This is the lounge. You can discuss anything you want, but you will do it kindly. Hey, is that a teletubby?
Status: Heavily Moderated; Previous thread
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
This is the lounge. You can discuss anything you want, but you will do it kindly. Hey, is that a teletubby?
Status: Heavily Moderated; Previous thread
:)
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Nature’s napalm, I choose you!
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Yeah, Mauch and Fuqua made the news here in Springfield last night.
I wanted to be surprised by them.
But I couldn’t.
:(
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Huzzah!
And Huzzah! another time.
But I like medicine to be performed ethically….
No huzzah.
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Make that, “practiced ethically”.
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I have a long-shot dream of one day winning a Nobel. Thankfully, the Beeb has crunched the numbers.
In order to win a Nobel, I need to:
1) Become male
2) Get married
3) Ditch the glasses
4) Move my birthday
5) Wait 40 years
and
6) Go to Harvard.
Sounds eminently doable.
Reminds me of a fear a friend of mine had. She was part of a group of four women taking a cross country trip through the US. They decided not to make a stop in Alabama, driving straight through. They were all immigrants from Iran. They all were moved while still teens in the late seventies in the wake of the revolution. Too many people assume that they must be just like those who took the American embassy hostage.
Esteleth, would you become a straight male?
[Flies though]
[Waves to all and sundry]
Louis
(Lawls…)
If it makes you feel any better, I spend much of most winters in Québec, and I still have lots of conversations that wind up going that way. Roughly as you experience: I can make myself understood just fine (sometimes, apparently, now, I can even pull off French that isn’t horribly Anglo-accented), but keeping up to what comes back is way more hit and miss.
Quite seriously, good for you for trying.
Six weeks ago, she was OK in sweat pants and a short-sleeve tee. When the house finally cooled off, the main floor went from about 80 to 70 (furance set point), and the sun room would dip into the mid-60’s at night and early in the day. Now she wears sweat pants, a long-sleeved tee, a sweat shirt, and a sweater or robe to keep warm. Until I got the fans out of the windows and a space heater installed in the sun room, her left hand would also get cold.
In bed, she used a sheet and thin blanket all summer, and frequently sweated up a storm. Now, she’s added two more blankets, a quilt, and a lap blanket for her feet (she always liked a lot of covers so this isn’t necessarily new) and isn’t sweating much.
Lunch went from cold sammiches to cream of X soups. So there has been an effect.
We’re working on winter wear. For example, I just ordered a pair of leather mittens basically for her left hand, which fists up when cold.
Janine,
Considering that I am a lesbian now, I would presume that if I became male, I’d maintain my attraction to women, rendering me a het man.
Hi Louis!
Louis!!!
*runsjumpstacklehugs Louis*
*refuses to let go*
*slipping beer into Louis’ quickly moving hand*
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Joe:
I tend to agree with you, though I would add that season three-IIRC-was caught in the Writer’s Strike and suffered as a result.
I’m still waiting for the resolution to NBC’s Surface, which ended on a massive cliffhanger.
I’d say the twisted sense of humor he displays when dressed up with the sheet and glasses definitely shows personality. So too was the scene where Laurie finds the headstone. He wasn’t trying to just kill her. He was toying with her.
Another atheist misogynist gleefully exposes himself to sunlight: http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/10/08/thats-fucking-effective-bitch-to-you/#comment-128385
cicely,
I would not actually induce brain damage, even on a teenage-kid-killing slimeball.
But I might harvest one of his kidneys before turning him over to the cops.
(I watched Family Guy on TV, so I am into violence-thinking mood)
— — — — —
“Yeah, Mauch and Fuqua made the news here in Springfield last night”
I am just listening to the TV in the other room, where Sideshow Bob is chasing another group of Springfield residents.
Swedish TV run two Simpsons episodes after two Family Guy episodes. It’s great for unwinding after a long day.
— — — — —
Seasonal temperature change: Some bugs migrate indoors. When I pulled on my boots I noticed two bugs (the species with two “antennae” at the rear) had been hiding in the shadow underneath. They are not dangerous, but gross.
Tony… wow. I can’t believe I forgot the sheet and glasses! Time to watch it again.
HEADDESK.
Amherst has a (deserved) reputation for political leftism. And this sort of shit goes down there.
Worse, some Amherst grads I’m friends with are discussing this on FB – and trotting out the !!! FREE SPEECH !!! CENSORSHIP!!! argument. UGH.
Alethea – belated thanks for the book rec! (I’d gone to bed by that point and forgot to check back yesterday.)
Amherst…how young do the boys have to be to think that is funny?
— — — —
Herr Doktor Wiki has translated the insect species as “earwig”.
Apparently there is an endoparasitic fly species that prey on them. Good to know.
— — — — — —
I just figured out a humane solution to child killer storage (Taliban or other): cryopreservation. An article at Physorg claims at least 600 water molecules are required for an ice crystal to form. And evolution has already invented molecules that inhibits the process.
So once we find such a molecule small enough to pass the blood-brain barrier we can send the worst creeps to a future where they can remodel the brains of psychopaths.
“Intervention reduces sexual risk behavior and unintended preganancies in teen girls, study finds” http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-intervention-sexual-behavior-unintended-preganancies.html
Now, to motivate the decision-makers to provide the (short-term) funds (for something that will save lots of money and reduce misery).
Corpsicles!
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Just a heads-up to other Brits: the BBC are running a series of Conspiracy Road Trips after the 9/11 one-off from last year. This week is the Creationists’ turn, and this lot are even worse than the 9/11 conspiracy theorists as far as rationality is concerned. It’s painful to watch. I couldn’t make any sense of anything they said. Even the Christian presenter was thoroughly exasperated with them.
I’. not sure how to say this other than: There’s a banner ad for something called “Atlas Shrugged II” on this page…
Misterc boughted me a new laptop! *bounce*
It came from the pawn shop, and you would think that even if the person who hocked it didn’t have the sense to wipe everything off of it, the pawn shop would do it as a matter of policy, but no. Misterc has found a layer of password protected something or other that is taking him for EVER to get into. I bet it’s either pron, or really bad poetry.
I fucking hate, hate, hate the fucking Catholic Church!
Archbishop tells a mother to reject her gay son or she too will end up in hell!
Pro-family, pro-life, pro-people, pro-respect my fucking ass.
This is just promoting bigotry, hatred and ignorence.
What reason do ex-catholics need to come home.
Fucking burn the fucking institution to the fucking ground!
FUCK!
Uhm, yay for new laptop!
\o/
But… Make sure to not put it on any network or allow it to talk to anything you hold near and dear until it’s been totally wiped and rebuilt. Nasty little viruses and rootkits and such can be hiding there to steal your toys and burn down your house – or at least start spamming or such across the internet, in probably more realistic terms.
As for the password-protected stuff: I understand the challenge, but breaking any kind of protection scheme is, I believe, a violation of law (like, having the tools to do so is illegal in many places, even on your own devices, and if it’s any kind of stolen goods, you could be in a lot more trouble if you crack the password and someone finds out). Just be careful.
Yikes. I know I don’t post here (at least in the lounge) very often, but I just found out I’m a possible match for a bone marrow transplant.
Anyone done this or know anyone first hand that has? I’ve heard it’s moderately painful, but outpatient procedure.
If they don’t need actual marrow, they do another procedure where they give me some kind of injection for 5 days that causes cold/flu like symptoms, then hook me up to something similar to a dialysis machine for 4-8 hours.
Neither sounds pleasant…..
On the plus side, I could be saving someone’s life. (A 58 year old man somewhere, is all they tell me, which is enough, really.)
*runsjumpstacklehugs Louis*
I totally read that as *runsjumpstacklesleghumps*
Which also works, mind you…just shows where my mind is.
Oh, no fear. Misterc works in IT and is our resident malware-paranoiac, so he’s scrubbing it completely clean.
As for the juicy files, meh, they weren’t juicy. Just crappy illegally downloaded movies and music.
Blargh, my school’s skepticism club recently became affiliated (right word?) with the Secular Student Coalition, and they’re trumpeting that soon they’ll have interesting new speakers and talks, but I can’t go because the meetings are on a weekday when I have to pick my kid up from school.
Also, the Latin@ club is hosting free Latin dance lessons 4 times a week, every week, but I won’t be able to go, because they’re on weekdays when I have to pick my kids up from school.
Louis – *pouncehug*
fastlane:
I don’t know anything about bone marrow transplants, but I admire you for your willingness to consider being a donor.
fastlane, FWIW, bone marrow collection for transplant is usually done under anesthetic so it doesn’t hurt to have done, although you’ll be a bit sore afterwards. The flu like symptoms from neupogen (I presume they’re still using neupogen) aren’t even close to universal, so you have a good chance of simply having five days of annoying injections to deal with for peripheral collection. And several hours of having an IV in each arm so being unable to do much. Not a lot of fun, but probably not terribly traumatic either.
Best wishes for a side effect free donation!
GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE!
Phalloplasty is now covered under BC’s public health service!
Only problem is, because it doesn’t involve handouts to major corporations or the 1%, at $24,000!!!!!! per operation it’s SO EXPENSIVE that we can only afford five per year. This works out to a whopping $120,000 in a budget that totals billions, under a government that’s spent the past ten years funnelling many of said billions into the pockets of corporations and the 1%.
Shades of Big Bird. Seriously…I’m happy that it happened, but holy fuck way to drag your feet and bumble about doing it as little as possible because neoliberal excuses.
I am going to have to lay down the MOTHERFUCKING LAW with my wife. She does this… this… thing! She’ll leave me cryptic messages, or start conversations with “sit down, we need to have a conversation about something” and then long pause while I start to worry. And then 95% of the time it is something like “In March of next year, my parents want us to go to X with them, and they’ve got their timeshare points to get a huge cabin if we go with them” or similar.
Or today, where’s she’s been dealing with state survey in the building she’s running. She doesn’t really care how badly the building does on inspection, so long as there’s no sign of patients in jeopardy. She’s been there three weeks, she’s out in 3-4 more weeks, so as long as nobody is in danger of dying, it isn’t really her problem. If there ARE signs of danger, it might attach to her licence no matter how long she’s been there.
She sends me a text about 10 minutes ago: “OMG nooooooo”
Does that mean something bad happened? Or is it in response to a text I sent her 30 minutes before, joking that it could be worse and be her permanent job? I don’t know, and she hasn’t responded.
How are you married to my husband?
kristinc,
I didn’t realize we were sharing an alien shape-shifter-spouse?
Louis! *snorgle*
Joe – my husband used to do the same thing. It drove me crazy. Luckily a few times where I just lost it and told him DO NOT DO THAT seemed to work. He still doesn’t understand why saying things that way sets me off, but he’s figured out that it does, and that he ends up unhappy when it does.
carlie, I eventually got the same message pretty much across to Misterc. My method was less direct and mainly consisted of an anguished yell of AUUUGHHHHHHH deployed consistently, with appropriate facial contortions, during those interminable I-will-pause-to-let-you-freak-out moments.
OMG, Chris Kluwe is selling “beautifully unique sparklepony” and “lustful cockmonster” t-shirts. Website here.
He says on Twitter: “Half the proceeds go to my charity, Kick For A Cure, the other half goes to Minnesotans for Marriage Equality.”
I think this could do with a little signal boost from the PZ machine. For Minnesota!
Plus, due to requests, his t-shirts go up to a 2x in women’s and a 3x in men’s. Because there seems to be nothing about him I can’t love.
Well… I just got off the phone with my wife. We need to all of us have a little talk. :)
Good news is that my wife has officially accepted the offer for the new job, they came up $4000 a year on the salary. After taxes and all, it comes out to about $120 a paycheck. Doesn’t seem like much worth arguing over, but $240 a month is enough to upgrade from an OK rental home to a really nice one.
Bad news is that the bonus we were planning on using to move doesn’t normally get paid until she’s worked there a couple of weeks. She’s trying to convince them otherwise, but we don’t know what they’ll do. Maybe she’ll have to work a few weeks and let them put her up somewhere until the bonus comes in. On the positive side, that means she’ll have a few weeks in town to actually house-hunt, versus us having to move into a place more or less sight-unseen.
And tomorrow. Tomorrow I’m going to the pawn shop and getting my motherfucking Les Paul back.
RAWR *all the thumbsup*
Carlie:
Have you seen his hair? :-/
Seriously, I ♥ Chris Kluwe. Dude is beyond awesome.
Pteryxx, fuck yeah! I can’t believe I pawned it two months ago. I can’t believe I’ve been living through this nightmare for so many months!
You know what? I’m taking myself on a date tomorrow! Lunch, a movie, maybe coffee after? I’ll pick up my guitar on the way home.
Another shy lurker. Punch in Australia is having an interesting discussion about genetic screening and pregnancy termination. I work with a group of elderly men with Down Syndrome and would be interested in the thoughts of this wise commentariat perhaps posted on punch.
http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/We-are-all-much-more-than-the-sum-of-our-DNA/
Audley – at first I only saw pics of the dorky hair and liked him even more, then I saw the Johnny Depp thing I think you were talking about. But hey, it’s all good. :D
Yeah, the Johnny Depp thing. :p
@473 Audley
Ok any colors you like/hate?
I’m feeling more like myself. I found myself enjoying driving the other day (nothing scary, just enjoying the process of doing it safely and getting where I wanted to go, which is normal for me). I suppose life will continue after breaking up with BF. It’s been a little over a month, but it was a couple months earlier that I realized it was inevitable.
Is it too soon too have a crush?
@39 kristinc
I dated someone who thought if you called him and he didn’t answer and you called immediately right back, that something horrible was happening and you absolutely needed his attention right this second. He would answer the second time, but be freaked out, and might answer in a work meeting or something. So I learned not to do that. The only reason I did was because his ringer was on permanent silent and he sometimes didn’t hear it the first time.
Dr. Horrible is on tv right now. I haven’t watched it in so long, although I have the whole thing memorized. So good.
I thought this mandatory ethics course would be a rather boring regurgitation of shit I already knew, but:
There are IACUC standards for grizzly bears.
Someone sat down and wrote them.
Also, apparently, there are labs who keep them. :D :D :D
There are IACUC standards for grizzly bears.
I wrote this on PET too, but I keep thinking…transgenic grizzly bears. Probably myosin KO grizzly bears. That could be scary.
theopontes
Rotary-Annes. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.
Amblebury
Yeah sounds like my picture of the “equality” of freemasonry. No, thank you. The club here seems pretty well balanced, with lots of prominent female Rotarians. (Ah, yes, that is what they are called).
Joe
EXCELLENT.
Deborahbell
This makes me happy!
This makes me happy too! : ) Can I see pictures of the blanket after you’re done with it?
Re: Chris Kluwe shirts…awesomesauce. That guys just keeps batting a thousand. (Touchdown Celtic!)
Deborah,
We are avoiding pink at all costs*. The nursery itself is pale green/white/tan if you’d like to keep things color coordinated, if not, I’d love a bright yellow blanket.
Too soon for a crush? Naaaaaah. I think it’s normal and healthy. ;)
*Okay, okay. I’ve received some beautiful baby clothes that have pink details. I’m just trying to nip the WHOA PINK! thing in the bud.
Here is some commentary by three members of the House Armed Services Committee concerning the years of sexual predation that took place at Lackland AFB during basic training, AIT (speciality training) and even flight training.
Emphasis added because for some reason, it seems appropriate.
Oh, and he was on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me recently (9/29?) and was pretty funny and likeable. Yep. Just won’t quit being kickass.
*confetti&fireworks&champagne*
with *bacon*
–
Dr. Horrible is made of concentrated Awesome. I don’t care what my sister says!
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Good luck with that. The Small Fry’s favorite colour as a three year old was black. She loved it. Her fairy princess dress for her 3rd birthday party was a black tutu. She also told us that she wanted her room in the new house to be painted black. The plan was to get a midnight blue to paint the ceiling and put stars on it as a compromise.
Then she started kinder. Her favorite colour became pink within a month. I said to her “I don’t mind that your favorite colour is pink, but you know that it doesn’t have to be right?” so many times that now as a five year old she rolls her eyes and says “Yes Daaad, I know! How many times are you going to tell me that?” if it ever comes up. A couple of months ago pink was on the outs and now it’s purple. Partly to shut me up I’m sure, and partly because Mum’s favorite colour is also purple.
So, I’ve had a serious case of brain-lust for Chris Kluwe for a while now. But before we all leave our partners and go chasing after him, I should point out that he appears to believe that there is a god. Although Chris (can I call him by his first name?) even does an excellent job of wielding the religion club, so I’m inclined to forgive him this one flaw. I posted this yesterday, but will post it again. http://blogs.twincities.com/outofbounds/2012/10/08/out-of-bounds-blog-no-16-matthew-22-39/
*sniffle* This is why you shouldn’t have heroes.
[plugs guitar in. Fires up amp. Stomps all the distortion pedals. Turns amp up to 11.5. Picks up pick. Forms E power chord…reconsiders. Down tunes to D. Hits D power chord and with pick hand extended in the sooper-sekret clenched tentacle sign lets it ring until the feed back frightens the cows.]
