Keeping up with fundie mormon polygamists: the latest news is that jailed leader, Warren Jeffs, has appointed 15 men to father all the children in the polygamist colonies in Texas and Colorado City/Hilldale. Some reports indicate that even more of Jeffs’ followers are walking out after this last oddity.
…Sam Brower, a private investigator for lawyers suing the polygamous church and the author of the book “Prophet’s Prey,” said Monday that his sources tell him the chosen 15 are the only ones allowed to procreate.
“These 15 men are appointed to be the procreators for the priesthood, for the FLDS,” he told FOX 13. “The other men in the community have been assigned the station of caretakers.”…
Republicans in Montana are keeping it classy. They parked an outhouse labeled “Obama Library” in the parking lot outside a convention where Newt Gingrich spoke as a Romney surrogate.
The detail that has me flummoxed is that the bullet holes in the outhouse were all fake. They were painted on. Come on now Republicans, I know you have guns. You couldn’t blast a few real holes in your theatrical presentation? I am so disappointed.
Outside the Montana state Republican Party convention this weekend was an outhouse labeled the “Obama Presidential Library” and covered in painted-on bullet holes.
Inside the outhouse contained a fake birth certificate for Barack Hussein Obama, according to the Helena Independent Record.
It was stamped “Bull——.” A graffito advised “For a Good Time call 800-Michelle (crossed out), Hillary (crossed out) and Pelosi (circled in red.)”…
How did “free speech” and “social welfare” get so thoroughly redefined that they now mean “billionaires and corporations may buy elections” and “electing Republicans equals social welfare”?
… [Mitch McConnell] is a tireless advocate of secret money in politics, and just yesterday signed on to a letter with ten other top Republican senators demanding the IRS keep dark money dark and expressing concern the tax agency wanted to see the names of some donors to 501(c)4 organizations. Unlike super PACs, these tax-exempt groups, like American Future Fund, don’t have to disclose hardly anything to the public. But they’re technically charitable organizations, so their “primary purpose” is supposed to be non-political….
… it’s difficult to see how groups like AFF or Crossroads GPS doing anything other than politics, let alone a minority of the time. But there’s no clear definition of what this means…This ambiguity led Senate Democrats to ask the IRS in March to institute a “bright line test” to ensure that these nominal social welfare organizations devote less than half their activities to politics and to prevent donors from deducting political contributions from their taxes.
Oh fucking joy. Sheldon Adelson and the Koch Brothers get a tax deduction for funding Karl Rove’s lying Crossroads GPS campaigns.
A week later, a dozen Republican senators sent a letter to the IRS defending secret money and expressing concern that the IRS was giving unfair scrutiny to applications for new Tea Party-affiliated 501(c)4 groups. “It is critical that the public have confidence that federal tax compliance efforts are pursued in a fair, even-handed, and transparent manner — without regard to politics of any kind,” they wrote. …
The IRS responded by providing “assurances” that its actions were not “for political gain,” but the senators are not satisfied and are now demanding even more with their letter yesterday. In it, they stake out clear opposition to disclosure: “Unfortunately, the public release of private donor information exposes citizens to possible harassment and intimidation by those who oppose the goals of the charitable organization,” they wrote….
That’s right. Protect your donors at all costs, and please protect the peons from knowing who is funding $1 billion in political ads. We don’t want to know. It will hurt our little brains. And besides, transparency is bad.
What SQB did is really no better than a person going Firsties!
Janine: History’s Greatest Monstersays
Lynna, if the poor were actually feeling that disenfranchised, they would pool up all of their resources and outdid the Koch brothers for the services of (The One Man) Dick Armey.
(Sorry about the penis joke.)
[Some people think that my joke is a valid argument.]
chigau (違う)says
What SQB did is really no better than a person going Firsties!
hmmm
I wonder if one could do both.
The timing would be crucial.
More on dark money, and how Republicans are even finding ways around the flimsy barriers between political candidates and the so-called non-profit organizations supporting them.
When the Supreme Court okayed Citizens United, we were assured that there would be no “coordination” between candidates and say Crossroads GPS. Bullshit.
It would be totally illegal for [Republican Congressman Rick] Berg’s campaign to talk to Crossroads GPS and tell them, say, where he thinks it would be most helpful for them to buy ads. But that doesn’t mean the message can’t be conveyed through an intermediary.
Last month, Berg’s campaign finance filings to the FEC showed that his campaign paid the Black Rock Group, a small but powerful Republican strategic consulting firm in Virginia, thousands of dollars for “communications consulting.” Meanwhile, American Crossroads, the “twin” organization of Crossroads GPS (they have the same staff, same offices and the same mission, just different tax and legal structures), is paying thousands of dollars each month to the same firm for “advocacy [and] communications consulting.”
Black Rock group has three partners. The founding partner, Carl Forti, also happens to be American Crossroads’ political director and has served as Crossroads GPS’ advocacy director. (He also helped start Restore Our Future, Mitt Romney’s super PAC.) Another partner, Michael Dubke, is also the founder of Crossroads Media, which does all the ad buying for both American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS. Black Rock and Crossroads Media even share the same office.
…
When the Supreme Court overruled almost a century of campaign finance laws in its 2010 Citizens United decision and opened the floodgates to outside money, it made two promises to keep things in check: It expected groups to disclose their donors and activists, and it sought to prevent groups from coordinating with candidates. Both restrictions have proven to be farces….
Why am I flashing back to when Rep. Joe Barton apologized to BP CEO Tony Hayward for the idea that BP should have to pay for the mess it created in the Gulf Of Mexico. Why, that would scare the job producers away from trying to make a profit, err, create jobs.
Lynna, one could say that the Citizens United case was a project decades in the making. I remember reading decades ago, Chicago columnist Mike Royko making fun of oil tycoon HL Hunt and his idea that a man should get as many votes as dollars he has.
Excellent link, Janine.
That about sums it up. If Sheldon Adelson spends $100 million on Romney’s campaign he thinks that should count as 100 million votes.
That, of course, would put the selection of presidents and Congress in the hands of a few billionaires like Hunt, which he thought was only fair. He didn`t see any logic in a guy who was broke casting a vote.
A week or so ago my local government unit sent me an email about how the water supply company was switching away from using Chlorine to another form of disinfectant and how it the new water would be just as safe as the old water (except for people with certain medical conditions – oh and it’s toxic to fish).
Today they sent another email, telling all residents to boil their water before using.
Huh.
Silisays
I know there are stereotypes about people in the Deep South, but does this Bobby Jindahl possibly have webbed toes and a banjo?
People who dis on data entry are just angry that they can’t do work with headphones on.
I did speed typing and other data entry for a number of years. I have the repetitive strain injuries to prove it.
Chigau, hope you feel better soon.
Ing, I’m so sorry. I wish one of us were able to find you a good job.
Esteleth, and Patricia: Congratulations!!!
RahXephon, I’d never even heard of Leah Libresco before I saw her mentioned on Blag Hag.
Patheos is mainly a site for religious blogs. Possibly its best-known blogger is Fred Clark of Slacktivist fame.
I get so tired of the attitude so many Christians engage in where they present their faith as something you will inevitably accept, even if most people only acquiesce because of the wars of attrition and thousands of pages of rhetorical cotton candy they’re capable of spinning.
There’s one of those way downthread on Jen’s post, named Brian. His argument consists of nothing but “Nuh-uh!” and an appeal to authority; when challenged, he claims he wasn’t making an argument, just “an observation.”
ButchKitties/Chas/Tony: The TBD article claims to get its statistics from those which the Jeanne Clery Act requires colleges and universities participating in federal student aid programs to compile. Sex offenses are the second major category of crime listed under the Jeanne Clery Act, and they are broken out into forcible and nonforcible categories. I’m not impressed by how TBD chose to handle the issue of schools suppressing those stats.
Janine, I figured the Charlie Pierce article would be about the Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, yet another Republican and with integrity problems.
Gyeong Hwa: That manipulative anti-choice garbage should be made into an audio recording, I think. Have someone read it out loud in a baby voice, introduce the sound of a toilet flushing, and add echo to the voice.
carliesays
Washing machine is fixed! The clutch was going out, and there was a drywall screw that had worked into a drain hole and was scraping along the edge of the catch tub. And also cutting through it, so it’s good that the extra drag killed the clutch before it cut all the way through the tub and let water leak all over the floor. Repair guy also said that we had one of the more dependable old machines and we should definitely keep it around as long as we can (Kenmore made by Whirlpool, 2001 vintage). Cost just under $200 for the service call and repair. I’m a little stunned at how easy and fast it was to deal with.
Beatricesays
Repair guy also said that we had one of the more dependable old machines and we should definitely keep it around as long as we can (Kenmore made by Whirlpool, 2001 vintage).
Amateur. Our machine was bought in Yugoslavia. That’s vintage.
Mitch McConnell is far more doofus-brained than I previously thought. He has accused President Obama of impeachable offenses. I suspect McConnell may have gotten his info from Glenn Beck, or perhaps from Frank Vandersloot.
As journalist Steve Benen writes:
Late last week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) spoke at a conservative think tank to make a spirited case against public disclosure in the campaign-finance system. As far as the Republican Leader is concerned, there’s nothing wrong with wealthy interests buying American elections — the real scandal is a proposal to let American voters know who’s doing the buying.
But that’s not the only scandal. Kevin Drum noted what McConnell went on to say later in the day during a Fox News interview.
[T]he Senate’s top Republican also accused the [Obama] administration of improperly using government agencies to exert political pressure.
“What they’re trying to do is intimidate donors to outside groups that are critical of the administration, McConnell said. “The campaign has rifled through donors’ divorce records. They’ve got the IRS, the SEC and other agencies going after contributors trying to frighten people and intimidate them out of exercising their rights to participate in the American political discourse.”
Look, I realize that Republican members of Congress, just as habitual reflex, target President Obama with all kinds of over-the-top accusations. Those of us who remember the Clinton/Gore years know this isn’t at all new. Ideally, folks like McConnell — a man who’s served in the Senate for more than a quarter of a century — would leave garbage attacks to House backbenchers, but that would presuppose a level of decency and decorum that doesn’t exist.
But McConnell’s comments aren’t just casual nonsense — the Senate Minority Leader appeared on national television and accused the sitting president of impeachable offenses. If the Obama administration actually “rifled through” donors’ private records and directed federal agencies to “go after” and “intimidate” political contributors, the scandal would rock the federal government, indictments would be issued, and the president would almost certainly be driven from office.
Indeed, the very crimes McConnell alleged actually occurred roughly four decades ago, and the result was one of the most monumental political scandals in American history. [A reference to Watergate.]
And therein lies the point: Obama hasn’t done any of this — McConnell just it made up. For the leading Republican member of the Senate, casually accusing a sitting president of high crimes is just a way to kill a Friday afternoon in June.
And here’s why I think Frank VanderSloot may have been feeding a load of bullshit to Mitch McConnell:
The latest ploy by the Idaho billionaire [VanderSloot] is to claim he’s a victim. All day long on Tuesday [May 15, 2012], VanderSloot showed up on a continuous loop on Fox News, pretending to be a poor little businessman who was being persecuted by President Obama for donating to Mitt Romney’s campaign. Fellow Fox News bully Bill O’Reilly even went so far as to say that “some people” might say the President was engaged in “political terrorism” for naming VanderSloot as a million dollar donor to a Super Pac aimed at defeating President Obama, and was “a bitter foe to the gay rights movement.” Both of which are true.
VANDERSLOOT: Well, we lost a couple hundred customers so far. And then we started getting that turned around. And then thankfully, Kim Strassel from the Wall Street Journal did an article this last Friday, and then everything’s turning around now in heading in the…
O’REILLY: Some believe — some believe this is economic terrorism. Not economic, political terrorism. That targeting a businessman like you running an honest business because of your freedom to donate who you want to donate to, but try to ruin you personally and professionally, that’s terrorism, political terrorism. Do you see it that way?
It’s almost exactly like the GOP realized that the facts don’t matter any more and their audience will believe anything that fits into their ideological/religious worldview. Particularly when repeated verbatim, in unison, through their various propaganda outlets.
Repair guy also said that we had one of the more dependable old machines and we should definitely keep it around as long as we can (Kenmore made by Whirlpool, 2001 vintage).
hee hee. My washer and dryer? As old as I am, at least. And, for some unknown reason, they match my kitchen appliances.
If you ignore the fact that my washer has no “cold” setting (the only settings are heavy, medium, and light soil which all start out with hot water), it works like a freaking charm.
Lynna,
It’s almost exactly like the GOP realized that the facts don’t matter any more and their audience will believe anything that fits into their ideological/religious worldview.
Yes, too true. And I don’t see a good way to fight this facts-don’t-matter ploy.
I guess one method is to buy so much airtime for the facts that you at least balance the counter-factual stuff.
Just today Mitt Romney blithely lied about a 33-page government form that is really only 2 pages long. Nobody seems to care.
And here’s the story Fox News is running today, “Obama’s Lawless Presidency Close To Totalitarianism.” This is a reaction against the recent plan to forestall deportation of immigrants who were brought to the USA as children, and who fit several other categories of non-offensiveness.
