
    Whose record shall be noble yet;
    Butting through scarps of moving marble
    The narwhal dares us to be free;
    By a high star our course is set,
    Our end is Life. Put out to sea.

    @Og, you have no idea how happy I am to see a “t” at the end of “relict”. :)

    Oh, and, Your Finger, You Fool. Just because. ;)

  45. kristinc, ~delicate snowflake~ says

    Any Seattle Pharyngulites? It looks like I may be in the city, downtown, during the day either Valentine’s day or the day after.

  46. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    I took in a pair of knitting needles and skein of yarn to the Redhead. I did the cast-on after being taught what to do, and a modern formless sculpture appeared during an attempt at one-handed knitting. I think she’s plotting the next attempt, and itching for me to bring in her Kninja Knitter needles for some payback…

  47. chigau (違う) says

    Nerd
    Yay
    Get BIG needles and BIG yarn.
    Redhead knows how to knit, her body is just being uncooperative.

  48. Nutmeg says

    Just googled “rainbow cake”.

    WANT.

    Someday, when I’m not consumed by manuscripts and urgent lab work, I’m going to learn how to make layered cakes.

  49. Part-Time Insomniac, Zombie Porcupine Nox Arcana Fan says

    Mom made a scrumptious pork loin roast for dinner. We have so much leftover that I’m thinking sandwiches, as she suggested, are a good idea. The question is, what do you put on such a sandwich? All I can come up with is the usual mayo or BBQ sauce.
    —————————————

    Woot woot for the Redhead! I suspect she misses her usual Kninja Knitter ways so much that she’s got plans to spend as much time as possible catching up?
    —————————————-

    Where on this bloody green earth is blf? I miss the mildly deranged penguin, and she seems to only show up when he’s around. Besides, I want to try and sneak some of her cheese stash while she’s not looking.
    —————————————-

    Rather than spend my birthday at home, I’ll be visiting my friend up in Rochester. Damned expensive to go by train, but I figure with the costs of getting to an airport that offers flights to there, plus the airfare, would add up the same amount. I only wish I could have the day after President’s Day off so I could spend my proper birthday with her instead of having to come home. Ah well, I’ll get to do some traveling, which I like, and I’ve never been to Rochester before so hey, maybe I’ll find new stamping ground.

  50. kristinc, ~delicate snowflake~ says

    Hey, Nutmeg, if it helps any the version I went for only had two layers; I did the kind where you divide the batter, color each batch and then pour red-orange-yellow in one pan and green-blue-purple in the other. I just used the one box of cake mix since the party was not large. It turned out just beautiful.

    As long as you have cake pans your cake doesn’t stick to, and use lots of delicious frosting, a two layer cake is pretty easy to manage.

  51. walton says

    I’ve been reading this ACLU report about migrant deaths on the US-Mexico border. The federal government’s “tougher border security” policies have led directly to the deaths of thousands of men, women and children attempting to cross the border, whether from exposure and heat exhaustion, injuries, or homicide.

    Beginning in 1994, the U.S. government implemented a border enforcement policy known as “Operation Gatekeeper” that used a “prevention and deterrence” strategy. The strategy concentrated border agents and resources along populated areas, intentionally forcing undocumented immigrants to extreme environments and natural barriers that the government anticipated would increase the likelihood of injury and death. The stated goal was to deter migrants from crossing. But this strategy did not work. Migrants have died crossing the border every day, year after year. Estimates of the death toll range from 3,861 to 5,607 in the last fifteen years.

    The report is intensely painful to read. Not only does the US policy deliberately force unauthorized migrants to cross the most dangerous areas of the desert, the Border Patrol is itself directly responsible for deaths and inhuman treatment:

    “Even more somber are reported actions taken directly by Border Patrol agents that threaten the health and safety of migrants apprehended in isolated areas, far from public examination. For years, deaths and injury from the official misconduct of border agents have been raised by the Mexico’s National Commission of Human Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Friends Service Committee, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International… Their reports chronicle the systemic abuse of authority by border agents in the performance of their duties, including unjustified shootings, beatings, sexual assault, rape, verbal or racial insults, and the denial of due process and constitutional rights violations…

    Physical & Verbal Abuse in Agua Prieta: A group of 15 migrants, including three women and two teenage boys, were detained by the Border Patrol while crossing the desert. The agents who detained them made them run for 30 minutes, telling them that this would discourage them from crossing again. If they stopped running, the agents would kick them to force them to run again…

    Denial of Water in Agua Prieta: A group of nine was in detention from 6 pm to 8:30 am. The jail was very cold and they were not provided with food or water. Maria begged for water for her two children, ages 6 and 9, and the BP officers drank in front of them and refused to provide any water for her children or the others…

    More disturbing are tactical operations of Border Patrol agents that increase possibilities of fatalities of unauthorized border crossers… multiple deaths caused by vehicle rollovers or crashes resulting from high-speed chases or nail strips placed across roads by Border Patrol agents to burst tires.

    With respect to land patrols, a Border Patrol agent who asked not to be identified indicated that Border Patrol agents in the Tucson sector routinely interdicted migrants in areas calculated to take two days of walking to reach. This wait by Border Patrol agents guarantees groups of migrants are exhausted, physically ill, and unwilling to resist arrest, thereby, making the agents’ job easier even though maps tracking deaths show that many migrants will die on the second day.

    As ever, it’s particularly bad for women and children:

    Migrant women and children also find themselves at disadvantages when deported by U.S. authorities to the Mexican side of the border. Neither the United States nor Mexico dedicates resources to care for migrant women and youth who are repatriated and left daily in many Mexican border towns. In the first six months of 2008, ninety thousand children were deported by U.S. authorities…

    In a series on Mexico’s northern border, the newspaper La Jornada described the plight of approximately 200,000 migrants who find themselves in border cities in the State of Tamaulipas. In the meantime, survival in precarious conditions in border towns decreases the physical stamina needed in succeeding tries to cross the border without documents. Thirty percent are women who are forced to make payment to coyotes sexually. Some accept the role of “compañeras” for protection; others are assaulted, raped, forced into human trafficking, or killed. According to the UN, up to 70 percent of women crossing the border without husbands or families are abused in some way.

    Next time you hear some rich white politician talking about how we need “tougher border security” and to “enforce America’s immigration laws”, remember that this is what they are supporting. This is why immigration reform is a human rights issue. And this is why those who demonize immigrants, and who argue for tougher immigration restrictions, make me very angry.

  52. Tethys says

    Pork sandwich

    Onion, avocado, lettuce, tomato, with some green salsa in a separate container to prevent soggy sandwich syndrome.

    Yay for the Redhead! Knitting would indeed be therapeutic. Perhaps you could check into one of the clamp contraptions that are made for one handed needle-workers?

    dontpanic

    I don’t know thing one about homeschooling. I appreciate the apology and recognition that you were behaving poorly. Being hot and cranky is not enjoyable.