So, I’m speed-reading to catch up and I agree with all the Chris Kluwe ♥ing but I was taken aback by this
because I read it as
More beer, less speed.
Well, from what I hear, herpes isn’t super fun either.
Chris Kluwe looks like he’d be super fun.
Herpes or no.
Re: Chris Kluwe-
When I’m not scraping pennies together to pay for gas and cat food, I’m sooooo buying both shirts.
As for his theistic beliefs…well no one is perfect. Given the strength of character he’s shown thus far, I wonder how deep his faith runs. He didn’t invoke god during his beatdown of that bigoted politician, IIRC.
****
carlie:
I recently saw Dr. Horrible for the first time (it was one of the many things K and I watched before he departed for his cruise). Although I knew the Joss Whedon’s brother had done it (and that Neil Patrick Harris was involved), I knew nothing more. I was pleasantly surprised. It was quite enjoyable.
****
Audley:
Audley:
Ok, nix the nursery walls. I was skimming the Lounge and missed the part where you mentioned the paint color.
Of course it’s never too late to pain the walls a nice bathroom pink.
I think there’s *someone* in the Lounge who can spare some pink from a bathroom… :)
Audley: yellow sounds like fun!
Portia: sure, I’ll post pictures. I have some pictures of other things I’ve made, too.
Both: Thanks, I’m glad to be getting over it wicket than I thought. I think an apartment of my own will cost less than I thought too, so I may be able to move out soon. Here we go!
Quicker that is.
And tomorrow. Tomorrow I’m going to the pawn shop and getting my motherfucking Les Paul back.
Ohhhh Yeaahhhhh!!
StarStuff gave me this awesome recipe for Mug Brownies yesterday. I’m going to make some more. With salt this time. =D
Deborahbell – Hee hee!! *thumbsup*
Yay for getting the guitar back! Mine’s “only” a ukulele, but when I can’t play, I miss the peace and relaxation it brings … although I’m sure yours is kind of the opposite.
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As it happened, I got two meals today, both at home, both out of the tub of rice and leftovers I mixed up yesterday. Which meant my dirty dishes consisted of two of the big spoons I eat rice with (Indonesian/Thai style). The teen, on the other hand, decided to impress her boyfriend by stir-frying up some shrimp and noodles. I just went in and pushed drawers closed, and compacted all the dishes she’d used into one tall sinkful, which I may have to wash tomorrow. Two plastic colanders? My new wok? Shrimp? (I think I’m allergic to shrimp.)
It smelled good, though, and looked really good. I can’t say as much for the boyfriend, sadly … no, he seems a nice kid.
@ John Morales
Indeed:
I’ll go with … *flips coin* … iniquity.
@ Portia
That sounds more like my folks club. My ma doesn’t go to the meetings as she finds them boring. She uses it more as a large arsenal of professionals and assorted dogsbodies to help her fight the good fight. (I have been roped in in the past too.)
Joe, yay for the guitar!! Rock on!
Audley/Tony, my BFF can spare you huge amounts of pink paint. She’s renovating and the shops all seem to want to thrust it on her, in a nasty shade she calls “menopause pink”.
And on a personal note, I wish to announce that I am now level 8 on fitocracy and I am, the site tells me, awesome. TAKE THAT, YOU DAMN SOB!!
* No, that’s not what you may be thinking. It’s “Shortness Of Breath”. It says “SOB” on my medical records.
Wow, the salt actually makes a difference. Makes them better =D
I really must try them with brown sugar next time.
Good morning
Waves at a flying louis
kristinc
That sounds mightily familiar. Only better, I can’t go to classes cause I have to pick them up. Currently I’m trying to get the autumn holidays organized…
Joe
Oh my goodness, I know that.
I really, really needed to drill it into Mr. that there are certain phrases that are usually meant to spell trouble. And that he’s fucking not going to use them if he doesn’t mean trouble.
Yay!
fastlane
Yay for being a possible donor.
I registered many years ago, but so far nobody needed my special snowflake marrow
Audley
Good luck. I failed. It worked well until the first year of kindergarten when #1 suddenly realized that the rest of the world draws strict lines.
On Monday there were rainclothes on sale. The ones with the warm lining for autumn and winter. I would have bought one pink pair, but when I made it to the shop they were already out in her size*, so I had to get other ones. They made 4 versions: a boy one, a girl one, two unisex ones. Only that the unisex ones are blue and decidedly boyish as well. Because heaven forbid that a boy might end up in something that could be meant for girls. But funny enough, the pictures on the package of a girl wearing them did the trick. I asked her which pair she wanted to take to kindergarten: the one this girl wears or the one that girl wears…
Actually, her favourite colour is yellow. We stocked up Mr.’s wardrobe with colourful t-shirts in yellow, orange, green, turquois. My favourite colour is blue anyway.
And words like “girl-colour and boy colour” are forbidden here (clue in MRAs whining about their first ammendment rights in my living room ;))
I guess the only thing we can do is to limit the crap we allow in our house and to set an example ourselves. The tools box is mummy’s box, that’s mummy’s powerdrill, daddy helps mummy putting up a cupboard…
And we really have to pay attention to this. Because we slipped into a habbit of Mr. driving at the weekends because I have to do it all week while he uses the bicicle at work. And our kids got the impression that I’m only allowed to drive as long as Mr. isn’t here.
*that’s been a rule ever since she was born: no matter what her actual size is, it’s out.
NOte to myself:
Must remember to hit “Submit” after “Preview”
*shows off a fancy new nym*
Ah, thanks for explaining. I was going mildly deranged penguin trying to work out if you mean Senate Office Building or Switched-On Bach.
beatrice
I notice. Do you want to share a story?
Hello, and good night.
Seems to be all I can manage of late. Must try harder.
I know, I could give that heart thing a go:
&hearts
Nope.
The tradition of rum (and probably sodomy but not sure about the lash) is alive and well — well, actually, vodka… Judge wonders what to do with the drunken sailor:
I’ve had encounters with Rebekah at B&W. She’s been… generous with descriptions of my faults and put me in the category of anti-imperialist leftists which then get dissected even more thoroughly than I personally was.
And I got put in the same category as Walton, which I’m totally taking as a compliment (even though I don’t agree with all of his positions).
One parting thought. Just look at how these wee gels grow and thrive on their diet of peas. Adorable!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=to7uIG8KYhg
My attempt could be hideously deficient in postification skill.
Amblebury,
So cute. That moment when they smile and look at each other before they both start dancing. Eeeeeee
(Take that pea-haters!)
Hum, that’s odd… Seems my previous post is empty for some reason?
It was supposed to be: Late afternoon in Gale Crater.
I wrote this on PET too, but I keep thinking…transgenic grizzly bears. Probably myosin KO grizzly bears. That could be scary.
come on.
Obviously the end goal is simply to produce an army of grizzly bears with lasers on their heads to complement the marine-based army of sharks with lasers on their heads.
didn’t you get the memo?
Cleaner is vacuuming right now… and driving me nuts! It has to be the world’s LOUDEST vacuum cleaner, with added soundboards, amplifiers, a honking huge speaker stack, and carefully positioned acoustic mirrors and sounding boards.
And it’s still in the other room, behind a closed door.
(Oops, nope, the door is opening now… Runs away, ears covered…)
beatrice
I’d take that as a compliment, too *gg*
+++
Shitty news: My cousin had a miscarriage :(
Just called my aunt on totally unrelated matters and she told me that it happened last night.
+++
Unrelated matters where “things my mum said she had said”.
Yes, I know this sounds like middle-school but with somebody probably suffering from Korsakoff’s syndrome*, you need to check with the alleged sources.
*no, not my armchair diagnosis. My therapist’s armchair disgnosis.
Oh, Giliell, I’m so sorry for your cousin.
Giliell, I am also sorry.
Oh, I’m sorry, giliell.
I am stunned at how many conservatives are complaining with a straight face that the president is being petty and desperate by “bringing up Big Bird”. Dudes, ROMNEY BROUGHT IT UP. SEVERAL TIMES. Since when is responding to something bringing it up???
carlie,
In the same way pointing out racism is racist.
Oh, that was rhetorical, wasn’t it?
Beatrice – it’s just so…blatant. I honestly don’t understand how people don’t see right through it. Willful blinders, I guess.
Is there someone who can explain to me the point of services requiring a birth certificate not older than 6 months?
The fact that I’ve been born in this country is unlikely to change. Unbelievable, I know.
<blockquoteIs there someone who can explain to me the point of services requiring a birth certificate not older than 6 months?
The fact that I’ve been born in this country is unlikely to change. Unbelievable, I know.
I have to re-register my documents with my health insurance company every five years. I can see address checks, but one of the documents required is a birth certificate, which I have to provide every time. I guess the fact that they have it on file already doesn’t count.
That would mean the baby’s no older than six months…
Well, at least here all I can get is a validated copy. But, no, I can’t explain it to you.
Carlie
I think often it’s just less work for companies to have a standard procedure for everybody than looking at cases individually. We have declare every year that no, our daughters are not earning their own money yet so they can stay on Mr. health insurance*. They’re in kindergarten…
*They wouldn’t end up without any, they would just have to get their own accounts.
+++
OK, I can’t decide between laughing and crying. I mentioned before that my mum sees my #1 as “rightfully hers”, because her mother took care of her firstborn as well a lot. Well, I think she has finally realized that this is not going to happen. So she told my sister (who’s been living seperate from her husband for the last 2 years and turning 40 next year) wouldn’t it be nice if she had a baby now? You know, it would be so sweet and she didn’t have to care that much for it at all, she would happily care for the baby…
+++
Thanx everybody. Dunno what my cousin will do now. The pregnancy was a rather unplanned “Oops, i though I had hit menopause a bit early” one. The doctors were supportive, telling her that if she wants to try again there’s nothing against it, but we’ll see. Maybe they’ll just be content being grandparents…
About the pink:
Yeah, yeah. I know, school age means OMFG! Pink!!, but I’m okay with that. When DarkFetus is old enough to make her own choices, she can can do so (within reason). Until then MOAR COLORS!
She’ll be here in two weeks. Squee!
#101 Giliell, huh, Rule around here is the grans leave when you leave
Somebody said the ‘s’ word.
Squee?
snow
Tony
Good point. That was refreshing. Whenever somebody tries to combat religious bigotry with Totully Tolerant Jebus™, I facepalm into next week. They don’t seem to realize they’re just proving their source of moral guidance is worthless because it can be interpreted in any way at all.
Deborahbell
: D
I read “wicket” three times trying to figure out what slang I didn’t know…
Hooray! Good luck with that adventure : )
theophontes
I do, too. : /
Giliell
I’m so sorry. I hope whatever they decide to do re: trying again, that they are happy.
*****
For your facepalming pleasure, and text conversation I had with new pseudo-employer yesterday (he texts me random things sometimes along with the typical “Here’s a new client, have X,Y,andZ ready in 2 hours!”
Him: I have a splitting headache. Argh. 2:13 PM
Me: Get an oil diffuser for your office, peppermint oil is awesome for headaches. 2:14 PM [Note: I know it has no magical properties, but I have found it soothing since a nurse friend recommended it for my migraines]
Him: A what ? 2:16 PM
Me: A candle with a little glass bowl over it to put scented oil into. 3:09 PM
Him: I’d be looking mighty gay w- that. 3:12 PM
Good morning folks!
Audley, a little something for DarkFetus is on the way. I hope it fits once before being outgrown entirely! (and not pink)
Giliell, my condolences to your cousin and your whole family.
Devil horns up to my peeps! Which is funny, because the Les Paul is for sweet, soulful music. The Hellraiser guitar is for the Satan-approved stuff… I can’t believe nobody thought to call a guitar “Hellraiser” before 2006!
And now, thanks to Setár, I am repeating “I will not have a brownie for breakfast” over and over again.
Portia,
That’s better than my chant around meal times: “Sriracha is NOT ketchup! Sriracha is NOT ketchup! Sriracha is NOT ketchup!”
So have a croissant instead.
OrAnd bacon.And cheese (but be quick else you may suffer a mildly deranged penguin raid).
And MUSHROOMS!
(But no peas.)
http://blogs.ajc.com/mike-luckovich/2012/10/08/109-mike-luckovich-cartoon-trick-or-treat/ funny on a few levels
Mmmmm….bacon….
(I went healthy. Trying to find the critical mass of kale that can be added before it stops tasting like a fruit smoothie. Not sure it exists).
it’s snowing
…Kale?
(Has the window open otherwise it’s too fecking hot with the sun shining. Fortunately, the Mistral is not blowing.)
Chigau:
Don’t say the ‘s’ word!!
(Although it’s in the mid 50s here, so no threat yet.)
Joe:
Yay!
“Malala Yousafzai has bullet removed from head after Taliban shooting” http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/10/malala-yousafzai-bullet-removed-taliban
Yippeee!!!
— — — — — — — —
Quantam research will yield ‘super-computers’: Nobel winner http://phys.org/news/2012-10-quantam-yield-super-computers-nobel-winner.html
Eventually…this may be even furher away than hydrogen fusion.
Amblebury:
I memetick’d it in my horribly sloppy mind as “(fresh) hearts AND SOME (semi) COLON!”
& hearts ;
♥
Hope that’s helpful, if disgusting. ;>
s-word
Harry
I’m sorry about your cousin, Giliell :( – hope they’re OK (is it very blinkered of me to assume that as it wasn’t planned in the first place and they are grandparents they might decide it’s for the best? I hope they’re all right, anyway).
Re the thing with your mum and #1, wow. What a thing to say to your sister – sounds seriously out of touch with reality.
Joe, we want to hear some guitar playing soon! Can you link to an audio file or something? ::iz ignorant of the magical ways of tech:: (maybe after you’ve moved, though. You’re going to be busy …)
They’re taking care of a mold problem at work, and chased all those who worked in that building out for the day. Now to attack some stuff on the home todo list while keeping an eye on e-mail.
Woo-hoo! Mold day! You can make mold angels, and have moldball fights, and build mold forts…
Ah, so it’s snowing mold then. Ok, got it.
(Wanders away confused for the day…)
Ahhhh. This could explain why Wife will sometimes react to discussions in ways that, to me, seem out of proportion. “Honey, we need to talk,” seemed like a reasonable way to broach the subject that I have to shift my vacation time in late December.
Sometimes saying less says more.
That sucks.
Since it is a Democrat responding to it. The double-standards in political discourse in this country (the USA) are mindblowing.
A big part of the problem is that we have right-wing newspapers and TV news networks and centre-right newspapers and TV news networks. There is, outside of the web, no real national centre-left or left-wing news source which means that whatever happens will be viewed through a conservative lense. And the few times that anyone in the main-stream centre-right media reflect actual reality, they are, of course, accused of being commie radical left wing stooges.
Rachel Maddow presented a nice roundup last night of the synaptic sludge that the Republican Party brings to the House Science Committee.
video: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#49352563
Jen’s probably wrong.
Can you provide some context?
Mitt Romney and his staff have told so many whoppers and have taken so many different sides on every issue that they can no longer keep their stories straight. Every day now starts and ends with new “oh, fudge” moments.
All that walking back must have them exhausted. At least they are getting their exercise.
Link.
The back story on reproductive rights per Mittens is that the platform of his party calls for a constitutional amendment to ban all abortions, and Romney has said on tape that he “absolutely” supports a “Personhood” bill. Does he not realize that the Personhood bill has consequences, one of which would be to ban all abortions, and another would be to ban several forms of birth control?
Let’s see, what else? Oh, yes, Romney would be “delighted” to sign something, anything that would end all abortions “period.” He wrote an article for National Review that laid out his “pro-life pledge.”
Planned Parenthood …. “get rid of.” WTF, Romney. Excuse me, what the H E double hockey sticks, Romney. This is bad even by your standards.
Best of luck to everyone getting rid of mold. That stuff is tenacious. I am saved only by living in a desert environment, which doesn’t entirely preclude mold, but which does hit mold where it hurts.
Gilliell
Is there a high demand for snowflake marrow?
I hope we get some video or at least audio, of the Les Paul…
AAAAAAA NNNOOOOOOOOOOO.
That’s the kind of opening for “I want a divorce” or “I’ve been diagnosed with cancer” or “we’re entirely bankrupt because I invested everything we have in Beanie Babies”. It’s several times worse if it’s “We need to talk later, when we have some time”. Lesser things should be “We need to talk about x”, at minimum, “We need to talk about about x because (short version) y” is better. The problem with just “we need to talk” only is that it implies that the thing is so traumatic you can’t even say it without a huge amount of preface. And “I need to talk to you about” is worse than that, because it implies something you are going to impart onto the other person, and it will not be pleasant.
Jon Stewart produced a great bit blasting conservatives for their new-found skepticism over Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs reports. Before the unemployment rate dipped to 7.8%, they loved the BLS. Now the BLS is part of a conspiracy to make Obama look good.
Video and text: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-jon-stewart-jobs-truthers-jack-welch-fox-business-20121009,0,4639743.story
“What else would explain why, after unemployment has been steadily declining for the last year, that now suddenly, right before the election, it suddenly declines a little more?”