They also have some theme going to battle “professional homosexuals.”
Matt Penfoldsays
The BBC is reporting that Julian Assange is seeking political asylum in Ecuador.
thunk, maybe Chris would look more spectacular if we threw in a couple of asteroids at the center? What is the point of mapping all those near-Earth asteroids if we cannot do cool stuff with them.
Aria is back to her usual, snuggly, sprite-ish self. Raced to meet me at the door with her brother when I came home and couldn’t stop jumping and dancing around long enough for me to pet her. Whew! Now I’m sure there’s some way to teach her NOT eat what she catches…
——————————————-
The Grady posters: Could that BE any more egotistical?
——————————————
Vatican’s still being a bunch of twits with too much money and not enough sense of reality . . . Mormons proving once again there are some seriously warped minds wandering around . . .the usual.
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG)says
Interesting note from the NHC:
ONLY TWICE BEFORE…IN 1887 AND 1959…HAS THE THIRD STORM OF THE SEASON FORMED EARLIER THAN THIS DATE.
ThinkProgress is commenting on an insanely sexist ranking of female Olympic athletes.
Excerpt:
1. “Maja Wloszczowska won a silver in the women’s cross-country back in 2008 and is back for gold. As long as she wears those sexy bike tights, I don’t mind her returning every four years.”: Because she’s there for you, not for her, or for her country or anything like that.
2. “It is an Olympic year and that means we get to meet all kinds of new hotties like Stacey.”: Wait, you mean this isn’t an international effort to promote peace and unity? It’s a Maxim fan convention? Thanks for clarifying it!
3. “If the soccer thing doesn’t work out—and we already know it will, but if it doesn’t—she can just become a WAG. She is dating Jrue Holiday.”: Here that, fellow working women? Marriage is the exact equivalent of obtaining your own professional goals!
4. “Rowing is a sport that gets no love. That might be because, unless you have grown up around the sport, it is boring. You are watching a team of women row a boat faster than the other women. Uh, yawn. But there is a six-foot, 157-pound reason to enjoy it this year. Her name is Gevvie Stone.”: Apparently mastering the nuances of, say, football or basketball, leaves no room for understanding the strategy of any other sport except OMG HOT GIRLS….
We’ve discussed the difficulties that members of the armed forces face when reporting rape, but I didn’t realize that anti-abortion politics had so invaded the military establishment that females who become pregnant due to rape also have a difficult time getting an abortion.
Congressional Republicans May Block Abortion Access for Military Rape Victims
Women in the military are already vulnerable to rape, but even more dehumanizing is the fact that they are the only federal employees who are not able to access abortion in the cases of rape or incest. If a woman in the armed services is raped and becomes pregnant (as happens in a few hundred cases a year), she has to pay for her abortion herself and often if she’s abroad, travel off-base.
The Shaheen amendment, an addendum to the NDAA, would fill this gap and extend abortion coverage to military women who are victims of rape or incest. Stand Up for Service Women (StandWithServicewomen.org), a coalition that’s advocating for the amendment, explains why it’s necessary.
This policy is unfair and unjust given the sacrifices of our military women, wives and daughters. Our government provides civilian women, like federal employees, with insurance coverage for abortion in the case of rape and incest and it should provide servicewomen and dependents with the same care. It is a basic matter of fairness.
It’s so basic that it’s even supported by Republican senators like Susan Collins and John McCain. But its prospects in the GOP- and Tea Party-controlled House are grim. The Army Times reported an expert saying the bill has “little chance” of making it through.
cm's changeable monikersays
Re., the Stewart link and Glass-Steagall:
One partner remembers that at his first partners’ meeting in 1981 two large portraits of old men with long beards were held up. The audience was told that these the the two most important men to the firm’s business and was challenged to name who they were.
The portraits were Glass and Steagall, of course. They had been, for 50 years, a “boon” to the firm’s “lucrative business”.
Can anyone guess the firm?
cm's changeable monikersays
There’s a “were” on the loose. Bonus points if you corral it between “these” and “the”.
Owensays
Ok, so I looked it up, but I figured it was probably Goldman Sachs before I went to search…
Random question: Is Hitchens going to become the Regan of Atheism/Skepticism?
carliesays
Oh, I know. I think “old” for appliances now means “before the government got kind of serious about forcing appliances to be made with regard to any efficiency standards whatsoever”, and also “before they started putting crazy fangled computer chips and stuff inside”. Spouse specifically told me I was NOT allowed to invoke any stories of 25+ year old washers when we were debating whether the amount of life left in it was worth the repair cost. :D
Another journalist weighs in on Mitch McConnell’s efforts to protect the “free speech of corporations” and to protect the delicate sensibilities of corporations.
And the reason McConnell and other Republicans don’t want any constraint on corporate political giving is most CEOs are Republicans who want to use their firms – and the money their shareholders legally own – as secret slush funds for the Republican Party, funneled through front groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Crossroads GPS.
The first study, a multiyear survey of business-school graduates by the nonprofit research group Catalyst, finds that women are far more likely to help women advance than men are. Debunking the queen bee stereotype, in which female bosses are especially hard on their female subordinates, the study found that 73 percent of women who mentored colleagues helped other women, while only 30 percent of men did. “The biggest surprise for me was that men are doing so little for women, says Catalyst chief Ilene Lang. “I really thought that there were more men speaking up.”
” Random question: Is Hitchens going to become the Regan of Atheism/Skepticism?”
Nah. He’s more of a Goneril.
carliesays
Why is was your washing machine full of clean underwear?
And more importantly, where is the not-clean underwear?!1!
Hee. :) But actually, it was full of clean underwear! It was just all wet, because the water didn’t leave like it was supposed to.
Thanks for the plant link – I had missed it. It might be hard not to call keep accidentally calling it epididymis, though. ;)
I’m about to start my annual self-imposed computer break. I try to take a week or two off once a year, I think just to prove to myself that I can, and distract myself solely with fun things in Physical World Life™. My laptop’s not the boss of me! This, of course, means that the most outrageous stuff will blow up all over the internet while I’m gone, and I’ll have missed it all. I apologize in advance for any fights I ought to be doing my part in between now and mid-July-ish, and for any condolences or commiserations or congratulations that I’ll miss giving as well.
Josh, as I just said over there: Oh, fucking hell.
Also I love the shitwipe who mansplained to Ophelia that if she doesn’t go to TAM, she’s “letting” the terrorists the bullies win, then got pissy when she told him to step off.
On a lighter note, when I was in Boston last weekend on my way to meet up with Esteleth, I saw a “Coming Soon!” ad in a window for Tossed, a new salad restaurant — oh, excuse me, salad concept.
True. But it’s also true that TAM loses. If they’re not going to address the problem in any substantive way then the final remedy is for people to stop going, especially big name speakers. A Pyrrhic victory I suppose, but that seems to be all the situation affords.
While I’m very happy for those who get appliances fixed promptly, I’ve been waiting a month now for a new door latch for our washer. Sure I live in rural Australia but it’s getting ridiculous. Grump, grump.
Tony... therefore Godsays
carlie:
some time off from the computer sounds like a good idea. I’m planning on catching up on Korra so, I will try to get that done, so when you get back we can chat (hopefully Pteryxx will get to as well).
Have fun!
~
Lynna @5:
For some reason I can picture Jeffs watching the 15 men having sex ostensibly to monitor them (you know, to make sure they’re doing it ‘right’), but in reality he’ll just be playing an extended game of choke the chicken.
@42:
Yes, too true. And I don’t see a good way to fight this facts-don’t-matter ploy.
I guess one method is to buy so much airtime for the facts that you at least balance the counter-factual stuff.
I wonder how well that would work. Given that so many people believe the soundbites put out by FAUX NEWS, I think an large number of viewers would dismiss any of the actual facts. Not to mention the facts might take a little longer to detail than a soundbite like “Obama is a traitor/Muslim/anti-christ/kenyan/lizard man”. Too long and many people will change the channel.
They also have some theme going to battle “professional homosexuals.”
oooh, how much money do they make?
Hey JOSH! You want to go into business together? We’ll be J&T (or T&J): Professional Homosexuals.
~
Giliell @23:
Ugh. That bites.
I almost did that one night recently. I think I was eating some deliciously healthy, low fat, high fiber, pinch o’ sugar Cinnamon Toast Crunch while in bed with the laptop going, in the dark. Caught my foot on the power cord. That would have been a waste of good cereal.
~
myeck @25:
Any issues with your water yet?
~
Janine @31:
Hey, at least you’re not a grouch . They live in trash cans.
~
Part-Time Insomniac:
Mormons proving once again there are some seriously warped minds wandering around
I wonder if Mormons are as bad as Republicans, or if it’s the reverse. Heck, I guess they could be equal. Of course, now that makes me wonder how bad a Mormon Republican would be. Oh, wait….
Awesome, and now Ophelia’s thread has drawn a piece of shit who thinks that women who don’t report their rapes are “partially to blame” when the rapist commits another rape, and who sneers at victims who are “too busy dealing with their ‘angst'” to report.
Josh, Official SpokesGaysays
Hey JOSH! You want to go into business together? We’ll be J&T (or T&J): Professional Homosexuals.
TONY! Ghey Inc. (of which I am the SpokesGay, Founder, President, and Sole Proprietor) may have an opening for you.
But if we’re to launch this new endeavor it needs branding. Some suggestions:
T&J—Workin’ It So You Don’t Gotta™
T&J—T&A From the Certified Ghey™
J&T—Ringin’ Your Bell since 1975™
J&T—When You’re Not Ready For This Jelly™
T&J—If You Have to Ask You Can’t Afford Us™
J&T—Cash or Credit, No EBT
Tony... therefore Godsays
When I saw the headline for this article, I thought it was going to be ‘same old, same old’. It was pleasantly the *opposite*:
Wired: Did magical thinking somehow evolve as beneficial for humans?
Hutson: I think it’s safe to claim that magical thinking emerges from basic underlying cognitive mechanisms — shortcuts that we take, biases, heuristics. For instance, the way that we assess causality. If A happens before B, A is related to B and there is no other obvious cause of B, then we assume A caused B. Even if A is just a thought, for instance. So if you think about an event and then it happens, you will automatically feel a little bit responsible for the event. As if your thought went out there and caused the event. So that’s an example of magical thinking in the form of mind-over-matter just emerging from this basic mental shortcut.
A more controversial claim, which is very possible, is that magical thinking is an exaptation. An exaptation is some adaptation that emerged as a byproduct of something else, but became so useful that evolution started to select for aspects of that in addition to the initial thing.
Wired: What’s a good example of an exaptation? And how might magical thinking have emerged and become beneficial?
@birgerjohansson
But. But. Don’t you know? America is number OOONNNEEE!!!111 *raises index finger*
cicely. Just cicely.says
*hugs* for chigau and Giliell. Bodies can be so, so inconsiderate.
– *happydancing* for Esteleth! I will totally drink a small alcoholic something (nature to be determined later) in solidarity with you and your celebration. :)
I…I guess I should see about making an appointment for a checkup, myself.
–
He eats chicken bombs, and rolls in cow flops – every.chance.he.gets. I’m not sure if his disgusting habits are because he is a rescue dog, and suffered torture, or if he just likes disgusting stuff.
My money would be on “just likes disgusting stuff”. Every Spring when I was a kid would come the dog’s Rolling In The Steer Manure extravaganza; he’d escape from the fenced in yard, find where the ladies entered in the very-competitive “My Yard’s Better Than Yours’!” contest had spread the manure in their flowerbeds, be gone up to three days, and come home with his wooly tan cockerpoo fur caked in greeny-brown awfulness. And want to come into the house.
He also did a professional-quality “Betrayed!!!” look when we’d drag him back outside and hose him down, preparatory to a thorough soapy bath.
–
carlie, I grieve with you for the ill-timed demise of your washing machine.*floral display*
(Later) And I rejoice with you at its reanimation. *selection of brainz*
More seriously, our late, lamented washer was a Kenmore, circa 1984; it lasted, with some repairs, right up to early this year. I wish I could think that its successor would get that kind of mileage.
(Even Later) Have a nice computer break.
–
And sympathies to Giliell, too, on the death of your laptop.*another floral display*
(Which, in retrospect, juxtaposes oddly with the above.)
(The “computer breakage”, not the *floral display* )
–
TS Chris has formed out in the Northern Atlantic.
So it has. The potential one in the Eastern Pacific has dropped in likelihood, though. I mis-second-guessed it, this time around.
–
P-T I, glad to hear that your dog is better. :)
–
We’re off to a good start!
those of us who don’t live at sea level on the Eastern seaboard, maybe.
Tropical storm and hurricane watching is better as a purely spectator (rather than full-contact) sport.
–
FossilFishysays
Sara Mayhew just weighed in at B&W to tell PZ what a meany he is. WTF.
ibyeasays
Huh, so I am not the only one obsessed in watching tropical storms form over the Atlantic.
Janine: History’s Greatest Monstersays
I fucking hate when a shitstain who is ignorant about history uses the Holocaust to justify an idiotic political position.