    Butting through scarps of moving marble
    The narwhal dares us to be free

    I love this mental image.

  53. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Yay for the Redhead! Knitting would indeed be therapeutic. Perhaps you could check into one of the clamp contraptions that are made for one handed needle-workers?

    We discussed that for a bit. Postponed for the moment.

    She’s more worried that the extended care rehab may have a different “dress code”. Sigh.

  54. Tethys says

    Chigau, I don’t get your Narwhal joke. (at least I think it’s a joke?)

    Narwhal Song

    Like an underwater Unicorn they’ve got a kickass facial horn. They’re the Jedi’s of the sea! They stop Cthulhu eating ye!

  55. says

    @Giliell, I suspect Malicia’s parents knew very well what they were doing. It strikes me as Goth, not uneducated. I’m reminded of Pratchett’s teen vampires – who go round calling themselves Mary or Pamela or John instead of their perfectly good traditional names like Lacrimosa and Vlad, and wear colourful clothes and pretend to drink … wine.

  56. chigau (違う) says

    Tethys
    I’m sorry I clicked “submit”.
    It’s not a joke at all.
    Just real-life bitterness intruding.

  57. Nutmeg says

    Two layers of cake sounds more my speed, although the six-layer cakes were gorgeous. I have a mental image of a three-layer cake in Easter egg colours – maybe I’ll try that for a spring celebration.

    The cakes in jars are awesome! How have I never heard of cakes in jars before? I’m going to try that at the earliest opportunity.

  58. Josh, Official SpokesGay says

    So, Madonna fucked-up, eh?

    Yeah. She missed a step she was climbing for about two seconds then recovered. Headline news brought to you by some of the most vicious, misogynist scumbaggery I’ve ever seen tonight in people commenting on her performance. Crossposted from Physioproffe’s place:

    Yes, she was [badass, as Physio said]. And the level of disgusting invective about her online is turning my stomach. She’s a whore. She’s an old hag. She can’t sing (yeah, she lip-synced on her new song, but the rest of it was real. I’ve been to every one of her shows since 1993 and I remember the days when she lip synced. She doesn’t any more. She actually took time to work on her voice and become competent live). She can’t hit the beat (what?). She “looks 60.” Huh? She needs to hang it up because she’s a worn-out prostitute.

    Jesus Christ. You would never, ever, ever, ever hear that kind of vicious and real hate directed at a man. Sure, people will joke that the Stones look a little craggy, but this is full on, no-holds-barred shaming misogyny.

    You don’t have to like Madonna. You might find her irritating or boring. Fine. But when people hate her so much that they actually flat out lie about her not hitting notes or “barely moving on the stage” (yeah, someone really wrote that) it’s beyond bizarre. It takes concentrated contempt to be that dishonest.

  59. kristinc, ~delicate snowflake~ says

    Josh: it was via the subject of Madonna that my mother first introduced me to the idea that a woman can be “amoral” due to what she wears on her body (this was back when Madonna was zomg wearing underwear on the outside). And my mom wasn’t even a scary fundie nutbag or anything, just … maybe not very thoughtful about the kind of woman-hatred and shaming she was inculcating in her young daughter.

  60. Josh, Official SpokesGay says

    It makes me shake with rage, kristin. My eyes have been opened these past two years to how we’re wallowing in and gagging on pervasive misogyny. Madonna just happens to be the most convenient and acceptable celebrity target. All the shit flung at her is analogous (at a much lower level, of course)to people who say to rape victims “what did you expect wearing that dress to that party?” Because Madonna used sexuality on her terms to sell herself she’s now a Pass Around Party Doll and should expect to have the elasticity of her vagina discussed and to be lied about, mocked, and spit on for it. She’s public property, basically a non-sentient hole.

    Goddamn I hate people.

  61. kristinc, ~delicate snowflake~ says

    All the shit flung at her is analogous (at a much lower level, of course)to people who say to rape victims “what did you expect wearing that dress to that party?”

    I was just thinking that it could maybe have been worse: my mother could have used Madonna’s costumes to introduce me to the concept of Having Respect For Yourself, where “Respect For Yourself” is a euphemism for “Visibly Manifested Desire To Not Be Raped”.

    Ugh.

  62. chigau (違う) says

    “[Slitscan’s audience] is best visualized as a vicious, lazy, profoundly ignorant, perpetually hungry organism craving the warm god-flesh of the anointed. Personally I like to imagine something the size of a baby hippo, the color of a week-old boiled potato, that lives by itself, in the dark, in a double-wide on the outskirts of Topeka. It’s covered with eyes and it sweats constantly. The sweat runs into those eyes and makes them sting. It has no mouth, Laney, no genitals, and can only express its mute extremes of murderous rage and infantile desire by changing the channels on a universal remote. Or by voting in presidential elections.”
    ― William Gibson, Idoru

  63. Part-Time Insomniac, Zombie Porcupine Nox Arcana Fan says

    Didn’t see the halftime show, but I’m not surprised at people’s reactions. Madonna has always stuck in the craws of certain segments of the population, and ever since she pretty much said, “Hey, they were wrong when they told you that your sexuality is evil and shouldn’t be enjoyed – PARTY TIME!” people have been nothing short of flat-out contemptuous. Because it’s not right for a woman to be that comfortable with herself, much less tell others that it’s OK to be so.

    Wake me up when we’ve moved far beyond this knuckle-dragging, “she my property! But this one public property!” stage. I’m going to bed.

    …Oh dammit, I’ve got work tomorrow. *sigh*

  64. janine says

    Any missteps that Madonna did cannot be as bad as the bloody fooking Who did. And I speak as someone who never liked Madge and love every record that Keith Moon was on. And when you get down to it, Keith Moon was a much worse person than Madonna, not that anyone will get all over his corpse for that.

    Besides, the biggest misstep in a Super Bowl Halftime belongs to Micheal Jackson, check out the SS back up dancers after the 2:40 mark. I was on the phone with a friend at the time and she had the same reaction as me, WTF?

  65. says

    Tethys, thanks but that won’t help because there’s no you-tube access at work. I’m limited to what’s on my nano. Hildegarde, Micheline van Hauten, Lotte Lenya, Edith Piaf, Nina Simone, Flap! Mzaza, hey, I only just realised they are ALL women… I do like some menz too, honest! Plus there are blokes singing in some of the Hildegard, and Michelin’s Jacques Brel album.

  66. says

    Therrin, eh, no one seems to care much, nobody is remarkably stale even amidst the abundance of assholes and trolls on the net. Just another person seeking to brand themselves as a unique little snowflake, all kinds of special and better than the other stupid snowflakes.

    Boring.