Another tale of cluelessness: Republicans are hiding how happy they are to have US embassies attacked: Oh boy, something has gone wrong, must be Obama’s fault. And to ice our cake, that effing Hillary bitch’s fault.
Republicans do have some ‘splainin’ to do. But with nanoseconds between accusations and facts being presented that should give them pause, no clue causes neurons to fire. Nope, they are entirely innocent.
Giliell, I’m sorry about your cousin. *hug*
–
:)
–
Whereabouts?
–
blf:
You had me until the shrooms. May I substitute a hard fried egg instead (and who wants my yolk?)
****
Giliell:
I’m sorry to hear about your cousin’s miscarriage.
****
Portia:
I wonder what he thinks is wrong with being gay…
No free toaster oven when you come out of the closet is the only thing wrong with being gay. I’m still waiting on mine 16 years later.
The Maddow video is frightening.
@Ogvorbis: her tweets regarding the homeless guy.
This is fun. Republicans regularly confuse the numbers they may frequently call, (adult hotlines, Hot Horny Girl lines, etc.) with public service hotlines. They give the wrong number to their colleagues and to the media. Sometimes they even post the wrong numbers on their websites.
Tony, this is the same guy who told me he has “no problem with lesbians” but that gay men “gross him out.” I posited that that attitude comes from the idea that men doing something “womanly” is the worst thing evar and he hasn’t brought it up again since.* Thankfully.**
I think gifts to celebrate coming out are a great idea :)
*It was the quickest rebuttal I could come up with on the spot.
**Yeah, I know that’s not technically how that word should be used but I know of no other succinct way to say that. So much for concision, after this parenthetical.
Exercises in Obscurity. I’m going to recommend to Mitt Romney that he write a book with that title.
He was pretty damned good at obscuring both himself and his intentions before, but after the debate and the unveiling of Romney Used Car Salesman Extraordinaire, he has been forced to employ seven veils of obscurity. Tax plans lend themselves particularly well to the seven veils treatment. Link.
Clinton comments on the first presidential debate:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/10/paul-begala-on-why-bill-clinton-s-still-got-the-magic.html
Funny video excerpts of Bubba in action
I took a peak (I accidentally made a pun!) and it looks like she’s complaining about a homeless guy masturbating in front of her. I don’t get what’s wrong with that. I think we can (should be able to) agree that people shouldn’t masturbate in public.
Longer excerpt from Bill Clinton’s speech nailing the jello to the wall:
http://www.examiner.com/video/bill-clinton-ridicules-romney-s-debate-performance-dubbing-him-moderate-mitt-1
“It was like one of these Bain Capital deals, you know, where he’s the closer. So he shows up, doesn’t really know much about the deal and says, ‘Tell me what I’m supposed to say to close.’ The problem with this deal is the deal was made by severe conservative Mitt.”
jose and Beatrice:
Okay. I was not accusing anyone of anything, I was asking for context. Not much I can do as far as checking those tweets out as I cannot access tweets from this computer (don’t ask). Without seeing the tweets (in context (which is why I brought it up (again — NOT trying to accuse anyone of anything!))) I’m not going to comment on any second-hand information. Sorry to have brought it up.
And there goes my pun when I spell it wrong… :(
peek
Ogvorbis,
I don’t think it was in any way implied that you accused anyone of anything.
Now that you are apologizing for no reason, I feel guilty for possibly somehow prompting you to think you have to apologize. Sorry.
…
“And that is how a circle of endless apologies began”, says a very old Beatrice, trying to type “sorry” with her rheumy fingers.
I went and looked at Jen’s tweets too, and the one that made me cringe said something like “Hey homeless people, if you want to masturbate buy a house”
…I just went to fetch a link and it looks like it’s been scrubbed from her account.
Ogvorbis,
/joke
*chocolate* instead if it was a bad one
Beatrice:
When someone shows up with a short statement (in this case, ‘Jen is wrong’) with no other context, I have a strong need to ask for clarification. I have been trying very very hard to not be accusatory when I ask for clarification but, given my recent past, and how many times my request for either context or clarification has been quite mean-spirited on my part, I feel the need to be careful. Especially when, in a situation like this, I have no way to actually read what is going on. Again, jose, I apologize — I was not making any editorial comment on your comment, I was just wondering what was happening. Sorry.
Ooooh, and it seems like I did a sloppy job of reading those tweets (unless that one was erased before I went looking).
Beatrice, it looked to me like it was at the top of her feed, said it was posted 16hours ago. Might have been the first to go when she started deleting. But then, I only looked because of your comment directing me there. Anyway. Yeah…icky icky classism.
Listen, I do understand the (spells it out, out of sensitivity) s-n-o-w thing is a divisive issue, here. Quite possibly at or near the level of p-e-a-s…
But after it was mentioned above, I checked and confirmed that my nearby mountain is opening in six weeks now. And thus I now feel the giddy need to share all the same, divisiveness or no, much as do people insufferably and freshly in love and with new kids and pets and born-again-type religions and so on.
(/You must love snow. It just wants to love you. Come unto snow and fall down and worship, all ye snowfidels. Say, do you mind much if I come in for a few hours and rabbit on endlessly about how snow changed my life, etc…)
aaaaaaaaaand, now I’m the one confused. jose directed me there, not you, Beatrice. Sorry.
#151 AJ Milne, fully agree. I would much rather not shovel snow than not mow my lawn
I used to help in a shelter. I don’t claim to know every homeless person in the world, but in the time I spent there, nearly everyone who did shockingly inappropiate things was mentally ill. Especially when alone. There’s a good chance this is the case. Many spend their days sitting on the sidewalk, just watching people pass by. If he had followed her that would be another matter entirely.
Portia:
I hate the “gay sex grosses me out” meme. Unless one is being asked to participate in sexual activities, why would anyone even think about the sexual activities of someone they’ve just met? When I meet a heterosexual person, I don’t immediately think about what type of sexual activities they partake of.
****
In a moment of silliness, a young girl faces suspension for pink hair:
****
AJ:
All this time posting here and I’m just now learning of an anti-Snow faction of Pharyngulites? I like snow.
On Christmas.
Possibly on New Year’s Eve.
That’s it.
Having lived in Northwest Florida for 10 years though, I’ve forgotten what snow looks like.
(and there’s no contest between the evil Peas and snow).
However, fresh raw snow peas are heavenly. As are snow peas lightly cooked in a Chinese stir-fry. Or snow peas in home-made egg rolls.
And peas, themselves, are excellent in fried rice.
Snow? Back when I could ski, I loved snow. Now, though I enjoy driving in it, I dread it. Shovelling snow bites.
The only people I know who really like snow are Inuit.
Ogvorbis:
Ok, if we ever meet IRL, we’re going to a Chinese restaurant specifically so I can give you all the peas from my fried rice (do you want the carrots too?). I’ve never like veggies mixed in with rice (whether it’s Mexican or Chinese food).
A good friend of mine took me to lunch a few years back and giggled uncontrollably as she watched me spread the rice out and pick out the veggies.
****
Along those same lines, I detest pulp in orange juice. When I was a child, my parents would buy the frozen concentrates that you had to thaw and add water to. Unfortunately, back then there was no such thing as pulp free OJ. My mother walked into the kitchen one day to watch me straining out the pulp from a pitcher of OJ. IIRC, it took about a half hour (I was a child and the strainer was really small). She chuckled and walked away.
Oh. Suuuure. One of those ‘holidays-only’ Snowians.
I like snow.
On postcards. And pictures. Yards is okay, rooftops to a modest degree…but not on roads. There are too many idiots and fools low-flying their cars without regard for others’ lives and limbs as is.
If only it didn’t have to be so damned c-c-cooooollld.
–
Once the peas have in any way shared pan-space with the fried rice, the rice is tainted and must be discarded. Carrots should be in large enough chunks to allow for easy removal; I hate when they put tiny little shreds of carrot in my food, but at least they don’t ruin everything they touch.
–
Tony:
I’ve heard this as a response before: “But, by identifying as specifically ‘gay’ and forming communities and parades and such, you are the ones who are bringing up sex – because that’s what being ‘gay’ means. I don’t identify as ‘straight’ when I mean people, and I don’t explicitly go looking to hang out with other straight people to talk about being straight.”
The notion that everyone is assumed straight until stated otherwise, and therefore straightness not needing to be discussed, came as a bit of a shock to him.
How can it be a “non-human” hair color if it’s on a human?
kristinc:
That’s exactly what I was thinking.
My kid’s elementary school used to have a rule against “crayon colored hair”. I always wanted to go into the office one day holding a brown crayon and ask what color I should dye his hair so he wouldn’t be in violation of the dress code.
Maybe someone else did exactly that, or else the school board got clued in some other way that crayons come in every fucking color, because at some point the rule quietly disappeared.
opposablethumbs:
Recording will come as soon as I have the money for a microphone and a decent audio interface thingy. I’m not that good of a guitar player but I have pretty good tone, and I’m not wasting my one positive thing by recording into an iPhone or webcam microphone.
Ogvorbis:
The proper way to start a conversation is “Honey, we need to talk about our vacation plans in December”… Carlie covered most of it. Things that aren’t a big deal don’t need a long preface or a wait for later or a come sit down and I have to wait until you’re seated and I’ve taken several deep breaths first. “I want a divorce” needs that, and so does “I’m thinking of quitting my job and becoming a professional bowler.” Conversations about things that aren’t dramatic don’t require a dramatic buildup. You can say “hey, there’s an issue with the vacation we need to talk about when we get home” or “when you get a minute, I need to explain this month’s budget to you.”
Specificity eliminates unintentionally creating feelings of dread and horror.
I prolly shoulda bought those snow-boots when they were on sale…
You know what? Fuck snow.
/winter time blasphemy
Maybe I’m wrong, but the whole attitude always seemed so… intrusive. I mean, upon meeting a straight couple, does anyone immediately try to imagine their bedroom habits? Then why the fuck are you doing it when you meet a gay couple?
I think eating peas is icky…but I don’t waste a lot of time on imagining what other people do with peas in the privacy of their own bedrooms.
–
The “Little House on the Prairie” series is being abused. Tea Partiers are using it to beat the 47% about the head and shoulders:
http://www.salon.com/2012/10/10/little_house_on_the_prairie_tea_party_manifesto/
And the An(n)als of Online Dating has done a fabulously eloquent job of making my point for me.
http://www.annalsofonlinedating.com/post/24713865757/how-do-you-feel-about-musical-theater
Audley:
You are so right.
****
What region would you rather live in? Sounds like you’re not a cold weather fan.
Yet more coverage of Mitt’s magical tax plan:
http://www.salon.com/2012/10/10/mitts_magical_tax_plan/
Ummmmm, IIRC Laura Ingalls Wilder’s daughter was a Libertarian, and edited Wilder’s manuscripts specifically to highlight the Ingalls family “independence” and further her pet cause. There is straight up untrue shit in those books. (Never mind that even in her edited version, the Ingalls were pretty well in starving miserable grinding backbreaking poverty for years and years and when they did finally achieve stability it was BECAUSE OF GOVERNMENT LAND GRANTS.)
Giliell, my condolences to your cousin.
chigau:
:( :(
That’s a word I don’t like to hear in October.
Dunno about white folks back in the day but the tribes did a boatload of sharing (intratribe) anyhow. Even today at home when hunting,you ensure that elders got a few of the choice goodies first.
Tony:
Well, it’s a trade off. I’ve lived in the northeast my entire life and I’m not going to lie, it’s pretty sweet here. I mean, yeah, our weather sucks, but the fundy-to-normal person ratio is pretty low, we aren’t currently fighting over reproductive rights or marriage equality or anything like that AND we have amazing food.
If I could live someplace purely for the weather, I’d probably pick the southwestern US. The rest of the southwest doesn’t really thrill me, though.
Tony:
You know, this brings up a fundamental issue with evil, cruel people. It isn’t enough for them to not like something, they have to focus on things they don’t like with laser-like intensity and live constantly on the attack against people who engage in things they don’t approve of. Sex between gay people, feminist blogs, Atheism Plus forums, YouTube videos they don’t agree with… some people live in this constant state of “I don’t like it/you, I can’t stop staring at it/you, so it is YOUR FAULT!”
I mean, I don’t like anything about American Idol. I just don’t watch it! I don’t feel like I need to make anti- clothing, buttons, stickers, websites, whatever. I certainly don’t watch every second of it in order to make ridiculously detailed attacks on it. “Gay” sex? I’m not having any, but you knock yourself out. It is only “gross” if you decide to have noisy gay sex on my lawn or something. Otherwise, I’m sure it is gross when you poop too, that doesn’t mean I think about anyone pooping when I see them out in public.
Improbable Joe,
Congrats on your wife’s job!
But you could say the same of Elizabeth Cady Stanton / Nelson Mandela / your favourite activist. Whether focusing on things you don’t like is good or bad depends on what those things are!
The danger to women if they speak out in Pakistan does not seem to have diminished.
http://nymag.com/thecut/2012/10/14-year-old-pakistani-activist-shot-by-taliban.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/09/us-pakistan-schoolgirl-idUSBRE8980EB20121009
Did anyone ever figure out why FTB won’t allow links to pharyngula wiki (and is there a way to fix it)?
Good evening
A) Where am I going to put all these Halloween lights I’m currently making?
B) Who’s going to eat all the applesauce that’s currently still in the glasses needed to make them?
+++
Thanks everybody.
I hope that whatever my cousin does, she doesn’t give herself shit for this. I know I did back then, asking myself what I’d done wrong.
+++
So, took the kids to the zoo this afternoon* and #1 dared to do what she wanted to do already last time: volunteer to let the big Aguja land on her arm**. I think she was a bit afraid afterwards and we talked about it later tonight. And she was afraid that after it ate that chicken, its poop would stink. I think the dead chicklet might have been more frightening than the eagle itself.
I said yes, that’s a good point, but on the other hand, she eats chicken and her poop stinks as well. At which point she almost wet herself laughing, so I hope that was a good closure of the Aguja incident.
But I’m seriously impressed with her. She really developed a knack with animals I wouldn’t have thought possible a year ago.
*Yes, we do that often. It’s half a mile away and we have an all-year around ticket.
**She’s huge but they say the tamest and most gentle bird they have. She’ll always sway away or land on the ground if she doesn’t feel it to be safe for both of them.
That. Is. SO COOL. Awesome for her for getting up her nerve.
Nick:
That’s true.
However, how often do anti-choice activists, or opponents of same sex marriage work towards progressive goals? In broad strokes, they bear similarities to Stanton or Mandela, but one doesn’t even have to get into the nitty gritty details to see that some activists are working to discriminate against an oppressed people, while other activists fight for equality, fairness and progressive values. The line in the sand may likely be: “I don’t like [topic x]. I want to speak out against it. Based on the available evidence, does it negatively affect a group of people?”
For the anti-choicer, they might dress their argument up in , but the available evidence contradicts their opinion AND they fail to acknowledge the adverse impact anti-abortion laws have on the autonomy of women.
For supporters of marriage equality, they look at the discrimination faced by same sex couples and see the demonstrable harm done by denying them fully marriage equality.
So I’d tweak your comment:
“Whether focusing on things you don’t like is good or bad depends on what those things are and whether or not they negatively impact others.”
Have to do a threadgrumpt about Al Stefanelli’s post about A+ and Schrodinger’s Rapist, and how people are trying to make him “feel guilty about being a white man.”
Grump.
Harrumph.
Grrrrump.
Thanks. Back to your lives, citizens.
Giliell, back when Son was a kid we had a Friends of the Zoo membership, and went to the zoo here almost every weekend. There’s a picnic area, and goodness knows walking the zoo itself was terrific exercise; in the edges of the Ozarks as we are, there are a lot of steep hilly bits. Which unfortunately means I can’t go any more. :(
–
@Audley Z. Darkheart
Prezactly. I mean, gay men aren’t the ones who came up anal beads, are they? And then there is saddlebacking…
@broboxley
Yep. It’s a wonderful tradition.
Me: 2 is good. as long as I’m out by 4. 3:58 PM
Him: I like in & out. 4:01 PM
…you would think an attorney of all people would be cognizant of what constitutes sexual harassment. Brb everybody, I need to take a shower.
Nick:
I don’t think the comparison is really accurate. The difference is that the activists you mention were focused on changing a system/society to better mirror their viewpoint. The assclowns I’m talking about claim a similar viewpoint and seem more focused on… pwnage, for lack of a better term. Lots of people loved Thunderf00t’s “why do people laugh at creationists” videos, and didn’t realize how absolutely poisonous that sort of attitude is. A lot of the “community” seems focused on crushing other people, rather than creating positive change. We sort of ran out of creationists to destroy, so now we’re turning on each other… and while criticism of ideas is a good thing, hypocritical hyperfocus on destroying enemies is a bad idea… especially when said “enemies” don’t fucking care about you.
And… maybe the Lounge is not awesome for this. Guitar!
mythbri, I read that post. Big disappointment – way to not get the point :(
Could hardly see the screen for all the strawfeminists strewn all over.
What about snow peas?