Gee! I fucking wonder what would have happened if that moral monster could have faced off against a German Police Battalion or the fucking SS in the middle of a Polish town armed with just his fucking shot gun?
Why do some people take these fucking teabaggers seriously?
Janine: History’s Greatest Monstersays
FossilFishy, a link to that quote would be useful.
It really is a fucking stupid and clueless statement.
Funny Divasays
FossilFishy@79
If Sarahs come, can Kylies be far behind?
Criminy. The Herp-a-Derp that Ophelia banned and Willow (the hopefully now/soon banned) have been more than enough WTFF, FFS! on that thread so far.
Hi, Horde! Keep on rockin’ all ye awesome and decent human beings!
ambleburysays
Funny Diva:
If Sarahs come, can Kylies be far behind?
I snorted my Sauvignon Blanc.
Yes it is only 1520. I’ve had a difficult half-an-hour.
FossilFishysays
Sorry Janine. I had intended to link, even copied the address with every intent of pasting it and somehow forgot. I blame it on a dangerous imbalance in my blood/bacon level. Which sadly, being a veghead, is never going to get better. Thanks for doing my work.
No. But they make you hire a certain number of chicks, and they’re always the least funny on the writing staff. The reason why you know more funny dudes than funny chicks is that dudes are funnier than chicks. If my daughter has a mediocre sense of humor, I’m just gonna tell her, ‘Be a staff writer for a sitcom. Because they’ll have to hire you, they can’t really fire you, and you don’t have to produce that much. It’ll be awesome.
And, shit, homophobic jokes are fine because it gets laughs. I fucking dare him to start telling nigger jokes. After all, some people will laugh.
ambleburysays
Oh yeah, because if you were a woman employed by that particular assclam, you’d feel totally at ease and free to let rip.
/snark.
The reason he knows more funny dudes, is possibly because so few women would be seen dead with the douche.
Janine: History’s Greatest Monstersays
Hey, ambleberry! Girls on trampolines!
ibyeasays
@Janine
I don’t get the whole “women are not funny” thing. In my experience, it just doesn’t seem to be true.
FossilFishysays
…dudes are funnier than chicks.
Seriously? I wonder how many women have been funny in his presence and walked away baffled when everyone laughed but him?
For myself, I find my daughter hiLARious. She’s only four, so it’s pretty broad humour, but funny none the less. Last night she was making up a dance that involved galloping sideways and swinging one arm in a tight circle. It kinda looked like she was winding a car window up while on a horse. I laughed, she saw my amusement and escalated her motions until we both were laughing uncontrollably. This is how you have a funny daughter. You encourage her sense of humour. Any bets on what Mr. Man Show Douchetoque would have done had he seen his daughter do a similar thing? Tell her to stop being silly perhaps? Bah!
Janine: History’s Greatest Monstersays
Read some Hitchens, ibyea. He explained that oh so well a few years ago.
Amphioxsays
Samuel Wurzelbacher claims that if Jews in Germany had guns, the Holocaust would not have happened.
The jews who fought in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising did have guns (and grenades).
Didn’t help them much.
ambleburysays
*keeps snorting the Savvy Blanc*
Janine: History’s Greatest Monstersays
The jews who fought in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising did have guns (and grenades).
Didn’t help them much.
Just think of the stockpile of arms the Jews in Warsaw could have had if the Nazi’s allowed the Second Amendment. It could have been fucking cool, like Red Dawn.
Funny Divasays
Wow. The Herp-a-Derp, Tu Quoque, Whaddabout-MEEEEEEEE brigade is out in force over at Opehlia’s. And apparently think that’s the appropriate venue to castigate Jason Thibault…who, last I checked, has his own f-ing blog on this very f-ing blog network.
Anybody else wanna play Logical Fallacy, MRA and Derailing Bingo all at the same time? I feel like I’ve already “won” with three cards in each category. These, uh, people are just determined to keep the shitstorm going–by flinging as much as they can as fast as they can. Not content to play in their own slimepits, they have to try to create new ones wherever they can.
Dis. Gusting.
Tony... therefore Godsays
Funny Diva:
I was floored when I read that Ophelia got threats. What the fuck is wrong with people?
Then I saw some of the comments–especially Willow’s.
I’m sitting in my house with the AC on full blast and a fan right next to me and I’m still furious.
Tony... therefore Godsays
Janine @87:
I wonder if that moron realizes that a metric shit-ton of men aren’t funny either…
Higher standards in science:
There will be a greater focus on the acquisition of scientific knowledge with new content on the solar system, speed and evolution.
There will be an increased focus on practical scientific experiments and demonstrations, similar to the approach taken in Alberta and Massachusetts.
FossilFishysays
Tony:
I wonder if that moron realizes that a metric shit-ton of men aren’t funny either…
Not a chance. Confirmation bias is hard enough to counter when you’re aware and motivated to combat it. But these folks aren’t aware of CB because they’re presuppositionalists. They *know* that men are funny and women aren’t so if a man makes them laugh it’s because doods are funny and if a woman does, well, she’s an anomaly. Bah!
John Moralessays
Women can’t be funny the way women can’t be creepy or saintly or whatever.
(Such stupidity!)
Tony... therefore Godsays
Yes! The bigots don’t always win.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9283083/Christian-counsellors-being-closed-down-says-struck-off-gay-cure-psychotherapist.html
During the session she asked him whether he had been abused as a child or bullied at school and whether any of his relatives had been Freemasons as a possible cause of his homosexuality.
A conduct hearing last year ruled that Mrs Pilkington had fallen short of professional standards by making “premature and reckless” diagnoses.
An appeal panel yesterday threw out a number of adverse findings against Mrs Pilkington but found that she had failed to take enough steps to ensure that Mr Strudwick fully understood what her counselling entailed and “precise belief system that underpinned it”.
…relatives in the Freemasons…um, ok.
FossilFishysays
And dammit, my last thought has put it over the top. My daughter enters school next year and the local state school has a new principal who’s very keen to make the place better. There’s an opportunity here that I shouldn’t pass up.
At the information meeting where they were selling their school over the local catholic one he put up a PPont slide that said one of their core values was critical thinking. Wooo, hooo thought I. At the end I asked him for a definition of critical thinking and he was clearly embarrassed at being caught out. He fumbled out a half-assed definition and said “I bet you have a better one.” with a wry grin. Indeed I do.
We talked briefly after the meeting and now I’ve mulling over if that that was enough. Clearly though it wasn’t. I’m going to have to schedule a meeting and sit down and talk about this with him in more depth.
You see, I just now realised that despite all the current uproar in our community, skeptical thinking can in fact help with sexism. So much of sexism is in fact persuppostionalism in the same way that religion is. Getting kids to question their assumptions, recognise their biases, and ask for evidence and you’re more likely to be able to break down sexism that stems from societal preconceptions about sex differences. All this over and above all the other benefits of critical thinking.
So so it seems to me. Thoughts?
didgensays
I am hoping that someone can give me some suggestions for books on evolution and the beginning of the cosmos that would be appropriate for two very bright children aged 4 and 6. I am the science minded grandma who lives 1000 miles away. I do what I can by phone and by sending books to them. I don”t want the closer grandparents to completely fill them up with religious inanity without a good base of reality to ground them. Right now we are working on figuring out whether lightning can happen in space. Thanks for any help.
Tony... therefore Godsays
A shower with no water?
Color me curious!
Marishane, a 22-year-old student at the University of Cape Town student invented a product called DryBath, a clear gel applied to skin that does the work of water and soap.
The invention, which won Marishane the 2011 Global Student Entrepreneur of the Year Award, has wide applications in Africa and other parts of the developing world where basic hygiene is lacking and hundreds of millions of people do not have regular access to water. http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/bre85h12q-us-safrica-water-shower/
The implications of this are staggering. Large scale production of DryBath could have a life changing effect on the lives of millions of people around the globe. This is so totally awesome!
~
Trigger
Warning:
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Filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering explore rape within the U.S. military in the documentary “The Invisible War”, which opens in select movie theaters on Friday. With more than 3,000 sexual assault cases reported in the U.S. military in 2011, according to the Defense Department, and estimates by officials that the problem could be six times greater than reported, it’s a matter that Dick and Ziering feel can no longer be swept under the rug…
…Q: What needs to be done?
Dick: “(The rapists need to be) investigated, prosecuted and incarcerated. We wanted to make this film so that it would reach policy makers and those policy makers would initiate the change that would protect millions of troops that are at risk protecting us.”
You see, I just now realised that despite all the current uproar in our community, skeptical thinking can in fact help with sexism. So much of sexism is in fact persuppostionalism in the same way that religion is. Getting kids to question their assumptions, recognise their biases, and ask for evidence and you’re more likely to be able to break down sexism that stems from societal preconceptions about sex differences.
That is hugely important.
For much the same reason religion targets children. They’re malleable. If they are given the tools to think critically (unlike religion grants) and question their assumptions and biases, they may be more resistant to sexism, racism and religious belief.
I have no idea if they have any book ideas but take a dig around and if not maybe contact the site authors for suggestions.
For myself any and every book is a skeptical one because I read and discuss it with my daughter in a skeptical way so specific books haven’t been a problem.
Good luck, and feel free to drop anything of use you find here.
@fossilfishy
thank you, I just really want them to avoid some of the problems I had as a kid. They should have someone that shows them how to learn for yourself. That the world is amazing enough for a lifetime.
Ye olde household appliances
A few days ago, my mom fried the motor of our build-in vacuuming system (by not emptying the dustbin on time).
Since kitteh loses a fuckton of hair each day (honestly, if you collected that shit you’d be able to felt another kitteh out of it every 2 weeks), we obviously couldn’t wait for the motor to be replaced, so mom got the ooooooold Philips vacuum cleaner from the attic.
Vacuuming went totes fine until this morning, so yesterday I’d have been all “Good old times household appliances, still good after 40 years, fuck you modern ones!!!”.
Sooooo…
This morning I get up, open my bedroom door and am greeted by a frightening smell…
“ZOMG some shit or other is burning somewhere in this house!!!”
So I rush downstairs and meet my mom.
Turns out, the old vacuum suddenly got super hot and actually started smoking a big deal mid-cleaning. She pulled the plug but that thing still kept on smoking for a bit. The bag had been changed just 2 days ago so we believe dust-buildup in the system started burning when that thing overheated.
The vacuum is now outside waiting for his final demise and mom borrowed a new one from a friend.
So there.
Teh ex
I had another appointment at the womens centre yesterday. It was good. I think I’ve started healing for realz now. Sunday will probably be Teh Talk re him moving out, but thinking about it doesn’t cause despair anymore, just a sad. Tolerable. I’ve also had two of “our” friends get in touch, so this has gotten better as well.
I will also go to Istanbul with dad and sister next monday for a five-day-city-trip. Hooray!
The recent penis debate, this newfound news about Jerry Coyne … words fail.
Anyone know what that refers to wrt Coyne ?
quoderatdemonstrandumsays
Technical help please:
When we moved over to FtB I subscribed to FtB using wordpress, which would not let me use my old ‘nym: “QED” so I had to lengthen it to quoderatdemonstrandum.
Can anyone tell me how to revert to QED or at least have it show up as QED in my posts(even if I have to sign in as quoderatdemonstrandum)?
Any assistance gratefully received
Thanks
Nightjarsays
quoderatdemonstrandum,
When you’re logged in, click on your username just above the comment box before the “Log out” option. That should take you to your dashboard. On the top bar, right corner, there’s a menu called “Howdy, quoderatdemonstrandum”. Go there and choose “Edit my profile”. You cannot change your username, but you can change your nickname to “QED” and then select it on the “Display name publicly as” option instead of your username.
Hope that helps.
Louissays
Rorschach,
Not sure, wasn’t there something a while back about him defending the presumed innocence of an accused/convicted sex offender who happened to be a friend of his?
I might be misremembering that completely, and I am not in a place where I can google things to do with it based on such scanty recollection. I don’t read Coyne’s blog very often, so I can’t claim it skipped across my radar very significantly.
I’m sure others will know more, but that was the only thing I could think of.
Of course I could be entirely wrong about all of this and accidentally libelling Dr Coyne, which I obviously have no wish to do. This is merely supposition based on vague recollection and I will happily stand corrected on any and all of it. All errors are my own and will be apologised for in due course!
And can I just say that Jacqueline Homan is my new hero ?
birgerjohanssonsays
Not clicking on the rape in the military link. My ability to absorb more misery and horror is saturated for a while.
— — — — — — —
2012 noctilucent cloud season begins http://phys.org/news/2012-06-noctilucent-cloud-season.html
— — — — — — —
Jeez, very humid air. It feels really hot even though it is just 14 C outside. The people watching football in the Ukraine must be near heatstroke.
sometimes quirkysays
Sorry to jump in, but does anyone know anything about stopping tendon cramp?
My Achilles tendon and the one running down the front of the ankle towards the big toe are going insane! They’re sticking out an extra half-inch and seem to have frozen in place – I can’t move my ankle at all.
It looks like they’re pulsing. Very weird. Very sore.