  67. says

    Wooo-hoooo
    Good morning.
    I’m back from the dentist.
    I had my last case of cavities removed.
    I didn’t get a follow-up appointment.
    I made it without anaesthetics (no, there’s nothing wrong about them. Only that I normally regard “looking and dribbling from your mouth like a boxer dog worse than 10 min of pain. It’s just that the wisdom-tooth incident left me pretty shaky and I’m glad it’s getting better.)

    Alethea
    If the parents did that on purpose they deserve to be slapped with a book on child psychology instead of the dictionary. Jesus Haploid Christ, children aren’t paper-cut dolls. They’re people who’ll have to live with that name for the rest of their lives. The joke wears out pretty quickly, but the name lasts for a long time.
    If people want to hand out creative names they should get pets. Other dogs won’t laugh at Gummi-Arabicum for the silly name.

  68. says

    Alice would be OK, Marlies, too. Alicia is quite popular at the moment.
    I always thought that children should be able to sue their parents for shitty names. You know, some possible monetary compensation for 18 years of teasing and being made fun off and having to spell the name five fucking times every time anybody needs to write it down.

  69. Beatrice, anormalement indécente says

    Contracts for this month weren’t extended so it turns out I’ve been volunteering this couple of days. Oh, and accounts are blocked so we probably won’t be paid for January for quite some time (that could mean months). I’m still here only to arrange things so that boss isn’t left with a mess.

    Did I mention this is a government institution? So much for security in working in public/government sector.

    Not to mention that we only found out because boss called “them” because of something else, who knows how long they would have us coming here otherwise. That pisses me off.

  70. KG says

    To perceive LOTR as an isolationist middle-class warning about the necessity of keeping The Mob out of our peaceful suburban gardens seems as strange to me as to perceive Garfield comic strips as an instructional tract about the importance of eating lasagna and getting plenty of sleep. – walton

    That characterisation does fit the “Scourging of the Shire” section at the end, although not LotR as a whole. The “baddies” here are louts rather than fiends: they bully people and beat them up, they lounge against walls, swear, and pick their teeth in public – but they don’t go in for mass slaughter: they look very like working-class male adolescents seen through the eyes of an upper-middle-class child.

    It’s certainly true that Tolkien knew what war was like; for the British, and particularly the upper and upper-middle classes, WWI was considerably worse than WWII: total casualties were higher, and junior army officers, usually drawn from those classes, had a very high mortality as they were expected to lead from the front, which often involved advancing across the no-man’s-land between the trenches into concentrated machine-gun fire. But this experience does not find its war in any obvious sense into LotR: its battle scenes are completely unrealistic even for the kind of quasi-medieval warfare depicted – consider Gimli and Legolas carefully counting the dozens of orcs they kill in the heat of a supposedly desperate struggle at Helm’s Deep.

  71. John Morales says

    KG,

    But this experience does not find its war in any obvious sense into LotR: its battle scenes are completely unrealistic even for the kind of quasi-medieval warfare depicted – consider Gimli and Legolas carefully counting the dozens of orcs they kill in the heat of a supposedly desperate struggle at Helm’s Deep.

    Makes perfect sense to a D&D player; they’re high level compared to the orcs.

    (It’s fantasy — duh)

  72. Beatrice, anormalement indécente says

    Yeah, I foresee spending a lot of time in these parts.

    At least I might grow some fangs if any decent trolls appear during the day.

  73. birgerjohansson says

    The Laughing Coyote at 244
    “regarding teens hating their parents, I think there might be a bit of a difference between actual hating, and moments of feeling like you hate them.”

    The distinction plays a big role in this graphic novel: ”Locke And Key: Welcome to Lovecraft” (much recommended)
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Locke-Key-Lovecraft-Joe-Hill/dp/1600103847/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1328533278&sr=1-1#_
    And since I bought this graphic novel just a week before this topic came up, it proves that I possess psychic powers. Send me all your money and I will tell you your future!

  74. drbunsen le savant fou says

    beatrice; bloody hell :(

    Antiochus Epiphanes

    drbunsen (welcome back) and others have embiggened my spirit of late.

    Gosh, really? Thanks :)

    pork loin roast / what do you put on such a sandwich?

    Chutney, avocado, sliced apple or apple sauce, seeded mustard, lettuce, grated carrot & beet(root), swiss cheese, sundried tomato, antipasto, oh I could go on…

    Woot woot for the Redhead!

    Hear hear!

    Where on this bloody green earth is blf? I miss the mildly deranged penguin

    Also hear hear! When were they last sighted?

    walton:

    ACLU report about migrant deaths on the US-Mexico border. / Estimates of the death toll range from 3,861 to 5,607 in the last fifteen years.

    Oh … no.

    “Even more somber are reported actions taken directly by Border Patrol agents

    Aaaaaand that’s where I skip to the end. Sorry :/

    Rainbow Cake in a Jar.

    Alien in a jar

    janine:

    How could I not love a person who dances like this?

    Trivia note: he’s now the Federal Minister for Education, formerly Environment.

    Makes perfect sense to a D&D player

    Without LoTR, and its conventions, there would be no D&D and its conventions.

  75. Private Ogvorbis, OM says

    Yeah, it’s 40F outside but we’re running an air conditioner because they turn of the building’s HVAC on weekends and a room with ~30 computers in it gets hot.

    Early in my sixth grade year, we moved from Arizona (where there were 14 other kids in my grade) to Maryland (where there were 214 in my grade). It was, to say the least, culture shock. One nice thing, though, was that the school was brand new; no more mid-1930s CCC building.

    Unfortunately, they had problems with the HVAC system and, being a new late-1970s school, there were few windows. The air conditioning didn’t work. At all. So from mid-September (when I got there) to early October, we were roasting (and, in this school district, once you hit Middle School, no one could wear shorts (though the girls could wear very short skirts).

    About October 5 they got the air conditioning to work. They said they were doing it to make sure it actually worked. It did. And they could not turn it off. So we began wearing our jackets and knit hats in class (they relaxed the ‘no hat’ rule for that). Especially when it got to January with the AC still running full bore. Apparently, they could not just turn it off as that would also turn of the air circulators.

    To top it off, that year the UMW went on strike. Which meant that the power companies couldn’t get enough coal. Which meant that all government buildings tried to reduce electrical use. So there we are, in a brand-spanking new school, wearing our hats and coats and scarfs and gloves, in the dark, reading our history book that was published in 1950 (it referred to all Muslims as Saracens (no, not kidding)). We looked like something out of a Dickens story (though with far fewer words).

    Eventually, the AC was turned off and we got heat. Like, 80F heat. Like roasting. As in you really do not want to be in a room with a bunch of 12-year-olds who have not discovered deoderant (or (for some) regular bathing) yet hot. So we were warm. And wearing t-shirts to school in February.