About the Ingalls family – Um, yeah. They had their 160 acres of LAND GRANT. And I’m pretty sure they would have taken just about any government assistance possible during the Long Winter. And all those other times they almost starved to death. And maybe Mary wouldn’t have gone blind with better medical care when she had scarlet fever. And maybe Laura’s son wouldn’t have died in infancy with better medical care. Sheesh.
Well, Carlie, among their virtues was their acceptance of Gawd’s True Will.
I’m at work, and it’s sooooo quiet. Not one veteran.
Tonight is another step in the Redhead’s potential mobility. She is going to a Musical at the theater in Lincolnshire with one of her friends. First outing without my assistance except at the house.
Nerd:
Great news indeed!
Once she was blind, how the heck does anyone think she was able to go to that school they were so excited about, if it hadn’t been built/subsidized BY THE GUBMINT and she couldn’t travel on trains subsidized by THE GUBMINT.
But they paddled their own canoooooooooooe!
@75 theophontes
I wasn’t aware of that definition of iniquity. I know it only as a religious word for sin.
@99 Beatrice
Eh? There are dates on birth certificates now? I have two: my original hospital birth certificate from when I was actually born, and the reissued long form birth certificate issued by the state when my step father adopted me when I was 8. Naturally the original hospital birth certificate has my birth name, not my current legal adopted name, so if I use it for anything I have to also give my original copy of my adoption certificate.
Perhaps they think you might have lost your birth certificate and someone else found it and is using it to impersonate you, and a newer copy means you recently provided sufficient proof of your identity to acquire it, so it is more likely to be really you?
@107 Portia
Yeah, I usually post on the computer, using a Notepad file to type in as I read the thread, and then cut and paste that into the text box. But I wanted to answer you guys quick last night from my phone, and that was an autocorrect guess (I use swype, so it was guessing from a trailing line what word I was attempting to send) and I didn’t reread until after I posted.
How do people usually post pictures in here? I don’t have a website, my pictures are on my computer and my Facebook account.
@113 Portia
I’m having breakfast troubles myself. I don’t feel like eating at 6:30 am, which is not really morning yet for me. I can’t eat fatty/greasy foods like cheese, bacon, or eggs for breakfast, because it upsets my stomach first thing in the morning, and I am hungry too soon if I eat something simple like a muffin, and either way I find that I usually don’t actually eat the food, just pick at it on the way to work because I just don’t feel like eating. I’m ravenous by 10 am when my first break is though. I’m thinking about trying to find a lean protein that isn’t greasy for breakfast instead.
@170 Audley
That makes a lot of sense. The other thing that I find tiresome is the endless speculating about who is gay and who isn’t, and people who are so determined that they can tell. I figure it’s not my business unless they want to tell me or if I am dating them.
@177 Joe
When I was a teenager I thought all sex was terribly gross, and wondered how people stood themselves after having done it. I used to look at the married couples sitting together in church and wonder how they could stand having done that. It took a while, but I grew out of that.
deborahbell,
Yeah, well… I’m still horrified about seeing myself doing it. It just looks so silly.
I went and looked at an apartment today. It was really nice. I think I could like living in a nice one like that, and it was cheaper than I expected for where I live. And close to my work, which the house I live in now isn’t.
And then driving home I felt rather overwhelmed. It’s scary to move out on my own again after having been living with BF for years. It’s scary to be alone. To be solely responsible for bills and my life and such. It’s hard to make decisions like this by myself, without talking things over with him and making a joint decision. And moving is going to be such a pain – I don’t have much furniture or kitchen stuff anymore.
I think I’m going to spend some time tonight looking at budgets to see what’s really possible.
Deborahbell:
For breakfast, have you tried oatmeal? Perhaps with some of your favorite fruit on top. You could also try English muffins with some sort of jam/spread you like or even just butter. Also I’m curious about the upset stomach you get from certain foods in the AM. Bacon I can easily understand. Even cheese. The eggs are throwing me though. Can you eat boiled, steamed or poached eggs? No grease with that preparation. There is fat, so that is a possible factor. I’m just curious. I don’t mean to criticize.
Yay, Nerd!
Yay, deborabell! Change is always scary.
First time I really realized that a LOT of people engage in “watch it because I hate it” behavior was Howard Stern.
He even admitted that at least half of his “fans” were people who actually hated everything he did, but felt compelled to listen anyway.
Ichthyic,
Life is too short for that sort of nonsense. And I find that (especially online) when people slip into a certain mode it is hard to slip out of it. If people give you positive reinforcement for being an asshole, you’re going to be an asshole constantly. If people give you attention for being sad, you might find reasons to feel sad to get that attention.
Something to promote / get / share: Einstein and Eddington, with Andy Serkis as Albert Einstein and David Tennant as Arthur Eddington.
@199 Tony
I’m thinking of fried eggs. I have actually eaten boiled eggs for breakfast (boiled the night before, so they are cold) and I don’t remember having a problem. I like poached eggs also, but that takes more time and attention than I usually want to give breakfast in the morning.
When I was a teenager oatmeal often made me nauseous. It’s a different thing than the difficulty with greasy foods in the morning. I don’t know if it was anything other than teenage growing pains, but I don’t really like oatmeal today.
theophontes,
While that eagerness may correlate with leftism, its presence is not sufficient to establish leftism. Milton Friedman wanted to end poverty by introducing a negative income tax. While a NIT could be part of a leftist system, his wasn’t, because he coupled it only with a flat tax, and an ideological unwillingness to involve government in any more specific antipoverty programs.
How is what you’re talking about different from noblesse oblige? Groups of people volunteering outside of government, collaborating to address social problems, is entirely consistent with right-wing libertarianism — indeed the purported capabilities of such groups (ignoring the effects of economic downturns on charity) is a favorite libertarian talking point. Certainly some of the members of Rotary are leftists, I know, but I don’t yet see how you can say that of the group itself, at least considering what you’ve said about them re South Africa. Are they agitating for government to take up leftist policies?
+++++
Beatrice,
It ended up in the spam filter because, when I had it linked in my nym, another blogger at FtB started deleting my comments (or deliberately, maliciously flagging them as spam (I’m not sure which)).
Ed Brayton’s tech person(s) should be able to fix it sitewide. So presumably the way to fix it is to email Ed. Also you can ask individual bloggers to whitelist it on their blogs, like PZ has here.
deborahbell, I used to eat steak for breakfast, because the protein stuck with me all morning. (I could not do sugary food for breakfast.) Not a big greasy steak (yum), but some lean round steak with a little pepper and salt in a pre-heated nonstick skillet. Not a lot of trouble, fairly fast, and damned manly. (Two slices of bread/toast, and you have a sandwich.)
I like rice with/for breakfast, but it does tend to leave you hanging later in the morning. With some protein, it’s good all morning. I loved congee, which is rice boiled into porridge, at the Asian breakfast places where they had a buffet of things like peanuts and fish to top it with—I haven’t made it myself, yet. So I make a big pot of rice, store it in the fridge and use the microwave—if you have some boiled eggs already peeled, or protein of choice, you don’t have to spend much time making breakfast. (When I’m lazy, I just make a BIG bowl of something, microwave it the next morning, eat some, put it back in the fridge, and repeat until my wife stops me.)
My wife likes oatmeal. I like poached eggs on toast, if I have time. But greasy bacon and fried eggs, or cereal, or pancakes, just leave me feeling ermph.
(Speaking of feeling ermph, I mentioned peanuts and fish, meaning two separate bowls, but some places they were both in the same bowl. The fish were little bitty, whole, and seemed to be mostly eyes, and cannot possibly have been eviscerated. They may have been fermented, and certainly were salty. I thought of it as “guppies and peanuts” and tried to focus on the peanuts. I don’t recommend that for breakfast, I just was remembering.)
Deborahbell – have you tried peanut butter for breakfast? It’s good on toast, in a sandwich, or with banana. That’s decent for some protein without the greasy feeling. Baked beans can be a breakfast food, too (or any bean dish or soup), for more grease-free protein.
I’ll eat just about anything for breakfast – I’ll mix and match any food types when I feel like it. One of my favorite breakfasts is leftover dinner from the night before. I’m usually hungry in the mornings sometime before I leave, but I’m the same way with my stomach being a bit touchy on what I eat.
Caine asked for an a_ray update.
1)Way too much gardening–we’ve got 1/2 acre of gardens now, and they grow more weeds than anything else. Even so, a fair year for asparagus, tomatoes, green beans… Freezer is full of tomato sauce, peaches and other goodies.
1a)The wife has taken a real shine to baking bread with freshly ground flour. We have a hand grinder–so I’m developing a good arm workout.
2)Way too much work–They want me to develop some high-level strategies, while still being buried under satellite projects. I reckon I’m booked at about 2.5 FTE if I did all the work I’m supposed to.
3)Other companies are trying to recruit me away from the Integrated Worldwide House of Rocket Engines (IWHORE), so a couple of interviews back near here my aging parents live–we’ll see.
4)Another trip to the gem and mineral show in Brazil–some really nice tourmalines, emeralds and imperial topaz, but not many rare minerals.
5)To much of just about everything–so much so, that when I tried to go into detail, I’d run out of time before I had to get back to work…hence this pathetically inadequate missive.
Take care, Hon. If not posting, I’ll occasionally lurk buy.
How to cook eggplant?
Improbable Joe:
Use heat.
Flame thrower until totally carbonized. ;)
Actually, I usually add it to the less used side of the propane grill and cook until easily pierced by a cooking fork.
Eggplant:
Slice, put between several layers of toweling with weights on for about an hour, bread, fry.
Or any version of imam bayildi, or ratatouille(both of which are variations on eggplant, tomato, onions, garlic and a little sugar, all cooked in olive oil).
Ha! Spokesgay, A.J. Milne: all I have to say is, “Merci” and the waiters in Quebec know I’m an anglophone.
kristinc @530, I suggest that you ask the club if they would alternate two different days of the week–it’s worth a try.
Thanks Nerd and Carlie. I’m going to try the frying style, although it is too late tonight to start prepping eggplant.
Also, for the six of you who care, I have picked out a new and improved Horde-Hammer, Official SpokesGuitar. More reasonably priced and all that. :)
Improbable Joe, Google is tricky for you?
Why ask that, John? Of course you can look up stuff like recipes, but it’s more fun getting recommendations from people you know and like as to what they make and enjoy.
Carnivore warning:
Speaking of recipes, I’m not sure what to do with the ground lamb meat I bought. I decided to check out the farmer’s market today and wound up with all sorts of weird organic locally grown/raised crap.
on voting green
http://www.salon.com/2012/10/10/camille_paglias_glittering_images/
of course I posted the above before reading to the end. Her poking at atheism is absolute crap. Art? Seriously? Well she is an Art professor….
ground lamb is awesome in chili, a true basque treat
carlie:
You’ve answered your own question. :)
(How to tie one’s shoelaces?)
I’ve never understood the double bunny ears method, myself. I’m definitely a loop around and through person. :)
[Lifes little puzzles]Ordered the Redhead some leather mittens. The direct route from San Francisco to Chicago appears to go through El Paso according the tracking information from the USPS. [/lifes little puzzles]
deborahbell
I’m not a web savvy person but you could use imgur. I think.
I was going to suggest boiled eggs for breakfast. Stuff like cottage cheese works for breakfast for me, too, if that sounds good to you. I like adding jam to it for breakfast time.
YAY
Oh, I understand. I am so glad you took such a big step. I also know how intimidating budgeting can be when it’s not something you’re used to or haven’t done in a while. Good luck, and if you’ve already done it, I hope it went ok. (And thanks for the update).
Menyambal
That sounds great.
I learned this evening that I have more practice before I make a decent loaf of bread.
FWIW, one can make chips out of eggplant.
(Coat with oil and spices as desired, then bake)
Maybe the texture? I know I had problems with that, and steel cut oatmeal solved them…just not the prep time problems or how soon afterwards I start getting hungry again. D:
Still no word from the Printer of Shirts; I’m getting antsy.
Anybody have experience of silk screening tee shirts? Is it hard? Ridiculously expensive?
–
Great news wrt to the Redhead, Nerd! Huzzah!
–
I used to get nauseous eating anything in the morning for about the first 2 hours after I got up…or about the same time it took/takes my brainz to boot up in the morning. This last five-ish years, though, for some reason the stomach becomes cranky if I haven’t thrown it a sacrifice within about half an hour. Weird. I ate oatmeal for a while, then it started giving me horrifically painful intestinal gas. These days it’s a lof-fat mozzarella cheese stick and bagel.
–
Yep. :)
–
Plus sometimes a recipe doesn’t give helpful hints that more experience cooks know…and you can’t ask a posted recipe about substitutions, and face it, most places don’t have Pharyngula’s fast response-and-feedback. Also too, recipes sometimes outright lie about number of servings, or cooking times, or stuff like that.
–
cicely,
I did screen printing years and years ago, and I don’t remember it being THAT hard.
I’m starting to think that Printer of Shirts is not interested in my business…and that maybe I should just look into cutting out the middleman altogether.
–
Screen printing is all about the prep, once the prep is done it’s easy and quick to knock out shirt after shirt, or whatever it is you’re printing on. It’s about the cheapest method for mass producing logo’d paraphernalia out there.
A decent screen printer should be able to knock out a job in a couple few hours. Again, that’s almost all prep. The it’s seconds per item plus drying time, which all depends on humidity and temperature.
“then it’s seconds” even
eggplant, slice thin, fry in olive oil then stack it in a pan like lasagna and treat it the same way with tomato sauce and cheese
Random updates while I wait for the melatonin to kick in.
Exterminator came today to chat about …exterminating. Yay! Maybe I can stop waking up with new spider bites.
So I was going to ask, “and how does Camille Paglia deal with the fact that 1 vote for Jill Stein is mathematically equivalent to giving 0.5 votes to Mitt Romney?”
Then I saw:
She knows and is perfectly okay with giving half a vote to Romney, because she wants Mitt Romney to win!
Nerd, I hope the Redhead had a great time on her solo adventure.
cicely, have you looked at spreadshirt.com* [direct link to the page about opening your own free store]? I’ve purchased t-shirts from spreadshirt.com, but I don’t have any personal knowledge about selling .
*This is my first attempt at linking. It works in preview. :D
Sorry, Camille, I don’t think I can possibly have heard you right. Mitt Romney is a what now?
That’s totally the kind of thing a super-liberal green partier would honestly say, once you make the slight interpretive adjustments above. I’m sure that’s how broboxley read it.
I read the atheism part of the Paglia article (thanks for the link). I had particular trouble with her slamming atheism because Hitchens drank a lot. I am not a follower, mindless or otherwise, and I can sort out Hitchens’ works from his habits. The same goes for what she said about Dawkins.
The other part that stuck was her complaint bout a university giving students a presentation on consent. Letting young folks know, in a legal way, that it’s not alright to run up to other people and start humping them, is not spying on them or telling them how they have to act.
—-
As breakfast food, don’t forget corn. “Grits” are capable of going sweet or savory, and can be made fairly easily, even from instant packets (for cheesy grits, just add Velveeta). I grew up eating cornmeal mush, and sometimes scrapple, which is leftover mush with meat bits stirred in, sliced when cold and fried for eating. Polenta is Latino ground-corn mush, with assorted ways of cooking. Corn tortillas are available in many stores, and MUST be heated to be edible (one/two minutes in the microwave is easiest) and if you can get them fresh-made, you are in luck—fill, roll, scoop or just smear. I buy hominy in bulk cans, and warn you that it pops in the microwave—sweet or savory, it’s just unground grits, and a lot faster.
Breakfast:
fruit smoothies!
(Hand-held blenders can be inexpensive.)
Couscous is lovely either with bits of vegetables and/or cheese, or topped with a poached egg. It cooks fast too.
In her defense, Camille Paglia is an idiot.
See: idiot.
This is going to be soooo useful!
@ SGBM
People who are capable of helping (socially and financially) less fortunate people actually doing so? Agreed, there is a large group of disparate people who can and do as such. When do they step out from under such a broad brush term?
You may be giving the answer as to that criteria with:
I cannot speak beyond my own limited experience in answering this. I would say generally no. There is not a specific political agenda from the organisation that I am aware of.
In the specific case I raised though, members do take up more political positions and try to push policy and action in the local government. Though Rotary may take a neutral stance, it nevertheless provides a platform for tackling social issues. In this case you have people, working through the organisation, holding the government to account on their responsibilities towards marginalised communities and individuals.
Menyambal:
OOOOOOOH!
New food!
I’ve never heard of that dish. I don’t believe I’ve ever tried porridge. Is it similar to oatmeal, grits, cream of wheat or couscous? Does it matter what type of rice is added to it?
You’ve got me excited to try something.
I simply must add that to my Bucket List O’ Food.
****
Joe:
I’ve never cooked eggplant myself, but I have watched someone cook it and I’ve watched how it can be prepared in a restaurant.
One of the easiest cooking methods is roasting it in the oven. I’d say cut the eggplant into long strips, drizzle with EVOO, season however you like (personally, my standby is garlic powder & salt, red pepper flakes, and ground pepper), then put it in a roasting pan. Cover that with foil and cook it for maybe 10-12 minutes @ 350º.
