Comments

  2. Rob Grigjanis says

    blf:

    They have sharp claws and teeth, and consider you lunch

    I consider me lunch, usually a few hours after me breakfast.

  4. rq says

    My favourite stuffed toy when I was a child was a rather large tiger that protected me from all the ghosts and monsters. Her name was Tiger Lily. This past summer I finally carted her back here from Canada. My family has never been more complete.

  7. says

    rq is a tiger too! rq can come cuddle Hobbes with Anne!

    I had a stuffed tiger named Mumps (no idea why) when I was small. Alas, the last Mumps was worn out years ago. I do have the tiger costume my mother made for Halloween, from yellow sheets with India ink stripes drawn on. I think I was two or three. Both daughters wore it, in their turn.

  9. Esteleth is Groot says

    Seems I picked a good time to come back. Are we being six-year-olds, then? I brought my Pretty Pretty Princess set…

  11. David Marjanović says

    This past summer I finally carted her back here from Canada.

    That makes me very happy. ^_^

    Before I collapse on the pillow fort, here’s some link-dumping:

    Open-access paper on how many species of cuteness there were in the Late Jurassic of western Europe.

    The closed-access paper on Spinosaurus is out now! Or rather… the extended abstract is behind a paywall. The actual paper, called “Supplementary Materials”, is free. Go check it out; just be warned that the upper-arm bone probably comes from an immature individual of the local sauropod, whose upper arms were previously unknown.

    Open-access paper on Persephonichthys chthonicus, a new transitional lungfish – transitional between the modern ones, which live in freshwater and eat all sorts of animal matter, and the Devonian ones, which mostly lived in the sea, had (in short) enamel-covered scales and munched on reef-builders. The head and the shoulder girdle have implications for the origin of limbed vertebrates in general and Tiktaalik in particular. The correction of the species name is automatic (Article 31.2), the corrected version must be attributed to the original paper and its authors.

    In the early 790s, Charlemagne had a canal built to (ultimately) connect the Rhine and the Danube. Open-access paper sez at least a part of the canal was built, was occupied by standing water for centuries, and was large enough for the ships of the time; it’s not clear yet if it ever really connected to (the nearest tributary of) the Danube.

  13. UnknownEric the Apostate says

    I’ll bring Buffy the Buffalo, my son can bring Ben the Dog, and my daughter will bring “Softdog.”

  15. David Marjanović says

    I brought my Pretty Pretty Princess set…

    May I braid your hair? :-)

    So, the Islamic State is trying to conquer Kobane/Ain al-Arab in northern Syria. About 30 km south of there, it has surrounded the mausoleum of Süleyman Şah, the grandfather of the first Ottoman sultan. Fun fact: that mausoleum is exterritorial; although surrounded by Syria, it belongs to Turkey, and 36 Turkish soldiers are guarding it! They’re trapped there now, the IS* has been demanding their retreat to Turkey since March, Turkey has been refusing and has said that any attack on the area of that mausoleum will be considered an attack on Turkey. Article in German. Other article in German sez Erdoğan now wants to join the coalition against the IS and even put boots on the ground; details will be decided by the parliament on Thursday. So far, the article points out, Turkey has let holy warriors pass into Syria without restrictions in order to get rid of al-Assad. Terrorist assaults in Turkey are expected, especially on tourism, which is a hugely important part of the economy.

    * Consistently called a “terror militia” by German-speaking media.

    One of the most important figures in the protests in Hong Kong is Joshua Wong, who’s just 17 years old. Article in German goes on to say that the government has switched off the cell phone network in the center of the city several times, but the protesters use FireChat, an app that lets cell phones communicate via Bluetooth for distances up to 60 m; it was downloaded 100,000 times on Sunday alone, when it was used to send 800,000 messages. The article wonders if China will have another Tiān’ānmén.

    If there’s a fire in Montreal, don’t park in the way. Not even if you’re the police.

    Teagate: the latest in Obama Derangement Syndrome. Snarky article by Daily Kos.

    I completely missed the big news from last Wednesday: India’s first attempt to send a probe into orbit around Mars has been successful. And it only cost 74 megabucks. That’s right: seventy-four. Very short video in German.

  18. David Marjanović says

    “Here at Care2, we care a great deal about climate change — and we also care a great deal about science, which provides much of the basis for our understanding of climate change. You might intuitively think that our understanding of and belief in science is part of what drives us to take individual action to halt climate change, but research from Amsterdam suggests, oddly, that just the opposite is true.” There’s hope at the bottom of the article, however.

    “Remember, these are the people who said forcing a person to wait an extra two days was all about ‘compassion’ for the pregnant person.”

    “It’s Legal for Perverts to Take Upskirt Photos in Texas Because They’re Apparently ‘Art’“:

    “The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has unanimously ruled that a law that prevents creeps from taking upskirt photos of women in public without their consent is unconstitutional.

    While the highest criminal court in Texas didn’t really throw out the whole improper photography law, they did strike down the parts that ban anyone from taking photographs in public places ‘without the other person’s consent’, and with the ‘intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person’.

    In other words, it’s now a free-for-all in Texas.”

    What it’s like to arrive in California to work when the only language you speak is Mixe.

    “Growers depend on this undocumented work force to harvest the lettuce, strawberries, artichokes and other produce that will end up on dinner tables throughout the country. ‘They show up with a document that says they’re legal. I don’t care where they get it, I just sign them up,’ said one Central Valley supervisor, who estimated that about 60 percent of his team came to the U.S. illegally.”

    “Rivera-Salgado feels that indigenous people of the north and south have a lot to learn about each other. Two months ago, he and a group of Oaxacans met with a Lakota delegation. They got into a circle and inside the circle they put something that is sacred to both peoples: corn. ‘We talked about it, what does it mean for us, how we view corn,’ he says. ‘That was such a beautiful dialogue. There was no agenda, no objective—it was just creating a space so we could share bread together. It was just wonderful. That to me symbolizes what we should do.'”

    “In Fresno, it is these young people who organize the Guelaguetza, the annual festival of Oaxacan culture. ‘For a long time I would not say where I was from,’ says Fresno State University student Venedit Valencia, who remembers being teased as a child for her long Indian braids.” But now, through meeting other Oaxacan students, she says proudly: ‘I’m a Oaxaquena. I’m indigenous.'”

    “Originally, the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument was something that George W. Bush established during his last weeks in office. However, Obama has taken the symbolic ocean protection and turned it into something useful by growing the area to six times its original size.”

    …I just tried preview for the first time since the layout change. It doesn’t show any empty lines. o_O

  19. David Marjanović says

    never could figure out if Hobbes was real or not. :)

    It’s really ambiguous in-universe!

  20. jrfdeux, mode d'emploi says

    My 8 year old son has a beautiful tiger stuffy that he named “Lijer” (LY-jer). He’s the engineer of my two kids. My daughter, who is 6, is the scientist. You know how I know? She schooled him on “Ligers” and then explained to him that his stuffy and best friend Lijer was in fact a Sumatran Tiger because Lijer was, and I quote, “Very handsome but has an attitude.”

    Ahh the confidence of youth.

  22. opposablethumbs says

    I think I’d like to sleep in a corner of the pillow fort tonight. So glad you all built it.

    I could bring the stuffed cat my mum (a very Sciency Scientist) made for me one time she was ill in hospital (yup, still got it – it’s on a shelf in DaughterSpawn’s room) and if either of the Spawn come by (doubtful, as they are off doing stuff) they could bring el osito teddy. Or possibly el monino (the preferred pronunciation, apparently).

  23. Esteleth is Groot says

    PZ @16:

    Bah. We Sciencey Scientists have no time for stuffed animals.

    It’s ok. You can play Pretty Pretty Princess with me and DDMFM.

  30. says

    So, I completely failed to actually go to classes today, choosing instead to spit up a pint or so of bile and then pass out.

    On the upside of today, I’ll actually be meeting Azkyroth in person later, so that’s cool.

  31. carlie says

    On the upside of today, I’ll actually be meeting Azkyroth in person later, so that’s cool.

    Luckyyyyyyyyy.

    Except for the vomiting and passing out part.

  33. says

    http://feministbatwoman.tumblr.com/post/98751163102/i-was-tagged-on-fb-and-i-had-to-share

    On a friend’s Facebook page someone mentioned that “Social Justice Warrior” was an accusation that sounds like a character class.

    So of course, me being me…

    Level 1 Attack: “Privilege Check.” bestows the “bigoted” status on enemies. Enemies with bigoted status cannot heal until consuming a “public apology” potion, or have the “unapologetic” passive ability.

    Level 2 spell: “Trigger Warning.” …Gives rest of party insight to an enemy’s offensive maneuvers, giving them a bonus to defense against enemy attacks for the rest of the combat.

    Level 3 Attack: “Scathing article.” Gives a bonus to damage when attacking an enemy with “Bigoted” status. High damage, but leaves opponent open for attack.

    They go up to Level 10. Fun read.
    And if I don’t post coherently for the next few hours, it’s bc the drunk has overtaken me. I got off work and had two drinks and two shots, and boy oh boy, my alcohol tolerance has diminished dramatically!

  35. chigau (違う) says

    I’m home from Japan.
    totally ‘rupt
    First thing we did was have the kitteh euthanised.
    I’ll take some hugs, please.

  37. carlie says

    Tony – I would! but I am not. I gave up FB a couple of years ago now, and have not gone back. I’m on the twitters, though!

  38. Ray, rude-ass yankee (Whimsy, I has it) says

    Hi chigau, Sorry to hear that. I’ll just leave a basket full of Hobbes flavored hugs here for you and anyone else what needs ’em. Stuffed tiger hugs are the best kind.

    Seconding Anne@34, Dalillama, feel better soon.

  39. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Oh, chigau!

    I’m so sorry. All my support and love, not just my hugs, are at your USB disposal.

  40. FossilFishy (NOBODY, and proud of it!) says

    Hugs for chigau. I’m so sorry for your loss.

    So, ever have a plan, a good, plan, nae, a great plan only to have it go awry. Awry in such a way as to have no one to blame but yourself? Sigh.

    Ms. Fishy’s birthday is in a week. This year I decided to write her a song. A song about long-term love, the kind that recognises that no one’s perfect. I forced her to change her plans for last Sunday so I could play it to her at the pub’s open stage. Without telling her I was going to do so.

    So I get up on stage, get my gear set up and do a bit of improvising to make sure the levels of the various bits are okay. All good. Then I start loading the loops for the first real song and everything goes whaloony. It’s so bad that I can’t hear the phrases well enough to sing.

    Turns out that the plastic body of the stereo socket I installed on my guitar to allow me to use it both as a guitar and a percussion instrument had failed. It has dissolved in fact, because I had failed to wash off the flux I used to get a good solder joint. The two circuits were intermittently shorting with each other.

    Fuck.

    Ms. Fishy was understanding, to a point. I had to explain why I was so disappointed and she responded with “I celebrate birth-month, you know that. You can sing it next time.” Which is nice, but when I was still annoyed I ended up having to say “I know this is involves you, but not everything is about you. I’m disappointed.” thus demonstrating the point of my song: that long-term love is wonderful and rewarding but also complicated and sometimes difficult.

  41. yazikus says

    Chigau, I too am ‘rupt. I’m so sorry for your loss. My sister-in-law had to do the same this last Friday. I was trying to explain to little dude why Buddy wasn’t coming home from the vet (he thought they were taking him for medicine to make Buddy better), so I explained that sometimes when life becomes really painful for a creature who is sick and can’t get better, you can take them to the doctor, who will give them some medicine to help them die peacefully and without pain. It was super sad.
    –
    On a different, difficult but much more awkward conversation, the little dude started one tonight that I think I failed at. He was in the bath (he is 5 and a half) and I’m trying to clean up the house and he calls me to come in and says, seriously, “Mom, I would like a box of condoms” (he pronounced ‘condoms’ very slowly and seriously). I was sort of flummoxed, and asked him where he had heard of condoms. He explained that David Canterbary (from Dual Survival, a survival reality show) had used them to fill water in very cold temperatures and that they had very good elasticity and were excellent storage vessels (all little dude’s words). Then he asked me what they were. I was caught unprepared for such a conversation, and threw out the old “I’ll tell you when you are older”. He persisted saying he wanted a whole package and soon. I explained that they were an adult thing, and that he shouldn’t talk about them (I know, bad, I know!). He agreed, and then suggested that his next birthday party should be ‘private’ so that we could give them to him. Parenting-fail! I don’t know how to fix this one. Problem is, he has a mind like a steel trap, so this is not likely to be forgotten, especially now that I have made it taboo. Any suggestions?