    The problem was, they could not turn the heat off. Which was bearable in the winter. But once we hit May and June down in Maryland, it got bad. More than one classroom hit 100F. And, because of ice storms and snow storms back in January and February, we stayed in school until the end of June. In Maryland. With the heat on. With the bathing and puberty and lack of deoderant problems. I swear that school maintained the fug long after I went to the high school.

    So I understand odd temperatures and buildings.

    Matter of fact, I am sitting at my desk, right next to an air exchanger, wearing a turtleneck, a thinsulate vest, a wool scarf, and a trooper hat.

    @Og, you have no idea how happy I am to see a “t” at the end of “relict”. :)

    Well, relic and relict have different meanings, so why wouldn’t people do that?

    I took in a pair of knitting needles and skein of yarn to the Redhead. I did the cast-on after being taught what to do, and a modern formless sculpture appeared during an attempt at one-handed knitting. I think she’s plotting the next attempt, and itching for me to bring in her Kninja Knitter needles for some payback…

    Does she crochet? Wife does and I notice that she uses one hand for the hood and the other hand only steadies the product. (If this is useless, ignore it.)

    Good to hear about the progress. The Redhead is in my thoughts.

    All I can come up with is the usual mayo or BBQ sauce.

    Put the pork loin slices on a toasted Kaiser bun with a little salt, some good cold slaw, and sliced dill pickles.

    And brown stone-ground mustard.

    They stop Cthulhu eating ye!

    With a birthday gift card, I picked up a copy of the complete fiction of HP Lovecraft at B&N. Only $20. For an 1100-page hardcover with all of his fiction. Cool.

    So, Madonna fucked-up, eh?

    Not a Madonna fan, but damn, that was an entertaining show.

    I’m back from the dentist.
    I had my last case of cavities removed.

    Congrats! Been there. Done that. Still paying the bill. And, with the two absessed tooths removed, I have not had a single sinus infection. Tell me again why dental care is not considered health care?

    Did I mention this is a government institution? So much for security in working in public/government sector.

    That is bad. You have my sympathy. On the positive side, though, according to the GOP, you and your co-volunteers just created 800 new jobs by reducing federal payroll. And I wish I were joking. I got a letter from my representative telling me that he is working to help my family by slashing the federal workforce but is being blocked by socialists who favour huge government. I sent off another letter to him to be ignored.

    Also hear hear! When were they last sighted?

    Have any buildings inexplicably fallen down recently anywhere? If so, you found the penguin. Or reports of flying cats?

    And welcome back, drbunsen.

  76. carlie says

    birger – I have suuuuch a crush on Janelle Monae. I don’t understand how anyone can watch her perform and not immediately think she is the absolute best thing ever. So glad she’s getting more media exposure.

  77. Private Ogvorbis, OM says

    All Hail Tpyos, may hir naem be foreevr!

    “Hood” should be “hook.” Makes much more sense that way.

  78. opposablethumbs, que le pouce enragé mette les pouces says

    Beatrice that is so fucked up. I’m sorry and I hope you get something a lot better.

  79. KG says

    It’s fantasy — duh – john Morales

    Fantasy does not preclude realistic elements – duh.

  80. says

    All-relatives-at-once Ogvorbis

    Congrats! Been there. Done that. Still paying the bill. And, with the two absessed tooths removed, I have not had a single sinus infection. Tell me again why dental care is not considered health care?

    It is, at least by the conservative socialist christian commie-fuckers over here. They won’t give you shiny new fangs if you break them on a troll, but you get the basic repairs and check-ups done.
    So at least I can simply wallop in my physical pain (ouch, it hurts right now)

    ++++
    There really must be a difference between organic carrots and conventional ones. My allergy thinks they’re twice as bad.

  81. walton says

    In case anyone’s interested, today is the sixtieth anniversary of Her Majesty the Queen’s* accession to the throne, which occurred on this day in 1952.

    (*Elizabeth II, that is. Coincidentally, the Queen of Denmark, Margrethe II, also celebrated the fortieth anniversary of her accession recently.)

    It’s amazing to think that she’s been Queen not only for my whole life, but for that of my parents’ generation too. And how much the world has changed in sixty years. The Guardian has a year-by-year pictorial history of her reign here.

  82. Private Ogvorbis, OM says

    In case anyone’s interested, today is the sixtieth anniversary of Her Majesty the Queen’s* accession to the throne, which occurred on this day in 1952.

    Amazing. This is one of those things that I know but I still am somewhat surprised when I actually read it.

    And on another note, Rick Astley just turned 46.

  83. Beatrice, anormalement indécente says

    Private Ogvorbis, OM ,

    You probably got a wrong country. I’m not creating any new jobs in US, but we have been hearing a similar fantasy since the new government came into power in December.

    I think I generated a couple of hundred jobs by not getting the contract extended. I hope I’ll get one of them.

    I love how governments promise cutting jobs and lowering unemployment in the same sentence.

    Thank you all for the sympathy. We’ll see how long it lasts when I start spending even more time here. *evil laugh*

  84. Private Ogvorbis, OM says

    Beatrice:

    Sorry. My mecentrism is showing.

    I wouldn’t be surprised, though, if some GOP asshat declared that when (fill-in-a-socialist-country (and by socialist, I mean one with health care or a decent infrastructure)) gets rid of their government workers, ‘Merkin unemployment will dissappear.

    Come to think of it, I wonder why I haven’t heard that argument yet.

  85. KG says

    It’s amazing to think that she’s been Queen not only for my whole life, but for that of my parents’ generation too. And how much the world has changed in sixty years. – Walton

    It’s a little-known fact that she’s largely responsible for the changes. It was she who gave Crick and Watson the vital hint that they should consider a double-helical structure for DNA, designed the first integrated circuit, insisted that lasers would indeed find the multifarious uses that they now have, pointed out that the microwave background radiation disposed of the steady-state theory, finally proved Fermat’s last theorem, invented the Internet and the World-Wide Web, and both discovered the virus causing AIDS, and devised the HAART treatment that has slashed the death rate from it – all without taking any of the credit. In the political world it was the Queen who, behind the scenes, avoided the nuclear devastation that threatened the world in the Cuban missile crisis, convinced Nixon he must withdraw from Vietnam and open contacts with China, persuaded the Soviet Politburo to choose Michael Sergeyevich Gorbachev as General Secretary and guided him step-by-step through the tricky process of ending the Cold War, and brought F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela together to negotiate a peaceful end to apartheid. Truly, not so much a woman as a goddess, who will surely reign forever over her grateful and blissful subjects!

  86. says

    Theophontes, #343:

    IIRC, it was the conservatives that actually pushed, inter alia, for nature conservation.