You could also do pretty much the same thing in a saute pan.
****
kristinc:
I know hearing the truth can be difficult, but it bears repeating:
That’s what she said right?
Boy does it ever. I came home from work about 2 hours ago and was somewhat hungry. I roasted thinly sliced, boneless pork chops and while I let them cool, I cooked
waaaaay too muchcouscous. By the time I plated the dish, my pork chops were still quite warm. I successfully burned a small portion of the couscous in the bottom of the pot [because I have a habit of getting distracted when cooking for myself], but decided to add some butter, milk, spices and a dash of corn starch and made a gravy, which got rid of the burnt stuff (again, since I like stuff that’s slightly burnt, the flavor didn’t bother me).Now I have enough couscous for the next few days.
****
deborahbell:
My roommate T likes to spread peanut butter over red delicious apples in the morning along with a protein shake.
@ chigau
Hope this linky works: Idiot.
Thanks, strange, for the link.
I was reminded of another case, with I think the opposite kind of person. Mary Renault wrote some great books about ancient Greece http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Renault . Seriously, go read them.
She wrote about homosexual lovers, and gained a great following among gays. But she didn’t support the gay pride movement. She felt that identifying oneself by one’s sexual orientation wasn’t right, as sex wasn’t what a person was all about. There was some confusion.
===
“Mexican”-type chili makes a good breakfast food for me sometimes. I make a big pot, cool that to lift the grease off, and divvy it up into small containers. It has meat protein (try it with pork) as well as whatever vegetable matter you add (you can thicken with cornmeal), and goes well on spaghetti, tortillas or rice. You might not want to breath spices on people, but I find “hot” stuff wakes me up in the morning (see the moniker—sambal is chili paste).
SGBM:
Ugh.
I just read the link you provided to Camille Paglia’s wikipedia entry. There was so much fail there I don’t know where to begin.
This gem really stood out to me:
Oh gee, she’s trying to tell other people how they feel by diminishing their personal experiences and choices. Such a sterling example of humanity she is.
More like a condescending, pompous, arrogant fuckwit.
That was my intent. ;)
Anyway, thanks for your response. It sounds like it doesn’t put them on the left, but the networking can be a vehicle or amplifier for the politics of whoever gets involved.
Menyambal:
It sounds like she didn’t understand the nature of privilege. She likely hasn’t had to question her sexuality. It was not something she needed to assert or fight against. As such, the twit really shouldn’t have spoken about something she knew nothing about.
theophontes #247
If I grok the site and google translate serves … that kinda sucks the fun out of calling someone an idiot.
@ Tony
A breakfast mainstay here. Delicious with pickles, roast peanuts and accompanied with Chinese donut sticks.
Always a problem in a pan, as it likes to suck up oil. I have taken to blanching slices in boiling salted water prior to use. (They need a bit of a head-start.)
What works really well: Slice them in half down the middle and score the flesh with x-shaped cuts. baste with finely chopped garlic in olive oil (add your favourite herbs/spices) and barbeque over the coals. Give them time to get really soft and caramelise and burn the skins slightly for extra taste.
Make lots, ’cause the remainder you can scoop out into a bowl the next day. Add lemon juice, corriander, fennel seeds … whatever you enjoy,… some fresh fine chopped garlic (never enough!) and olive oil. Mash well and eat on fresh baked sourdough bread. Omnomnom….
Menyambal: it’s hard to imagine what Renault would say on the subject today if she were still alive. I say it’s hard because she evidently didn’t come at everything from a default “contrarian supporting the status quo” standpoint like Paglia does.
+++++
Tony,
Yeah. Paglia also insisted on referring to Chaz Bono as “Chastity”.
PS: Renault was a lesbian, so we can assume she’s dealt with straight privilege.
Ok, so today is National Coming Out Day:
I’m queer.
Tony, congee is usually made with a shorter grain rice, or broken rice. Cook it in stock (chicken is usual) to what we westerners normally think of as overcooked so it starts going mushy. It should be like a thickish soup. Here’s a simple one (uses Jasmine rice): http://www.abc.net.au/tv/pohskitchen/stories/s3063499.htm (AUS coriander = US cilantro)
@ chigau
Yeah, along the line of “individualist”. A dreadful indictment back in the day but rather par for the course today.
It can also mean “unskilled”. Or more broadly something like “couch-potato” compared to the athletic prowess one was expected to display. Also: “Lacking expertise”, “ignorant” …
Link.
PS: Sorry, borked link:
Link to The History Guide. This is a series of easy-to-read lectures on Ancient and Medieval European History. The topic above is referred to in Chapter 6.
SGBM:
…
That’s so odd then. The cultures she lived in (Cape Town and London) were overwhelmingly viewed as heterosexual, so obviously, if you were straight it wasn’t something to put on a big show about. But if you were gay, you had to deny that aspect of yourself or face strong social consequences. When queers started publicly announcing their sexuality, being able to self identify was a huge moment. Moreover, she seemed to fall prey to the idea that homosexual is all about the sex. Despite being a lesbian, I wonder if she ever came to understand that sexuality is part of who we are, but it is not *all* of who we are. One should no more define a homosexual man by his sexual behavior than one would a heterosexual man.
I am tired and I don’t want to go to the gym even though it is Gym Day. Somebody please tell me to go to the gym.
Good morning
Yay for Nerd and the Readhead
Deborah
Best luck with the apartment.
And if you feel alone, there’s always the Lounge
+++
(gay) sex grosses me out.
I think it tells more about the person who says this than about the sex other people have. I mean, it’s reasonable to assume that most couples I know have or have had sex. And the parents I know are sure to have had sex. But somehow the first thing that doesn’t cross my mind when somebody introduces me to their partner or shows up with a kid is “IIIIIIIIIeeeeeeeeehhhhhh they had SEGHS*!!!”
++++
Breakfast:
Since I’m on Thyroxin I NEED brekfast. I faint without and no, fainting in public into a strong man’s arms is NOT romantic. It’s just scary.
I generally have something like Cornfalkes, Wheetabix or Porridge.
+++
Why do that? Enough energy was wasted on growing the damn thing.
+++
Joe
Shish Kebap
Mix meat with an egg, garlic, garlic, onions, garlic, spices, garlic.
Form “sausages” around a wooden skewer and barbecue
Alethea
Go to the gym!
Please.
*BTW, where’s Brownian? I understand that Louis is busy, but those lines aren’t getting shorter by themselves.
GO TO THE GYM!!!!2!!!@!!! DAMNIT!!!!!
@ Tony
Linky.
But but the bloke doesn’t want to go either and he’s offering to buy me drinks.
oh ok damnit I’ll go to the gym.
Um, the “Yippeee!!!” remark was about Malala surviving, not about her getting shot in the head.
Sometimes I overdo the “keep posts short” thing.
Yay for the Redhead – hope the outing goes/went well.
You went to the gym, right, Alethea? Good on you! I’m going in an hour or two …
Well, there wouldn’t be much time to waste, since people don’t do much of anything to peas. It’s what the peas do to people. And it’s horses which are often involved. Not houses. Easy mistake to make. (Hint: The one with a door is house. Unless it’s wooden, on wheels, and outside the gates. Then it’s a horse.)
────────────────────────────────
Same as squash: Cover in concrete. Throw into sea. Prepare something edible.
────────────────────────────────
Not the squash recipe.
Beatrice:
The Everyday Misogyny thread @B&W is giving me a fucking headache. So many people have tried to inform ianmacdougall how wrong he is and the nitwit just digs deeper and deeper. Now he’s got emily isalwaysright sticking up for him.
Yeah, Tony, I’ve seen.
I feel like I’ve fallen into a strange alternate universe. Or something out of Twilight Zone.
Giliell:
No vampire is going to bite you, you garlic lover :)
I’m right there with you. I think I put so much garlic in my food that I don’t know what the stuff tastes like anymore. But it sure smells good at least!
****
deborahbell:
I can’t believe I didn’t think of this earlier. Turkey sausage is a great alternative to other breakfast meats. I sometimes slice some up, toss in the oven (with garlic, salt n pepper) just to warm up (most of the turkey sausage I’ve seen is already cooked) and then toss into a bowl of grits. It’s scrumdeliumptious.
****
Alethea.
Paging Alethea.
Please pick up your phone.
It’s the gym calling.
Your presence is requested.
****
theophontes:
I’ve never seen that symbol before.
That’s awesome!
Thank you!
****
Joe’s question about eggplant has me wondering if you can eat that raw. I suppose you can, but is that any good? I mean broccoli and carrots are delumptious served raw. Some strange people around the world like raw cucumbers (which are apparently the fourth most widely cultivated vegetable in the world).
Yes, cucumbers are on my list, along with cauliflower, peas, mussels, clams, coleslaw, green beans, oysters, sauerkraut, brussels sprouts, and more. I just realized a theme among the foods I don’t like. Too many of them are vegetables. I can’t think of a grain or meat product that I don’t like.
****
blf:
before you toss the squash in the ocean, can I haz the seeds? They’re so good.
Also, if you have a dog, you can give the squash to them. My roomie E has an American Bulldog who loves squash. My dog Krystal, is a little more finicky.
****
Peas, Obi Won. They’re my only hope.
Beatrice:
I meant to add that I saw what you and LeftSidePositive had to say, and it seemed so simple to grasp, yet some people just don’t get it.
blf:
What if it’s a talking horse with an owner named Wilbur?
(was Ed his first name or last?)
I’ll need to add politically correct to my name.
It’s getting too long.
OK, I went to the gym. I’m home now. Thank you. The bloke says I’m a better man than he is, and called me Gunga Din. He seems confused.
Christopher Lambert is one of 10 action stars of the 80s who has drifted into obscurity.
****
Beatrice:
Ha ha!
Now I’m engaging in confirmation bias because I gave supporting citations for Victim Blaming.
****
Really? An iPad mini?
Did someone paint a giant “Kick me” sign and stuck it to my back, somehow making it noticeable only to commenters on B&W? Because every fucking commenter there seems to want to chastise me for something, from fucking Rebekah to ianmacdougall.
People say same things I do, but then I get all the incredulous bullshit from Ian who must be respected because he comments there long.
I think I’ll go back to just reading Ophelia’s posts.
Peas: Check.
Brussel sprouts: Check.
More: Ah, more? Never heard of such a food…
But, but, but, mussels? Clams? Coleslaw? Oysters??? Sauerkraut? Cauliflower? What about heathen (even if it would be cannibalism)? I mean, like (er, don’t), oysters! Heathen!!
Sounds like a challenge…
Conga rats on making it to the gym, Alethea! You are a batter man than me, too, Gunga Din! =^_^=
Batter? Better, of course. I think the eggplants have invaded my previous comment.
Mmm, eggplants in batter, fried.
*dum-dum-di-dumm* Electric tealights *dum-dum-di-dumm*
+++
Have you ever encountered the (usually) past middle-age man who, for some reason (illness, death, divorce) is no longer supplied with cake by his wife and now takes great pride in baking or learning how to bake?
Funny how those vain women’s activities like talking about the advantages of silicone moulds suddenly are all worthy of their time.
Met one of this specimen today. And of course he felt entitled to all the women’s time to tell him what is what. But at least he was friendly, so no grumpy feelings, just marvelling at how things turn from “womanly and unworthy of pursuit” to proper manly achievements…
+++
beatrice
Well, you got yourself two nice examples of reasonable people (raised by wolves and living on a different planet). Kind of glad I’ve taken my leave from B&W
#258 theophontes
from your link, bit of a stratch dont you think? Sumerian afterlife
sumerian afterlife was either zombie, vampiric or sitting around eating clay. Not much to look forward to but there all the same
Tony:
I feel like there’s already an iPad mini– it’s an iPod Touch.
If everyone will permit me to briefly whine:
I am so done with this pregnancy thing. My back hurts, my feet hurt, my fucking ribs hurt. I can’t get out of my chair without feeling like I’m gonna topple over. I’m hungry 24/7, but I can only eat a little bit at a time and I can’t ever take a full breath.
I am so fucking sick of being tired and uncomfortable and I still have 2 weeks to go. Is it bad that I hope that I go onto labor before my scheduled c-section just so I can have my body back?
Hang in there Audley!
Soon you can have a beer!
Giliell,
See, now this is why I’m glad I learned how to cook and clean and generally take care of myself when I was a kid. Years before I moved out of my parents’ house, I didn’t depend on my parents to take care of me. Plus, my parents both worked and split the chores so I never saw anything as “women’s work.” I joke with my wife that a woman’s place is the hell out of my kitchen.
Audley,
It isn’t bad that you want to hurry up and go into labor. It would be bad if you took up bungie jumping or bought a trampoline to hurry things along.
Indonesia Gang-Rape Victim Reportedly Expelled From School For ‘Tarnishing Institution’s Image’ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/10/indonesia-gang-rape-victim-expelled_n_1955753.html
-Fuck these motherfuckers!
— — —
giliell:
*dum-dum-di-dumm*
“We are farmers, dum-di-dum-di-dum-dum dum-dum”
Audley – why do you think there are so many old tales out there on how to induce labor? ;) Hang in there!
Hang in there Audley! Not long to go now … and soonish you’ll get your body back {hug}. My sympathies, I remember I bloody well wanted mine back. Hope you’re getting backrubs/footrubs/Nice Cups of Tea as and when.
Hmmmm… a trampoline….
Oh, I went to the gym too, Alethea – didn’t see you there, though, so I must have just missed you.
Thanks, everyone.
*hugs* and *squidz* for Audley. You’re almost there!
Audley
I so know that feeling. Get the fuck out there now or I’ll make you! #1 went 5 days over her due date and I was shouting, cursing, crying and being generally miserable. For the love of life, apart from the actual danger for the fetus, I can never understand how somebody would go for 43 weeks without induction.
The saying goes that heavy duty sex can start labour ;)
Yay squidz!
Please accept this virtual toaster oven. : )
——
Audley
I’m sorry you’re hurting. I’m excited for you that the time is so close at hand to hold DarkInfant in your arms, instead of your insides :)
audley, no horseback riding after drinking a bottle of castor oil
Paging Dr. Freud.
Well, in that it starts the whole process in the first place…
Giliell:
Thankfully with a planned c-section, I know I won’t go over my due date (it’s actually 4 days before she’s due). My docs also have a “cut off”– I can’t remember the exact number of days they’ll let you go over, but it’s only 4 or 5 before they recommend being induced.
And heavy duty sex hasn’t started labor yet, so I’m feeling kind of cheated. :p
(Not sure how true it is, but what I’ve heard is that sex brings on labor only after you’ve started dilating. No such luck here.)
Portia:
Thank you. I took a walk around the warehouse and things seem to be, ah, loosening up a bit, so I’m not feeeling quite so bad. Uncomfortable, yes, but the pain has definitely dulled.
In other news, I’m trying to draft an email reminding everyone at work that my medical leave starts on Monday, so if anything comes up they need to contact the new supervisor or the sales staff. I’m running into problems with closing the email– I’m trying to say goodbye without sounding too sappy (I really do like most of the people I work with and I will miss them. Plus, they don’t know whether I plan to come back or not). Blast!
I could just close with
I suppose.
Audley #300
What’s wrong with sappy?
Leave them weeping!
Chigau:
You know, it would be amusing to make a bunch of Jersey Tuff Guise™ all blubbery. :D
Link followed; tab duplicated. Thanks, Hekuni Cat! I will definitely check it out!
Also: *hug*
–
I said “with” rather than “to”, but other than that, you’re preachin’ to the choir, blf; and I further note that unlike Horses, houses are seldom intrinsically Evil. Any Evil has to be grafted on later by Unnatural Means.
I would also argue that anyone performing vegesexual acts with peas, whether in the privacy of their bedrooms or not, has probably, at some point, met up with a Horse. I just don’t spend a lot of time fantasizing lingeringly about such unfortunates.
–
Word. Though a well-proportioned and unscarred eggplant may, together with various colors of bell peppers and other inedibles, be arranged to make a colorful and attractive centerpiece. You just don’t want to stick a fork in it.
–
*hugs* and sympathy, Audley. Ah, I remember the feeling all too well; sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. Son was a week early; coulda trimmed another week offa that and I wouldn’t’ve minded atall.
My mother went a month into over-time with my youngest brother. *shudder*
–
What to Expect When Expecting (in the Village of the Damned).
–
cicely,
I hate you
Beatrice,
My work here is done.
*flourishing cape*
–
Audley, Why not this:
Edison out!
*drops mic*
I haz a happy: I have graphs and tables! Yay, successful data analysis!
I haz a sad: My advisor is busy writing grant applications and won’t be able to admire my pretty graphs until November.
I haz an intimidated: Therefore, I must do brilliant things with this data between now and then.
…I think I’ll go work out.
under today’s WTF
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/brendanoneill2/100183130/darkies-is-a-disgusting-word-but-people-shouldnt-be-given-suspended-jail-sentences-for-saying-it/
please someone tell me he has the facts wrong
Hia all.
I’m sort of tired, distracted, and bitter right now, partly because of the workload, and partly because of Mittens (seriously, these “debates” are farces).