  43. cicely says

    I can bring a number of stuffed Cthulhus. If wanted.
    –
    *hugs* for Dalillama, with sympathies for the Bile-y Badness.
    –
    *manymanymanymany hugs* for chigau.
    I’m so sorry.
    –
    *hug* for FossilFishy, and I’m sorry that The Plan rolled a 1 on its Skill Check.
    –
    yazikus, you may have to do Intro to Reproductive Biology a little earlier than you thought….
    –

  45. rq says

    chigau
    *hugs*
    That’s an impressive kitteh age.

    Dalillama
    *hugs* for the pain and passing out (get well soon), *cheers* for meeting Azkyroth! Sounds exciting!! (For you, too, Azkyroth!!!)

    *waves* to yazikus – I don’t have any good suggestions, other than getting him a box and giving other people dirty looks for wondering about it. Safe sex starts early! (Besides, it’s for practical purposes and, no doubt, science – both good things!)
    With a short statement on what they’re actually used for, but that’s not a conversation I envy you. I get flustered at these things, too. :P
    (We were watching that Burgess animals video link PZ posted a while ago, and there’s a worm that sort of extends out of the ground in a very explicit way, and Eldest just kind of casually throws out, “Oh I can to that too, with my penis!” because that’s exactly what it looks like. What did I say to that? A very clever “Uuuuummmm, cool. … Next video?”)

  48. FossilFishy (NOBODY, and proud of it!) says

    Thanks cicely. It was a fail, but the game goes on. :)

    Hey rq. I ended up using that chord you suggested for Ms. Fishy’s song. Thanks for that, when it rockets to the top of the pops I’d be more than happy to share some royalties. ;) I’m really loving this idea of stacking intervals other than thirds as elucidated by CR. Using a looper means struggling to find ways to keep things from becoming too repetitive. I like the idea of having a basic loop that uses a stacked fourth chord or something like that and then dropping in other loops that ‘resolve’* the ambiguity of those fourths by adding different thirds. If that makes any sense.

    yazikus

    In that situation I would tell him that they are used to prevent women from becoming pregnant. And if he asks how then tell him how it all works in very broad terms. You’re not going to hurt your child by explaining things so long as you’re factual about it. We told the Small Fry at around that age how she was made from Daddy’s sperm and Mummy’s egg. How those two things got mixed went unsaid because she was satisfied with that explanation. I don’t dread this coming up again though. I’m only concerned that I explain it at a simple enough level that I don’t confuse her. I’d much rather have these conversations incrementally as a consequence of everyday curiosities than sit down and have “The Talk!” If for no other reason than it sends the message that this sex stuff in normal, natural and no big deal.

    *For lack of a better term.

  52. rq says

    FossilFishy
    Interestingly enough, that did make sense. :) I can come up with more tricksy stuff if you need to, just by using my – how did CR describe it? ah yes – probable trickery.
    I’m sorry the show didn’t go as planned, though. *hugs* for that – is there going to be a next attempt? If so, I hope all equipment co-operates with your intentions!

  53. FossilFishy (NOBODY, and proud of it!) says

    Cheers rq. Ms. Fishy means it when she says she celebrates her birthmonth rather than a mere birthday, so the next open stage on the last Sunday of October will be the grand unveiling. In the end this is all to the good. The song could use some more refining and practice. I wasn’t confident I’d remember all they lyrics last weekend, another month and I’ll have it cold.

  55. azhael says

    Bah. We Sciencey Scientists have no time for stuffed animals.

    Hmmmm…*looks at room full of crocheted crap* so that’s why i didn’t get my degree…

  56. opposablethumbs says

    chigau, I’m very sorry. I hope it is some little comfort to know that you helped ensure that kitteh had such a long life full of many great and excellent quallies.
    My sympathies to Dalillama. That must feel horrible, I’m so sorry!
    Hope the grand unveiling goes really well when it does happen, FossilFishy!
    ::waves to Horde:: My, there are a lot of stuffed animals around here.
    Good.

  58. birgerjohansson says

    Neal Stephenson: Innovation Starvation, the Next Generation http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/09/neal_stephenson_innovation_starvation_we_have_great_ideas_for_the_future.html
    — — — —
    Researchers find possible explanation of early Polynesian migration http://phys.org/news/2014-09-explanation-early-polynesian-migration.html
    — — — —
    (trigger alert) Rehtaeh Parsons Was the Most Famous Victim in Canada. Now, Journalists Can’t Even Say Her Name. http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/09/29/rehtaeh_parsons_canadian_journalists_can_t_print_her_name_as_a_suspect_pleads.html

  59. carlie says

    oh, chigau, I’m so sorry. That’s so tough. I appreciate the long and happy and loved life you gave the kitty.

    Fossilfishy – yeah, that sucks, for all the reasons. :( What a great thing to do for her, though. I’ve always thought writing someone a song is such a touching, beautiful thing.

    yazikus – oof. This book is written for age five and up, if having a book on hand helps. I don’t have this one, but we got the next one up in the series when mine started asking all the questions.

  60. 2kittehs says

    If there’s to be a gathering with soft toys, I’m bringing Teddy and Dinah. I’ve had my Ted since I was a year old, so he’s passed his half-century now. Miss Dinah McIver is by comparison a whippersnapper at a mere eighteen. :)

  61. says

    Heya
    Big hugs for chigau

    +++
    hugs for Fossil Fishy
    One of my favourite love songs is 22 Jahre by Schelmisch.
    It’s been written by the lead singer (the one blonde guy) to his wife (on the right). The chorus goes:
    You stole my toothpaste again, but I fucked up your coffee. I hate your cabbage rolls, but I love the Königsber dumplings.

    +++
    yazikus
    Does he know how the whole sex thingy works? We started getting the basics clear with mummy laid an egg, though at 5.5 he might be a bit too old for that. I find it important to teach children that while sex is usually necessary for having kids, people mostly have it for fun. I grew up knowing where children come from and thinking that this was the only time and reason they have sex.

    +++
    What a week
    My school internship is good but exhausting, because those kids demand good nerves.
    Today I taught a fifth grade whose main teacher apparently doesn’t believe in a working atmosphere and those kids show it. They could use some teacher who instills a bit of rules and discipline.
    And even better, yesterday I had a talk with #1’s after school daycare teachers. Non-neurotypicalness is rearing its head at the moment. I knew that she had troubles doing her homework, but that has improved again already. What I didn’t know was that every day she arrives there after school crying and being a total wreck, because when I pick her up she’s happy and laughs and every mornig when I take her to school she’s eager and happy and whenever I ask her how her day was she tells me it was fine. Which is kind of typical. She can flip a switch from crying a river to being happy again and it doesn’t bother her afterwards.
    Apparently she’s having troubles adjusting to the fact that they have many different teachers now instead of just one or two. We decided on giving her a bit more structure in the afternoon and keeping in contact.

  62. David Marjanović says

    Urgent petition: ask Members of the European Parliament not to confirm “Señor Petrolhead” as Commissioner for Energy and Climate. Arias Cañete used to be chair of two oil corporations, and during his time as environment minister of Spain he allowed drilling for oil off the Canary Islands; he has sold his shares, but his son and his brother-in-law still hold influential positions in the corporations in question. On top of that, he made unspecified sexist remarks during the campaign for the EU parliamentary elections, the e-mail says.

  63. Doug Hudson says

    Ok, I’ve asked this a few times in the HPL thread but haven’t gotten any suggestions, so I’m trying here: can anyone recommend a good place to start with the works of Octavia Butler? I’ve heard so many good things, but I’m not sure where to begin: short stories? a particular novel?

    Thanks!

  65. Doug Hudson says

    Giliell,

    Thanks! Turns out I have read some Butler, I remember reading that story in an anthology several years ago, but for whatever reason I never followed up, and then forgot about it.

    That is a classic story, the opening paragraph is stunning. Off to buy some more books!

  67. Doug Hudson says

    Interesting, in reading over the descriptions of Octavia Butler’s novels, most of them make me feel vaguely uncomfortable for reasons that are difficult to articulate, besides the obvious “I’m a white guy with privilege up the wazoo and these stories are way outside my comfort zone.”

    Still, I should read them, to challenge myself if nothing else. Maybe I’ll re-read some Shirley Jackson or Ursala K. LeGuin to prepare myself.

  69. mildlymagnificent says

    chigau, so sorry about kitty. Our kitty who was much the same age had that trip last year. Most of the time it’s just one of those things we live with. But I startled myself the other night thinking I heard her scratching at the flywire door. There was nothing there at all, just life-with-kitty reasserting itself in my memory.

    With a short statement on what they’re actually used for, but that’s not a conversation I envy you. I get flustered at these things, too. :P

    Hah! A couple of years ago my niece reported that the school had asked “permission” for her girls to attend the appropriate grade level sex education classes. She leaped at the chance to say a very loud Yes! She felt as uncomfortable as most people do. She was much happier hoping that she’d only have to deal with specific questions that they came up with after the lessons rather than the whole topic all by herself.

  72. birgerjohansson says

    Ed Brayton’s blog mentions that when a pagan gave an invocation at a function, a member of the Escambia County Board of County Commissioners refused to sit through it and conspicuously walked out.
    That member ignores that atheists are supposed to suffer through Christian invocations without complaint. But if invocations are allowed, then all religions have the right to do it.
    .
    Eric Houg suggests: “I think this is awesome. We need to start a charity dedicated to seeking out and hiring the wackiest religious ministers that could go to these sort of meetings and say the invocations. Santeria, Scientologists, Wiccans should be the most main stream people that we send to these events. If we can find a religion that opposes clothing and washing I think that’s a good base line.”

    My contribution: Jainism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jainism
    Cool swastika on the symbol. We should bring that alongside the prayer into the government functions, arguing that if you can have the Southern battle flag on the state capitol, you could also have the banner of Jainism. At least the latter is a symbol of peace (in its Indian context).
    Some of the Jainist monks walk around butt naked, to avoid crushing insects (that may be their reincarnated relatives) in the folds of cloth. Butt naked middle-aged men chanting prayers under a swastika flag. We could base an episode of South Park on it!

  73. The Mellow Monkey says

    Oh boy. Kids and learning about reproduction stuff. This brings me to one of my finest anecdotes…

    How The Mellow Monkey Learned About Penises and Vaginas and Horror

    My aunt gave my mother a book about sex when I was five, which had been written by one of her psychology professors and was supposed to introduce children to the concept of sex without shame or discomfort. Yeeaaah, this didn’t go so well.

    First, my stepfather took it upon himself to read it to me one day without any prompting on my part or input from my mother. So it wasn’t information I had asked for and wasn’t being introduced by someone whom I saw as a parent or whom I was comfortable discussing body parts with. Bad, bad, bad.

    Second, the book described the penis, testicles, vulva and vagina. There was a front shot of what genitals looked like with legs together and then an anatomical cross-section showing the internal workings of the vagina, uterus, ovaries, etc. There was no description of all of the other external parts to female genitals. I instinctively felt that my clitoris was the most important part to my personal sexual anatomy, so this led me to assuming that “vagina” must be the name for it and that all this internal stuff was accessed by shoving through the clitoris itself.

    This was, in short, absolutely fucking horrifying to me. My response was to tell my mother in front of company one day, “I will NEVER put a penis in my vagina. EVER. That is horrible.” (Incidentally, I have kept that vow to this day.) I think I may have gone off on a rant about hating men, too. (MISANDRY!) My mother and I can laugh about it now, but at the time it truly was upsetting to me.

    Based on that experience, I’ve come to the conclusion that anatomy is probably one of the best things to start with when it comes to a kid’s sex ed. Unless you’re trying to make your kid afraid of other people’s genitals, I guess.

  74. Gorogh, Lounging Peacromancer says

    Damn it… some belated hugs for you, chigau, although you might have plenty already. I won’t be offended if you don’t need any more.

    Just a passing note: I watched a few episodes of a show called Taboo yesterday, and it was surprisingly good. A tad sensationalist at times, but they had real experts speaking commenting on various topics (from Tourette’s syndrome and autism, underage sex and marriage, facial disfigurement and dozens of other cases), so it generally made the impression of good science journalism. In case anybody has access to it, e.g. via Netflix, I think I can safely recommend it.

  75. drst says

    David Marjanovic @ 18

    ThinkProgress had a good article on the Texas court ruling: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/09/21/3570111/texas-court-creepshot-photos/

    “The court did suggest that a more narrowly drawn law would survive constitutional scrutiny — “substantial privacy interests are invaded in an intolerable manner when a person is photographed without consent in a private place, such as the home, or with respect to an area of the person that is not exposed to the general public, such as up a skirt.” Thus, if the Texas legislature responds to this decision with a more narrowly tailored ban on “upskirt” photography, for example, it is likely that this law would be upheld.”

    It’s very similar to the Massachusetts case.