    It’s not that conservatives used to be environmentalists; it’s that environmentalism used to be conservative. It arose out of the desire of elites to keep their hunting playgrounds pristine. Classism remains an issue in environmentalism; preserving the wilderness is certainly important, but I wish more people gave a damn about environmental justice in urban areas.

    Nerd, what Hekuni Cat said at #347: Please take care of yourself. For you, and for the Redhead.

    KG, #358:

    I have, I’m somewhat ashamed to admit, read several of Jean M. Auel’s paleolithic saga, beginning with The Clan of the Cave Bear.

    I only read the first book, years ago. That series is said to be wonderfully cracky. What didn’t Ayla end up inventing?

    PTI, #386: Ugh, your mom has my utmost sympathies. Sciatica is the worst physical pain I have ever had in my life. I hope she is able to get relief through physical therapy, rather than needing surgery.

    KG, #401: I think I saw that movie. Frank Miller wrote the screenplay.

    Ing, #405: Around these parts it’s pretty much a Comcast/Verizon duopoly. I share your hate.

    Kristinc, #435: I brought home smoked salmon last night. Kitteh went NUTS. I let her nibble the tiny bits off the cardboard insert while I vacuum-sealed most of it for the freezer.

    Ogvorbis, #469: If you’re a fan of the song “Finnegan’s Wake,” check to see if you can find the version by the defunct duo The Mollys, which has a punk sensibility.

    Kristinc, #511: Agreed 100%. Feeling guilty about taking meds caused me no end of grief for years.

    Walton, #524:

    As I recall, the part about kidneys for breakfast was followed later in the same chapter by a detailed description of the protagonist’s bowel movement.

    You say this like it’s a bad thing.

    Also, obligatory.

    Walton at #559:

    Maria begged for water for her two children, ages 6 and 9, and the BP officers drank in front of them and refused to provide any water for her children or the others…

    RAGE.

    Giliell, #590:

    If the parents did that on purpose they deserve to be slapped with a book on child psychology instead of the dictionary. Jesus Haploid Christ, children aren’t paper-cut dolls. They’re people who’ll have to live with that name for the rest of their lives. The joke wears out pretty quickly, but the name lasts for a long time.

    Agreed. It’s bad enough when people with lots of kids give them all the same first initial and dress them all alike; the Duggars are only the most extreme example of this. Don’t saddle them with a horrible name.

    Beatrice, #594: Sympathies. Do you have enough to get by on for now?

    Carlie, #604:

    I have suuuuch a crush on Janelle Monae. I don’t understand how anyone can watch her perform and not immediately think she is the absolute best thing ever.

    I’m not a big fan, but she is indeed immensely talented.

    Someone I used to speak to dismissed her immediately for not having been inspired by Neal Stephenson and not being into his preferred genre, which is industrial. This is the same person to whom I sent the link to Kate Miller-Heidke’s “Facebook Song” and who said he didn’t get it, because it obviously wasn’t aimed at someone of his generation (baby boomer, FWIW). 0_o

  87. Private Ogvorbis, OM says

    The Mollys, which has a punk sensibility.

    Girl has quite a few albums by both Dropkick Murphy and The Mollys. I need to get her to email them to me. I like folk music (well, Irish and American, that is). And I like some of the unusual takes that today’s musicians have on them. Dick Gaughan doing Bells of Rhymney, for example. Not sure what to call his style, but I like it.

  88. Psych-Oh says

    Carlie – I love Janelle Monae’s sense of style. Her clothes, her hair… it just works.

  89. KG says

    That series is said to be wonderfully cracky. What didn’t Ayla end up inventing? – Ms. Daisy Cutter

    As far as I remember, she hadn’t quite got round to the nuclear reactor or programmable computer at the point (halfway through The Plains of Passage) where I bailed out!

  90. Beatrice, anormalement indécente says

    Ms. Daisy Cutter,

    I live with my parents who both still work, so I’m not in nearly as much trouble as some of my colleagues, but the unemployment is currently very high here. I was hoping to keep this job for as long as possible.

    There were some weak plans of finally moving out and sharing an apartment with a friend I know from uni, but I can’t exactly pay rent now.

  91. says

    Nerd, appreciate the updates on the Redhead and you. Take care of yourself a bit as well. I sacrificed a Teahadist for the Redhead.

  92. walton says

    It’s a little-known fact that she’s largely responsible for the changes. It was she who gave Crick and Watson the vital hint that they should consider a double-helical structure for DNA, designed the first integrated circuit, insisted that lasers would indeed find the multifarious uses that they now have, pointed out that the microwave background radiation disposed of the steady-state theory, finally proved Fermat’s last theorem, invented the Internet and the World-Wide Web, and both discovered the virus causing AIDS, and devised the HAART treatment that has slashed the death rate from it – all without taking any of the credit. In the political world it was the Queen who, behind the scenes, avoided the nuclear devastation that threatened the world in the Cuban missile crisis, convinced Nixon he must withdraw from Vietnam and open contacts with China, persuaded the Soviet Politburo to choose Michael Sergeyevich Gorbachev as General Secretary and guided him step-by-step through the tricky process of ending the Cold War, and brought F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela together to negotiate a peaceful end to apartheid.

    *giggles* Oh, I see… so Lyndon LaRouche is right that she’s secretly the most powerful woman in the world?

    Truly, not so much a woman as a goddess, who will surely reign forever over her grateful and blissful subjects!

    Well, Her Majesty might well inherit the longevity of her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, who passed away at the age of one hundred and two. Of course, this would mean that the Prince of Wales – who is already the longest-serving heir-apparent in British history – would be in his eightieth year when he becomes King.*

    (*The only other Prince of Wales who held that title for a comparably long time – Queen Victoria’s son, the future Edward VII – reportedly occupied his time with gambling and extramarital liaisons, including a long-running affair with the actress Lillie Langtry. He was also an important figure in the world of fashion; it was he who established the modern custom of wearing black tie with a dinner jacket at semi-formal evening events, for example. If I remember rightly, he was the first to make it acceptable for a gentleman actually to unfurl and use an umbrella in public, it having previously been the custom that the rolled umbrella was to be carried but never used. He was also rather plump, being nicknamed “Prince Tum-Tum”, and is credited with introducing the now-traditional practice of eating roast beef and Yorkshire pudding for Sunday lunch.

    We can, perhaps, be grateful that the present Prince, while a less colourful figure, has chosen instead to dedicate his time and money to the more productive pursuits of environmental activism and sustainable agriculture.)

  93. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Good news, skin cancer seems to be about beaten for the nonce. Go Team!

    *confetti, cheap whistles, grog pouring*

  94. walton says

    beatrice: *hugs* Hope you’re able to find a new job. I understand the worries: I might well be in a similar position a year from now.