So I’ve relapsed to lurking. Bleh.
Audley: Good luck with the immediate pre-birth, and C-section!
The rest of you, hope you’re well.
Octopus Opens Food Canister While Fending Off A Shark
Hi thunk.
Don’t overwork yourself.
Thank you, thunk!
I’m still stuck on this email. So far I’ve got:
And I kind of dead end there. Dammit.
Haha. Oh, who knew I was doing it wrong all this time?
Not.
Well I like aubergine. In moussakas, or sliced thin and dipped in a thick spicy batter with plenty of garlic and fried … mmmmmmm.
What’s with all the anti-aubergine sentiment. I even like peas sometimes. Hah.
Damn, I’m in a stroppy mood this evening.
While salting and pressing does have its advantages (the eggplant will absorb less fat), it isn’t necessary. Eggplant can be fried on a hot skillet (the water content is high so they can take a lot of heat) as it is, just diced. Some sweet peppers, onions, tomatoes (and whatever carlie said) could be added. I’m not a carnivore anymore but I think I could have formed the lamb into patties and eaten it with the eggplant back when I was.
Another thing to do with eggplant would be making a casserole:
Grease a casserole dish, put some fresh carrots and other roots (parsnip, parsley root, maybe even some potatoes), black and white pepper, some fresh mushrooms, onions, garlic, sweet peppers and celery stalks in the aforementioned dish, put the egglant on top and add some water (as little as possible) and bake in the oven (200 C) until everything is suitably softened (maybe 45 min to 1 hr), then add some tomato paste, basil, oregano, thyme and sour cream (or smetana or creme fraiche if available) and mix everything up and put it back in the oven and keep it there until boiling restarts.
If some ingredients are unavailble leave them out or substitute with something else. The juices of eggplant, celery stalks and fresh mushrooms provide most of the liquid, so not much water is needed and the flavors will not be diluted. Tomato paste and sour cream should not be added too early because the roots won’t cook properly in acidic conditions.
—
My condolences to Giliell and good luck to Audley Z. Darkheart!
Eggplant thin-sliced and fried, along with tomatoes and feta? As a side-dish for the ground lamb with garlic, onion, and fresh mint? Maybe some tzatziki on the side?
Sounds very good. Go for it!
Well, I’ve got the eggplant and the cucumber both salting. Lovely, but I sort of wish I’d started, ummm… yesterday?
Well, you can have all of mine.
++++
*dum-dum-di-dumm*
I can haz Halloween
We’re going to eat a lot of applesauce….
Okay, maybe someone can tell me what it is about being pregnant that makes people want to tell you about all of their fertility problems?
Sorry if this makes me a callous asshole, but no, random dude at work, I really don’t give two shits about your wife’s IVF treatments. I don’t care how many years it took her to conceive; this whole conversation is unprofessional and kind of creepy. Just get the hell out of my office, okay?
(Friends and family and [Loungers] are, of course, exempt. But random strangers? Coworkers? Friends of friends of friends? Yeah… not so much.)
I really hope those jars look bigger than they really are, because you’re not going to eat just a lot of applesauce. More like enough to make you hate apples for the rest of your life.
Cool lamps! Did you draw that yourself or bought a pattern? In any case, they’re pretty.
—
Joe, I usually leave aubergines salting for half an hour, hour tops. Unless they are really really bitter.
Often, I just fry them right away.
Fresh cucumbers… Now there’s something I’m not very fond of.
Audley, now I’m glad I didn’t decide to tell you about that time that my penis jumped off and replaced itself with an eggplant for three months while it was on followed Phish around for a summer. That would have been embarrassing for me and I guess it would have bothered you something fierce.
Audley:
Not much longer now at least.
I just bet you’re eager to get pregnant again real quick like…[ducks]
****
Portia @296
Thank you.
Why do I see My Little Pony all over it?
****
thunk:
Stay well. Don’t work yourself too much.
Joe:
I really hope your Eggplant penis didn’t look anything like this. It looks a bit heavy and oddly colored.
Audley, I am also numbed by driveby TMI at work example from the other day
“My doc said I have the womb and ovaries of a 27yo”
I didnt know her first name at that point in time.
I’m taking breakfast notes. I mostly do heavy protein-type stuff for the kids (they’re fond of chicken and turkey bacons and eggs); and as I have mild issues with heavy greasy stuff, but am still looking for some protein, it’s usually a bit more into the blueberries and/or grapefruit and cured cheeses area for me.
… my own contribution/suggestion: fruit compôte is pretty awesome, if you have fruit around that goes a bit too mushy just to eat as is (I kind live on berries, so this does happen on and off), and happen to be nocturnal like me, and more functional at night anyway. Mince and and cook the fruit into compôte the night before, which you can then store in the fridge a few days. Nice with oatmeal or on a slice of something crusty. Try something like steel-cut oatmeal, maple syrup, fruit compôte with something tart in it, like cranberries. This is actually a breakfast with some serious mileage in it and not a lot of work, and you can do the same deal with the oatmeal (cook the night before, chill into a few serving sized dishes, microwave in morning, keeps a few days).
On the more fun recipe front, I have now managed to make ganache-filled truffles work. And my tempering skills are now frickin’ formidable again, if I do say so myself.
… but the ganache kinda needs work. May post in here once I’ve got both winning techniques and proportions, but it’s really not there yet.
Thank you Giliell! Om nom nom :-D
(and it’s vegetable soup tonight, using up all yesterday’s leftovers from the roast vegetables we had, plus extra spinach, plus sprinkling in the leftover rice at the last minute so’s it won’t get soggy. With parmesan on top. Yum.)
Which 27yo did you nick them from …?
Maybe that’s only appropriate if at least one of the interlocutors is an Igorina or an Igor.
Joe:
What bothers me the most is you wingwang was following Phish around. Ugh. Jam bands.
beatrice
It’s embroidery (machine done).
The jars are 720ml for the small ones. The big one was 1,5l of gherkins which I donated to my sister and grandma. Too much dill.
Audley
Hey, remember, pregnant = not actual person anymore. Only actual person container.
Also remember: you’re done tomorow. Then two weeks of waiting and then DF eviction.
Breakfast foods:
I make a portable breakfast, carry it to work, and eat while doing my morning e-mail. It works well. My usual breakfast is a bagel (usually honey whole grain) with cream cheese (usually chive and onion) with tea.
I have never once eaten eggplant (to my knowledge). What does it taste like?
Cardboard
I was going to suggest kleenex.
eggplant:
The texture is a bit spongy. It’s a bit bitter, but (unless you are unlucky and buy the really bitter one) it gets sort of sweet after cooking.
I can’t say that it reminds me of any other food, so no comparison.
Slimy cardboard.
But good.
Eggplant tastes like… the white part of a strawberry?
Er, my description didn’t make it sound appetizing, did it?
But I like eggplant. In moussaka or just fried in batter, in tomato sauce or smashed into a paste with garlic, olive oil and spices.
I think sliced and pan fried eggplant with garlic tastes smoky and creamy. Sort of in the bacon family of flavors, although not similar to bacon in texture at all and, I hasten to assure, NOT an actual substitute for bacon (but a great pairing). I like it in a sandwich or on crackers with a smear of cream cheese and chunks of pan fried zucchini.
My usual breakfast is a big smoothie. About 1/2c of plain yogurt or kefir, 1.5 cups of fruit and vegetables a combination of fresh and frozen, some virgin coconut oil and some lightly sweetened green tea, or OJ or even lemonade. Gets way more servings of fruit & veg into me than I would actually sit down and eat first thing in the morning.
These are not exactly glowing recommendations, people. :/
I’ve only ever found eggplant spongy once, btw, and that was before I learned to cook the ever loving crap out of it.
I cook the crap out of it in combination with tomato sauce, but when I fry it in batter I leave it in the pan for a short time. I would describe the texture as a bit spongy, but good. Can spongy be good at all?
Eggplant is strange. You either love it or hate it.
But I saw a recipe for eggplant slices with chocolate and now I want to try that. I’m just afraid of wasting chocolate in case it tastes like shit.
It’s only slimy if you don’t drain it enough before cooking, hence smashing it under stuff for a few hours first.
AJ, I have made ganache filled truffles to delicious effect, but tempering chocolate had been a failure so far. Any advice?
(I also recommend the combo of brownie/ganache truffles, if you have stale brownies or cake, mix it up and it’s super tasty).
Interesting.
I like eggplant with little draining before (hour at most, none for some dishes).
I guess draining it well would be better for first timers.
Squashy cardboard. Like a box that something has soaked through.
–
It’s just not a by itself kind of food. Peas, green beans, broccoli, carrots, those are things you can eat by themselves. Eggplant, not so much. It has to have tomatoes, or breading and olive oil, or sauce, or something. Just like how you wouldn’t eat a straight zucchini, because ugh.
Like, raw?
Ew, I agree.
Mr. Deity has posted a new video. This one takes on Mormonism and Racism.
YouTube link.
Beatrice:
I want to try the “encase in concrete; throw in sea” technique myself :)
****
Restaurant manager ordered to pay $15K to waitress for asking to see her nipples
Was the manager unaware that this is sexual harassment?
Or did he simply not care?
****
Former President Bush and Presidential hopeful John McCain had more support among Latinos than Mitt Romney
No surprise there.
****
Testosterone can make men more honest?
Ah. You are filled, filled I say, with the joys of impending motherhood! This is a magical time in your life, the creation of a new life through the magic of Gawd! And you are doing the one thing that Gawd! designed you to do so stop complaining and make me a sammich!
(In case no one gets it, that is satire/irony/attempted humour.)
=========
Wife and I had dinner out last night and one of the items of discussion was how much fun it would be to open up a restaurant near, say, MIT, or RIT, or Stanford, or University of Chicago, or one of the other universities with a really strong math and physics programme. And name the dishes using different mathematical and/or science words. Such as:
Avacado’s Number: an avacado sandwich
Chicken Planck’s Constant: Fried chicken strips
Mach One: Triple-caffeine coffee.
Can anyone else think of other possibilities?
not sure if rhetorical, but most assholes just don’t care. They are entitled to treat you like an object, and you will shut up and take it.
Ogvorbis
Yes, they can serve π
And gravy-ti
We Canucks don’t have a National Coming Out Day that I’m aware of. And I can’t come out to my folks today, because it’s my dad’s birthday. (“Happy birthday, Dad! I’ll now crush any remaining hope you had that one of your kids would turn out straight!”) But I’m celebrating NCOD anyway, by drafting an email to my brother. I’m not planning on sending it today. I’ll need to re-write it at least 5 times before then. But it’s a start.
I don’t need a toaster as my coming-out prize. But I could use a kettle. Are those on offer?
Re tempering chocolate, secrets:
Clean and dry everything. Dry well ahead of time, let the atmosphere take any moisture you might miss.
Chop chocolate at arms length. As in: don’t touch it any more than you have to. Tap off board into top of double boiler (2/3 portion) and clean, dry glass measuring cup (1/3 portion) with blade of knife. I don’t know if this is essential, but what it means to me is: washing your hands will be less trouble, and that’s less water around, again, which is also what you generally want.
Chop the 1/3 portion very fine–you can be a bit lazy about the 2/3, not the 1/3. And you can ‘cheat’ a bit, if you’re impatient: a little more than 1/3 in the seeding portion means things will cool a smidge faster. As long as it’s very fine, you’re unlikely to wind up with unmelted lumps you have to fish out. And cooling a little faster means less opportunity for bad things happening. If I’m doing like a pound and its in those little 2cm^3 lumps, I’ll do like an extra lump into the 1/3 portion.
Keeping the water under control, cooling the top of the boiler fast: have a clean, big, soft tea-towel type thing handy right next to where you’re working. Moment you hit 115, pull the top of the boiler off and right onto that towel. Keep that around for the later portion where you’re bringing it back up to 89, too. Just means more control of the water and vapour, again, less to go wrong.
Make sure your centres are all ready to go before you try coating. Again, just less messing around, and it’s easy to keep the tempered chocolate in the zone while you’re working if you can work faster.
Turn the burner off the moment you pull the boiler off. You can get the heat you need back fast enough, and you really don’t need much.
AJ Milne
Thank you! I look forward to trying it again.
Nutmeg
Coming right up. Tis the season for tea, eh?
Lynna:
Thanks for that link to Mr Deity.
I’m having a blast listening to his videos!
eggplant parmigiana tastes a lot like chicken parmigiana. Put it in a sub roll and party on
I feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone…2nd day with no veterans coming in. I’ve knitted two inches on a sweater so far.
Yeah, eggplant tastes like whatever you cook it with, and if you cook it *entirely* by itself it’s kind of blah. In a curry, cubes of eggplant are a bit less mealy and squashy than potato, but similarly neutral sponges for the sauce.
Ogvorbis:
Heisenberg’s Uncertain Pasta
Steady Steak
Energy=Meatloaf + Carrots squared
For drinks:
Quantum Mai Tai
For a buffet:
Natural Selection
****
Nutmeg:
So your brother isn’t heterosexual?
Have your parents made their opinions on gay people known?
Well… that was the best dinner I’ve cooked since my wife left town. The eggplant turned out well. The lamb was minty goodness, and the tzatziki turned out better than I hoped. I had a slice of buttered bread with it and called it a meal.
Hrm, maybe you can have an appetizer of String (Theory) Cheese, with it cut into Calabi-yau manifolds.
I wonder if the extra dimensions make it more or less fattening…
Portia: Thanks for the virtual kettle. *sips dark chocolate mint tea*
Tony: No, my brother’s gay. He’s 30 now and has been out for ~15 years. My parents have come around to being supportive, but my dad has some lingering homophobia that comes out when he’s had a couple of drinks.
It’s an interesting situation. I don’t have to be scared that they’ll freak out. But because I’m supposed to be “the straight one”, I worry more that they’ll be disappointed. On the whole, though, I’m pretty lucky.
Better check to see that the Lilac Berets of the Pullet Patrol™ weren’t out front on guard duty.
Nutmeg, where do you find this delicious-sounding tea?!
Al Stefanelli is leaving FtB.
****
Did you know that Office Depot is trying to teach gay people that they’re born this way? Nah. Of course they aren’t. But the American Family Association sure thinks so.
****
Portia: Here. It’s the only kind of tea I’ve found that has just enough caffeine to keep me alert but not enough to screw with my sleep patterns.
Gamow’s Gumbo
Tompkins tomato soup
Subtraction Stew
Gelatinous Giant
Thanks Nutmeg : )
Ferments Last Theorem (a heavy stout)
Boils Law (a cup of tea)
Moffet-Fieser reagent (raisin bran muffin)
Good luck with the chocolate, Portia.
If the stars align properly I’ll be trying to do some white chocolate over bits of later this eve. But much depends on how other bits of life go and how fast some ganache comes to useable temperature, as to whether I get that far.
Whole plan is: make some ganache (with dark chocolate, and with a somewhat modified recipe from last time to make it a little less trouble at room temperature–gonna tweak cream amounts down a bit, butter and chocolate up a bit), adulterate some of it with coffee, some of it with mint, leave some of it just ‘chocolate’, then try to temper some white chocolate I just snagged and use that as a coating. End result: three flavours of white chocolate-covered truffles.
I’ve never actually tempered white chocolate before, and, honestly, the quality of this stuff is a bit of an unknown. But I’m ever hopeful. Tastes pretty good, kinda snaps off when cut, so: crossing fingers.
(/Yeah, I guess I’m on a bit of a kick. Honestly, I think it’s probably mostly a ‘not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard’ thing… That and, you know: chocolate.)
Hey everybody, Maureen Brian guest posted at Ophelia’s. She is awesome!
I get on kicks too, with different kinds of treats. Yours sounds delectable.
So I’m listening to the Thinking Atheist podcast #75, and wow…several of the callers are conservative atheists or libertarian atheists. I can’t understand the mindset of either one.
Watching the local congressional debate on tv. GOP incumbent just said: “No I don’t support the DREAM Act. Unless they want to serve in the military or go to college. Then that’s fine, they should have a path to citizenship.”
Gah. The stoopid.
Cause obviously, the court system is better than the EPA at environmental protection!
Incidentally, does anyone know any resources for dealing with blithertarian arguments?
This is strange.
I am watching the Pittsburgh – Tennessee game (insert insults about my viewing habits here). And, for some reason, the game is being broadcast in Spanish. Which is weird. A long string of Spanish (of which I understand about 1 word in 10) with ‘Steelers’ and ‘Polamalu’ tossed in.
Or like how I wouldn’t eat a funny zucchini, or a curved one, or a gay one (more vegesexuality?), or any zucchini at all, because ugh.
–
:) :) :)
Awesome idea for a restaurant! Hmmm…Uncertain Tea, available either Iced or ‘Radioactive’ (Hot)?
–
Nail ‘im to the wall, Joe! This is everything I’d hoped it would be.
You guys remember “The Flea” by John Donne? I can’t believe I’m saying this, but my English Lit instructor completely reversed my opinion on that poem.