  77. birgerjohansson says

    David Cameron promises to cut taxes and scrap Human Rights Act http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/01
    “The total mess left by Labour. Labour always bankrupt the Exchequer. They spend more, borrow more and destroy our future by increasing our national debt. Only we Tories can be trusted with the economy.”
    .
    Comment: Oh really?? Lets put this load of bollocks to rest once and for all.
    Between the years 2004 and 2008, Labour borrowed a total of £148.8 billion. In 2008/9, the year of the banking crash, Labour borrowed £97.5 billion.
    Since being elected in 2010, the Tories have borrowed a staggering £600 billion.
    George Osborne borrowed more in his first 3 years than Labour borrowed in their entire 13.
    .
    This has seen the National debt rise from £0.62 trillion in 2009 to £1.26 trillion in 2014. Labour bankrupted our future? Hmmm.
    Between 2004 and 2008, before the banking crisis, the average deficit under Labour was £43 billion. Since 2010, the average Tory deficit has been 3 times this, at £108 billion. And they tell you with a straight face they have slashed the deficit!
    .
    Between 2004 and 2009, average growth in GDP was 2.4%. Since 2010, the average growth has been 1.4%. Even if growth reaches 2.5% per year between now and 2018, GDP will be a miserable 11% higher than it was in 2007. To put this in context, between 1996 and 2007 GDP grew by 43%.

  78. yazikus says

    Thanks for all of the advice, and Mellow Monkey, that truly sounds terrible!
    –
    We’ve been pretty straightforward with the anatomy stuff, so no stigmas there. His auntie explained menstruation to him after he found some of her garbage. He asked why I didn’t, so I had to explain birth control (medicine that keeps you from starting to grow a baby). So really, it is just my hang ups that made it awkward. He is super literal, so I have to be really careful how I explain things.

  80. blf says

    *sticks tongue out at blf*

    Grabs it(the tongue, not myself) and will add it to my collection as soon as I can recall which wall(? ceiling? floor?) I’ve been nailing them to. Thanks!

  82. cicely says

    birgerjohansson:

    What? I thought the Founding Fathers (TM) were perfect, thus creating a perfect constitution.

    Nonono! The Constitution, in Its undeniable Perfection, was mandated by God Hisself, in the Bible. Book of *mumblemumble*, verses *cough* through *shiftily avoiding eye contact*.
    –
    Anne:

    Oh, blf, you really don’t want to do that. We tigers have been known to bite.

    *nodding*
    “Sharp of tooth and claw.” It’s all right there in the Product Description.
    –

  83. blf says

    Anne, There’s a certain penguin who will take care of any bitey-bitey teethy-toothy teegir problems. Well, Ok, she’s slightly misplaced at the moment, but the chance to teach such a feline to fely is bound to be a strong attractor. The tebuchet is ready…

  87. blf says

    I had some boeuf cuit bleu yesterday.

    Unfortunately, there was a zucchini on the pasta today.

  94. blf says

    I don’t fling flying felines far for fun, a certain penguin, deranged, mildly, does. Her collection of trebuchets certainly has models which can throw tonnes of awfulness, er, I mean, awesome tonnage, into orbit. Around Andromeda.

  96. David Marjanović says

    And there shall be dumping of links.

    Open-access paper on the origin of bird wrists! With prettier pictures than ever before!

    Open-access commentary article in Palaeontologia Electronica* on the “State of the Palaeoart”.

    * The oldest online-only journal in paleontology – so old its name is in fake Latin. :-þ

    SCOTUS blocks early voting in Ohio in a 5-to-4 decision.

    Similarly, the Reptilian candidate for secretary of state of Nevada supports a voter ID law, opposes same-day voter registration and same-day voting “because such last-minute activity could put too much pressure on election workers and make it tough to prevent fraud” (in the words of the cited source, not hers).

    “There’s not a lot of cases of voter fraud in Nevada, just like everywhere else. There is one notable, and pretty funny[,] exception, the Republican who said she tried to vote twice in the 2012 general election on purpose, to prove just how easy it is to commit voter fraud. Which she didn’t, because she was caught in the second attempt, at a second site by poll workers who determined she had already voted at a different precinct.

    This is just one reason Daily Kos is endorsing Kate Marshall for secretary of state in Nevada. Currently the state’s treasurer, Marshall is opposed to voter IDs because it’s money the state doesn’t have to solve a problem the state doesn’t have. She should know about the state’s coffers, since she’s in charge of them.”

    “Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown call for investigations of NY Fed over ‘secret tapes’“. With a poll, where the options include “Don’t know” and “Pie”.

    “Seven ways Obamacare is working”

    The court did suggest that a more narrowly drawn law would survive constitutional scrutiny —

    Good!

    Avaunt, foul vegetable! Back to the Horse-pond with you!

    Précisément le mot juste.

  97. says

    Yes, Republicans really do believe that gay people are the Great Evil. Moreover, gay Republican candidates, though few and far between, and the Even Greater Evil.

    […] Late last week, three anti-gay rights groups—the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the Family Research Council (FRC) and CitizenLink—sent a letter to national Republican leaders declaring their intention to actively oppose openly gay Republican House candidates Carl DeMaio and Richard Tisei, as well as Oregon Senate candidate Monica Wehby, who has endorsed gay marriage. “This decision was reached,” the groups wrote, “only after having exhausted all attempts to convince the Republican leadership of the grave error it was making in advancing candidates who do not hold core Republican beliefs and, in fact, are working to actively alienate the Republican base.” […]

    NOM is heavily mormon and catholic. Religion is a big deal for all of the anti-gay Republicans mentioned in the Mother Jones article. There is no daylight between their religion and their politics.

  98. David Marjanović says

    Poll results! 2202 votes have been cast so far.

    Do you support Senator Elizabeth Warren’s and Sherrod Brown’s calls for Congressional investigation of the New York Federal Reserve’s handling of the financial crisis?

    Yes, and it’s about time!
    83% 1834 votes
    Yes
    3% 75 votes
    Yes, but I doubt even the Democratic Senate will follow through
    12% 284 votes
    No
    0% 3 votes
    Don’t know
    0% 2 votes
    Pie
    0% 3 votes

    “Arkansas GOP candidate’s voter registration canceled“! And yes, she is white, even though her blond isn’t genuine.

    “Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest: Are Republicans really worried about Oklahoma? They may well be”

    “Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State has launched an investigation into “possible criminal violations” of The New Georgia Project, an organization registering minority voters in the state, because county officials flagged 25 voter registration forms as fraudulent.

    Meanwhile, over 50,000 of the new voters registered by the New Georgia Project have yet to show up on voter rolls.

    Georgia’s voter registration deadline is October 6 and early vote begins October 13—giving us less than one week to have the registrations validated.”

    With a web form for sending petitions to the Dishonorable Brian Kemp, secretary of state of Georgia. In the quote above, there’s underlining instead of bold in the original; I can’t reproduce that here.

    “Skateboarding is not welcome in Kroger stores. Neither is shopping while not wearing a shirt. And you’re not welcome to carry in outside food or drink. But you are perfectly welcome to shop in a Kroger-owned store carrying a loaded semi-automatic rifle.” Petition to Kroger to stop being an embarrassment of global proportions.

    “When the North Carolina arm of the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity group tried to register a cat to vote it was amusing. [Though all the misinformation put together is also a felony, follow the link.] But with more of the story unfolding now, it’s downright infuriating.” – “But here’s an interesting part to the story. Remember all the pooh-poohing about the Democrats’ strategy of hitting the Kochs? When Republicans and pundits alike were saying that the Koch brothers had no name recognition and it would all backfire? Look at how the local news [link] framed this story: ‘The group behind the mailing is the sharply conservative, Koch brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity Foundation.’ No, nobody ever heard of the Kochs and their anti-democratic activities.”

  99. says

    This belongs in our Republicans-saying-stupid-stuff file. They’re still trying to figure out how to lure women to vote for conservative candidates. I’m afraid their latest ads, which riff on the “Say Yes to the Dress” TV reality show do not work. They’re comparing choosing a political candidate to choosing a wedding dress.

    http://thinkprogress.org/election/2014/10/01/3574672/say-yes-to-the-candidate/

    […] One ad, paid for by the College Republican National Committee, shows a young woman trying on a wedding dress and raving about Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) as her mother urges her to pick Charlie Crist instead.

    “Mom, this is my decision. And I see a better future with Rick Scott,” the bride says. At the end, she, her mother, and her African American maid of honor squeal and toast with champagne. […]

  101. says

    […] An estimated 35,000 walrus have come ashore in record numbers on a beach in northwest Alaska for lack of better ground. As climate change warms the atmosphere, summer sea ice in the Arctic is diminishing, likely stranding these walrus from their preferred sea ice outposts. Arctic sea ice reached its lowest point this year in mid-September, and NASA reported it to be the sixth-lowest recorded since 1978. […]

    Fascinating photos at the link.
    http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/10/01/3574255/walrus-converge-alaska-beach/

  102. Pteryxx says

    Facebook released an apology for its real-names policy and a promise (k) that they’re working on (…k) a technical fix (…k…) for all those drag queens locked out of their profiles and friend networks. Jezebel:

    Sources say Facebook will stop short of admitting they are reversing the policy, which saw the social network demanding users to go by their “name as it would be listed on [their] credit card, driver’s license or student ID.”

    Rather than owning up to its discriminatory behavior, the company plans on insisting that it always defined “real name” as a person’s preferred name. We’re told the company will claim that its “real names” policy was being improperly enforced and that a “fix” is on its way.

    Update 2:15pm: Following today’s meeting with Facebook, Supervisor David Campos’s office confirms our original report in a press release.

    “The drag queens spoke and Facebook listened! Facebook agreed that the real names policy is flawed and has unintentionally hurt members of our community. We have their commitment that they will be making substantive changes soon and we have every reason to believe them,” Campos said. “Facebook apologized to the community and has committed to removing any language requiring that you use your legal name. They’re working on technical solutions to make sure that nobody has their name changed unless they want it to be changed and to help better differentiate between fake profiles and authentic ones.”

  103. Pteryxx says

    *correction, that link’s to Gawker, one of Jezebel’s partner sites. They mix their headlines together. <_<

  104. David Marjanović says

    “GOP’s “Republicans Are People” Video Can’t Find Any – Uses Stock Photos”

    Video (YouTube, 3 minutes, no sound): “Drone Shows Thousands Filling Hong Kong Streets”

    “Republicans spending six-figures [sic] to hold onto [sic] the governorship in … Idaho?!”

    “No surprise here: With the November elections just five weeks away, Congressman Doug Lamborn is trying to claim he didn’t mean what he said when he claimed that he and his colleagues were urging generals to resign in a ‘blaze of glory’ rather than follow orders from President Obama.” Good old “the media misquoted me out of context”, the politicians’ version of “the lurkers support me in e-mail”.

    “Food stamp use is falling, and even the Wall Street Journal has noticed” – “This is exactly how the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is designed, of course. It gets bigger when the economy is bad and people need more help, and smaller when the economy improves and more people have jobs. All the Republican attempts to slash the program to the bone ignored this, because it was more convenient for them to use food stamps as a tactic to stigmatize people struggling in a terrible economy and distract from the ways Republican policies made the economy and the struggle worse. And we can expect Republicans to continue to pretend policies like SNAP don’t work, despite all the evidence. Because that’s what they do: they break the government so they can say ‘see, government doesn’t work’. They make people poor, then blame them for being poor. They divide and conquer. But for now, food stamps present a smaller target.”

    “Albuquerque police officer jokes about shooting James Boyd–kills him two hours later” – “This isn’t the first troubling incident for Officer Sandy. In 2007, he was fired by the New Mexico State Police: […] And it gets worse: […]”

  106. Morgan!? Militant Pacifist says

    Chigau, so sorry for the loss of the furry friend. My furry friends, and my self, send appropriate warm fuzzies.

    I’m slowly crawling back up to the light from my meltdown into the slough of despond.

    Since Friday until yesterday I was house/doggie sitting for friends who went to play in Portland, Oregon for a few days. I did not venture upstairs at all, using only the accommodations downstairs. But then……….. So there I was about 8:30 on a cool fall Monday morning, lazing about in bed surrounded by five warm fuzzy beasties when there came a very loud crash and what sounded like breaking glass. The beasties went wild. I froze, thinking a very large carnivore was about to make its presence known…

    I got up and found that the very heavy antler chandelier over the dining room table had fallen and landed mere inches from my computer and camera. The sound of breaking glass was just the scattering of green plastic monkeys that had been hanging from the antlers. (Don’t ask.)

    Interesting way to start the day, doncha think? The chandelier was not broken. However, when I went searching for my glasses (without which I am near blind) I finally discovered them in several pieces directly under the chandelier. Crap. I am now attempting to function with the aid of my reading glasses only. The world really needs more distinct edges.

    Now, the query du jour was “Why did the chandelier fall?” A mystery indeed, but soon to be solved by an even grander mystery. Later that day I heard a suspicious drip, drip, drip. It was coming from the ceiling where the chandelier had been previously attached. Oh crap thought I. I ran upstairs to the bathroom directly above the dining room. No water was running but the floor was soaked. I quickly called my friend and asked in panic, “Where is the master shut-off valve for the water?”