SallyStrange, thanks for — through your blog — introducing Saul Williams to me.†
† Google tells me that (using better known artists) “introducing me to The Beatles” is the usual form, instead of “introducing The Beatles to me”. The former looks weird to me, since you’re not telling the artist who I am, you’re telling me who the artist is, so you are introducing the artist. I suppose I have this backwards, but can somebody please help me out here and tell me why?
ImaginesABeachsays
Janine @87 –
I understand the sentiment, but the wording of this comment makes me uncomfortable. The point could have been made by daring him to tell “racist” jokes.
birgerjohanssonsays
The Clergy Project http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2012/06/20/clergy-project/
About priests who come out about losing their faith.
“One gentleman stated that he couldn’t wait till he stood in heaven and looked down at me in hell while the flesh burned off my body!”
ChasCPetersonsays
Louis @#117: do you ever edit yourself? That was a completely unnecessary and irresponsible comment.
And then flails her constitutional exam when she gets all fussy about being called out on her racism.
criticism ≠ being put to death
Barbara Espinosa, host of a KFNX radio show called ‘Hair on Fire,’ called President Obama a “monkey” on a recent radio segment (audio below).
The Phoenix, Arizona radio host said: “I don’t believe in calling him the first black president. I voted for the white guy myself. I call him a monkey.”
When outrage erupted over her racist comments, Espinosa wrote a post on her website entitled “YES! I Did Use the Word Monkey and Obama in same sentence.”
On the website post, she wrote: “To set the record straight I did use the word monkey and Obama in the same sentence. Yes I did say I voted for the white guy. Unless there has been a takeover of America and free speech is no longer allowed and I can be put to death for making a remark, I refuse to take the fifth.”
“With a last name of Espinosa I’m anything but racist,” she insisted.
sisusays
@didgen: my kids are 3 & 5 and we really like the National Geographic “Jump Into Science” series. Here’s the whole set – Stars – we’ve found them in local Barnes & Nobles. We have the Sun, Moon, and Stars ones. It says ages 4-8 but my 3 year old likes them too.
Yes I do self edit, and that comment was couched with so many caveats I think it’s obvious.
It seems I mixed up Jerry Coyne (innocent of this, I totally fucked up, my bad) and Lawrence Krauss by the way (linky). So I was wrong, yet again. Whatever will I do?
Of course, if you knew I was wrong, you could have just corrected me…
The various news sites seem to think that the Supreme Court is going to strike down Obama’s health care reform. I am so fucking done with this country. It’s just disgusting that even Obama’s shy, tiny little step towards universal coverage provokes this sort of animosity.
diannesays
@SC 133: What provoked your BS meter on that one? The unsupported jump from effects in cell culture to presumed effects in humans? The probable reliance on a press release for scientific data? The implicit claim that if nicotinamide riboside is good for you milk (which has only small amounts of it) must also be good for you? Something else?
The linked articles didn’t look any different from standard health reporting to me, so wondering what you saw in them that I didn’t.
RahXephon, worse than Hitler, Pol Pot, the Antichrist, Stalin, and Mao combinedsays
If anyone happens to be bored and wants to bang their head against a wall, I recommend reading this article. Here I thought Patheos was a magical land that brought theists and non-theists together, but it turns out it just gives them excuses to snipe at each other.
Hi there
Thanx for the sympathy.
Fortunately, when I bought the laptop I bought a pretty expensive 1 year insurance against being bloody fucking stupid and it’s good for another three weeks so today I made it all Dell’s problem
Glück im Unglück.
Currently I’m at my dad’s computer. The laptop lets me read but produces an infinite amount of Ds when I want to write.
So, yeah. No idea when I’ll be able to write again, the laptop will be picked up on Mondy for repair. At least I got it running to the point where I could save my dataon the external drive.
diannesays
Fortunately, when I bought the laptop I bought a pretty expensive 1 year insurance against being bloody fucking stupid and it’s good for another three weeks so today I made it all Dell’s problem
Toll! Gute zeitlich Koordinerung. (Is that even close to the correct way to say “good timing”?)
Always good to get insurance when you’ve got small kids.
Belated sympathy for the disaster.
Will the insurance give you a loaner laptop for while yours is being repaired?
Richland District 5 School Superintendent Steve Hefner said in a letter to Nielson that he disagreed that the prayer in question was state sponsorship or endorsement of the Christian faith.
“While I am a staunch supporter of the separation of Church and State, I do not believe that Freedom of Religion should be interpreted as requiring Freedom from Religion within the public schools,” Hefner wrote.
RahXephon, worse than Hitler, Pol Pot, the Antichrist, Stalin, and Mao combinedsays
Speaking of laptops, is there any way I can get any upgrades to my Macbook Pro? I got it…I’m guessing three years ago and it’s pretty slow. I’m just wondering if there’s anything I can do because I don’t want to shell out for a new one.
Silisays
Is there a laptop epidemic going around?
Mine’s suddenly started running hot, and it sparks an error when trying to start two out of three times.
I need to get a cannister of air and run the diagnostic – which’ll take at least three hours.
Read unfunny article. Read comments. Lose faith in humanity
Louissays
Ing,
You had some left? You’re doing better than me!
Louis
ChasCPetersonsays
Louis, I didn’t know you were wrong, only that your comment was unnecessary (since even you didn’t think you knew what was going on) and irresponsible. So that’s what I said.
(In my opinion you should have spent the time you put into typing caveats into deciding not to post vague yet libelous remembrances in the first place, but maybe that’s just me.)
For the record, in the context of the thread in question, the “news” about Coyne seems to have been this:
A while back, Ophelia responded to an insulting and dismissive post by Miranda by telling her to “fuck off”. This was apparently such a breach of decorum and good taste that Coyne and Blackford decided that they must, I say must, transfer their allegiance to the Slime Pit, in order to ensure that proper young ladies such as Miranda never have to have their shell-like ears sullied by such filth ever again.
For some reason I can picture Jeffs watching the 15 men having sex ostensibly to monitor them (you know, to make sure they’re doing it ‘right’), but in reality he’ll just be playing an extended game of choke the chicken.
Prison guards report that Jeffs masturbates, in full view of the guards, about 15 times per day. So you are probably correct. http://gawker.com/5829542/
In addition to liking an audience for his solo performances, Warren Jeffs also prefers an audience for his “celestial marriages” to 12 and 15 year old girls. Link. Trigger warning for the link, which provides a partial transcript of Jeff’s instructions to a 12-year-old girl, and to adults who are watching.
Well, opinions are like arseholes. And I care about yours why, precisely? I forget that your every post is replete with bons mots direct from the teats of angels and dripping with import. Oh wait, that’s right, they’re not. Oh dear my care-o-meter has just registered a negative value again. It does that a lot when you’re about.
Do you have that killfile script handy? Use it on me would you.
Louis
cicely (Bored and Exasperated)says
Not caught up. Posting from Some Other Computer with a —PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT—
My computer is down with a Google Redirect Virus, which is, apparently, one tough bastard; The Husband has been trying to exorcise it since 9:00 this morning, and it’s still fighting back. The site he’s using as tech help describes it as “a nasty rootkit”, and Malwarebytes wouldn’t touch it.
What happens is, no matter what you try to google, when you click on the suggestions, all you get is Google 404 Error—for instance, if I was googling Pharyngula, and clicked on it on the suggestions list, all I would get was the error message, even though there was no problem getting there from a bookmark, or from typing in the address.
I think I got it yesterday at SATW, but I’m not sure. Be on the look-out for this piece of shit. If you see it, KILL IT WITH FIRE.
–
Wow. The Herp-a-Derp, Tu Quoque, Whaddabout-MEEEEEEEE brigade is out in force over at Opehlia’s. And apparently think that’s the appropriate venue to castigate Jason Thibault…who, last I checked, has his own f-ing blog on this very f-ing blog network.
I know it might seem a mite depressing, at first blush, but I actually see this as a pretty good sign.
This development has just enough weight to penetrate many thick skulls previously impervious. Feels like a tipping point, and probably is. So they now really fear this is going to cost them allies, and change is going to come, now, whether they like it or not, whatever shape it takes–whether JREF shapes up and takes real action or JREF walks around the rest of its life wearing this, and the real life of the growing movement leaves it behind. This is mostly panicked noise, aimed at distraction–squall incoherently, try by any means to make it about anything else than what just happened.
(/Visual metaphor: roaches, climbing over one another in confusion, as the lights come on.)
Yesterday we found out that Jonah Lehrer, the Gladwellesque whiz kid who’s The New Yorker‘s newest staff writer, reused his own old writings for every goddamn blog post he’s written for The New Yorker so far. A self-plagiarist, he is. Big time. What’s the latest? He is an even bigger time plagiarist (self, and otherwise!) than we knew yesterday. And for it, he should probably be eased out of journalism’s highest echelon.
….As has been pointed out elsewhere, Lehrer’s schtick is much like Malcolm Gladwell’s: he’s an idea man, a smarty-pants revealer of illuminating and counterintuitive truths about the way our minds work. It’s the ideas that pay the bills, rather than the reporting. This sort of work leans far more heavily on pop psychology/ neuroscience than it does any particular journalistic flair; the journalism is merely the necessary packaging for the gleaming, brilliant idea at the center, which is what drives all those sweet, sweet paid speaking gigs.
So—being charitable—Jonah Lehrer fancies himself a thinker rather than a journalist, and he concentrated on the ideas to the exclusion of basic journalistic rules of disclosure and citation and originality and other important things like that. Okay. So why is he working for the most rarefied journalistic magazine in America? You know? Send him down to the minors. A few years rewriting scientific press releases for LiveScience.com could probably do him a world of good. If The New Yorker keeps Lehrer on, at this point, it’s quite hard to not scoff at the idea that The New Yorker takes basic rules of journalism very seriously. This shit would get you canned from the average community newspaper.
Silisays
I need to get a cannister of air and run the diagnostic – which’ll take at least three hours.
Lovely.
Now it’s run so hot that it won’t start at all. Bother.
So, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints made itself look pretty stupid and sneaky to boot in the USA with its support of anti-gay campaigns. Now it has taken its Circus of Ignorance on the road.
In a Moment of Mormon Madness, the LDS Church has spoken out against gay marriage in Britain.
As the British government debates proposals to legalize same-sex marriage, the LDS Church’s area authority in Europe has issued a letter to be read in all Mormon congregations there, confirming the “need to protect and promote marriage, as the union of one man and one woman as husband and wife.”
The June 11 letter, signed by Elder Clifford T. Herbertson, area seventy for the Utah-based faith in Europe…
Of course, the mormons are not alone in their insistence on parading their stupidity and intolerance across the world stage:
“A law to allow same-sex weddings will destroy the institution of marriage for future generations, leaders of the Church of England warned,” an article in the National Post said. “They claim it will lead to a constitutional crisis, arguing that human rights legislation will force churches to treat gay couples asking for a wedding in the same way they treat heterosexual couples.”
ffs Louis.
Somebody asked what’s up with the references to Coyne in some thread elsewhere. You did not know. You did not have access to the thread in question to find out. But you came up with a half-assed guess-answer anyway, pulled either out of your ass or right off the top of your head, Your memory was vague and required lots of caveats because you knew it was vague and very probably wrong. But for some reason, you posted your pseudomemories anyway, for all to see. You publicly posted what amounts to scurrilous libel about Coyne allegedly defending a friend of his who wsa a “accused/convicted sex offender”.* Even though you weren’t sure about it.
I made the point that such irresponsible bullshit ought not to have been posted in the first place.
And I’m the asshole?!
Please.
You have a problem, Louis, and that problem is narcissism. You seem to think your every half-baked thoughtlet needs to be shared with all of Pharyngula. It doesn’t. If somebody asks a question and you don’t know the answer, and you know you don’t know the answer, it’s OK to shut the fuck up. Really; you should try it.
Now of course you well know that I have never claimed anything like “[my] every post is replete with bons mots direct from the teats of angels and dripping with import.” That’s just a sarcastic asshole thing to say, the kind of thing that endears you to people like Daisy Cutter even though you’re full of shit.
In all seriousness, though, if, someday, hypothetically, I am so drunk or stupified that I post a libelous claim about somebody else even though I admit I don’t know what I’m talking about, I sincerely hope that somebody slaps me down for it, because (as previously noted) that would be both unnecessary and irresponsible, and (I’ll add now) it would also make me quite a fucking dipshit.
Maybe it’ll be you who slaps me down, Louis, and I’d deserve it (hypothetically), but if so I probably won’t see it, because I have decided to accept your killfile invitation.
Apologies to the loungers for upsetting the tranquility of your lounge.
*(And as things turned out you were dead wrong and admitted it, but that’s irrelevant.)
Apologies to the loungers for upsetting the tranquility of your lounge.
I’m sorry, but I couldn’t find the recipe in your post
Louissays
Chas,
You are missing the point that I don’t care about your drivel or opinions, or in fact you. You’re a trivial driveller on the internet who thinks it’s his job to tell me on what and how much I should comment.
It’s not.
I have nothing I need to justify or defend to the likes of you.