    (And yes, the glee that some conservatives seem to take in laying off government employees is extremely depressing.)

  95. says

    It’s not news that mormons dominate most levels of society in Utah. But it still surprises me when yet another sneaky mormonish method is exposed. The theocracy is functioning, sometimes just below the radar.

    As most people already know, mormons make up about 60% of the population in Utah, but mostly white, mostly male, and all mormon priesthood holders of the “mantle of authority” hold about 85% of all leadership positions. This includes prisons. They run the prisons in Utah.

    A lot of Pharyngulites have read the book “Under the Banner of Heaven.” It’s being made into a film, and in order to research for the film, some of the producers have been interviewing a barking mad mormon who took the concepts of “revelation” from God and of “building the kingdom” too seriously, so seriously that he murdered an innocent woman and her baby.

    Mormons don’t like the idea of this film, and those in a position to do so are putting up roadblocks.

    The comment below was posted on the Recovery from Mormonism forum today. I don’t have any way to confirm the information.

    The “Under the Banner of Heaven” book describes the Mormon brothers Dan and Ron Lafferty’s murders of their sister-in-law and neice. The murders, as you probably recall, was inspired by God telling them to eliminate these two innocent females because they were a causing a detour in God’s plan.

    So the book isn’t Mormon friendly. The book goes into a lot of Mormon history that is accurate, but not a showing a positive light on the Mormon Church. So, as it is about to become a movie, it isn’t good news for the Mormon Church.

    The word on the inside of the Utah State Prison is that because most of the higher-ups that run the prison are devout Mormons, they don’t want to cooperate with the movie/documentary. They all of a sudden have made up new rules about people associated with the movie to visit the Lafferty’s to get information.

    Last week Producer Shannon Costello (Sean Penn’s partner) was allowed a one hour visit with Dan, but with no recording devices allowed. She was discouraged from coming back. In the opinion of insiders at the prison it is to throw a wrench into the movie making process. These prison leaders want to make it as difficult as possible to allow this movie to be made.

    Even a non-religious setting like the prison is controlled by Mormons in Utah. It’s too bad, this infomation needs to get out to the general public, but Mormons are very protective of their unbecoming history.

    http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,410052

  96. KG says

    Well, Her Majesty might well inherit the longevity of her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, who passed away at the age of one hundred and two.

    I get to correct Walton on a matter of royal trivia!

    Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002)

    Of course, this would mean that the Prince of Wales – who is already the longest-serving heir-apparent in British history – would be in his eightieth year when he becomes King.

    A friend, now alas no more, bet me £10 at evens that even if he (my friend) were to be immortal, Prince Charles would never be his sovereign: he thought the current queen would outlive him. But with both parents long-lived, no known unhealthy habits or medical problems, and the best medical care, he’s quite likely to reach his 90s I would think, and I can’t see him stepping aside for William.

  97. Private Ogvorbis, OM says

    Beatrice:

    I was not trying to make light of your situation and I really do sympathize. I hope things work out for you. And I am glad you have a place to park.

    Good news, skin cancer seems to be about beaten for the nonce. Go Team!

    This is a GOOD THING!

  98. walton says

    I get to correct Walton on a matter of royal trivia!

    Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002)

    *sigh* Ok, so I was a few months off. She was nearly one hundred and two. (I had the years of birth and death in my mind, but forgot the exact date.) But I bet you can’t tell me Princess Michael of Kent’s maiden name from memory. Or explain exactly how the Queen is related to the former ducal House of Teck. :-p

    (If you can do both of these things without checking Wikipedia, I’ll be extremely impressed.)

  99. Private Ogvorbis, OM says

    This poll on same-sex marriage in Maryland needs some Pharyngulating.

    I defy anyone to find a comment in which the person is against gay marriage and does not use god, religion, or other code words for the same (such as tradition) to justify their stance.

    Depressing as hell.

  100. carlie says

    Congrats, JeffreyD!

    Sympathies, Beatrice.

    Nerd, keep us updated. I second the idea on bigger stuff to knit with; maybe size 15 needles and a large smooth, worsted yarn.

    More Janelle Monae, showcasing her range in styles:

    57821

    Make the Bus (which includes the awesome line “You’ve got Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep under your pillow”)

    She was in concert right in town a few months ago, when I was out on a business trip. I was a sad camper.

  101. Beatrice, anormalement indécente says

    I was not trying to make light of your situation and I really do sympathize.

    Oh, I didn’t think you were saying anything unkind. I too was joking about “creating jobs” all by myself because it’s basically what politicians are trying to convince us is happening.

  102. David Marjanović says

    Still haven’t told you that I saw 3 knitters in the cafeteria a few days ago. All female as culturally expected, but all young (university students in the first few years).

    I’ve also taken Nutmeg’s advice and googled “rainbow cake”. Teh awesum.

    The casts that were made specially for me are finished now. ^_^ Yes, world, Diceratosaurus really does have 5 fingers per hand, not 4, bizarre though that is. At least the specimen described in 1902 does.

    carlie, we used to have a kitty who liked to hole-punch paper with his teeth. Single sheets, mostly, but he did manage to get hold of the occasional few pages of a paperback. We think that he did it for the crunchies.

    Pressure on canines = good. *nodnod*

    Invidia, Odium, Atrocitas…..

    One of these I can see actually happening. Odio eterno al calcio moderno (“eternal hate for modern soccer”) is the creed of the Italian Old Believers in soccer who refuse to participate in the Reformation.

    The narwhal dares us to be free;

    For awesome, verily, is she.

    (Almost metaphysically interesting that of all things a narwhal is mentioned there.)

    @Og, you have no idea how happy I am to see a “t” at the end of “relict”. :)

    Seconded :-)

    Where on this bloody green earth is blf?

    Very good question. But the first thing I thought of when reading this is the Star Trek episode where Kirk and Spock land on that Nazi planet (…b… b… bear with me) and are caught and whipped; Kirk develops red streaks on his back, Spock green ones.

    I always thought that children should be able to sue their parents for shitty names. You know, some possible monetary compensation for 18 years of teasing and being made fun of

    Seconded.

    Contracts for this month weren’t extended so it turns out I’ve been volunteering this couple of days. Oh, and accounts are blocked so we probably won’t be paid for January for quite some time (that could mean months). I’m still here only to arrange things so that boss isn’t left with a mess.

    WTF?

    Makes perfect sense to a D&D player; they’re high level compared to the orcs.

    (It’s fantasy — duh)

    LOL! You haven’t made me laugh like this in months. :-D

    …it’s funny because it’s true…

    At least I might grow some fangs if any decent trolls appear during the day.

    Now that would be awesome.

    Aaaaaand that’s where I skip to the end. Sorry :/

    …Pretty much the same for me.