    Longish story shorter, I finally found the valve and got the water shut off and got a plumber to appear post haste. He agreed that the bathroom was indeed flooded but after two hours of searching could not find the leak. Very, very weird. So I left the water off, bundled up all the pooches and brought them to my house. My friends arrived home last night and spoke again with the plumber this morning. Everyone is baffled. The plumber asked, “Do you have a ghost?” My friend replied “No, but we have an atheist!” Seems every time I house sit for them, something catastrophic happens. Oh no! Divine retribution! LOLOLOLOL My good friends are of similar conviction. Seems I just don’t know my own power.

    On a different note, I went out to dinner last night with charming hubby at the local dive which we have affectionately dubbed The Boot Barn, and he wished me happy birthday a day early. I whined, how the fuck did I get so old? Without skipping a beat he replied, “Gracefully, my dear.” There is a reason we’ve been married 24 years. There are several.

    I’m 65 today. Sigh. Hubby just left to drive all the way down the mountain to a florist shop to get my birthday flowers.

  107. says

    David M. @104, thanks for the link.

    “Republicans spending six-figures [sic] to hold onto [sic] the governorship in … Idaho?!”

    This is surpassingly strange, since there are huge numbers of mormons, Republicans and mormon republicans in Idaho. Still, hope springs eternal. I will certainly be voting for the Democratic candidate, a guy who seems like an excellent choice. Pro education, etc.

    Republicans are fighting him with tired talking points like “tax and spend liberal.” Glad to see the Republicans are worried.

  108. says

    They’re comparing choosing a political candidate to choosing a wedding dress.

    Cost a lot of money and are only good for one day. Sounds appropriate to me….

    +++
    morgan
    Thanks for making me laugh.
    I’m sorry about the glasses and your friends’ troubles, though.

  109. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Meanwhile, in my neck of the woods, rats are doing one hell of an impressive conga for Morgan’s birthday.

    Thanks for recent links, Lynna & DDFM

  110. rq says

    Morgan
    *birthday hugs&balloons&birthdaycheesecake*
    I had no idea the Power of Athe was so strong. Now to figure out how to access my own! I’ll never have to visit religious relatives again!

    Oh, you zucchini haters are such… haters. :P Slice it thin, batter it (lightly, no need for excess), salt&pepper&garlic it, fry in butter until crispy. OMNOMNOMNOMNOM!!!
    Then again, hate away. Just send the rejects my way, I’ll be glad to have them.
    Le mot juste. *hmpf*

  112. Brony says

    I mentioned before that I was thinking about starting a blog about Tourette Syndrome and related issues. After putting some work into some experimental posts I think I will give it a try.

    But I could use some perspective on issues having to do with sex hormones because one of the first couple of papers I want to cover is exploring the involvement of neuroactive steroids. I am going to look at the research that Greta Christina recently posted in her post demonstrating why Harris’s comments were sexist, but I was hoping that someone here can suggest someone that I might try to ask.

    The paper is The implication of neuroactive steroids in tourette’s syndrome pathogenesis: a role for 5α-reductase?
    I have a copy that I can send to anyone willing to help me. 5a-reductase includes testosterone, progesterone, androstenedione, epi-testosterone, cortisol, aldosterone, and deoxycorticosterone as substrates. I find this very interesting given the issues with social cognition involved in TS, but I want to take into account the sensitivities that I encounter around here when I write about it.

    Any suggestions?

    @Morgan
    Happy birthday!

  113. Akira MacKenzie says

    I got the news from the my doctor this morning: I’m pre-diabetic with an elevated ATL. The increased liver enzymes maybe due to fatty liver, my gallbladder problems I had back in January, or something worse. I don’t know, I’m scheduled for an ultrasound next week. (I’m not in pain, I’m not jaundiced, and my crap looks… Normal.) Not knowing is really making me nervous.

    In the meantime, I’m trying to figure out what I can eat from now-on until I can lose some tonnage, or whatever is wrong with my liver kills me first. Any suggestions?

  114. cicely says

    DDMFM:

    “Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest: Are Republicans really worried about Oklahoma? They may well be”

    I really worry about Oklahoma.
    While it is true that there are more wretched hives of scum and villainy, that happens to be the villainously wretched scum-hive that most of my family lives in.
     

    “GOP’s “Republicans Are People” Video Can’t Find Any – Uses Stock Photos”

    I lol’d.
    –
    *hugs* for Morgan!?. Green monkeys….
     
    My condolences on the passing of your glasses.
    *proffers large floral display*
    And Happy Birthday!
    –
    rq:

    Oh, you zucchini haters are such… haters. :P Slice it thin, batter it (lightly, no need for excess), salt&pepper&garlic it, fry in butter until crispy.

    Slice it, yessss! And batter it most thoroughly and well! Salt in the wounds, check! Fried—with plenty of *napalm!*—oh, ab-so-lute-ly!
    Irrelevances re pepper, garlic, and butter are to be ignored.
    –

  116. Morgan!? Militant Pacifist says

    Re green plastic monkeys… Does anyone remember the Barrel of Monkeys toy that has been on the market since forever? They were originally only brown, but now come in colors.
    http://www.amazon.com/Milton-Bradley-Barrel-of-Monkeys/dp/B0002JL206

    After my friends’ granddaughter (my honorary granddaughter) was born last April they threw a party. Because I’m the family cake baker and because I make fabulous sugar free cakes (a lot of diabetics in the family) I made a “birthday cake” with a numeral zero candle. The parents are solidly against the “pink is for girls” convention and decorated her room with green monkeys. It seemed only appropriate to decorate the cake with green monkeys, so I did. 24 of ’em. The were all strung together and hanging from the now fallen chandelier.

  117. blf says

    No-one hates zucchini. No-one loathes zucchini. And amazingly, no-one despises zucchini.

    People, potatoes, penguins, and physical existence hates and loathes and despises and execrates and detests and abhors and dislikes the evil that is zucchini.

  118. opposablethumbs says

    Happy Birthday, Morgan of the Great Green Monkey Chandelier Affair.

    Sorry about your glasses, but thank you for the story! And I hope the birthday flowers were as lovely as they sound! :-)

  119. blf says

    They’re comparing choosing a political candidate to choosing a wedding dress.

    If I was ever so deluded as to even consider getting married, it’s very improbable I’d be wearing a dress. Or a tux. (Although I know a certain deranged, mildly, natural tux-wearer…) Does that man I can continue to apply my current politicianlying scumbag selection strategy, and only vote for those who promise to enact a law making assassination of elected scumbags legal?

  120. David Marjanović says

    *pouncehug & chocolate for cicely*

    I really worry about Oklahoma.
    While it is true that there are more wretched hives of scum and villainy, that happens to be the villainously wretched scum-hive that most of my family lives in.

    :-(

    It’s generally a place with lots of vulnerable people. It’s home to one of the world’s greatest concentrations of endangered languages – and in the years of Captain Unelected it was said that, nationwide, the votes of Native Americans are two thousand times less likely to be counted than those of white people.

  122. blf says

    The sound of breaking glass was just the scattering of green plastic monkeys that had been hanging from the antlers. (Don’t ask.)

    Ok, why did the antlers also run away?

  124. blf says

    Nah. Mr Noah and his Magical Orking™ was no-where in the vicinity.

    (You would have noticed — lots of gophers bearing wood, and BIG piles of fresh shite.)

  126. Morgan!? Militant Pacifist says

    Thank you so much everyone for the b’day wishes. You all are a pretty decent lot, y’know.

    The bouquet of flowers presented by hubby contained 2 long stem red roses, 1 long stem yellow rose, 1 yellow lily, 1 pink lily, two colors of freesia, variegated pink and white, 2 purple irises, pale pink baby’s breath, 2 small sunflowers and several fern fronds. Wow! Cheerful! Beautiful! He is pretty good at this. I think I’ll keep him.

  129. Morgan!? Militant Pacifist says

    There is a cocktail called a Green Monkey? Do I really want such a thing?

  130. says

    Morgan
    Happy birthday!

    Akira Mckenzie
    How specific of advice are you looking for? I’d suggest you stop drinking soda, even the diet stuff, and cut back on fried foods, candy, and rich desserts. The former advice is from some reading I did on the topic a few years ago, O should be able dredge up the sources if need be. The latter is from my own and L’s experiece with stomach and gallbladder prpblems that we’ve got.

    cicely
    Indeed, even if one were to write off everyone in the state, aquifer pollution/depletion, riverine runoff, etc. know no state lines.

     
    I have decided that, for this term at least, I am not going to try to stick with school. The stress is aggravating my ulcer to the point I’ve barely kept down food these two days, and morning classes plus working nights is just a bad combination, even when they are on different days. Jerking my sleep schedule around like that just isn’t on. Frankly, at this point it’s both more likely and more immediate that I’ll be able to parlay my current position/experience into a position during the week with a few more hours, and then we’ll be doing ok. I feel rather badly about it for a number of reasons, including but not limited to family pressure, internalized versions of same, and a general sense that this leaves the time, effort and money put into it heretofore wasted, but on the other hand, I am familiar with the sunk costs fallacy ,and better to get out sooner than later if I’m going to. Pardon the rambling, I’m at least partially just trying to frame my thoughts/justify the decision to myself at least.

  134. carlie says

    Happy birthday, Morgan!

    And happy child’s birthday, Anne.

    :)

    Hugs to everyone else who needs them.

  136. 2kittehs says

    @Morgan

    Re green plastic monkeys… Does anyone remember the Barrel of Monkeys toy that has been on the market since forever? They were originally only brown, but now come in colors.

    I had one of those when I was a kid, so, late 60s, early 70s, probably. They were red and blue, maybe other colours, but I forget.

    I liked the barrel better than the monkeys. :P

    Also, happy birthday! And happy birthday to Anne’s Child.

  137. cicely says

    *deposited-for-later-convenience hugs* for Beatrice.
    –
    Morgan!?, I remember the brown Barreled Monkeys well; in my mind, at least, they were contemporary with the Slinky (ours experienced a Hideous, Painful Demise). The birthday monkeys—did they survive the fall?
    –
    blf:

    People, potatoes, penguins, and physical existence hates and loathes and despises and execrates and detests and abhors and dislikes the evil that is zucchini.

    Zucchinis and Horses, on the other hand, are best pals.
    I hear They go on pea-weekends together.
    –
    *pouncehugback* for David; also on offer, *tapioca pudding*.
    :)
     

    It’s home to one of the world’s greatest concentrations of endangered languages […]

    Which is what happens when you very literally herd the surviving speakers thereof into a mighty suck-hole of an environment (in my opinion, the northeastern, “Green Country” part of the state is the only bit that’s inhabitable), strip them of the means to be self-sustaining, and stack the deck against them in every way; in other words, drive them there and hope for them to all die off, and quickly.
    At which point, nostalgia for The Extinct Noble Red Man might be indulged, unimpeded by the inconvenience of their survival, rigged odds to the contrary.
    –
    Dalillama, it sounds to me as if you’ve come to the necessary decision. Vomiting up bile from stress is no good; insufficient sleep, also a losing proposition.
    *hugs*
    –
    Happy Anne‘s Younger Daughter’s birthday!
    –

  138. Morgan!? Militant Pacifist says

    Cicely,
    Evidently the plastic from which the Green Monkeys were made is much sturdier than the plastic from which my glasses frames were made. They survived with nary a scratch nor a fracture.

  140. Ogvorbis says

    Happy birthday, Morgan.

    =============

    My across-the-street neighbor and I once managed to collect enough of those monkeys to make a chain across the street we lived on — the community center had a white elephant sale and one of the items (for three dollars) was a large shipping box (500cm a side) which was filled with the monkeys. T and I bought them and strung them across the road. And the chain was taken out by an NPS dump truck. Complete with a very loud, “What the Fuck!?” from the driver.

  141. Morgan!? Militant Pacifist says

    cicely,

    I know, what a relief. We have our hierarchy of value, not to be dismissed.

  142. says

    Morgan:
    I hope you have the happiest of birthdays!