Using Donne’s actual biography as, apparently, one of London’s biggest social celebrities / most eligible bachelors and quite the hit with the laydeez, he frames it as one side of an ongoing affectionate debate between lovers, wherein the speaker has constructed this elaborate and irreverent metaphor basically to make his lady friend laugh. As if she is intelligent and appreciates cleverness, and he knows it, and they’re jousting with words. OK so the topic of their jousting is whether she’s going to put out, but it’s way less squicky now.
So there you go, I am Fair and Balanced.
Biden is currently hammering Ryan into the ground on Medicare.
Nice how Joe brings in Palin and Panels. Ryan is trying mightily but Joe appears to have his number
FSM, I hope so!
I had this horrible nightmare, last night; Biden and Ryan were debating, and Biden was tanking. The polls next day showed Repubs winning in November by a solid 20% margin.
*shudder*
–
cicely: No worries, Ryan looks like an entitled asshole.
You folks seem surprised at Biden’s performance, but you shouldn’t be. Remember, Republicans always attack where Democrats are strong to defuse them. They went after Kerry’s service because it was honorable, and they go after Biden’s “gaffes” because he’s powerful at the podium.
In 2008 people paid attention to Sarah Palin’s clownish performance, but what they missed what that Biden would have clobbered McCain or Palin or both at the same time. There were a couple of moments in that debate where I was just like “yep, Obama’s the next president.” And of course, a smart presidential candidate picks a running mate who fills in the gaps. Biden is strong where Obama is weak, and debating is one of those places.
A.R.: Yes, he does…and so does Rmoney, always…and yet I’m certain that he’s going to carry MO.
–
I haven’t engaged in much debate with friends on Facebook. I just had a small debate with a friend on the merits of National Coming Out Day.
I can’t facepalm any more than I have already.
I’m not particularly surprised by Joe’s performance, but I am eminently pleased.
I got in a small tif with a facebook friend who used the “t-word” to refer to the GOP. I pointed out that it is derogatory to trans* people and she immediately retracted and acknowledged it. It was a happy moment, and positive reinforcement for my fear of speaking up about stuff like that.
I like Joe and have sent money to him when he was running for the top job. He is wiping the floor with the kid. Aside from that I think the moderator needs a squirtgun on both of them in a few spots
kristinc:
No… was I sick that week? :)
time for popcorn!
So much for thinking dating K could possibly lead somewhere. I was wrong. Fuck, that was one of the only bright spots in my life right now.
I can’t fucking stop crying.
I’m so tired of being alone.
Tony, I’m so sorry. That’s no fun. :( Wanna say what happened?
ryan weaseled Joe speaks from the heart
*big hugs Tony*
*also a tub of ice cream*
*also a pile of kittens*
*hugs* for Tony.
See, now, if I had the Hoverchair 10000….
</lame attempt at humor>
–
nice slide Joe! get planned parenthood in there. Well done!
I hope Paul Ryan is happy, I’m so irritated that I’ve caved to my cravings and made a brownie-in-a-mug. Shockingly successful first attempt. Except my tongue is burnt from trying to eat it to fast. Over and over. Pro-tip, add chocolate chips.
now the debate is over I will go back to dreaming of a green win. If the registered voters who dont vote all voted green it would be a real landslide. I suspect the noseholders will win in the end :-(
Prediction President Obama wins in a squeeker, senate remains about the same and the repo’s pickup a few more seats in congress
aww Fuck Tony, Im pishing about politics and you are hurting :-( Im sorry man. You are a unique human being. You are not alone, we are with you
Ryan had his arse handed to him on a platter made of 47% Medicare, 47% Foreign policy, and 6% honey badger.
See why regulations on toxic chemicals is important? Otherwise, you get toxic spillages that come out of places like Paul Ryan’s mouth, thereby contaminating the environment.
Thanks everyone.
It’s so frustrating. It used to be that I couldn’t get a relationship to last more than a few months. Now I can’t even dating to work.
****
Portia:
It boils down to a difference between how two people approach dating. From my perspective, communication is highly important when dating and/or trying to build a relationship. K has been gone for about a month. His room prevents him from Skyping or making phone calls, email, or anything. He works 15-17 hours a day. I get that. But when we do get the chance to chat, it’s by text, and he reveals nothing about himself. I ask how his day went, or what a typical day is like for him, and I get nothing. I tell him I miss hearing his voice and would love if he would leave a voice message on my phone (something I did for him) so I can hear him. I get nothing. Conversely, I composed a few poems and sent them to him. They were cheesy, which is something he said he appreciates. I did that to keep the lines of communication alive and to show a side of myself to him. He never asks about my life, how I’m doing. He’s said in the past that he’s not big on revealing much about himself, and later followed up with how hurt he was in his last relationship. I thought I could woo him over (hell I thought I was succeeding). I was hoping he would open up and I could learn about him, but nothing. My frustration built over the past week when I heard nothing from him for over a week. Yet during that time I saw Facebook updates a few times. I’m sorry, but if you have time to update your FB status, but not to contact me, what does that say about your priorities? Like I said at the beginning, I think his idea of dating, and mine just don’t mesh up. I hoped that would change (he’d made comments prior to leaving that he agreed with me about communication and he’d work on that). I guess I was wrong. Perhaps the age gap had something to do with that (he’s 25, I’m 37). In any case, I’m so over living here in Florida. There are so few options for me. I know I hinge perhaps a bit too much of my happiness on building a relationship, but I can’t change that. It’s important to me and it frustrates me to no end that I’m a hopeless failure in that department.
Everyone needs different things in different proportions in their life. I’m really sorry that he’s so bad at such a simple aspect of relationship building and maintenance.
Definitely sounds like a him-problem. “Talk to me now and then” is pretty fekkin’ basic. Sometimes age does make a difference. As a 25 year old, I can be pretty dumb and inconsiderate now and then. Though I have the same “Open up to me, damnit!” frustrations with the 33 year old I’m dating. So maybe I don’t have an answer. I just have sympathy and hugs and mug brownies to share.
Cry it out, don’t blame yourself, and know you are appreciated and heard here. Where would you go if you could move out of Florida?
Paul Ryan is the fratboy’s fratboy.
Ouch, Tony.
My sympathies, but coming from the position of not being able to find anyone to date either.
*hugs*
So one of my friends has a plea to the Horde:
I am a transman (female-to-male), and I am also gay (androphilic). Well into my transition, I am proud of my identity in many ways but I am only very new at expressing my sexuality. As a woman, I was familiar with accepting the “male gaze” and took in much of society’s training in regards to that, including a focus on appearance and evoking feelings of lust in others. I am now challenged with forming a new identity for myself as far as things that I do to make myself feel sexually attractive and to attract others. I don’t know yet how to do this as a man, let alone a gay man, and fear of violence often colors my interactions. Things this might include are fashion, grooming, flirting behavior, and level of openness about sexual topics. On one hand I feel that I should go with my gut and try to use this as “authentic”, but another part of me feels as though it is unexamined and there could be a better answer other than falling back on societal training. I miss feeling attractive. Please help. Thank you.
@ broboxley
Time fore more cartoons of Ryan and Rmoney: Linky.
@ A.R
sekrit messarge @ #64 to politburo (Much to Chas chagrin ;)
@ Tony
*hugz*
trinioler:
Damn. I wish I had some advice for your friend. Gay people have a lot of crap to deal with. Trans people have the same shit and more to deal with. The advice I might give a gay person isn’t likely to work with a transgender person.
I wonder if there’s a blogger who’s trans and gay that might have advice (and a forum for asking questions for that matter).
If you’re already feeling misanthropic, it’s best not to read the story and watch the video the girl posted before she killed herself because of a disgustingly overextended barrage of bullying. This is one of the most tragic and disgusting displays of behaviour I have seen in a very long time. This has blown my anger management control completely out of the water. I would be driving through people’s front doors and throwing hands if I was this kid’s parent. I want to do it now and I didn’t even know the poor girl.
Very sad story about Amanda Todd from Coquitlam, BC.
McC2lhu: Oh, I… Oh.
Tony
*hugs*
(I got nothin’ else.)
McC2lhu
Looks bad but is there a text somewhere?
The Vancouver Sun always crashes my net book.
I’m just now getting around to reading the recent Birth Control study. It made sense to me long ago that if women had greater (and easier) access to birth control that abortion rates would likely go down. Anti-choice activists should be thrilled (of course we know they’re not; they don’t want people having sex unless it is to have babies during marriage). Seeing the results of this study though…wow.
Contraception.
It’s highly effective.
*hugs* to Tony. I’m sorry things didn’t work out with K. You’re a good, caring person, and you deserve to be happy. I hope that you can find a way, whether it’s in Florida or somewhere else.
Tony, an “ouch” on the dating thing, and a )hug( for you. It sounds like you just found out the guy isn’t suited, which is what dating used to be for. You sound like a right good person, especially since you are helping trinioler. I hope things go better for you.
It makes me glad that I am married, except now I have a daughter who is dating …
====
Recipe:
“Pulled” Roast Beef — cheap, easy and darkly falling apart.
Chuck roasts are found at the cheaper end of the meat department. It looks like a very thick, not very good steak (and sometimes is found as chuck steak). This method cooks it so it is easy to clean out the gristle and all.
Put a chuck roast into a pre-heated deep skillet, and sear it both sides. Season with black pepper, garlic powder and soy sauce, when and as you choose.
Reduce heat, add an inch or so of water, cover with a lid and let it simmer for about five hours, to preferred state of tenderness. I like it when the meat separates into strands when pushed with a fork.
Keep an eye on the water, so it doesn’t go dry and burn. If you like the meat caramelized, use less water and let it go dry at the end. If you like the meat more moist, keep the water up and add soy sauce or other flavor—the juice is good stuff.
I sometimes add carrots, potatoes and onions to the pan, toward the end.
Obviously this could be done in a slow cooker, or in the oven. I just find the skillet handier. I tried cooking it overnight a few times, but kept waking up with my tummy growling.
If you let the meat cool, you can easily separate the good stuff from the connective tissues, and have a pile of chunks you can shred apart. Or just separate it while hot with a couple of forks. Or, what I usually do, just put the whole thing in the fridge, pull out chunks with a fork to heat for meals, then throw the tangled remnants to the dogs.
I am serious about the shredding part. If you need a knife to cut it, you haven’t got there yet.
If I cook it ’til dry, it makes good sandwiches and Mexican dishes. If I cook it moist, it’s almost stew, and good over rice and many other things.
(I have used this method on a pork roast, and got “pulled” pork as good as some barbeque joints.)
Ogvorbis’s Restaurant must have a menu item that is “Schrödinger’s … Something”.
It isn’t a pizza until you open the box…
The bill may or may not be in that little plastic folder…
Yeah, you’d think the anti-abortion people would be all for contraception and alternate sexual practices.
ooops
I’ve probably invoked one of those
Explain What Schrödinger Really™ Meant demons.
Oh no. I’m so sorry Tony. *hugs* if you want them.
Trinioler – I don’t have any brilliant advice but if they would be happy to contact ZJ she might have some good advice, since she is trans and bisexual/pansexual (no sure which she identifies as), she’s also lived as a gay man. Or if they don’t want to actually contact Zinna, then they could read her blog as some of the stuff she writes might help plus there are lots of queer people who hang out there who might be good contacts for your friend.
cicely – *returnhug* I’m glad I could help.
Tony – *hugs*
I’m sorry, Tony. *hugs*
-kittens Tony-
As someone who seems to do nothing but blow up social situations, especially when potential romance is involved…I feel you. Lots. Like, really lots.
-more kittens-
-and some hugs too-
—
Crossposted from the Atheism+ forum:
Open Letter to SJ ‘Allies’ — On “Big Tents”
Atheism+ is not a big tent. It’s not intended to be a big tent.
Big tents are for and by the privileged. Marginalized people may exist inside a big tent, but the will of the big tent will always be skewed towards its most privileged members — see the Democratic and Republican parties in the United States.
This is a small tent. This is a tent of the marginalized. This is where we go when we’re sick of people in the big tent trying to push us around.
And we’re not trying to get you to join our damn tent. You’re free to come in if you want, but we reserve the right to toss you out on your ass if you don’t follow the rules and respect the people this tent was built for.
If you’re an ally, you’re not trying to get in our tent. You’re trying to get us to move our little tent into your big tent, to make it a bit bigger. Fine. We’ll do that — just, we’re going to have some demands to, namely, that we get recognized as much as anyone else in the big tent, since you invited us in as equals. Which also means that we get to keep our little tent to ourselves, just as you have your rooms in the big tent that you retire to at the end of the day. We’re not demolishing our tent and giving you the fabric so you can expand yours. We still need our tent as a safe space. You do not have a right to come into our tent and tell us how to run things just because we’re in your tent. If you start disrespecting us in our tent, we still reserve the right to toss you out on your ass into your tent.
What’s more, if you don’t recognize us, if you try to shove our tent to the back, if you let other members of your ‘big tent’ of supposed allies throw rocks at us and spraypaint derogatory graffiti over our tent, or worst of all if you refuse to adequately defend us when we get attacked by the tent that wants ours gone? You’re not our ally at all, you just want us in your tent to add to the body count. If that’s the case, then we’re going to pack up and leave. We don’t want to be in your tent if you’re not going to protect us.
This is not a big tent, and we’re not interested in making it a scrap of fabric on your big tent.
Setár #424
I think I disagree.
(All this tent metaphor is confusing me.)
Atheism was by far the easiest part and done while I was a child.
Getting rid of my racism and ethnocentrism and sexism and genderism and transism is still on-going.
I don’t identify as “Atheist” first, am I still welcome in the Tent?
—
I’m for bed but I will be back
tomorrowlater.Chigau @414:
Try turning off your Javascript. If the video won’t load, a handful of people have posted Amanda Todd’s full video on YouTube (search for her name).
If you still have troubles getting the news text let me know and I can copypasta the article and email to you.
The ultimate crowd-sourced victim blaming and web predation. I wish parents would start teaching their kids to exhibit some bravery. If enough of them nodded heads and stepped in when Amanda was being bullied maybe the girl would have maintained some semblance of hope and not killed herself.
McC2lhu
Thanks.
I found it on youtube but I can’t handle it.
I would appreciate a text version of her cards.
(I think)
You could post it here.
Tony, I’m so sorry :(((((. Virtually squishing you very hard, as long as you don’t mind being virtually squished.
chigau #425: this is really the key paragraph —
It’s directed at the privileged asswipes who whine and complain about how we A+ forumgoers are “losing allies” by prioritizing the safety of our space above their feelings and tone-policing, acting like they have the right to run roughshod over us because they’re willing to admit that we exist.
Like how the corporatist Democratic establishment runs roughshod over progressive America, because “big tent” and “can’t scare the independents” and all sorts of other privileged crap from the rich white establishment that runs the party.
Chigau @427. Completely understood. The music from the vid started up while looking up the site link and I started tearing up. I did a search and I think it’s too soon for anyone to have transcripted the cards from the video yet. There’s no way I could do it right now in my mood. If one turns up later I will give you the heads up.
Good morning
This does not look like a good day.
First it started way too early with the little one waking up 2 hours before her usual time. That means massively tired kid in the afternoon.
Then I dropped her off throwing a gigantic tantrum because the evil adversary (aka me) made her walk the whole 500(?)m to the kindergarten. Because there’s nothing worse than having to walk for the sole purpose of getting somewhere.
+++
Tony
I’m so sorry
*adds puppies*
I definetly agree with the others: sounds like him problem.
*hugs*
*booze*
*chocolate*
nutmeg
I’m sorry that your parents have that attitude. Kids aren’t for fullfilling their parents’ expectations. Not for grandchildren, not for becoming X, not for being straight, or cis.
How come that no English source has yet managed to get their basic facts right when it comes to German church tax?
And the current legal squibbles about this.
No, German christians and Jews don’t pay 9% of their income. They pay an additional tax that is 9% of their income tax. On top of the income tax.
Duh, that’s not that difficult to understand.
Here’s a transcript of the Amanda Todd video posted above. The transcript might not be 100% accurate, but isn’t not really a video I wanted to watch over and over.
This is a story about someone who was apparently entirely surrounded by terrible people.
[I’ve edited the colors to make this rather triggering story harder to see: you’ll have to select the text to be able to read it. –pzm]
NMS PLEASE SPOILER AND TW THAT SHIT. I just derealized in the middle of work and had to confabulate the last three digits for the weight of the truck I ticketed out, from reading that ><;;;
Shit, I’m sorry. I had a trigger warning up there, I’m not sure what happened to it.
I should have posted it somewhere else and linked to it. I’m really sorry.
I should also note…Amanda Todd is from Vancouver BC.
My neck of the woods.
*RAGE*!!!!!!
If anyone wants a bit of amusement after being reminded of how fucking horrible the world is even in “liberal” bastions such as Vancouver, here’s a frog playing with an ipod touch.
What the fuck is wrong with those kids? And what the fuck is wrong with adults who raise their kids to be that shitty? The only appropriate reaction to somebody trying to kill themsleves is shock and compassion and asking “what can I do to help them?”
nms: Maybe one of the mods can ask PZ if it’s possible to stick a trigger warning in #433. I would have been distracted enough to have forgotten to put one in myself. Or he could redact it and you could re-post with the warning.