    Unfortunately, they had problems with the HVAC system and […]

    You know, if that horror were turned into a movie, it’d be a comedy. People would need to be transported from the cinema to the hospital by helicopter because of acute, stinging lower chest pain.

    Well, relic and relict have different meanings, so why wouldn’t people do that?

    …um… no. There isn’t actually a word spelled relic. All there is is the fact that /k/ is aspirated in English, so that the cluster /kt/ is difficult to impossible, in stark contrast to languages that don’t aspirate.

    I got a letter from my representative telling me that he is working to help my family by slashing the federal workforce but is being blocked by socialists who favour huge government.

    what is this I don’t even

    I love how governments promise cutting jobs and lowering unemployment in the same sentence.

    Or raising the pension age and lowering unemployment.

    Truly, not so much a woman as a goddess, who will surely reign forever over her grateful and blissful subjects!

    Wànsuì! Wànsuì! Wànwànsuì!

    (…Ignore the bullshit about nián and suì in that article. As far as I was taught, suì is simply a verb, “to be _ years old”, while nián is the noun “year”.)

    I sacrificed a Teahadist for the Redhead.

    The next I read was…

    Awesome news, Jeffrey!

    Doesn’t it sort of fit? :-)

    Good news, skin cancer seems to be about beaten for the nonce. Go Team!

    Nunc est bibendum!!! *grabs bottle of… tap water from the cafeteria*

    Of course, this would mean that the Prince of Wales – who is already the longest-serving heir-apparent in British history – would be in his eightieth year when he becomes King.

    Isn’t that sort of cruel? First he’s prepared to be king for all his youth and beyond, and then he gets to wait in unemployment for decade after decade?

    He was also an important figure in the world of fashion; it was he who established the modern custom of wearing black tie with a dinner jacket at semi-formal evening events, for example.

    “Semi”?!?!?

    is credited with introducing the now-traditional practice of eating roast beef and Yorkshire pudding for Sunday lunch

    *slowly backs away from computer*

    I get to correct Walton on a matter of royal trivia!

    *runs away screaming*

    This poll on same-sex marriage in Maryland needs some Pharyngulating.

    Indeed it does.

    Yes 47.61% (1,630 votes)
    No 52.39% (1,794 votes)
    Total Votes: 3,424

  103. David Marjanović says

    But I bet you can’t tell me Princess Michael of Kent’s maiden name from memory. Or explain exactly how the Queen is related to the former ducal House of Teck. :-p

    *takes awf and nukes Thread from orbit*

    (If you can do both of these things without checking Wikipedia, I’ll be extremely impressed.)

    The thing about the Internet is that nobody can prove he didn’t. And you left out all mention of search engines anyway.

    I defy anyone to find a comment in which the person is against gay marriage and does not use god, religion, or other code words for the same (such as tradition) to justify their stance.

    My dad is for gay marriage, IIRC, but against adoption rights for gay couples. Why? Because teh ghey might be contagious. *sigh*

    The subject practically never comes up, so I don’t know if I’ve convinced him otherwise.

  104. The Laughing Coyote (Canis Sativa) says

    David Marjanovic: I plugged Diceratosaurus into Google Images… no dice. I got suggestions for Diceratops and ceratosaurus instead.

    What is this strange dinosaur, with hands so much like mine own?

  105. KG says

    walton,

    But I bet you can’t tell me Princess Michael of Kent’s maiden name from memory.

    She didn’t have a name at all, just a number – that’s why they let her call herself by her husband’s name when she married. But I’m afraid the number escapes me ;-)

    Or explain exactly how the Queen is related to the former ducal House of Teck.

    Her paternal grandmother was Mary of Teck IIRC, so presumably her paternal grandmother’s father was the Duke.

  106. walton says

    He was also an important figure in the world of fashion; it was he who established the modern custom of wearing black tie with a dinner jacket at semi-formal evening events, for example.

    “Semi”?!?!?

    Oh, yes. For formal evening events, the correct dress was, and is, the more elaborate white tie and tails. Today you’re unlikely to encounter it unless you go to a formal dinner with a head of state or an ambassador, though.

  107. Private Ogvorbis, OM says

    Diceratosaurus

    Damn. Don’t have my copy of “The Rise of the Amphibians” to hand, but is that the one with the extra set of clavicles? A Carboniferous nectrian (I think?)?

    There isn’t actually a word spelled relic

    I always thought that a relic was an object that was old, a relict was, specifically, some physical or linguistic trait that has held on without having any currentuse or function. Like an appendix. Or the word, ‘hayna.’

    Looks it up.

    Shit. Nevermind.

  108. Dhorvath, OM says

    Hey, I have cool news. There is a pilot project for Kindergarten in my region involving a half day of outdoors nature immersion and a regular half day classroom environment. Because it’s a pilot project there is more interest than space with ten boy and ten girl spaces made available for this fall’s class and fifty odd parents interested in their children being involved. For some inexplicable reason the school board would not run a lottery to determine who received a space and instead put it out as a first come first served with registration opening today at eight a.m.
    We knew this would involve waiting in line from before the offices opened today and one of our friends who was also interested in getting her child into the program called yesterday at three thirty in the afternoon to let us know the line had started and she was number two. I packed up and headed over, spot five was ours and barring any idiosyncrasies in their selection procedure that gives our child a spot in the program.
    _

    On a side note, sitting around in a camp chair and sleeping bag can be a comfortable way to sleep with the correct pillow insertion and orientation. I was wedged into my bag so tight I couldn’t really move and slept excellently.
    _

    Secondary side note. in a not so stunning turn, there were twenty parents waiting by eight a.m. to get a spot for a male child and only eight parents looking for a female spot. Sample size is small, but it’s hard not to infer from that a bias in how parents view their children. This was certainly supported by some of the idle conversation that was going on.

  109. David Marjanović says

    What is this strange dinosaur

    Not a dinosaur at all. It’s a relative of Diplocaulus, Diploceraspis, Peronedon Keraterpeton and Batrachiderpeton – probably an amphibian, but that’s the very question my research is about.

    extra set of clavicles?

    What? Do you mean the cleithra, which pretty much everyone except us and the salamanders has?

    A Carboniferous nectri[de]an

    Yes! :-)

  110. walton says

    She didn’t have a name at all, just a number – that’s why they let her call herself by her husband’s name when she married. But I’m afraid the number escapes me ;-)

    Marie-Christine Anna Agnes Hedwig Freiin von Reibnitz. (Confusingly, the German Wikipedia has Baronin von Reibnitz; my understanding was that the daughter of a Freiherr, the German equivalent to “Baron”, was a Freiin. Perhaps David M or pelamun can correct me here.)

    (All wives of princes, in the British Royal Family, get called by their husbands’ names and titles upon marriage. That’s why Catherine is now “Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge”; if Prince William had not been given a dukedom, she would have become “Her Royal Highness Princess William of Wales”. This used to be the case in foreign royal families as well, but the custom in this regard seems to have changed in most countries other than Britain.)