    ****

    Mini Tony Tale:
    There’s a server at my restaurant (V) who has asked me a few times for advice on talking to women (which I find odd because I barely know the guy). Tonight he told me about how he “struck out” with one woman (L) recently. V said he and L went out for drinks after work a few night back and had a good time. She invited him back to her house afterward, and although he didn’t specify what they did, it wasn’t of a sexual nature.
    When he said this, I knew what was coming-male entitlement.
    Sure enough, he was frustrated that they didn’t do anything. “She didn’t even give me a kiss”, he said.
    This being the middle of a conversation, I didn’t have notes prepared for a careful and proper response (unlike comment threads online where you can say what you want in the manner you want with however much thought you choose to put into it). He asked me what he should do with the situation with L.
    I framed my response to him in terms of things women have told me. I told him that in my conversations with women, they have told me that they don’t like it that so many men expect things from them…that an invitation back to their house doesn’t mean sex…that women get irritated that men expect a kiss or a blow job. I told him that it might be a good idea in the future to communicate his wishes rather than expecting anything. I wanted to frame it as “women told me this” in part bc I hoped he would pick up on the fact that I’m listening to what women tell me, which not enough people do.
    He asked me what he should do with L, and I told him that if he’s looking for someone to have sex with and nothing else, that perhaps she’s not interested in that (or that perhaps she likes sex, but wants to know a guy a bit more). V seems to want just casual hookups, so I told him it might be best to move on (and making the point to tell him that he ought to communicate his wishes more).
    I really hope he got my point about not expecting anything from women. I can get preachy even in meatspace, and I don’t want to do that in the workplace, so I didn’t get to respond to him as I would if we were out drinking or if this were online. I hope he takes my words to heart.

  143. Akira MacKenzie says

    Rob Grigjanis @ 121

    Thanks, that helps. I’m going to have to invest in some whole-wheat pasta and brown rice as well as eat a lot more salad. Would packaged tuna fulfill the fish requirement? I’m only a poor office drone and I don’t think I can swing fresh fish twice a week (the fresh fruits and veggies are already going to cost me).

    Dalillama @ 130

    I’m sorry to hear about school, but if it’s causing you that much stress, then it’s probably a good idea that you take a break.

    Quitting soda, even diet soda, is going to be a chore since it’s been a staple in my house since childhood because of our crappy tap water. We (myself and right-wing Catholic father) live in the country and we get our water from a well which is so iron-rich that it tastes like sucking on a fist full of pennies, and that’s AFTER it’s been through a water softener and two filters. We’ve only in the last few years added a third filter the to tap that makes it drinkable. We could hook up to a municipal source, but that would cost us thousands and, being a good Republican, my father is a militant cheapskate.

    Are any of the “water enhancers” safe? If I’m going to be stuck with water, I’d prefer what I drink actually has some taste to it.

  144. says

    Akira @143:
    I’ve found that carbonated water with some lemon or lime is an alternative to sodas or plain water. You could add a little bit of sweetener (maybe a small amount of simple syrup).

  145. says

    Tony @142

    I think you did right with your advice. if V is looking for more casual hookups, he should be clear about that. And pointing him towards listening to what women are telling him is important.

    Dalillama

    Don’t beat yourself up for needing a break — I dropped out of college for 7 years. You have to do what’s right for you.

    Akira

    Does it cost more for bottled water than bottled soda where you are? Also, for flavor, there are some sugar-free additives (Crystal Light or Kool-Aid).

    Morgan

    Happy birthday. The flowers sound lovely.

  148. says

    Tony 146

    We use Crystal Light more here ourselves. But it isn’t often any more. My wife and I drink ice water more than anything. My kids get water or milk, and the Capri-Sun Roaring Waters version, which is water with a little flavoring rather than all flavors and sugars.

    Not counting coffee, beer, wine, or spirits. (No, not the kids.)

  149. Pteryxx says

    Akira #143: Hope you don’t mind me rambling on about cheap healthy food tricks I’ve had to discover in the last few years. <_<

    IMHO the suggested food tips at that #121 link run heavily to the white-folks-with-money sort of preferences. Flaxseed, silken tofu, salads, broccoli and hummus dip, regular fresh-fruit smoothies? Yeesh.

    – Dried beans and lentils, super-cheap. (Canned beans work too as long as they don't have added sweeteners.) They have protein and fiber, and make good bean salads, sides, chilis and soups, for a start.

    – Slow or steel-cut oatmeal's better than instant, but seriously, if having instant oatmeal around means you actually EAT the stuff, go with that. Watch out for added sugar in the flavored packets. It's easier, and cheaper, to buy the unflavored oatmeal in the giant canisters and add your own flavors to it – some shakes of cinnamon, raisins or apples, nuts (pricey but a little goes a long way) or a spoonful of chocolate chips. (It took me a year or two to get used to oatmeal but now I half live on the stuff. Plus when it dries a bit it doubles as paper-mache.)

    – Cabbage, collard greens, and turnip greens count as vegetables, too, and they're super-cheap and last a long time in the fridge. Make homemade coleslaw (with a processor, or a lot of knife work) and you can mix the dressing to taste, or get bottled dressing and use less than half of what they recommend to get a drier coleslaw with less sugar and fat. Collard greens well cooked go great with those beans mentioned above. Turnip greens can sub for spinach, cooked or raw, or even sub for pricier lettuce in a salad if you're not picky.

    – Meats – processed stuff like sausage and pepperoni is awful, sure, but chicken breast and pork loin are relatively cheap and easy to skin or trim the fat from the outside. As far as I know packed tuna's good for you, except that it's usually eaten with cheese as tuna melts, or with mayo as tuna salad. Personally I figure a little mayo's worth it to get regular fish on the menu.

    – If you happen to really love chips, try switching to tortilla chips (baked if you can get them) because salsa is made of vegetables. Also popcorn of the less buttered, salted, and/or syrup'd varieties. (Not *cheap* unless you buy loose kernels and pop them in a pan the old-fashioned way, but cheaper by far than chips – those things are hella expensive!)

    – Frozen fruit (berries and peaches) tends to be cheaper than fresh, mostly because it's not as fragile to transport and shelve. They go well in oatmeal or as a dessert. Some dried fruits are cheaper, too, and they *usually* don't have added sugar (except for pineapple which gets turned into candy).

    – and for some reason none of the diet sites I found mentioned eating multiple small meals, up to five or six a day, instead of two or three big ones like people expect. Little frequent meals can help buffer blood sugar fluctuations where big meals can cause big swings. Again that depends on your life and how well you could work a midafternoon meal or evening snack into your schedule.

    – Sorry I won't be much help with the soda switch because I just drink water anyway. I have heard that hot tea makes a good substitute for coffee (and the sugar and cream that goes with it).

    – and while it's not as exciting as talking about food, both exercise and relaxation IMHO are just as important as diet. Walking for 5 minutes every hour prevents the deleterious effects of sitting at a sedentary job, for instance. After a bit of practice, exercise and relaxation both get a lot less weird.

    Anyway, good luck making changes and good luck with the follow-up, too.

  150. blf says

    Zucchinis and Horses, on the other hand, are best pals.
    I hear They go on pea-weekends together.

    But only the pea returns, covered in horse-hair. The only trace of the zucchinis ever found is rumoured to be a crater, but this is difficult to confirm as the planet was then nuked in a desperate effort to slow down the pea.

  152. says

    Also, Pteryxx, thanks for mentioning frozen fruits. Even though I’m employed, I’m not making much money, so I have to watch my expenditures. Knowing that frozen fruit is relatively inexpensive is great, bc I do like smoothies, and I don’t need to use ice when the fruits are frozen.

  153. says

    Akira
    Growing up with similar water, we always made fruit juice from concentrate to kill the flavor.
    Pteryxx also has some good advice. I’m afraid you, and indeed all of us, are pretty much screwed on the fish front, though. There simply aren’t enough fisheries left, and they’re too depleted. The price of fish, all sorts, is going nowhere but up in the long term.

  154. The Mellow Monkey says

    Tony!, bananas also tend to be fairly cheap in comparison to other fruits and can be sliced up and frozen for later use, then tossed into smoothies. Frozen banana/blueberry/strawberry smoothies are my indulgence. I’ve also made a chocolate mock-milkshake with frozen banana and cocoa powder.

  155. rq says

    Seriously, cats are mighty hunters? Pffft. All the new kitten does is cuddle in my lap and swat at nearby moving objects. She does have sharp nails, though.

  156. jste says

    What is *the* most important thing for our government to be doing right now? Banning burqas, of course!

    The Australian govt has gone mad. Please send whiskey and kittens.

  157. 2kittehs says

    rq @147, I loooooooooooooove those photos!

    jste @156, I know, it’s pathetic/contemptible/add adjectives at will, isn’t it? Blasted Abbott, it’s all about his fee-fees. “Burqas are confrontational!” Did you Peter Hartcher’s takedown in The Age today?

  159. azhael says

    Akira, in addition to minding your diet, if you are looking for some kind of exercise to complement it and achieve some weightloss, i can recommend a youtube channel called FitnessBlender. It’s free, it has hundreds of videos of all types and it can all be done at home with minimal equipment (really…minimal….). You just choose the video and copy what they do. I started doing their videos a year ago now and i’ve lost 17 kilos, gained some muscle mass and generally become fitter than i’ve been seen i was 9 years old…
    You can adapt the videos to every level of difficulty and you can stop and rest as you like. They focus on everything….from weight-lifting to yoga so that you improve muscle tone, coordination, flexibility…
    I would definitely recommend it, it’s done wonders for me.
    In addition, it’s the product of a lovely married couple who put a lot of effort into it and promote very healthy attitudes towards body image, skepticism towards fitness bullshit, etc. (i secretly think they are atheists xD)
    Anyway, it’s basically a gym membership on a budget so i thought it was fitting after the suggestions others have provided.

  160. opposablethumbs says

    Happy birthday to Annesdottir!

    and

    Many hugs to Dalillama. It is truly shit that you have been ill to the point of vomiting and passing out, and I hope a break gives you the chance for stress levels to come down and let you recover.

  161. carlie says

    Riffing on the food suggestions:

    Frozen fruits are usually better and cheaper than fresh except when the fresh are in season. Frozen are generally picked when they’re the ripest and most plentiful, so you’re especially getting a better deal than in winter when the fresh stuff is pale and gross-ish.

    On steel-cut oats – they are really a whole different food than instant oatmeal. For some reason I’ve found the ones in cans to taste better than the ones in boxes. It is a chunk of change – one 28oz can of McCann’s steel-cut oats is about $12, but there are a heckuva lot of servings in there. Depending on your morning schedule, the extra prep time might not be a problem; I put them on the stove (1/4 cup of oats and 1 cup water) to simmer before I take a shower, get dressed, and dry my hair, and by the time I’m ready, the oatmeal is done (microwave would be similar). You do have to add sweetener; those things are not good plain. But you’re in charge of how much and what kind of sweetener, unlike premade. I also add milk to make it less gooey, and sometimes throw raisins or frozen fruit in while it’s cooking. It’s definitely a dish I can only handle in winter, though.

    Kashi cereal is about the highest-fiber box cold cereal out there. It’s not cheap, although the big box stores are carrying it now and less expensively than it used to be. I stretch it by mixing it with a cheap trail mix from WalMart (cranberries, raisins, sunflower seeds) and using it as a snack. A box of Kashi (flavor of choice) and one of those bags is about $8 total, and yields about 2 weeks of 1-2 half-cup snacks a day.

    Tread carefully with high-fiber products in general. Tendency is to try to incorporate a lot of high-fiber foods into one’s diet, but doing it too quickly is… not pleasant. Your intestines will try to kill you.

    Soda switch will fuckin’ hurt, especially if you drink ones with caffeine. Go off it slowly, is my advice. I went off it this summer (again), and it took a solid 3 weeks to feel normal. Felt great then, but getting there was a hard detox. If you do it too fast, you will feel like shit.

    Soups are cheap and good and freeze well, if you have freezer space. Beans and onions and cheapest leafy green available makes a lovely soup. I like Herb-Ox bullion as a soup base, because it’s cheap and tastes good and has a sodium-free version, and is in individual sized packets but loose, not in a cube that never dissolves. I freeze soup in one-cup servings in sealable sandwich bags, laid flat out in the freezer. Doesn’t take up much space that way, but then you have to let it thaw some before you try to break it up to get it into a bowl/mug to microwave for lunch.

  162. ledasmom says

    Re soup in baggies: Putting the bag in a bowl of water to thaw speeds it up. As for steel-cut oats, in the days prior to children when I only wanted one serving I used to put the oats and boiling water into a thermos to sit overnight. In the morning, perfect oats. They do settle a bit, so give the thermos a shake and always wash it out or at least soak it right away. I find that if I use a really flavorful sugar (Trader Joe’s brown sugar is expensive for baking purposes, but for use as basically a condiment, not too bad. Delicious molasses flavor.) I use much less. Greens in soup are a lovely thing that I only discovered recently. With bean soup, cabbage is nice, though potentially explosive.
    In other matters, I am once again amused that Trader Joe’s calls one of its frozen-fish products “Alaskan Cod Pieces”. Sounds a tad chilly.

  163. rq says

    Funny how sometimes talking to one person can brighten the whole week.
    In somewhat related news, next week we’re going to do Canadian thanksgiving in the company of a large crowd of friends, like last year (outsourcing the majority of meal items, of course – I can’t prepare for and feed 40 odd people). I’ve had all year to prepare for this mentally, and it should go as smoothly as last year (plus I’m going to suggest that, if I have to go looking for him more than once at a time, Husband is spending too much time socialising and not actually helping with the nitpicky stuff during the event – not that it was bad last year, it’s just kind of annoying when I need a hand or several things need doing at once and he’s not to be found, or inextricable from a conversation).