I will enjoy not being read by you.
Louis
Silisays
Anyone know what that refers to wrt Coyne ?
I seem to recall he emailedwrote Benson at some early point during E-gate to the tune of “LEAVE MCGRATH ALONE!111”.
And he’s generally come down firmly on the side of Abbie Smith.
Snerk. You’ll have to excuse those provincials on the island; they still think they’re the center of the universe.
Chas:
You have a problem, Louis, and that problem is narcissism… That’s just a sarcastic asshole thing to say, the kind of thing that endears you to people like Daisy Cutter even though you’re full of shit.
Oh, my stars and garters. The preceding quote is taxing my ability to suppress laughter while in the office.
Chas, if you ever tire of science, you could find work as an IMAX projector.
Louissays
Ms Daisy Cutter,
I am moderately amused to be accused of narcissism by the failed flouncer who dramatically announced to all his departure (with jazz hands I’m sure), requested to be told to fuck off, and then reappeared practically demanding to be welcomed like the prodigal son. The person who complained on departure that Pharyngula was not what he wanted it to be, complained about the new TET/TZT thing.
I also love how he hoggles over what I write, how much I write etc. Because you know it’s me with the problem. Right. Okay. Whatever. He even thinks that I’m waiting to slap him down over some transgression or other. Ahhh joy. The projection is enormous.
Ah well, I am not universally loved. I’m not sure how I’ll get over it, but in time, with suitable counselling, I might just make it. After all this is CHAS we’re talking about. Some pseudonymous pedant on the internet. It’s a close relationship really, as I have been reminded lately.
Louis
Silisays
Anyone know what that refers to wrt Coyne ?
“View of the world from 5th Avenue” or something like that?
But seriously, whatever merits they may have had, their famed factchecking and copyëditing has gone to crap, from what I read about it.
I do like one thing about them, though.
–o–
Can’t find anything on Butterflies and Wheels about Coyne rebuking Benson, so for now assume I’ve made it up …
I coulda sworn he went nuts at some point, though. Must have been after the catcontest, since Benson was a judge in that.
I also love how he hoggles over what I write, how much I write etc. Because you know it’s me with the problem. Right. Okay. Whatever. He even thinks that I’m waiting to slap him down over some transgression or other. Ahhh joy. The projection is enormous.
Yeah, I’d get used to that happening.
ambleburysays
your every half-baked thoughtlet
I think that’s perhaps a little overdone.
–
Besides. Louis’ problem is of quite a different nature. Man down the pub told me so.
cm's changeable monikersays
Some pseudonymous pedant on the internet.
I LOL-ed. (Did anyone ever collect the full list of SdM anagrams?)
Amblebury has it right. The bloke down the pub told her I was a pedophile. But in fact he’d got me mixed up with Gary Glitter because I’d forgotten to have a hair cut and been in a stuff breeze.
Having been part of the internet culture for 15+ years, I am never happy about someone’s true identity being revealed without their consensus.
Having said that, the only person responsible for the outing in this case, is Walter Smith himself, and I fully support Ophelia’s decision to reveal his name (not that she needs my support).
This.
cm's changeable monikersays
Louis?
You’re a trivial driveller on the internet who thinks it’s his job to tell me on what and how much I should comment.
I think Chas was saying you shouldn’t speculate without the ability to verify sources. This seems sensible.
You dug yourself into a hole, what, a week ago? Now might not be the time to do it again, regardless of Internet Animosities™.
*have a beer?*
Funny Divasays
Louis @167
“Ah well, I am not universally loved. I’m not sure how I’ll get over it…”
Does it help that a new-ish de-lurker notes and loves your PG Wodehouse allusions? Among (ahem) other things?
FunnyDiva
What? I just wanna help!
Louissays
Thanks Funny Diva, everything helps.
Louis
P.s. CM I dug myself into a hole did I? Sounds like thirsty work, hand over the brew! I know what Chas is saying. I don’t agree. Is that permitted?
cm's changeable monikersays
Catching up.
Sili:
Mine’s suddenly started running hot, and it sparks an error when trying to start two out of three times.
I need to get a cannister of air and run the diagnostic – which’ll take at least three hours.
I’ve posted this before. I have no connection with the company other than as a satisfied customer, but this seems to have saved laptop #1 from spontaneous combustion. Go with a compressed-air cleanout first (but if you see frost, stop!) but if it’s still toasty, more air!
—
Tropical storm and hurricane watching is better as a purely spectator (rather than full-contact) sport.
Very true. I watch them as precursors to shitty-weather-that’s-gone-all-over-the-Eastern-seaboard-then-crossed-the-Atlantic-to-piss-rain-on-me, but I get enough Red Cross emails to remind me that there are people in a more direct harm’s way. :-/
—
Louis, of course it’s permitted. That’s why the Thread is Endless.
Louis, I generally* find you funny, and feel little interest in diagnosing your mental state…
(I mean: some of my best friends are narcissists. I think. Not really sure. I don’t pay them much mind… the point is: are they paying attention to meeeeee?)
But seriously, I have to back Chaz up on applying a little more caution before linking anyone with a paedophile, even if you slap ‘this is just me blabbing with my mind barely engaged’ qualifiers six feet thick all over your post.
Rumours get started on the stupidest things, even stupid things like that. And you know how it is trying to put those out. You don’t want to be the spark that sets the brushfire.
(*/You want a post by post rating, you’ve had some stinkers, sure. What can ya do.)
Louissays
A whole keg? I must have done a lot of digging! ;-)
Louis
P.s. Watneys? Good call.
Silisays
I’ve posted this before. I have no connection with the company other than as a satisfied customer, but this seems to have saved laptop #1 from spontaneous combustion.
Thanks, my sister has something like that, I think (link 404s for me).
I just don’t see why it suddenly a problem now. I haven’t started using the machine for anything new. I hope it’s just a dustbunny that’s been sucked into a vent, but if not, the thing should still be under warranty, and I have backed up the data just in case (assuming the Windows backup function works – it couldn’t work with the 3 TB drive I bought for the purpose).
I’ll just have to hope the technicians don’t steal my pr0n.
@500: Wrong. I read it. Didn’t have anything intelligent to say about it, but I did read it.
SQB:
Bakaaw!
So…
Weather Radio woke me up while I was in the middle of sleep cycle.
I went back to sleep.
Cue lucid dreams.
Cue lucid dreams.
Involving the weather?
Keeping up with fundie mormon polygamists: the latest news is that jailed leader, Warren Jeffs, has appointed 15 men to father all the children in the polygamist colonies in Texas and Colorado City/Hilldale. Some reports indicate that even more of Jeffs’ followers are walking out after this last oddity.
Link.
Dianne;
strangely enough, no.
It was one of those Child Abduction Emergencies…
(that don’t actually work)
So It was more like a jousting competition held by my English teacher on a Singapore Airlines flight…
The first prize was a first-class seat.
Three participants (including me), but 100 prizes.
Never got to finish it…
Republicans in Montana are keeping it classy. They parked an outhouse labeled “Obama Library” in the parking lot outside a convention where Newt Gingrich spoke as a Romney surrogate.
The detail that has me flummoxed is that the bullet holes in the outhouse were all fake. They were painted on. Come on now Republicans, I know you have guns. You couldn’t blast a few real holes in your theatrical presentation? I am so disappointed.
Link.
SQB,
I read your post @ 500!
How did “free speech” and “social welfare” get so thoroughly redefined that they now mean “billionaires and corporations may buy elections” and “electing Republicans equals social welfare”?
Oh fucking joy. Sheldon Adelson and the Koch Brothers get a tax deduction for funding Karl Rove’s lying Crossroads GPS campaigns.
That’s right. Protect your donors at all costs, and please protect the peons from knowing who is funding $1 billion in political ads. We don’t want to know. It will hurt our little brains. And besides, transparency is bad.
Link: http://www.salon.com/2012/06/19/gop_senators_no_disclosure_please/singleton/
*mutters*
What SQB did is really no better than a person going
Lynna, if the poor were actually feeling that disenfranchised, they would pool up all of their resources and outdid the Koch brothers for the services of (The One Man) Dick Armey.
(Sorry about the penis joke.)
[Some people think that my joke is a valid argument.]
hmmm
I wonder if one could do both.
The timing would be crucial.
No, chigau. PZ deletes .
More on dark money, and how Republicans are even finding ways around the flimsy barriers between political candidates and the so-called non-profit organizations supporting them.
When the Supreme Court okayed Citizens United, we were assured that there would be no “coordination” between candidates and say Crossroads GPS. Bullshit.
http://www.salon.com/2012/06/19/dark_money_middlemen/singleton/
Going to bed now, to wake up in the morning with the new episodes of Falling Skies season 2 ready to watch…
Paul Krugman talks about the economy, Mitt Romney’s plans to lay off even more government workers.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0612/77578.html
Link also provides a video of Krugman’s conversation with Stephen Colbert. Colbert says, “I’m willing for you to cut my taxes if that will help.”
Lynna, one could say that the Citizens United case was a project decades in the making. I remember reading decades ago, Chicago columnist Mike Royko making fun of oil tycoon HL Hunt and his idea that a man should get as many votes as dollars he has.
Here, Royko briefly talks about the novel HL Hunt wrote about his ideal society.
If HL Hunt were still around (He has been dead for thirty eight years.) he would be at home with modern US politics.
Scary, it does seem that the US, in some ways, has gotten more barbaric over the last half century.
Janine
Not if you’re sneaky.
In a segment called “Bank Yankers” Jon Stewart made fun of Senators sucking up to Jamie Dimon.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/jon-stewart-its-almost-as-if-gop-senators-are-on-jpmorgans-payroll-20120615?link=mostpopular1
The Senators said, in summary, that as bad as the bankers have been, government is worse.
Matt Taibbi’s analysis of Jamie Dimon’s performance in front of the Senate Banking Committee:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/senators-grovel-embarrass-themselves-at-dimon-hearing-20120615
Why am I flashing back to when Rep. Joe Barton apologized to BP CEO Tony Hayward for the idea that BP should have to pay for the mess it created in the Gulf Of Mexico. Why, that would scare the
Huzzahs for the Typo Monster!
Im case anybody’s missing me: due to an unfortunate chain of events a bowl of cornfalkes was emptied over my laptop which is currently dead
Excellent link, Janine.
That about sums it up. If Sheldon Adelson spends $100 million on Romney’s campaign he thinks that should count as 100 million votes.
Hubris wed to stupidity.
Huh!
A week or so ago my local government unit sent me an email about how the water supply company was switching away from using Chlorine to another form of disinfectant and how it the new water would be just as safe as the old water (except for people with certain medical conditions – oh and it’s toxic to fish).
Today they sent another email, telling all residents to boil their water before using.
Huh.
Bhopal?
Janine,
Oh don’t be such a grumptopus.
:p
Not if you’re sneaky.
Trying to think of how that would go…maybe a post condemning the outrageous practice of saying “first” when one gets a first post?
dianne
That’s one way…
No no no, it was a noble sacrifice, for the greater good of TET!
Oh don’t be such a grumptopus.
But I am a grump. Even when I was a child, I was , ahem, acclaimed (Or avoided.) because of my grumpiness.
If it means anything, I am a rather friendly and humorous grump.
How “noble” of you, SQB. Such a sacrifice for the greater good.
But did you ever steal Christmas? Or does being an atheist* count as stealing Christmas?
* I am assuming you are one. If not, I’m sorry.**
** Which you can interpret any way you like.
Janine:
You’re the best kind of grump!
Rey Fox:
I did speed typing and other data entry for a number of years. I have the repetitive strain injuries to prove it.
Chigau, hope you feel better soon.
Ing, I’m so sorry. I wish one of us were able to find you a good job.
Esteleth, and Patricia: Congratulations!!!
RahXephon, I’d never even heard of Leah Libresco before I saw her mentioned on Blag Hag.
Patheos is mainly a site for religious blogs. Possibly its best-known blogger is Fred Clark of Slacktivist fame.
There’s one of those way downthread on Jen’s post, named Brian. His argument consists of nothing but “Nuh-uh!” and an appeal to authority; when challenged, he claims he wasn’t making an argument, just “an observation.”
ButchKitties/Chas/Tony: The TBD article claims to get its statistics from those which the Jeanne Clery Act requires colleges and universities participating in federal student aid programs to compile. Sex offenses are the second major category of crime listed under the Jeanne Clery Act, and they are broken out into forcible and nonforcible categories. I’m not impressed by how TBD chose to handle the issue of schools suppressing those stats.
Janine, I figured the Charlie Pierce article would be about the Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, yet another Republican and with integrity problems.
Gyeong Hwa: That manipulative anti-choice garbage should be made into an audio recording, I think. Have someone read it out loud in a baby voice, introduce the sound of a toilet flushing, and add echo to the voice.
Washing machine is fixed! The clutch was going out, and there was a drywall screw that had worked into a drain hole and was scraping along the edge of the catch tub. And also cutting through it, so it’s good that the extra drag killed the clutch before it cut all the way through the tub and let water leak all over the floor. Repair guy also said that we had one of the more dependable old machines and we should definitely keep it around as long as we can (Kenmore made by Whirlpool, 2001 vintage). Cost just under $200 for the service call and repair. I’m a little stunned at how easy and fast it was to deal with.