    Her paternal grandmother was Mary of Teck IIRC, so presumably her paternal grandmother’s father was the Duke.

    Correct: Her Serene Highness Princess Mary of Teck married the Duke of York, who later became King George V, and is thus the Queen’s paternal grandmother. However, to be extremely pedantic, this isn’t the whole extent of their relationship, since Princess Mary was also the daughter of Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, a granddaughter of George III, who married Francis, Duke of Teck.

  111. David Marjanović says

    (Also, Diceratops is a wasp… the dinosaur with the same name was renamed Nedoceratops and is probably Triceratops anyway, but here I get into the Torosaurus flamewar… *flee*)

    (It was also renamed Diceratus by someone who hadn’t yet seen the Nedoceratops paper and didn’t know Greek. Nedoceratops of course has priority.)

  112. Antiochus Epiphanes says

    Dhorvath: What a cool sounding program. I’m curious though. Do you live in a place that has a climate suitable for year-round outdoor immersion? I can imagine that spending half a day with 20 five year olds would be trying enough without having to worry about them either freezing or getting overheated.

  113. Rev. BigDumbChimp says

    Hey what’s going on in tet… look a conversation about dinosaurs, and what’s this Walton talking about the roaOHMYGODMAKEITSTOP

  114. Private Ogvorbis, OM says

    extra set of clavicles?

    What? Do you mean the cleithra, which pretty much everyone except us and the salamanders has?

    Found it!

    Diceratosaurus is unique in having a second pair of ventral bones behind the clavicle blades termed accessory dermal elements. pp 127-128, The Rise of Amphibians, Robert Carrol

    (Currently one of my recreational reading books. And I am gobsmacked that I remembered that.)

    A Carboniferous nectri[de]an

    Yes! :-)

    Again, I’m amazed I remembered that much of it.

    I can’t get over how wrong the ‘wrist’ and ‘ankle’ elements of the early amphibians look. Some with what looks like a handful of gravel, others with no ossified elements between the distal limb bone and the fingers/toes. To my eye, they just look wrong. No real wrist or ankle. Or, at least, nothing specialized/derived.

  115. David Marjanović says

    Freiherr, the German equivalent to “Baron”

    Is that so? The word Baron does exist, though I’ve noticed it’s not very common.

    Maybe German makes more distinctions than other languages here. Prinz(essin) is reserved for the sons/daughters of kings, all others go by Fürst(in), for instance the rulers of Liechtenstein and Monaco.

    However, the word “baronet” doesn’t exist in German.

    All wives of princes, in the British Royal Family, get called by their husbands’ names and titles upon marriage.

    That used to be the case with all wives in the Western world in general.

  116. David Marjanović says

    Diceratosaurus is unique in having a second pair of ventral bones behind the clavicle blades termed accessory dermal elements.

    Huh. Those are not the cleithra. I need to have a look at that – thanks for notifying me; for a couple of fairly good reasons, I haven’t read The Rise of Amphibians.

    Anyway, I’m told at least one team is redescribing Diceratosaurus right now, so I won’t need to do that on my own.

    And the book is here on the shelf. Anyway, gotta run.

  117. Dhorvath, OM says

    AE,
    I live in Victoria B.C. We seldom dip below zero in the winter and days over 25 might be over ten during the school year, but I would be surprised. We do have frequent rain, but seldom severe downpours, more drizzle, mist, and moderate rainfall. Out of 180 school days I would anticipate perhaps three to five would be unsuitable for outdoors with five year olds for three hours.

    The program will involve a lot of forest time and a fair bit of shore time as both are walking distance from the school, the grounds back onto Royal Roads University which has an extensive forest buffer around the campus and the school is a fifteen minute walk from Esquimalt lagoon which features both salt water, brackish, and fresh environments. It’s very exciting.

  118. Private Ogvorbis, OM says

    but here I get into the Torosaurus flamewar… *flee*)

    So, are you a lumper, or a splitter?

    Fucking stop it right now!

    Who? What?

    look a conversation about dinosaurs

    Well, initially it was about a specific Carboniferous nectridean (thanks for the correction on the family — I am still amazed I got as much as I did), which is a primitive amphibian, but, if the good Doktor jumps in to my lumper or splitter trap, this could get reall interesting. So no, not a dinosaur initially.

    Huh. Those are not the cleithra. I need to have a look at that – thanks for notifying me; for a couple of fairly good reasons, I haven’t read The Rise of Amphibians.

    Don’t get too excited. I think that’s about it on that particular animal.

    It is actually a very entertaining book. (And I freakin’ LOVE Amazon because I can actually find and get these books!)

  119. Owlmirror says

    There isn’t actually a word spelled relic.

    ???

    The Oxford English Dictionary begs to differ.

    All there is is the fact that /k/ is aspirated in English, so that the cluster /kt/ is difficult to impossible, in stark contrast to languages that don’t aspirate.

    The etymology in the OED for “relic” –lacking the final “t” — goes back to Anglo-Norman, Old French (relique), and classical Latin (reliquiae), for pity’s sake.

    There’s also a note in the etymology:   “Compare relict n., which shows considerable semantic overlap; the sense development of the two words has probably shown considerable mutual influence.”

  120. Richard Austin says

    Here in Los Angeles, “formal” means you bought a new pair of jeans to wear.

    Okay, not really – we have occasional formal events, like charity balls and such, where tails are expected, but even semi-formal wear isn’t required at most places. For example, I can think of no restaurant (other than for NYE parties) that even require a tie, though a jacket is usually “requested”. Many’s the time I’ve gone out after work (to which I generally wear a three-piece) and been better dressed than any of the staff or other patrons. The fact that I have own multiple semi-formal suits (including three that are, technically tuxedos) and only 2 pairs of jeans means I should probably move.

  121. janine says

    Private Ogvorbis, you know that I meant Walton and KG and the fucking royal family line.

    Do I really need to drag out the lime?

  122. opposablethumbs, que le pouce enragé mette les pouces says

    Thank you for sharing the good news, Jeffrey :)

  123. Dhorvath, OM says

    Janine with the triple six.
    ___

    Carlie,
    Quiverfulls send their kids to school? Seriously, they did give a guarantee to twins that if one made the cut both would be in, but I still think a lottery would have been fairer.

    I was more concerned about single parents or those with a job that didn’t allow for sitting around of an evening outside a public building.

  124. janine says

    That ad is rather racist. It is also a lie. Manufacturing jobs are not ending up in China because of liberal Democrats. It is because corporations get a better profit margin doing business in a country where workers have no rights.

    I do not know who Peter Hoefstra is but I already know he is a lying spleen weasel.