  165. Saad Definite Article Noun, Adverb Gerund Noun says

    Tony, #158,

    Trump’s tweet:

    How is ABC Television allowed to have a show entitled “Blackish”? Can you imagine the furor of a show, “Whiteish”! Racism at highest level?

    That’s the highest level? Well then, let Mr. Trump himself turn it up to 11:

    I would like to have him show his birth certificate, and can I be honest with you, I hope he can. Because if he can’t, if he can’t, if he wasn’t born in this country, which is a real possibility…then he has pulled one of the great cons in the history of politics.

  168. says

    Hey – since I noticed birgerjohansson’s on, can someone help me with a question about Swedish vs Danish pronunciation?

    I watched “The Bridge” recently, the original Swedish/Danish production, first season, and loved it. One thing I noticed in it were a couple of pronunciation things, both about names. The female lead is Saga Norén, and the Swedes all call her Saga, while the Danes sound like Säga – is Martin doing that just to get her back for calling him Röhde instead of Rohde? The same happened with Daniel – Swedes said Daniel, Danes said Däniel.

    Thanks!

  169. birgerjohansson says

    Dammit, I made a double posting but the moderator seems to have removed it, so no harm done.
    .
    ‘Supercave’ In China Takes Title As World’s Largest Cavern, And The Photo Is Pretty Unreal http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/29/worlds-largest-cave-photos_n_5900454.html
    .
    “Deconstruction of avant-garde cuisine could lead to even more fanciful dishes” http://phys.org/news/2014-10-deconstruction-avant-garde-cuisine-dishes.html
    Illustrated with peas. Nuff´said

    (BTW I am too tired to recall if I have already posted this one. Time to go home.)

  171. blf says

    There is an article in today’s New York Tiimes which has mostly answered a question of mine: What to call the fruitcakes variously known as “isis”, “is”, “qsis”, “isil”, and so on?

    In New Front Against Islamic State, Dictionary Becomes a Weapon.

    Whilst I like what UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called them — “uins” (un-Islamic non-state) — a much better name is Daesh (or Da’ish).

    As Ye Pfffft of All Knowledge explains:

    The name “Dāʻish” — pronounced /ˈdaːʕiʃ/ and transliterated as “Dāʻish” or “Daʻesh” — is used particularly by ISIS’s detractors… It is based on the Arabic letters dāl, alif, ʻayn, and shīn, which form the acronym (داعش) of ISIL/ISIS’s Arabic name al-Dawlah al-Islamīyah fī al-ʻIrāq wa-al-Shām. The group considers the term derogatory and reportedly punishes with flogging those who use the acronym in Dāʻish-controlled areas.

    The NYT explains why the fruitcakes hate that term so much: “the word could have negative connotations in the Arab world, since it is close to the word daes, meaning to tread underfoot, trample or crush.”

  173. says

    Here is some bad news about voter registration:

    If you need an ID to vote in Wisconsin you may be out of luck depending on where you live. […]

    Across 40 counties there are DMV service centers that are only open two days a week or less. That is sixty percent of the state DMV locations only being open a handful of days before the election. […]

    Scott Walker has proven time and again that he does not care for the people of Wisconsin, if he did, he would extend the operating hours of the DMV to ensure that every citizen who wants an ID can get an ID.

    Daily Kos link.

  174. says

    This can be added to our Republicans-doing-stupid-stuff file, but this particular unethical act should also be classified as disgusting.

    The Michigan Republican Party has mailed out a hit piece on John Fisher the Democratic candidate for Michigan’s 61st House district. The mailer asks the recipient to call a phone number to complain about Fisher’s support of the Affordable Care Act. The number they give rings at the bedside of Fisher’s mother, 91-year-old Isabel Marie Kramb, who is in hospice care with congestive heart failure. […]

    Daily Kos link.

  175. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    These days in casual sexism:
    being asked about marital status, age and relationship status over and over again, with added “jokes” about person asking having an umarried son, about this or that colleague being single and similar.

    I can smile and joke for the first time, and second and tenth time. At some point I’m done. I almost wish for a sexist pig in comment section to take some of the ritheous rage out on.

    In other news, I’m much ‘rupt, but I tried following threads so I picked up some news here and there. *hugs*

  178. chigau (違う) says

    from memory
    Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom His love entrusts me here, ever this day be at my side to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen.

  179. blf says

    Shouldn’t that be something like “Pasta and Cheese, my stomach awaits thee, to whom I shall gladly shovel thee into, so satiate my appetite. Ramen.”

  181. cicely says

    Akira, one thing I’ve tried that works out well is to add a little stevia (available hereabouts in an In The Raw format) and just a drop of cinnamon extract to water; adjust to taste. The Husband swears by lemon juice (available in the big bottles or the cute little plastic lemons) and sweetener.
     
    Also locally, big bags of rice are often cheaper in the Hispanic food section than where the rest of the rice is stocked. With acknowledgement of the downside of doing business with the Very Big Corporation of Bentonville, Arkansas, it is nonetheless true that Sam’s frequently has food-service-size bags of rice for somewhere in the $10 range.
    –
    Pteryxx:

    – Slow or steel-cut oatmeal’s better than instant, but seriously, if having instant oatmeal around means you actually EAT the stuff, go with that. Watch out for added sugar in the flavored packets.

    And watch out for the salt. OMFSM, the salt! Some of those packets contain stunningly-large amounts of salt; plus, to a quick (and local) estimation, the lower the price, the higher the salt content. I hypothesize that it’s cheaper to flavor it with salt than with, say, peaches and cream, or maple and brown sugar.
     

    – If you happen to really love chips, try switching to tortilla chips (baked if you can get them) because salsa is made of vegetables.

    Better, price-wise: buy a package of tortillas, cut them into chip-sized pieces, and bake them until they are crisp enough to suit you. Store left-over chips in zip-locks; but be aware that they’ll go stale/nasty quickly, if you have left any moisture in ’em.
    –
    blf:

    The only trace of the zucchinis ever found is rumoured to be a crater, but this is difficult to confirm as the planet was then nuked in a desperate effort to slow down the pea.

    “These planet-buster bombs don’t go off unless you hit them just right!”
    –
    Tony!:

    I didn’t know that canned beans sometimes have added sweeteners.

    Kidney beans seem to be particularly bad, that way.
    –

  183. blf says

    I didn’t know that canned beans sometimes have added sweeteners.

    Kidney beans seem to be particularly bad, that way.

    Plus the obvious example, Canadian baked beans in maple syrup.

  184. says

    I am having a happy morning. *offers hugs to anyone who wants some*

    I woke up enough to run my errands, I didn’t get blown off the road by the Red Wind (see Chandler, Raymond), and I found something awesome at the Goodwill for the Elder Daughter – a very nicely mounted Blue Morpho butterfly, for a whole $5.99. She’s been admiring the ones the Butterfly Man has at the Sawdust Festival, but never thought she’d be able to own one. I told her it’s an early birthday present (she’s on Saturday – October is birthday month in this family).

    So I am enjoying the good mood while it lasts, and wishing all of you happiness, or at least quiet contentment.

  185. says

    Tony!
    Canned soups usually do as well.

    Akira McKenzie
    It’s heavily seasonal, but if there are farmer’s markets near you, they’re often an excellent source of reasonably cheap veggies.

     
    This seems like a good sign. A new White House sponsored anti-rape campaign focusing on men.

  187. says

    *offers hugs, apply as needed*

    I did a longish babble about my happy morning, but it seems to have got eated. Suffice it to say that I got all the errands run and found a treasure for the Elder Daughter at the Goodwill – a very nicely mounted and framed Blue Morpho butterfly specimen for her bedroom wall.

    I will now enjoy my good mood while it lasts, and wish all of you some moments of contentment as well.

  188. David Marjanović says

    More than 3,000 people have registered to vote in Ferguson, Mo., since the death of Michael Brown—a surge in interest that may mean the city of 21,000 people is ready for a change. […]

    Yessss.

    The number they give rings at the bedside of Fisher’s mother, 91-year-old Isabel Marie Kramb, who is in hospice care with congestive heart failure.

    *headdesk*

    These days in casual sexism:
    being asked about marital status, age and relationship status over and over again, with added “jokes” about person asking having an umarried son, about this or that colleague being single and similar.

    *rageflail*

    Some people seem not to understand that that’s bullying. Others… are bullies.

    *hugs*

    ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░

    Link duuuuump!!! If I don’t get to work, why should you?! B-)

    Open-access paper on what saber-teeth were really good for.

    One paragraph in German: 46 species of earthworm live in Germany. One, Apporectodea smaragdina, is light green! Another, Lumbricus badensis, reaches 60 cm in length – more than a keyboard and a mouse together. I didn’t know any of that.

    Paywall. Abstract:
    “An apparently nearly complete and fairly well-articulated specimen of a large toothed pterosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil is exhibited at the CosmoCaixa – Museo de la Ciencia, Barcelona, Spain. The museum label refers it to Anhanguera piscator and reports a provenance from the Crato Formation. Its study shows that it is from the Romualdo Formation and is an assembled and composite specimen over 45% reconstructed. The original skeletal elements show no diagnostic feature of Anhanguera piscator, belong to non-tapejarid pterosaurs, and do not furnish further significative scientific information. Several mistakes were made in the reconstruction and assemblage of the skeleton and some elements do not follow the proportions of Anhanguera piscator. Care is suggested when describing pterosaur material from the Romualdo Formation prepared and sold by private fossil dealers in the absence of an adequate documentation on the original material and its preparation.”

    YouTube video (2:22 long): “French Report: Syrian Woman Secretly Films Life in Raqqa under ISIL”.

    Article in German: it turns out that, till a year ago, German authorities happily let Islamic fundamentalists leave the country or even took legal measures to accelerate their departure on the assumption of “yay, we’re rid of them”. Some of those are probably fighting for the IS now.

    “Tell the Senate: Stand up for survivors of domestic violence by revoking the NFL’s tax-exempt status” – “The NFL, with more than $9 billion in revenue last year, is considered a ‘non-profit organization’ by the IRS and hasn’t paid a penny in taxes since 1966.”

  189. David Marjanović says

    Petition to the European Parliament:

    “The European Commission has put forward a proposal to encourage companies to check their supply chains to ensure that the minerals they buy don’t fund violence or suffering elsewhere. The proposed legislation is a landmark opportunity to get European companies to purchase minerals more responsibly and ensure European consumers can play a part in tackling the trade in conflict minerals.

    But the current proposal doesn’t go far enough. The voluntary scheme on the table is unlikely to have any impact on the way European companies source their minerals or meaningfully reduce the trade in conflict minerals.

    The European Parliament must strengthen the proposal by:

    – Introducing legal requirements for companies to identify and eliminate conflict minerals in their supply chain.
    – Ensuring these rules cover companies bringing minerals from these areas into the EU, whether as a raw material or as part of finished products.”

    The accompanying e-mail drives the point home by linking to this: even for the standards of the More or Less Democratic Republic of the Congo, “these atrocities are not normal”.

    Petition to “Stop Cruel Animal Performances at Xiangshawan Resort”.

    E-mail campaign: “Urge these two Democratic FCC Commissioners to save net neutrality”

    “White man jaywalks with gun…guess what happens?”

    Petition to overhaul the Consti-fucking-tution in order to overturn Citizens United.

  191. carlie says

    Kevin – I’ll miss you. I hope it’s not someone being an ass who’s making you not want to be around. I love reading what you write and hearing about your life, and you’re a pretty great person. :) My best wishes to you for everything, truly.

  193. David Marjanović says

    Oh, wow. Petition to Walmart: “Don’t Make Your Workers Pay for Uniforms!”

    “Walmart is now requiring its sales associates to wear uniforms. And Walmart stands to make $millions selling them to its own employees, who get a measly 10% discount.

    They aren’t really ‘uniforms’, claims the company, which says it’s just a new dress code it’s imposing on workers. By refusing to call the specified black or khaki pants and collared, short-length white or navy shirt combination ‘uniforms’, Walmart is getting around having to pay and care for them. According to federal law, if minimum wage workers are required to wear uniforms, then the company must pay for the uniforms and pay to clean and care for them as well.

    Instead, Walmart is specially tagging any store items that meet its ‘dress-code’ requirements, offering employees their usual discount for buying the un-uniforms themselves. And obviously most workers will need more than one.

    By imposing this added cost on its workers, many of whom are barely surviving with the help of public assistance, Walmart has found yet another way to exploit its underpaid workers and the American taxpayers who are covering expenses Walmart refuses to pay. Instead of further exploiting both, Walmart could raise wages to just over $10 an hour without raising its merchandise prices more than pennies.

    But if Walmart refuses to pay workers a living wage, then it must pay for their uniforms – whatever it calls them.”