Amateur. Our machine was bought in Yugoslavia. That’s vintage.
Mitch McConnell is far more doofus-brained than I previously thought. He has accused President Obama of impeachable offenses. I suspect McConnell may have gotten his info from Glenn Beck, or perhaps from Frank Vandersloot.
As journalist Steve Benen writes:
And here’s why I think Frank VanderSloot may have been feeding a load of bullshit to Mitch McConnell:
http://www.baracksbackers.com/?p=1075
And here’s the specious “Obama campaign targets Romney donor” story from Faux News:
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/oreilly/2012/05/15/obama-campaign-targets-romney-donor
Excerpt:
Rachel Maddow calls Frank VanderSloot on his fake persecution claims.
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/the-rachel-maddow-show/47302840#47302840
The thrust of Maddow’s arguments against VanderSloot’s unfounded persecution claims begins at about 4:40 and runs to about 8:00.
Janine is best
ponygrump.Lynna,
It’s
almostexactly like the GOP realized that the facts don’t matter any more and their audience will believe anything that fits into their ideological/religious worldview. Particularly when repeated verbatim, in unison, through their various propaganda outlets.carlie:
hee hee. My washer and dryer? As old as I am, at least. And, for some unknown reason, they match my kitchen appliances.
If you ignore the fact that my washer has no “cold” setting (the only settings are heavy, medium, and light soil which all start out with hot water), it works like a freaking charm.
Yes, too true. And I don’t see a good way to fight this facts-don’t-matter ploy.
I guess one method is to buy so much airtime for the facts that you at least balance the counter-factual stuff.
Just today Mitt Romney blithely lied about a 33-page government form that is really only 2 pages long. Nobody seems to care.
And here’s the story Fox News is running today, “Obama’s Lawless Presidency Close To Totalitarianism.” This is a reaction against the recent plan to forestall deportation of immigrants who were brought to the USA as children, and who fit several other categories of non-offensiveness.
They also have some theme going to battle “professional homosexuals.”
The BBC is reporting that Julian Assange is seeking political asylum in Ecuador.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18514726
Are there no lengths to which that man will not go in order to make himself appear more ridiculous ?
TS Chris has formed out in the Northern Atlantic.
Meh. Not enough thunderstorms.
Let me cheer you up a bit with Steven Colbert:
“Operation Artificial Swedener” revisited http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/415482/june-18-2012/operation-artificial-swedener—sweden-s-response
“Newsweek Ranks the World’s Best Countries” http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/350635/august-17-2010/newsweek-ranks-the-world-s-best-countries
thunk, maybe Chris would look more spectacular if we threw in a couple of asteroids at the center? What is the point of mapping all those near-Earth asteroids if we cannot do cool stuff with them.
Aria is back to her usual, snuggly, sprite-ish self. Raced to meet me at the door with her brother when I came home and couldn’t stop jumping and dancing around long enough for me to pet her. Whew! Now I’m sure there’s some way to teach her NOT eat what she catches…
——————————————-
The Grady posters: Could that BE any more egotistical?
——————————————
Vatican’s still being a bunch of twits with too much money and not enough sense of reality . . . Mormons proving once again there are some seriously warped minds wandering around . . .the usual.
Interesting note from the NHC:
(allcaps in original)
We’re off to a good start!
ThinkProgress is commenting on an insanely sexist ranking of female Olympic athletes.
Excerpt:
http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2012/06/19/501641/olympians/
those of us who don’t live at sea level on the Eastern seaboard, maybe.
Meh. Because tropical storms only sprang into existence once record-keeping began. *grump*
For anyone its eventual path though, stay safe. We did this last year, right?
We’ve discussed the difficulties that members of the armed forces face when reporting rape, but I didn’t realize that anti-abortion politics had so invaded the military establishment that females who become pregnant due to rape also have a difficult time getting an abortion.
Re., the Stewart link and Glass-Steagall:
The portraits were Glass and Steagall, of course. They had been, for 50 years, a “boon” to the firm’s “lucrative business”.
Can anyone guess the firm?
There’s a “were” on the loose. Bonus points if you corral it between “these” and “the”.
Ok, so I looked it up, but I figured it was probably Goldman Sachs before I went to search…
Random question: Is Hitchens going to become the Regan of Atheism/Skepticism?
Oh, I know. I think “old” for appliances now means “before the government got kind of serious about forcing appliances to be made with regard to any efficiency standards whatsoever”, and also “before they started putting crazy fangled computer chips and stuff inside”. Spouse specifically told me I was NOT allowed to invoke any stories of 25+ year old washers when we were debating whether the amount of life left in it was worth the repair cost. :D
Chas:
Seriously. Irene fucked our shit up last year.
When I think of old appliances that have stood the test of time, I think back fondly on metal instead of plastic gears.
Owen, well done!
Be careful what you wish for. (I’m serious.)
The quotation’s from Lisa Endlich, Goldman Sachs: The Culture of Success, pages *can’t be bothered, it’s back on the shelf*.
cm and audley:
Damn. Whoops.
http://xkcd.com/611/
chigau and Janine:
Ah, but would he delete a #501 that read “500th!”?
—
carlie and Matt Penfold:
Why
iswas your washing machine full of clean underwear?And more importantly, where is the not-clean underwear?!1!
—
(&carlie, plant recommendation here, in case you missed it.)
Another journalist weighs in on Mitch McConnell’s efforts to protect the “free speech of corporations” and to protect the delicate sensibilities of corporations.
http://www.salon.com/2012/06/19/why_the_gop_worries_about_corporate_feelings/singleton/
What we already knew, or suspected, is confirmed:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/06/17/women-get-little-help-from-men-in-workplace.html
” Random question: Is Hitchens going to become the Regan of Atheism/Skepticism?”
Nah. He’s more of a Goneril.
Hee. :) But actually, it was full of clean underwear! It was just all wet, because the water didn’t leave like it was supposed to.
Thanks for the plant link – I had missed it. It might be hard not to call keep accidentally calling it epididymis, though. ;)
I’m about to start my annual self-imposed computer break. I try to take a week or two off once a year, I think just to prove to myself that I can, and distract myself solely with fun things in Physical World Life™. My laptop’s not the boss of me! This, of course, means that the most outrageous stuff will blow up all over the internet while I’m gone, and I’ll have missed it all. I apologize in advance for any fights I ought to be doing my part in between now and mid-July-ish, and for any condolences or commiserations or congratulations that I’ll miss giving as well.
A pallet of internets to Sili!
Hip, hip, hooray! Misogynists win! Happy Day! Ophelia Benson’s backed out of TAM after getting email threats regarding her attendance today.
Josh, as I just said over there: Oh, fucking hell.
Also I love the shitwipe who mansplained to Ophelia that if she doesn’t go to TAM, she’s “letting”
the terroriststhe bullies win, then got pissy when she told him to step off.More skeevy shit in the world of gaming.
On the other hand, YES!!
On a lighter note, when I was in Boston last weekend on my way to meet up with Esteleth, I saw a “Coming Soon!” ad in a window for Tossed, a new salad restaurant — oh, excuse me, salad concept.
It’s called “Tossed.” It’s about salad. The logo has a big round “O” in it. You’ll never guess what I felt compelled to do with it.
Josh
True. But it’s also true that TAM loses. If they’re not going to address the problem in any substantive way then the final remedy is for people to stop going, especially big name speakers. A Pyrrhic victory I suppose, but that seems to be all the situation affords.
While I’m very happy for those who get appliances fixed promptly, I’ve been waiting a month now for a new door latch for our washer. Sure I live in rural Australia but it’s getting ridiculous. Grump, grump.
carlie:
some time off from the computer sounds like a good idea. I’m planning on catching up on Korra so, I will try to get that done, so when you get back we can chat (hopefully Pteryxx will get to as well).
Have fun!
~
Lynna @5:
For some reason I can picture Jeffs watching the 15 men having sex ostensibly to monitor them (you know, to make sure they’re doing it ‘right’), but in reality he’ll just be playing an extended game of choke the chicken.
@42:
I wonder how well that would work. Given that so many people believe the soundbites put out by FAUX NEWS, I think an large number of viewers would dismiss any of the actual facts. Not to mention the facts might take a little longer to detail than a soundbite like “Obama is a traitor/Muslim/anti-christ/kenyan/lizard man”. Too long and many people will change the channel.
oooh, how much money do they make?
Hey JOSH! You want to go into business together? We’ll be J&T (or T&J): Professional Homosexuals.
~
Giliell @23:
Ugh. That bites.
I almost did that one night recently. I think I was eating some deliciously healthy, low fat, high fiber, pinch o’ sugar Cinnamon Toast Crunch while in bed with the laptop going, in the dark. Caught my foot on the power cord. That would have been a waste of good cereal.
~
myeck @25:
Any issues with your water yet?
~
Janine @31:
Hey, at least you’re not a grouch . They live in trash cans.
~
Part-Time Insomniac:
I wonder if Mormons are as bad as Republicans, or if it’s the reverse. Heck, I guess they could be equal. Of course, now that makes me wonder how bad a Mormon Republican would be. Oh, wait….
Awesome, and now Ophelia’s thread has drawn a piece of shit who thinks that women who don’t report their rapes are “partially to blame” when the rapist commits another rape, and who sneers at victims who are “too busy dealing with their ‘angst'” to report.
TONY! Ghey Inc. (of which I am the SpokesGay, Founder, President, and Sole Proprietor) may have an opening for you.
But if we’re to launch this new endeavor it needs branding. Some suggestions:
T&J—Workin’ It So You Don’t Gotta™
T&J—T&A From the Certified Ghey™
J&T—Ringin’ Your Bell since 1975™
J&T—When You’re Not Ready For This Jelly™
T&J—If You Have to Ask You Can’t Afford Us™
J&T—Cash or Credit, No EBT
When I saw the headline for this article, I thought it was going to be ‘same old, same old’. It was pleasantly the *opposite*:
@birgerjohansson
But. But. Don’t you know? America is number OOONNNEEE!!!111 *raises index finger*
*hugs* for chigau and Giliell. Bodies can be so, so inconsiderate.
–
*happydancing* for Esteleth! I will totally drink a small alcoholic something (nature to be determined later) in solidarity with you and your celebration. :)
I…I guess I should see about making an appointment for a checkup, myself.
–
My money would be on “just likes disgusting stuff”. Every Spring when I was a kid would come the dog’s Rolling In The Steer Manure extravaganza; he’d escape from the fenced in yard, find where the ladies entered in the very-competitive “My Yard’s Better Than Yours’!” contest had spread the manure in their flowerbeds, be gone up to three days, and come home with his wooly tan cockerpoo fur caked in greeny-brown awfulness. And want to come into the house.
He also did a professional-quality “Betrayed!!!” look when we’d drag him back outside and hose him down, preparatory to a thorough soapy bath.
–
carlie, I grieve with you for the ill-timed demise of your washing machine.*floral display*
(Later) And I rejoice with you at its reanimation. *selection of brainz*
More seriously, our late, lamented washer was a Kenmore, circa 1984; it lasted, with some repairs, right up to early this year. I wish I could think that its successor would get that kind of mileage.
(Even Later) Have a nice computer break.
–
And sympathies to Giliell, too, on the death of your laptop.*another floral display*
(Which, in retrospect, juxtaposes oddly with the above.)
(The “computer breakage”, not the *floral display* )
–
So it has. The potential one in the Eastern Pacific has dropped in likelihood, though. I mis-second-guessed it, this time around.
–
P-T I, glad to hear that your dog is better. :)
–
Tropical storm and hurricane watching is better as a purely spectator (rather than full-contact) sport.
–
Sara Mayhew just weighed in at B&W to tell PZ what a meany he is. WTF.
Huh, so I am not the only one obsessed in watching tropical storms form over the Atlantic.
I fucking hate when a shitstain who is ignorant about history uses the Holocaust to justify an idiotic political position.
Samuel Wurzelbacher claims that if Jews in Germany had guns, the Holocaust would not have happened.
Gee! I fucking wonder what would have happened if that moral monster could have faced off against a German Police Battalion or the fucking SS in the middle of a Polish town armed with just his fucking shot gun?
Why do some people take these fucking teabaggers seriously?
FossilFishy, a link to that quote would be useful.
Here is the link.
It really is a fucking stupid and clueless statement.
FossilFishy@79
If Sarahs come, can Kylies be far behind?
Criminy. The Herp-a-Derp that Ophelia banned and Willow (the hopefully now/soon banned) have been more than enough WTFF, FFS! on that thread so far.
Hi, Horde! Keep on rockin’ all ye awesome and decent human beings!
Funny Diva:
I snorted my Sauvignon Blanc.
Yes it is only 1520. I’ve had a difficult half-an-hour.
Sorry Janine. I had intended to link, even copied the address with every intent of pasting it and somehow forgot. I blame it on a dangerous imbalance in my blood/bacon level. Which sadly, being a veghead, is never going to get better. Thanks for doing my work.