I’ll email PZ about #433.
How can anyone be that much of a shit, to treat that poor kid like this? After she attempted suicide, ffs. Fuck.
I hope those little shits are enjoying some nightmares right now. Although, I doubt it, considering their complete lack of ability to empathize with a fellow human being.
They should be identified from the facebook messages and called for a little talk with the school counselors, in the company of their parents or guardians. Even if they are not currently engaging in any bullying, they need some serious help. Some may change by growing up without any help, but others will stay the same little shits.
beatrice
This requires the adults not to be shitty assholes. But if they weren’t, how did they end up with kids like that. Guess they’re more of the Wooly Bumblebee sort.
Giliell,
Yeah, I know.
I’m hoping that at least schools would wake up instead of letting their students kill each other.
I suggested that kids’ guardians attend counseling with the kids so that they either get the same lessons or learn how to deal with hateful little shits. If I found out my child was involved in something like this, I think I’d need a counselor to help me deal so that I don’t say or do something that will just worsen the situation.
beatrice
That’s true, too.
I mean, around here it’s standard that if something horrible like this happens there are profesionals rushed in to help everybody deal with the situation.
I also think that my kids have been banned from Facebook indefinetly…
I’m just…
I think I’m pulling a draw with Caine
My tutorial just got featured on Urban Threads
Watching the news
They’re scalping two years olds
With bombs
In Syria
I saw it on the news.
A 14 year old in critical condition
Who dared to fight for new
New ways of living, thinking being
Our species roams on Mars
By robot proxy.
We split the atom, found higgs boson
Still don’t know what’s rape.
Legitimate or otherwise
Too many think ‘s jape.
I watch the news and see the wonders
Horrors that are us,
Which will prevail
In our troubled tale
Angels better or worse.
I see the news
A thousand lives are affected even more.
Dunno what to say and say it wrong
And life goes on and that’s da bomb.
So many die.
We don’t know why
Perhaps no why at all.
Starvation, suffering babies squall
We can do nothing sweet fuck all,
I watch the news & hate myself and life and that shit.
What can we do, what can we say?
At least we know
Is that okay?
Humanity our nature dual
We battle with ourselves
Where will it end and to what end?
Who knows what tomorrow brings?
Tony:
:( :( :(
*hugs* *kitteh snuggles* *chocolate glazed donuts*
@401 broboxley OT
Seconded.
So much shit and pain in the world.
Things so fucked up.
This too shall pass, and Tony, respect and support from someone messed up who barely knows you but dude, best wishes and internet (((hugs))) if you want them from me.
Damn, that sucks Tony.
Sorry to hear that. :(
Also, there’s still a lot of good people and good things in the world too in case this reminder helps.
#411 McC2lhu saw what you did there.
I didnt read anywhere in the article where the original bully who put her boobs on facebook was prosecuted for posession of child porn? That should get him a few years in jail. Then he can be bullied for a while
@408. trinioler :
Tell your friend –
Be who you are, be brave and good and strong
Forgive yourself in case of fail
We all are human still,
We bleed, we love, we cry, we live
We cannot be who we’re not
hafta be who we are and live.
I wish your friend luck and all the best and online hugs if they help.
Not alone, unique.
Worthwhile.
Respect and hope.
I send your way
For what its worth.
Good luck.
Amanda Todd. That is so horrific that I’m not letting myself really think about it. I was bullied, amongst all the other joys of my youth, and I damn near didn’t make it, though the bullying was only a small part of that. I’m forty fucking six years old and I still struggle with the aftermath and have to work hard at remembering that there is joy in the world.
I’m going to work harder at that. The fucking necrotic pustules that drove Amanda to her death will make my part of the world a little brighter, a little better, because anger is energy and I am most certainly angry. Alchemy of emotions, that’s the way, I’m going to be the fucking Isaac Newton of this, turning anger into joy in a way that he never managed with lead. Tomorrow the adrenaline will have worn off but the memory of Amanda will remain. I will soak in that catalyst of a reminder and use it to be better, be more forgiving, more compassionate, more joyful so that good may come out of evil.
Tony. That sucks. I went through a period where everyone I dated wanted a type of relationship that I was uncomfortable with. Sometimes really uncomfortable. All I can say is hang in there and be true to yourself and your needs. It’s worth that wait to get it right.
So,yeah, two other girls were also shot in the same attack as Malala. One of them is still in critical condition.
There is this thing that always annoys me in stories like this one (for another example look at shooting of Gabrielle Giffords).
I understand that they are both important people. Malala is a symbol of youth fighting against bigotry. They are special. I get that. But I’m so saddened by the way other people who were hurt (or, in Giffords attack, killed) in these stories get completely erased. It’s probably an irrational pet peeve of mine, because no one else seems bothered, but it makes me angry every time.
Yes, I agree that Malala did extraordinary things. She deserves admiration. I just wish that people wished speedy recovery to those two other girls too. That people were angry in their name too.
We have special people and we have collateral damage. It seems that those two girls were just collateral damage to both the attackers and all those opposed.
/end possibly irrational rant
@458. Beatrice, anti-imperialist anti-racist Islamophobiaphobic leftist :
You have a very good point and I wish them both – all three of the Taliban shooting victims – a speedy recovery as well.
Let me add some *hugs* and *chocolate* to that giant pile of kittens and puppies you got there, Tony.
Beatrice
Nothing irrational about that. Compassion for victims, regardless of their notoriety, or lack thereof, is a very good thing indeed.
StevoR,
I hope you don’t think this was something against you personally. I was prompted by your comment, but it’s an observation of almost every reaction I’ve read the last couple of days as well as things that have been bothering me in other similar cases.
@ 399.Portia -11 October 2012 at 9:23 pm
Not-a-pro-but tip :
Add a bit more of a splash of cold milk to lower temperature to better drinking levels?
@462. Beatrice, anti-imperialist anti-racist Islamophobiaphobic leftist
No worries. Fair enough. Thanks.
I’m pretty messed up and thoughtless, overtired and too drunk more’n’half the time so, yeah.
I know that I say a lot of dumb stuff at times and better that you correct me than not.
No I don’t take it personally.
I have no real insight but I am assuming that the person in question has seen Robert Eads Documentary Southern Comfort
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6JIWD2DNyY and should attend any gatherings of likeminded folk such as http://sccatl.org/content/
Tony:
That sucks. I am sending some Jonny Walker Black through your USB. I know it is early in the morning (where I am, anyway, and I am an AMERICAN so the world should damn well operate on my schedule! (sorry about that snark — I work with assholes)) but enjoy.
The bullying account by Amanda Todd, so depressing. I wish to hell I was surprised. I swear middle and high school is made up of three groups of people — abusers (who also run the student council, are the star athletes, and run all the clubs and the yearbook staff), victims, and those who are very good at hiding in plain sight. And, when I was in middle and high school, and I saw someone, male or female, become the victim du jour, all I could think was how happy I was it wasn’t me. Usually wasn’t me.
=======
Right wing coworker, this morning, was complaining that Joe Biden kept interrupting Ryan, that Biden hogged almost all the time so that Ryan couldn’t actually express his world-saving philosophy, that the questions were rigged by the liberal and international media to make Ryan look bad, that Biden lied the entire time, and that Biden only looked good because the debate was pre-recorded and edited. What the fuck does one say to someone who is that detached from reality? I did ask him, if it was pre-recorded and edited, why Faux Newz used exactly the same footage as everyone else. He had no answer except to claim that the liberals are willing to lie, cheat, throw voters off the voter roles, commit voter fraud, and use cheap shots (like Big Bird) to throw the election.
Luckily, because of our schedules, I only work three days a week with this particular example of Conservasaurus detatchedi.
“Honduras: Now Open for Political Murder”
So… it’s my last day of work. Woo hoo!
Oggie:
Prerecorded and edited? Damn, C-Span totally fooled me, I guess.
And, amazingly, every single network edited it in exactly the same way. Apparently, they edited out the intelligent, useful and pragmatic things that Ryan said.
I did have cold milk with it for both temperature control and deliciousness, but deceptively, mug brownie is a solid. Well, sort of. A fudgey solid. I encourage everyone to try it.
Audley
HOORAY! *confetti* and soon, *champagne*
well pre-recorded for the west coast anyway. I was emailing friends live before they actually saw was I was emailing about
No more work. So now, and after DarkFetus is born, you will be sitting around eating bonbons all day?
Seriously, get plenty of sleep now. For both you and Mr. Darkheart, sleeping through the night will be a dream for the first 4 weeks to 18 months (your mileage may vary, of course).
Hard to argue with this argument.
Oggie:
I love the smell of desperation rolling off the conservatives. They’ve convinced themselves that Biden is the court jester and Ryan is some sort of wunderkind and now they have to invent conspiracies to back their shit up.
Makes me lol.
It’s funny that you mention bon bons ‘cos my SiL just sent me a text welcoming me to the “Moms Who Sit Around and Eat Bon Bons All Day Club”. :D
Broboxely:
Uh, the debate was live of the west coast, at least on C-Span. I mean, hell, I was following Wonkette’s live blogging and I’m pretty damned sure they’re based in LA.
Portia:
Yay! *happy flail!*
Also: Any baked good out of a mug (brownies or chocolate cake) is teh awesomee.
You have been taken in by Teh Conspiracy!11!
Yeah, it does smell of desperation. If Mitt was ever actually honest about what his proposals would do to the middle class and the poor and students and children and education and everything else, the 30% who have embraced disreality would either explain it away through massive doses of cognitive dissonance or, more likely, claim it was an evil liberal plot.
And enjoy the bonbons.
I’m sympathetic, here, and I am glad someone’s speaking out for Shazia and Kainat. And absolutely, I think they were heroes, too. Shazia, incidentally, has commented upon Malala’s actions since the attack, and proudly, and spoken about what an inspiration she is. After having been shot and speaking up like this, under these circumstances, this is no small thing.
That said, I think it’s a bit much assuming the relative inattention to them on the part of those condemning the attack makes them ‘collateral damage’ to the same.
… more to the point, I’m not too impressed to see any implication left on the table that somehow there’s equivalency between a) those who shot them, and b) those concentrating more on Malala’s having been shot.
Malala’s narrative is more front and centre, more obviously compelling, easier to relate and immediately understand, mostly, I’d expect, so people do focus upon it. That’s a big part of it.
I’ll add: I don’t expect you were exactly going this far, here, but there’s this meme that keeps surfacing in these things, especially this sort of conflict. This demand made of those standing up to the Islamists that they consider the ‘collateral damage’.
There’s a dimension to this I’m sure you do understand, but still, I think I’m going to bring it up anyway: in most violent conflicts, aggressors are well aware such things will be said.
And so they use it as a lever. All the time. Hell, terror states routinely choose in attempting to silence activists that threaten them not to threaten the activists but to threaten their family. Similar techniques are used to silence those who may be in jurisdictions they can’t easily reach–especially those who’ve fled to emigrant communities–if they have family back home.
It’s a great piece of moral jiu jitsu. What, so you think you’re so brave? When what you’re doing is putting someone else at risk? Pfft. Shut up. You’re just making it worse for them
… and note, critically, the ‘shut up’ in there.
Shazia and Kainat were heroes, however. I’ll give anyone mentioning this much, anyway. They were girls going to school in Pashtun Pakistan. That alone makes them pretty insanely brave. I’ve little doubt Shazia and Kainat were well aware sitting on that bus next to Malala put them in additional danger, too. I know there’s a blurb somewhere out there of Malala mentioning a classmate asking: ‘Will they attack our school?’
So I expect she was very aware, and they were very aware of what the attention meant. A chance to make a point, make a difference, sure. And a target painted on your head.
Malala would have lived with that, day by day, as did any number of people in such struggles, wrenched by anxiety and misgivings. They’re standing up, but someone else may die for it, too. Maybe they talk to those people. Maybe they don’t. Maybe those people tell them, look, I know, but I’m with you, let’s hope we get through this, you just do what you have to do. Maybe they all lie awake nights thinking they wish it were simpler.
So yeah. A mite uncomfortable with implications of equivalence. And maybe not so much a subject for the Lounge. But anyway.
Tony, you did the right thing. Think of spending the next year, two years, whatever, always wanting the SO to pay more attention to you, and deeper than that, wanting him to want to pay more attention to you. That is a soul-sucking kind of pain, there. Even when two people both like each other a lot, that kind of incompatibility will always make the person who wants more feel bad.
Tony,
Sorry to hear that the whole dating thing didn’t work out this time. I have to agree with Carlie that you’re better off out early rather than later, when the other person isn’t nearly as interested as you are. I’m all about the value-added relationships, where you get back more than you put it. When you’re putting in more than you’re getting out, it is like you’re slowly bleeding to death, and that’s no way to live.
Awe, the guys in the office chipped in and bought baby clothes for DarkFetus.
And now I’m crying at work. Crap dammit.
Audley
It was supposed to be the Jersey Tuff Guise™ crying!
But that was very sweet of them.
Chigau:
They were a little sniffly, trust me.
…that awkward moment when you realize that the reason why your data make no sense whatsoever is because you did the experiment wrong.
RIGHT THEN.
Last night I switched to a new skein of yarn for the blanket I’m making for the DF. It is progressing along now! It is about 8 inches wide (and 56 inches long).
48 even. Because I know how to add. *facepalm*
Awww @ Audley.
A segment of the DF’s blanket. When done, it will look like this (except red, obviously).
This will, eventually, be 4 feet square. Which is a bit big for a newborn, so I suppose it is okay that it won’t be done in time.
*hollers at the DF* HOLD TIGHT, HONEY! YOUR MOMMY DOESN’T WANT YOU TO COME OUT YET!!
Paul Ryan, abortion, and Supreme Court Judges: Ryan was well and truly outed as the extremist he is on the abortion issue. This time he didn’t get to weasel out of answering by saying that women are really interested in economic policy, so forget that abortion stuff.
Video of this section of the debate is available here:
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/10/12/14393044-ryan-abortion-and-unelected-judges
Esteleth:
No no no no no! Mommy wants her out RIGHT NOW!
True story: I used to baby-sit for a couple that had their second when their eldest was just past three.
Before the birth, the elder kid was told that there was a new baby inside mommy’s tummy, and that soon it would come out, etc etc etc.
So, not long after the birth, the new baby was fussing and crying (as babies do). Cue older kid saying: “Mommy! Can you put [new baby] back inside you?”
*threadrupt, waves to everyone*
LYNNA SIGNAL AHOY
Someone on A+ forums asked a question that ONLY YOU! can answer!
My searching and my thin stash of Lynna citations turned up nothing. Could you provide some links I can pass back to A+?
That comment’s here:
http://atheismplus.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1983&p=30771#p30721
Did anybody else notice that, during the debate, Ryan added yet one more story to the list of “proving Romney is human” stories? It was yet another tale of Romney helping a fellow mormon.
Yep, that’s right, we still have no tales of Romney helping human beings who are NOT mormon.
Yes, the Nixons are mormons. That makes them worthy of Romney’s help.
And this bit about Romney giving 30 percent of his income to charity has got to stop. First, it is inaccurate. And LD$ Inc. is more of a multilevel marketing scheme than a charity. That church ends up giving a few dollars per member per year to charity. They say they give more by counting all the “volunteer” work they do.
Debate transcript.
I may or may not have screamed at the tv last night
“TITHING IS NOT CHARITY“
Romney is indeed willing to help out people who fit his standards. Which (while not nothing) is FAR different from actual charity.
Pteryxx @492
Signal received.
Send them to the Mr. Deity video at YouTube Link.
Online textual references: http://www.i4m.com/think/history/mormon_racism.htm
More here: http://exmormon.org/d6/drupal/Racist-history-of-the-Mormon-Church-and-Mitt-Romney
From Great Moments in Mormon History:
Yes, Joe Smith gave one, just one, black man the mormon priesthood. Mormons like to point this out as proving that mormonism was/is not racist. One man does not make up for 126 years of prejudice against all other black, brown, and Native American persons.
http://www.i4m.com/think/history/mormon_history.htm
OK, now that we got the eggplant out of the way… :)
What do I do with the navy beans and the butternut squash. Do I combine them with some bacon or chorizo? Do I make soup out of the beans, and then honey-roast the squash? Both? Actually, since I’m cooking for one I could actually do both. Maybe I don’t want to eat soup several days in a row, maybe I don’t love the squash in the beans and can have the roasted squash instead?
Okay, someone explain this one real slow
tithing is not charity
I dont give money to any priest pastor rebbe or imam
but if I did so they could afford to study, buy food for the needy, paint the church or take cooked meals to the elderly or gamble it away in a casino I would consider that charity
improbable joe, ferment the squash into something useful or throw it away
slow cook the beans with sliced jalapeno’s green peppers onions, cilantro (coriander for the colonialists) and garlic
when the beans are mushy add chopped ham or 1/2 cooked bacon or cooked chorizo or all three. Cook for a further 30 minutes
make cornbread FEAST!
You guys are like an edible plant hate group!