    “Americans want CEO pay to be lower, but they don’t get just how high it is” – and they’re worse at this than people in all other countries that took the poll. Of course all of them are off by an order of magnitude anyway.

    “Republican judge in Oklahoma rules against Obamacare tax subsidies” – “The case, Pruitt v. Burwell, mirrors Halbig v. Burwell and King v. Burwell in that it says a sloppy bit of wording in the law—which is contradicted by the legislative history, as well as intent of the law—means that only people residing in states that set up their own exchanges can receive subsidies.” Picking-apart of the decision follows.

    “First of its kind “Gun Violence Restraining Order” signed into law in California”

    “Scott Brown runs on border security, after having missed every Senate hearing about it”

    “Wendy Davis knocks it out of the park in debate with Greg Abbott” – there is hope for Texas.

  195. David Marjanović says

    “Koch brothers freak out in response to Rolling Stone expos[é]” – I want to just copy & paste the whole thing! :-)

    Follow-up to yesterday’s link dump: Photos of the misinformation about how to register for voting that was sent by Americans for the Prosperity of Koch Brothers.

    Ave Maria, Florida, is a theocracy owned – literally privately owned – by Tom Monaghan, who is more Catholic than the pope and decidedly less nice about it. For instance there is no pharmacy in that town.

    One thing that is in the town is Ave Maria University:

    “I should note here, Tom Monaghan also founded the Ave Maria Law School in 1999. You will be comforted in knowing that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia assisted in developing Monaghan’s school’s curriculum, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas gave Monaghan’s school’s their first annual Ave Maria Lecture and Ave Maria Law School Faculty included conservative Supreme Court nominee Judge Robert Bork.”

    Read the article and follow a link or two. I dare you to avert your eyes from the train wreck that includes the persecution of someone who is a slightly different brand of fundamentalist Catholic.

  197. David Marjanović says

    Wendy Davis pronounces Texas and taxes exactly the same way. Is that going to hurt her (and the rest of the world)?

  199. carlie says

    Clarification of me at 188 – I’m guessing, not labeling anything. I’ve missed at least half of the posts/threads on everything in the last couple of weeks and have no time to search, so if I just stumbled over something I’m sorry.

  200. says

    Some Republicans have been saying stupid stuff based on stupid polls. Here’s an example of a conservative poll that worded the poll question in a way that would give them the results they wanted:

    “Would you support or oppose repealing and replacing Obamacare with a conservative alternative that would save $1 trillion, reduce premiums, enhance access to doctors, and increase the number of people with private insurance by 6 million, but would cover 6 million fewer people overall because fewer people would be on Medicaid?”

    Um, yeah, that’s an alternative that does not exist. Surprisingly, even with this tactic, conservatives couldn’t get the numbers up over 60%.

    http://2017project.org/2014/09/poll-conservative-alternative-obamacare/#.VC20yEtgt03

  203. azhael says

    Just watched the BBC documentary “Is your Brain Male or Female ?”.
    I already liked Alice Roberts, i like her even more now :)

  204. toska says

    Hey all,
    I don’t post very often, but I read A LOT and generally keep up with most of the threads around Pharyngula. I’ve been so busy lately that this has been difficult/impossible to do, which has been disappointing for me. So I thought I should tell you all how awesome you are. You make a difference in my ways of thinking. I miss you when I can’t read discussions. You improve my faith in humanity when I desperately need to fuel up in that department
    ***
    On a positive note, the reason I’ve been so busy is because of a promotion, which I’m so thankful for and am enjoying. Well wishes to all those suffering financial difficulties or unemployment. I’ve been there; now I’m out. Just try to remember that you are not your financial/employment status. And thanks for all that the regular, semi-regular, or even infrequent commenters do to make the world a better place for the people (including myself) who are inspired or comforted by your words.

  205. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    You improve my faith in humanity when I desperately need to fuel up in that department

    Assuming that I’m part of that collective “you”, toska, I thank you.

    Now to undo everyone’s hard work: I present you this. My faith in humanity might not be restored til they dynamite Rikers.

    And PS? Fuck that prosecutor. Fuck that judge. Fuck the legal aid attorney with whom Brower got saddled. Most of all, fuck the system that gave Browder inadequate legal representation and inadequate due process.

    Fuck it into constituent atoms. I won’t bother fucking it any harder than that, since the damn atoms at least fess up to COLOR CONFINEMENT BY LAW.

  206. toska says

    Crip Dyke
    You are most definitely part of the collective you!
    As for your link…..
    800 days in solitary confinement. 800 days. There is not a person on this planet who deserves that treatment torture. And that’s aside from the tap dance the system made right over Browder’s due process rights.

  207. ceesays says

    ‘RUPT!

    I finished the first draft of my book today.

    I’m going to discard 75% of it and start all over from the beginning. :)

  210. says

    toska @204:
    Congratulations on the promotion!

    ****

    ceesays @207:
    Woo hoo! +1 for accomplishments!

    ****

    It’ll be interesting to see how a Tetris movie can be pulled off

    ****

    The intersection of gold farming and the hostility shown to female gamers is the subject of a new new graphic novel. Titled In Real Life, the book follows Anda

    [… ]a recent resident of Flagstaff, Arizona. Being the new girl at school, her confidence isn’t exactly stellar. She seems to do extremely well in her game design class and plays D&D with her fellow outcasts in the Sci-Fi Club, but she’s still a pretty shy person. When a guest speaker one day gives a talk at her game design class about the popular MMORPG Coursegold, Anda’s given the opportunity to join an all-female guild on a probationary membership. She’s played online video games before, but never with a female avatar. After some pleading with her mother to allow her to sign-up for the game, Anda joins Clan Fahrenheit as Kalidestroyer.
    As Kalidestroyer levels up, so does Anda’s confidence. She feels a great connection with her fellow girl gamers in Clan Fahrenheit, until she’s recruited by one of the senior members to go after gold farmers. It’s explained to her that it’s not fair to the other players that the gold farmers are able to sell large amounts of pixelated gold on the online black markets for real cash. Any player can buy large quantities without going out and doing the work themselves. Clan Fahrenheit gets paid by anonymous people to takeout the gold farmers, which Anda sees as a little hypocritical. Anda’s a little hesitant to join in on the slaughter, but soon enough finds herself slaying hundreds of the mindless drones, thinking nothing of it. Her whole world is turned upside-down when she discovers that the gold farmers are actual people from other countries, and work in sweatshop-like conditions mining gold online all day

    Publisher/Purchasing Info:

    In Real Life (First Second Books)
    Written by Cory Doctorow
    Illustrated by Jen Wang
    192 pages, FC, $17.99
    On sale October 14, 2014

  213. rq says

    ceesays
    Yay for First Draft! Hope the editing/revising/rewriting that is to come goes well. :)

    toska
    Yay for Promotion! This is excellent news, though it does keep you away from us. :)

    Anne
    Too much tiger fur in your USB. Try coughing up furballs more often instead of just shedding.

  214. rq says

    I need to up my game. Middle Child’s Lego cars are as complicated as mine (we have equivalent Lego skill levels).

  217. says

    A while back I commented about a new show debuting on Adult Swim- Mike Tyson’s Mysteries. It debuts later this month on Cartoon Network, and here’s a bit more information on the show:

    http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/mike-tyson-plans-a-roman-empire-epic-20141002
    Set to premiere October 27 on – where else? – Adult Swim, it’s very bit as odd as you’d imagine, though even that might be selling it short. So here’s Tyson’s take on the show:

    “It’s about an eclectic group of people. It’s me, there’s my Chinese adopted daughter who I find out is Korean, there’s the Marquess of Queensberry, who pretty much founded the way people box now,” he says. “And there’s also an inebriated pigeon, who delivers messages and our mysteries, and he’s very disrespectful.”

    Despite its murky premise (or perhaps because of it), Tyson says he’s pretty sure Mysteries will resonate with its intended audience – “This is a cartoon for the high guys,” he laughs – and though he wouldn’t divulge any upcoming plotlines, he did break down how each episode will play out.

    “We get a message from our bird and then we start figuring out [the mystery] one step at a time,” he says. “And along the way we fly into a lot of ambiguous situations. I may also punch a few dinosaurs.”

    Tyson, a self-professed history buff, hopes he and the Mystery gang will get the chance to solve the occasional ancient riddle (“Where’s Alexander the Great’s tomb at?” being one of them). Though if that doesn’t happen, he’s not opposed to bringing his passion to the stage, where he last starred in the one-man show Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth

  218. 2kittehs says

    David linked to that today on WHTM, rq. Did you see the first comment on The Daily Banter, from SophieCT?

    “What–they don’t have binders full of black women?”

    PRICELESS. XD

  219. bassmike says

    azhael @203: I’ve not yet had chance to watch the Horizon program with Alice Roberts. But I’ve watched pretty much everything else that she’s produced. I find her an engaging presenter and one of the best that the BBC has to offer at the moment. Plus I’m very interested in the subjects that she talks about.

    Whine:
    My daughter’s behavior is really challenging at the moment: she has a screaming tantrum at the slightest thing. So when she’s at home she rarely plays as she’s too busy crying on the floor. Also, she now pushes me away, both emotionally and physically. I’m finding it very distressing and is distancing her from me. I know she’s only 2 1/2 and it’s probably a phase, but at the moment it’s full-on and emotionally draining for both me and my wife.
    /Whine

  220. Rowan vet-tech says

    bassmike that doesn’t sound quite… typical. Have you talked with her pediatrician about this behaviour? When I was little I used to get sensory overload; it was a screaming fight to get me to wear shoes until I was about 5 or 6, and I didn’t like hugging people until I was about 8. It was all simply too overwhelming, the various sensations.

  221. says

    Good morning
    National Holiday here in Germany. Much appreciated.

    Yay for toska

    +++
    Urgh. Defrosting the freezer. I usually do it in winter when I can store the food on the balcony over night, but since winter got cancelled last year, I didn’t do it and I really can’t postpone it any longer.

    +++
    beatrice
    it’s on of my most “favourite” versions. Would you believe that people start that as soon as a baby girl is born? They look for “suitable husbands” and discuss with you whether they consider your daughter a good match depending on your wealth. As a result boys and girls aren’t allowed anymore to interact with each other as friends . As soon as they take to each other their marriage plans get discussed.

    +++

    And today’s iteration of mansplaining:
    I like to check the material I prepare for my English classes with Mr., since his English is pretty bad. He knows that his English is bad, his company just decided to send him to some English classes, so he’s not mistaken about his role in this, but he still tries to “correct” things that are obviously perfectly right, because, hey, how could he not have a valid opinion on this?

  223. rq says

    bassmike
    What’s her schedule like right now? And what’s your schedule like, and your wife’s?
    It sounds like (a) she’s pushing her limits (so you have to be careful and not use too much authority but try asking for her opinion every now and then – yes, already) and (b) she’s feeling overwhelmed about something and needs things to be just so in order to feel comfortable.
    For (a), you have to figure out what works for her, but to at least start involving our kids in the process of making their own decisions, we let them choose what to do next – with a twist. If it was time for bed and they needed to get dressed, but didn’t want to, we’d usually present it as “Who should help you get dressed, me or dad?” (not “Do you want to get dressed or not?”) which got them thinking about getting dressed.
    In any kind of play situation, a countdown to a change in activities did fairly well, especially when going from something fun to something not so fun (“10 minutes until we go inside! / come back from the moon!”, then calling out the minutes as they rolled around – once we realized a lot of time had passed between minutes 9 and 8 so we went and called 7 straightaway, and he yelled back, “No, after 9 comes 8!”, so he got an extra minute for correct math).
    That’s the two things I know that can help with giving a child at least a better sense of control, which may be something she’s missing right now. Trust me, it tries the patience a lot, but you get used to it. Just don’t sound angry or frustrated. :P
    As for (b), this is where you need to figure out if she’s not getting enough downtime or having trouble processing stimuli in general (and at two-and-a-half, they jsut have weird phases sometimes, too). Talking to her paediatrician would definitely help.
    Also, is it you or men in general that she seems to be distancing from?

    Sorry if any of this is stuff you’ve thought of before. Or if none of it is helpful. I hope you figure it out soon, and that your relationship with your daughter improves. (And yes, sometimes it’s frustrating for them to act like individuals with opinions because they don’t do things the way you want them to… even at 2.5.)
    *hugs*

  225. mildlymagnificent says

    Back to food. One handy tip for tuna when you’re cutting down on fats and salt at the same time … add in a teaspoon or so of dried onion flakes. They’re one of the cheapest items in the way of herbs and spices. If you add the dried onion to an opened tin of fish before you start fussing about with other salad items, the flavour will develop quite easily and you’ll never notice the lack of salt and you’ll need less, if any, mayo or other dressing.

    bassmike. One suggestion from out of left field. Our younger daughter was quite a placid child – but she had an ineradicable habit of stripping off all her clothes anywhere and everywhere. If this wasn’t possible, she’d certainly take off her shoes and socks. We eventually solved this more or less accidentally by changing to a non-irritating washing powder. No enzymes, no perfumes, no other additives, and no perfumed fabric softener either (simply adding half a cup or so of white vinegar to rinse water works quite well). Used to be quite hard to get, now there are several suitable products – at least here in Australia. It’d be worth a shot to eliminate the possibility that she’s constantly irritated physically rather than emotionally. Worth checking her bath and other personal products as well for perfumes or other irritants. If it doesn’t have any effect, you can go back to your preferred products.