How fucking surprising. The assclam who hosted The Man Show thinks that chicks just are not very funny.
And, shit, homophobic jokes are fine because it gets laughs. I fucking dare him to start telling nigger jokes. After all, some people will laugh.
Oh yeah, because if you were a woman employed by that particular assclam, you’d feel totally at ease and free to let rip.
/snark.
The reason he knows more funny dudes, is possibly because so few women would be seen dead with the douche.
Hey, ambleberry! Girls on trampolines!
@Janine
I don’t get the whole “women are not funny” thing. In my experience, it just doesn’t seem to be true.
Seriously? I wonder how many women have been funny in his presence and walked away baffled when everyone laughed but him?
For myself, I find my daughter hiLARious. She’s only four, so it’s pretty broad humour, but funny none the less. Last night she was making up a dance that involved galloping sideways and swinging one arm in a tight circle. It kinda looked like she was winding a car window up while on a horse. I laughed, she saw my amusement and escalated her motions until we both were laughing uncontrollably. This is how you have a funny daughter. You encourage her sense of humour. Any bets on what Mr. Man Show Douchetoque would have done had he seen his daughter do a similar thing? Tell her to stop being silly perhaps? Bah!
Read some Hitchens, ibyea. He explained that oh so well a few years ago.
The jews who fought in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising did have guns (and grenades).
Didn’t help them much.
*keeps snorting the Savvy Blanc*
Just think of the stockpile of arms the Jews in Warsaw could have had if the Nazi’s allowed the Second Amendment. It could have been fucking cool, like Red Dawn.
Wow. The Herp-a-Derp, Tu Quoque, Whaddabout-MEEEEEEEE brigade is out in force over at Opehlia’s. And apparently think that’s the appropriate venue to castigate Jason Thibault…who, last I checked, has his own f-ing blog on this very f-ing blog network.
Anybody else wanna play Logical Fallacy, MRA and Derailing Bingo all at the same time? I feel like I’ve already “won” with three cards in each category. These, uh, people are just determined to keep the shitstorm going–by flinging as much as they can as fast as they can. Not content to play in their own slimepits, they have to try to create new ones wherever they can.
Dis. Gusting.
Funny Diva:
I was floored when I read that Ophelia got threats. What the fuck is wrong with people?
Then I saw some of the comments–especially Willow’s.
I’m sitting in my house with the AC on full blast and a fan right next to me and I’m still furious.
Janine @87:
I wonder if that moron realizes that a metric shit-ton of men aren’t funny either…
Ah, some *good* news (now if only the United States would follow suit):
http://education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a00210127/newnatcurric
Tony:
Not a chance. Confirmation bias is hard enough to counter when you’re aware and motivated to combat it. But these folks aren’t aware of CB because they’re presuppositionalists. They *know* that men are funny and women aren’t so if a man makes them laugh it’s because doods are funny and if a woman does, well, she’s an anomaly. Bah!
Women can’t be funny the way women can’t be creepy or saintly or whatever.
(Such stupidity!)
Yes! The bigots don’t always win.
…relatives in the Freemasons…um, ok.
And dammit, my last thought has put it over the top. My daughter enters school next year and the local state school has a new principal who’s very keen to make the place better. There’s an opportunity here that I shouldn’t pass up.
At the information meeting where they were selling their school over the local catholic one he put up a PPont slide that said one of their core values was critical thinking. Wooo, hooo thought I. At the end I asked him for a definition of critical thinking and he was clearly embarrassed at being caught out. He fumbled out a half-assed definition and said “I bet you have a better one.” with a wry grin. Indeed I do.
We talked briefly after the meeting and now I’ve mulling over if that that was enough. Clearly though it wasn’t. I’m going to have to schedule a meeting and sit down and talk about this with him in more depth.
You see, I just now realised that despite all the current uproar in our community, skeptical thinking can in fact help with sexism. So much of sexism is in fact persuppostionalism in the same way that religion is. Getting kids to question their assumptions, recognise their biases, and ask for evidence and you’re more likely to be able to break down sexism that stems from societal preconceptions about sex differences. All this over and above all the other benefits of critical thinking.
So so it seems to me. Thoughts?
I am hoping that someone can give me some suggestions for books on evolution and the beginning of the cosmos that would be appropriate for two very bright children aged 4 and 6. I am the science minded grandma who lives 1000 miles away. I do what I can by phone and by sending books to them. I don”t want the closer grandparents to completely fill them up with religious inanity without a good base of reality to ground them. Right now we are working on figuring out whether lightning can happen in space. Thanks for any help.
A shower with no water?
Color me curious!
The implications of this are staggering. Large scale production of DryBath could have a life changing effect on the lives of millions of people around the globe. This is so totally awesome!
~
Trigger
Warning:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
This.
A thousand times.
Oops.
Here’s the link:
http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/bre85i1sz-us-invisiblewar/
FossilFishy:
That is hugely important.
For much the same reason religion targets children. They’re malleable. If they are given the tools to think critically (unlike religion grants) and question their assumptions and biases, they may be more resistant to sexism, racism and religious belief.
didgen: a couple of places to start:
http://www.skepticalparenting.com/
http://skepticfamily.com/category/parenting/
I have no idea if they have any book ideas but take a dig around and if not maybe contact the site authors for suggestions.
For myself any and every book is a skeptical one because I read and discuss it with my daughter in a skeptical way so specific books haven’t been a problem.
Good luck, and feel free to drop anything of use you find here.
Forgot this one:
http://parentingbeyondbelief.com/blog/
@fossilfishy
thank you, I just really want them to avoid some of the problems I had as a kid. They should have someone that shows them how to learn for yourself. That the world is amazing enough for a lifetime.
Didgen, would The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True be age appropriate for them?
(Note to self: buy it for my sons!)
Good morning horde.
Ye olde household appliances
A few days ago, my mom fried the motor of our build-in vacuuming system (by not emptying the dustbin on time).
Since kitteh loses a fuckton of hair each day (honestly, if you collected that shit you’d be able to felt another kitteh out of it every 2 weeks), we obviously couldn’t wait for the motor to be replaced, so mom got the ooooooold Philips vacuum cleaner from the attic.
Vacuuming went totes fine until this morning, so yesterday I’d have been all “Good old times household appliances, still good after 40 years, fuck you modern ones!!!”.
Sooooo…
This morning I get up, open my bedroom door and am greeted by a frightening smell…
“ZOMG some shit or other is burning somewhere in this house!!!”
So I rush downstairs and meet my mom.
Turns out, the old vacuum suddenly got super hot and actually started smoking a big deal mid-cleaning. She pulled the plug but that thing still kept on smoking for a bit. The bag had been changed just 2 days ago so we believe dust-buildup in the system started burning when that thing overheated.
The vacuum is now outside waiting for his final demise and mom borrowed a new one from a friend.
So there.
Teh ex
I had another appointment at the womens centre yesterday. It was good. I think I’ve started healing for realz now. Sunday will probably be Teh Talk re him moving out, but thinking about it doesn’t cause despair anymore, just a sad. Tolerable. I’ve also had two of “our” friends get in touch, so this has gotten better as well.
I will also go to Istanbul with dad and sister next monday for a five-day-city-trip. Hooray!
Teh bullshit at B&W
Jeebus fuck do the mansplainers, victim-blamers and bullies come out in force!
Also, .
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/06/im-out/#comment-199460
Evening, keenacat.
(Stuff is happening all the time, no?)
Came across this in a comment at B&W :
Anyone know what that refers to wrt Coyne ?
Technical help please:
When we moved over to FtB I subscribed to FtB using wordpress, which would not let me use my old ‘nym: “QED” so I had to lengthen it to quoderatdemonstrandum.
Can anyone tell me how to revert to QED or at least have it show up as QED in my posts(even if I have to sign in as quoderatdemonstrandum)?
Any assistance gratefully received
Thanks
quoderatdemonstrandum,
When you’re logged in, click on your username just above the comment box before the “Log out” option. That should take you to your dashboard. On the top bar, right corner, there’s a menu called “Howdy, quoderatdemonstrandum”. Go there and choose “Edit my profile”. You cannot change your username, but you can change your nickname to “QED” and then select it on the “Display name publicly as” option instead of your username.
Hope that helps.
Rorschach,
Not sure, wasn’t there something a while back about him defending the presumed innocence of an accused/convicted sex offender who happened to be a friend of his?
I might be misremembering that completely, and I am not in a place where I can google things to do with it based on such scanty recollection. I don’t read Coyne’s blog very often, so I can’t claim it skipped across my radar very significantly.
I’m sure others will know more, but that was the only thing I could think of.
Of course I could be entirely wrong about all of this and accidentally libelling Dr Coyne, which I obviously have no wish to do. This is merely supposition based on vague recollection and I will happily stand corrected on any and all of it. All errors are my own and will be apologised for in due course!
Louis
Cooperation in humans. “When reputation is at stake, punishment becomes more responsible” http://phys.org/news/2012-06-reputation-stake-responsible.html
-Here are some medical science links. Any med students reading this, feel free to comment and criticize.
.
(Not yet clinical trials, but getting there) Metformin treatment caused cancer stem cell death in pancreatic cancer cell lines http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-metformin-treatment-cancer-stem-cell.html Since both drugs are well-known it should be straightforward to test the combo in humans.
.
-(Getting rid of amyloid fibres/Alzheimers?) Study describes molecular machinery that pulls apart protein clumps http://phys.org/news/2012-06-molecular-machinery-protein-clumps.html
-Hidden vitamin in milk -nicotinamide riboside (NR)- yields remarkable health benefits http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-hidden-vitamin-yields-remarkable-health.html
“the health benefits of a low-calorie diet and exercise — without doing either one”
-Milk ingredient (nicotinamide riboside) does a waistline good http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-ingredient-waistline-good.html (boosting SIRT1)
.
Aging and breast cancer: Researchers uncover cellular basis for age-related breast cancer vulnerability http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-aging-breast-cancer-uncover-cellular.html
.
Older women should not take calcium, vitamin D: task force http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-older-women-calcium-vitamin-d.html
(I do not have a breast fixation, it was the search engine that picked out the articles)
Nightjar@ 116
Followe instructions, thank you.
Let’s see if i have done it right
Q.E.D
And can I just say that Jacqueline Homan is my new hero ?
Not clicking on the rape in the military link. My ability to absorb more misery and horror is saturated for a while.
— — — — — — —
2012 noctilucent cloud season begins http://phys.org/news/2012-06-noctilucent-cloud-season.html
— — — — — — —
Jeez, very humid air. It feels really hot even though it is just 14 C outside. The people watching football in the Ukraine must be near heatstroke.
Sorry to jump in, but does anyone know anything about stopping tendon cramp?
My Achilles tendon and the one running down the front of the ankle towards the big toe are going insane! They’re sticking out an extra half-inch and seem to have frozen in place – I can’t move my ankle at all.
It looks like they’re pulsing. Very weird. Very sore.
Know of any way to make it stop?
Thanks,
-Q
SallyStrange, thanks for — through your blog — introducing Saul Williams to me.†
† Google tells me that (using better known artists) “introducing me to The Beatles” is the usual form, instead of “introducing The Beatles to me”. The former looks weird to me, since you’re not telling the artist who I am, you’re telling me who the artist is, so you are introducing the artist. I suppose I have this backwards, but can somebody please help me out here and tell me why?
Janine @87 –
I understand the sentiment, but the wording of this comment makes me uncomfortable. The point could have been made by daring him to tell “racist” jokes.
The Clergy Project http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2012/06/20/clergy-project/
About priests who come out about losing their faith.
“One gentleman stated that he couldn’t wait till he stood in heaven and looked down at me in hell while the flesh burned off my body!”
Louis @#117: do you ever edit yourself? That was a completely unnecessary and irresponsible comment.
Radio show host calls Obama a monkey.
And then flails her constitutional exam when she gets all fussy about being called out on her racism.
criticism ≠ being put to death
Oh jesus fucking christ, it gets worse
@didgen: my kids are 3 & 5 and we really like the National Geographic “Jump Into Science” series. Here’s the whole set – Stars – we’ve found them in local Barnes & Nobles. We have the Sun, Moon, and Stars ones. It says ages 4-8 but my 3 year old likes them too.
One of these days I’ll learn to preview before I hit submit. Anyway, here’s the link, didgen: http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/ngs/category/jump-into-science-series
Chas,
Yes I do self edit, and that comment was couched with so many caveats I think it’s obvious.
It seems I mixed up Jerry Coyne (innocent of this, I totally fucked up, my bad) and Lawrence Krauss by the way (linky). So I was wrong, yet again. Whatever will I do?
Of course, if you knew I was wrong, you could have just corrected me…
Louis
Oh, FFS.
*paging Ben Goldacre*
rorschach:
PZ, would she perhaps be inclined to accept an invitation from FTB?
So, wait. What is up with Jerry Coyne?
A quick look at his blog shows that he had a wisdom tooth and an abscess removed, so yeah. Not a lot of help there.
Why do I find myself girding my loins in anticipation of an epic fail?
Isn’t the correct question whether there is something up with Jerry Coyne at all?
I think the best advice is not to ask me if anything or what is up with Jerry Coyne, I clearly cannot be relied upon on the subject!
Unless Jerry Coyne is Lawrence Krauss and I’m miraculously right. Has anyone seen them in the same room together?
Louis
SQB,
Good call.
The various news sites seem to think that the Supreme Court is going to strike down Obama’s health care reform. I am so fucking done with this country. It’s just disgusting that even Obama’s shy, tiny little step towards universal coverage provokes this sort of animosity.
@SC 133: What provoked your BS meter on that one? The unsupported jump from effects in cell culture to presumed effects in humans? The probable reliance on a press release for scientific data? The implicit claim that if nicotinamide riboside is good for you milk (which has only small amounts of it) must also be good for you? Something else?
The linked articles didn’t look any different from standard health reporting to me, so wondering what you saw in them that I didn’t.
If anyone happens to be bored and wants to bang their head against a wall, I recommend reading this article. Here I thought Patheos was a magical land that brought theists and non-theists together, but it turns out it just gives them excuses to snipe at each other.
Hi there
Thanx for the sympathy.
Fortunately, when I bought the laptop I bought a pretty expensive 1 year insurance against being bloody fucking stupid and it’s good for another three weeks so today I made it all Dell’s problem
Glück im Unglück.
Currently I’m at my dad’s computer. The laptop lets me read but produces an infinite amount of Ds when I want to write.
So, yeah. No idea when I’ll be able to write again, the laptop will be picked up on Mondy for repair. At least I got it running to the point where I could save my dataon the external drive.
Fortunately, when I bought the laptop I bought a pretty expensive 1 year insurance against being bloody fucking stupid and it’s good for another three weeks so today I made it all Dell’s problem
Toll! Gute zeitlich Koordinerung. (Is that even close to the correct way to say “good timing”?)
Always good to get insurance when you’ve got small kids.
Belated sympathy for the disaster.
Will the insurance give you a loaner laptop for while yours is being repaired?
Max Nielson, a recent graduate of Irmo High School, has sued his alma mater for violating the constitutional separation of church and state.
Speaking of laptops, is there any way I can get any upgrades to my Macbook Pro? I got it…I’m guessing three years ago and it’s pretty slow. I’m just wondering if there’s anything I can do because I don’t want to shell out for a new one.
Is there a laptop epidemic going around?
Mine’s suddenly started running hot, and it sparks an error when trying to start two out of three times.
I need to get a cannister of air and run the diagnostic – which’ll take at least three hours.
http://www.cracked.com/blog/hire-me-to-bully-your-child21-real-craigslist-ad/
Read unfunny article. Read comments. Lose faith in humanity
Ing,
You had some left? You’re doing better than me!
Louis
Louis, I didn’t know you were wrong, only that your comment was unnecessary (since even you didn’t think you knew what was going on) and irresponsible. So that’s what I said.
(In my opinion you should have spent the time you put into typing caveats into deciding not to post vague yet libelous remembrances in the first place, but maybe that’s just me.)
For the record, in the context of the thread in question, the “news” about Coyne seems to have been this:
Prison guards report that Jeffs masturbates, in full view of the guards, about 15 times per day. So you are probably correct. http://gawker.com/5829542/
In addition to liking an audience for his solo performances, Warren Jeffs also prefers an audience for his “celestial marriages” to 12 and 15 year old girls. Link. Trigger warning for the link, which provides a partial transcript of Jeff’s instructions to a 12-year-old girl, and to adults who are watching.
Pedobear showed up this morning at the Centre County [Pennsylvania] courthouse, where the Sandusky trial has been going on. And held a press conference.
Chas,
Well, opinions are like arseholes. And I care about yours why, precisely? I forget that your every post is replete with bons mots direct from the teats of angels and dripping with import. Oh wait, that’s right, they’re not. Oh dear my care-o-meter has just registered a negative value again. It does that a lot when you’re about.
Do you have that killfile script handy? Use it on me would you.
Louis
Not caught up. Posting from Some Other Computer with a
—PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT—
My computer is down with a Google Redirect Virus, which is, apparently, one tough bastard; The Husband has been trying to exorcise it since 9:00 this morning, and it’s still fighting back. The site he’s using as tech help describes it as “a nasty rootkit”, and Malwarebytes wouldn’t touch it.
What happens is, no matter what you try to google, when you click on the suggestions, all you get is Google 404 Error—for instance, if I was googling Pharyngula, and clicked on it on the suggestions list, all I would get was the error message, even though there was no problem getting there from a bookmark, or from typing in the address.
I think I got it yesterday at SATW, but I’m not sure. Be on the look-out for this piece of shit. If you see it, KILL IT WITH FIRE.
–
/muscles way to front of Groop Secks mit Louis line, a keg of beer under one arm and a bottle of Metaxa in the other hand
Noon all!
I just finish reading about PZ on tumblr. It’s mostly good things.
I know it might seem a mite depressing, at first blush, but I actually see this as a pretty good sign.
This development has just enough weight to penetrate many thick skulls previously impervious. Feels like a tipping point, and probably is. So they now really fear this is going to cost them allies, and change is going to come, now, whether they like it or not, whatever shape it takes–whether JREF shapes up and takes real action or JREF walks around the rest of its life wearing this, and the real life of the growing movement leaves it behind. This is mostly panicked noise, aimed at distraction–squall incoherently, try by any means to make it about anything else than what just happened.
(/Visual metaphor: roaches, climbing over one another in confusion, as the lights come on.)
(/And ‘kay, so the ‘roaches’ metaphor is perhaps a mite nasty for some of those so confused… But I’m not feeling real nice right now.)
Jonah Lehrer: Plagiarist.
Lovely.
Now it’s run so hot that it won’t start at all. Bother.
The New Yorker?
Yeah, no.
So, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints made itself look pretty stupid and sneaky to boot in the USA with its support of anti-gay campaigns. Now it has taken its Circus of Ignorance on the road.
In a Moment of Mormon Madness, the LDS Church has spoken out against gay marriage in Britain.
Of course, the mormons are not alone in their insistence on parading their stupidity and intolerance across the world stage:
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogsfaithblog/54334495-180/marriage-church-gay-letter.html.csp
ffs Louis.
Somebody asked what’s up with the references to Coyne in some thread elsewhere. You did not know. You did not have access to the thread in question to find out. But you came up with a half-assed guess-answer anyway, pulled either out of your ass or right off the top of your head, Your memory was vague and required lots of caveats because you knew it was vague and very probably wrong. But for some reason, you posted your pseudomemories anyway, for all to see. You publicly posted what amounts to scurrilous libel about Coyne allegedly defending a friend of his who wsa a “accused/convicted sex offender”.* Even though you weren’t sure about it.
I made the point that such irresponsible bullshit ought not to have been posted in the first place.
And I’m the asshole?!
Please.
You have a problem, Louis, and that problem is narcissism. You seem to think your every half-baked thoughtlet needs to be shared with all of Pharyngula. It doesn’t. If somebody asks a question and you don’t know the answer, and you know you don’t know the answer, it’s OK to shut the fuck up. Really; you should try it.
Now of course you well know that I have never claimed anything like “[my] every post is replete with bons mots direct from the teats of angels and dripping with import.” That’s just a sarcastic asshole thing to say, the kind of thing that endears you to people like Daisy Cutter even though you’re full of shit.
In all seriousness, though, if, someday, hypothetically, I am so drunk or stupified that I post a libelous claim about somebody else even though I admit I don’t know what I’m talking about, I sincerely hope that somebody slaps me down for it, because (as previously noted) that would be both unnecessary and irresponsible, and (I’ll add now) it would also make me quite a fucking dipshit.
Maybe it’ll be you who slaps me down, Louis, and I’d deserve it (hypothetically), but if so I probably won’t see it, because I have decided to accept your killfile invitation.
Apologies to the loungers for upsetting the tranquility of your lounge.
*(And as things turned out you were dead wrong and admitted it, but that’s irrelevant.)
I’m sorry, but I couldn’t find the recipe in your post
Chas,
You are missing the point that I don’t care about your drivel or opinions, or in fact you. You’re a trivial driveller on the internet who thinks it’s his job to tell me on what and how much I should comment.
It’s not.
I have nothing I need to justify or defend to the likes of you.
I will enjoy not being read by you.
Louis
I seem to recall he
emailedwrote Benson at some early point during E-gate to the tune of “LEAVE MCGRATH ALONE!111”.And he’s generally come down firmly on the side of Abbie Smith.
Sili:
Snerk. You’ll have to excuse those provincials on the island; they still think they’re the center of the universe.
Chas:
Oh, my stars and garters. The preceding quote is taxing my ability to suppress laughter while in the office.
Chas, if you ever tire of science, you could find work as an IMAX projector.
Ms Daisy Cutter,
I am moderately amused to be accused of narcissism by the failed flouncer who dramatically announced to all his departure (with jazz hands I’m sure), requested to be told to fuck off, and then reappeared practically demanding to be welcomed like the prodigal son. The person who complained on departure that Pharyngula was not what he wanted it to be, complained about the new TET/TZT thing.
I also love how he hoggles over what I write, how much I write etc. Because you know it’s me with the problem. Right. Okay. Whatever. He even thinks that I’m waiting to slap him down over some transgression or other. Ahhh joy. The projection is enormous.
Ah well, I am not universally loved. I’m not sure how I’ll get over it, but in time, with suitable counselling, I might just make it. After all this is CHAS we’re talking about. Some pseudonymous pedant on the internet. It’s a close relationship really, as I have been reminded lately.
Louis
“View of the world from 5th Avenue” or something like that?
But seriously, whatever merits they may have had, their famed factchecking and copyëditing has gone to crap, from what I read about it.
I do like one thing about them, though.
–o–
Can’t find anything on Butterflies and Wheels about Coyne rebuking Benson, so for now assume I’ve made it up …
I coulda sworn he went nuts at some point, though. Must have been after the catcontest, since Benson was a judge in that.
Yeah, I’d get used to that happening.
I think that’s perhaps a little overdone.
–
Besides. Louis’ problem is of quite a different nature. Man down the pub told me so.
I LOL-ed. (Did anyone ever collect the full list of SdM anagrams?)
Ooh! That reminds me.
Turtle porn! Paleo-turtle porn.
;-)
Amblebury has it right. The bloke down the pub told her I was a pedophile. But in fact he’d got me mixed up with Gary Glitter because I’d forgotten to have a hair cut and been in a stuff breeze.
Louis
That would be a stiff breeze
Balls
Louis
Funny relict from the Internet of yore:
Louis?
I think Chas was saying you shouldn’t speculate without the ability to verify sources. This seems sensible.
You dug yourself into a hole, what, a week ago? Now might not be the time to do it again, regardless of Internet Animosities™.
*have a beer?*
Louis @167
“Ah well, I am not universally loved. I’m not sure how I’ll get over it…”
Does it help that a new-ish de-lurker notes and loves your PG Wodehouse allusions? Among (ahem) other things?
FunnyDiva
What? I just wanna help!
Thanks Funny Diva, everything helps.
Louis
P.s. CM I dug myself into a hole did I? Sounds like thirsty work, hand over the brew! I know what Chas is saying. I don’t agree. Is that permitted?
Catching up.
Sili:
I’ve posted this before. I have no connection with the company other than as a satisfied customer, but this seems to have saved laptop #1 from spontaneous combustion. Go with a compressed-air cleanout first (but if you see frost, stop!) but if it’s still toasty, more air!
—
Very true. I watch them as precursors to shitty-weather-that’s-gone-all-over-the-Eastern-seaboard-then-crossed-the-Atlantic-to-piss-rain-on-me, but I get enough Red Cross emails to remind me that there are people in a more direct harm’s way. :-/
—
Louis, of course it’s permitted. That’s why the Thread is Endless.
*hands over Watney’s Keg Seven*
Caught up. Amazing!
Louis, I generally* find you funny, and feel little interest in diagnosing your mental state…
(I mean: some of my best friends are narcissists. I think. Not really sure. I don’t pay them much mind… the point is: are they paying attention to meeeeee?)
But seriously, I have to back Chaz up on applying a little more caution before linking anyone with a paedophile, even if you slap ‘this is just me blabbing with my mind barely engaged’ qualifiers six feet thick all over your post.
Rumours get started on the stupidest things, even stupid things like that. And you know how it is trying to put those out. You don’t want to be the spark that sets the brushfire.
(*/You want a post by post rating, you’ve had some stinkers, sure. What can ya do.)
A whole keg? I must have done a lot of digging! ;-)
Louis
P.s. Watneys? Good call.
Thanks, my sister has something like that, I think (link 404s for me).
I just don’t see why it suddenly a problem now. I haven’t started using the machine for anything new. I hope it’s just a dustbunny that’s been sucked into a vent, but if not, the thing should still be under warranty, and I have backed up the data just in case (assuming the Windows backup function works – it couldn’t work with the 3 TB drive I bought for the purpose).
I’ll just have to hope the technicians don’t steal my pr0n.
NEW THREAD!