  226. bassmike says

    Thanks for the assistance. Some of the suggestions are ones we have tried. However, there are certainly some things we could try. Rowan vet-tech I’ll keep the paediatrician in mind. So far it’s only a very recent change in behavior, so I don’t feel we need to do that just yet. rq we’re doing some of the things you suggest. She’s getting very independent now, so I ask if she wants assistance rather than doing stuff for her. The problem occurs when for instance, she put her top on backwards. If you point this out she goes into meltdown. I’ll try and implement the rephrasing of questions that you suggest. mildlymagnificent I had not considered the possibility of a physical irritant. I will pursue that too. Thanks to all of you!

    I still think she’s frustrated with the whole potty training process, which would make her irritable. However, her rejection of me, I can’t explain.

  228. carlie says

    I like to check the material I prepare for my English classes with Mr., since his English is pretty bad. He knows that his English is bad, his company just decided to send him to some English classes, so he’s not mistaken about his role in this, but he still tries to “correct” things that are obviously perfectly right, because, hey, how could he not have a valid opinion on this?

    I keep forgetting that you’re not American, so there’s that.

  229. birgerjohansson says

    This Is Not A Human Head http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/02/hyperrealistic-cgi_n_5920618.html
    — — — — —
    ??????
    “Nudie Mag ‘Momma Tried’ Features Art, Sex, Body Positivity”
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/02/nudie-mag-momma-tried_n_5901408.html
    “The magazine is a far cry from Playboy centerfolds featuring primarily scantily clad, big-breasted, white women. Instead, co-creators Micah Learned and Theo Eliezer ditch the heteronormative tropes and instead play with a more realistic portrayal of sex, sexuality and sexiness.”

  230. rq says

    bassmike
    Is there a way to point it out that doesn’t melt her down? Like asking if she’s sure she wants to wear it backwards, or asking here where the picture went? Or maybe don’t point it out at all… does she melt down if she figures out herself that it’s backwards? (And does it matter, in the long run? It’s hard, but letting go of details is something that sometimes just needs to be done…)
    If she’s having frustrations still with the potty training, and you’re the main person who she has to deal with in that respect, then she’ll feel rejection towards you – because it’s connected in her mind. The good news here is that once she realizes how easy and awesome it is to go potty, her resentment will also eventually disappear.
    *hugs*

    re: irritants
    I’ve actually never used commercial fabric softener because I don’t like the perfumes (no allergy, jsut don’t like), but the white vinegar method is pretty fantastic, and a lot cheaper. Also good for removing pee odours from clothing and carpets.

  233. rq says

    (Don’t really hear how the pieces are so very different from each other – in character, etc.)

  234. says

    Justice Scalia needs to learn some American history

    The separation of church and state doesn’t mean “the government cannot favor religion over non-religion,” Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia argued during a speech at Colorado Christian University on Wednesday, according to The Washington Times.

    Defending his strict adherence to the plain text of the Constitution, Scalia knocked secular qualms over the role of religion in the public sphere as “utterly absurd,” arguing that the Constitution is only obligated to protect freedom of religion — not freedom from it.

  236. Saad says

    Tony, #234

    The separation of church and state doesn’t mean “the government cannot favor religion over non-religion,” Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia argued…

    What in the fucking fuck…

    Is this real life?

  237. Saad says

    Here’s Rand Paul trying to conceal his bigotry with the spectacularly stupid “let states decide” copout:

    Paul favors traditional marriage, but has said states should determine their own marriage laws.

    “I don’t want my guns registered in Washington or my marriage,” he told me. “Founding Fathers all got married by going down to the local courthouse. It is a local issue and always has been.”

    Source

    Can’t we paraphrase him as saying on record that he favors people marrying within their race (traditional marriage) but that states should determine on their own whether to allow a black person to marry a white person? Hmm.

  238. says

    rq, I’ll have you know that my USB port is entirely fur-free. The new PC even has a little door to protect all those pluggy-inny-thingies. There must have been cat hair in the DLS line.

    The news is all depressing today, isn’t it? I’m going to airlift in a huge bundle of hugs for all and sundry, and then I’m going to hide in my pillow fort. Anyone who needs tiger-snuggles or just some quiet is welcome.

  239. says

    Just so you know: Akismet has been getting hyper-paranoid lately, and has been flagging a lot of comments as spam. I clear out the spam trap when I can, but some of you may face strange delays. It’s not my fault! Really! I haven’t banned you!

    Well, except for a few of you who really are banned, and yet still insist on making stupid, snarky comments that get immediately axed. You’d think you’d be able to figure out that you’re not going to get through by now.

  244. Saad says

    rq, #242,

    I think that’s the most amazing thing I’ve heard/seen in a while.

    40 tons. Just trying to imagine how that would have looked up close in real life. Just wow.

  245. rq says

    Saad
    It actually gets airborne. A little bit. Without wings.
    I’m floored by the power behind that.

  247. carlie says

    the first installment in what is meant to be a two-volume memoir,

    A two-volume memoir.

    Richard Dawkins is writing a two-volume memoir.

    I can’t even with that guy anymore.

  249. LicoriceAllsort says

    but interesting so far.

    Well, the interesting bits ended quickly. The article devolved into tired tropes about atheism. I wanted the author to keep poking at Dawkin’s privilege and am disappointed that he didn’t relate revelations from his memoir to current events. Missed opportunity.

    There were hints, though:

    “I am not a good observer,” he writes modestly. He is referring to his observations of animals and plants, but his weakness applies more obviously in the case of humans.

    Ouch.

  251. says

    rq @202, thank you so much for the link. I had my naked Latvian men with potatoes. That gallery was, for the most part, well done.

    I also enjoyed seeing the black Victorians, link in #201.

    “Little Words” (link in #212), so funny. Laughed all morning. Maybe not for everyone, but for poets, short people, dog owners (or people refraining from owning dogs) ….

    In other news, I like President Obama’s latest speech in which he went off-script to lay down some reality in his discussion of economics — really called the Republicans on their non-fact-based blather:

    […] last month, at least one top Republican in Congress said that tax cuts for those at the top are — and I’m quoting here — ‘even more pressing now’ than they were 30 years ago. More pressing. When nearly all the gains of the recovery have gone to the top 1 percent, when income inequality is at as high a rate as we’ve seen in decades, I find that a little hard to swallow that they really desperately need a tax cut right now, it’s ‘urgent.’

    “Why? What are the facts? What is the empirical data that would justify that position? Kellogg Business School, you guys are all smart. You do all this analysis. You run the numbers. Has anybody here seen a credible argument that that is what our economy needs right now?”

    http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/10/02/remarks-president-economy-northwestern-university

    An excerpt from Steve Benen’s analysis:

    […] Presented with the Republican argument that the wealthy really need yet another tax cut, the president seemed genuinely gobsmacked. To appreciate the degree to which Obama was amazed, watch the video — go here and forward to the 48:02 mark.

    Of course, the president wasn’t making up any of the allegations themselves — a leading congressional Republican really did argue last month that tax breaks for the very wealthy are “even more pressing now” than a generation ago.

    The congressman is none other than House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who recently suggested combating poverty is one of his top priorities.

    More at the Maddow Blog.

  252. chigau (違う) says

    From the article linked by LicoriceAllsort

    Religion is a type of supernatural belief, which is irrational, and we will all be better off without it: for all its paraphernalia of evolution and memes, this is the sum total of Dawkins’s argument for atheism. His attack on religion has a crudity that would make a militant Victorian unbeliever such as T.H. Huxley—described by his contemporaries as “Darwin’s bulldog” because he was so fierce in his defense of evolution—blush scarlet with embarrassment.

    Beautiful.

  253. blf says

    I said it wasn’t tiger fur!

    It was teethger bites. Yer not supposed to chew on the spamfilter.

  254. rq says

    Dammit, sometimes being the lonely nightshift sucks. I want to go to the polygon, too. *pout*

  255. rq says

    Returning Donetsk to the past. How long must people keep killing each other? How long until we realize that a step (or push) back for one set of people is a step (or push) back for everyone? The lives, the talent, the effort, the work that is lost…

    Oh the blood and the treasure, and the losing it all,
    the time that we wasted and the place where we fall.
    Will we wake in the morning and know what it was for,
    Up in our bedroom, after the war?
    (author unremembered)

  257. says

    rq
    And it’s often I’ve wondered, young Willie McBride,
    Do the lads who lie with you here know why they died?
    Did you really believe them when they told you the cause?
    Did you really believe that this war would end wars?
    Well, the suffering the, sorrow the, glory the, shame
    The killing and dying, it was all done in vain
    For Willie McBride, it all happened again
    And again and again and again and again
    Eric Bogle, No Man’s Land

  258. rq says

    Dalillama
    Wow, thanks for that. But no more, please, I’m already on the edge of being a senselessly blubbering mass.

    +++

    Trying to read the article on Dawkins’ autobiography to remedy that. He’s not exactly coming across as a likeable person.

  259. rq says

    Dawkins takes for granted that being an atheist goes with having liberal values (with the possible exception of tolerance).

    Huh.

  260. blf says

    That flying whale @242 either encouraged a pea, or else it’s a clew to the where the mildly deranged penguin iswas.

    The peas invading Ozland @250 may also be a clew to her wasabouts. Be on the lookout for more creatures fleeing the ocean…

  263. Brony says

    So it finally happened, I have an interview. It’s a quality control and process improvement position at a major biotech company involving DNA related products.

    I’m terrified and trying to make sure I have all of my bases covered. It’s been five years since I have been in a laboratory, and I tried to switch careers. I think I have good explanations for that. (I graduated, 2009 was a bad job market and I thought I would try out teaching but it was not a good fit with respect to my skills and experience).
    I’m worried about the Tourette’s/ADHD angle, but I think I know how to handle it. (Don’t mention any diagnoses. Just talk about related symptoms in “normal speak” when flaw related questions come up, spin those as advantages in terms of skills learned.)
    I’m going over as much as I can in terms of researching the company and it’s products, the position, related skills/technical jargon.

    Am I missing anything?

  265. says

    carlie

    I keep forgetting that you’re not American, so there’s that.

    Coming from you I’ll take that as a compliment. ;)
    But you should hear me speak. I have a posh Brit accent, sprinkled with all the decidedly American vocabulary I pick up from you folks.

  268. says

    ajb47
    No, the High Kings covered it as Green Fields of France (as did the Dropkick Murphys and loads of other bands; hardly anyone records it under the right name, because the Fureys’ version was a lot better known than Bogle’s original. They also changed the lyrics slightly). Eric Bogle set it to music when he wrote it. Hannes Wader also wrote a German version as Es ist an der Zeit.

  269. dianne says

    Uh-oh.

    We’ll be getting home grown cases soon, too. I told the residents yesterday that they should ask about travel to Dallas as well as west Africa. This is what comes from giving ER personnel an incentive to send people home, even when they’re obviously sick: increased risk of spreading infectious disease.

  271. rq says

    dianne
    Next conspiracy: Obama set up Obamacare in order to save only those brainwashed by the Obama administration – the rest shall be cleansed by the power of ebola.

  272. dianne says

    rq: It wasn’t deliberate, but that might well be what happens. (No, it won’t: with first world ICU care, the mortality will be lower and it’s only contagious when there are active symptoms anyway, but the states without the medicaid extension are going to be the ones in the worst trouble.)

    Mildly related: A recent HHS report showed that Obamacare saved quite a lot of money for hospitals and insurers. Almost all of the savings was in states that took the Medicaid expansion. Almost as if…

  273. cicely says

    rq:

    So Republicans are looking to improve their image. They chose this woman to show that, indeed, Republicans are black. See what else she has been up to. (Worth a giggle.)

    *chortle-snortle-rofl*
    –
    *hugs* for bassmike.
    Kids can be…difficult. In every sense of the word.
    Unfortunately, I have no advice to offer you.
    Just *hugs*, and a heapin’ helpin’ of sympathy.
    –
    birgerjohansson:

    This Is Not A Human Head

    Realistic enough to make it creepy at the pan-down.
    The acting profession’s days may be numbered.
    –
    Tony!:

    The separation of church and state doesn’t mean “the government cannot favor religion over non-religion,” Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia argued…

    Saad:

    What in the fucking fuck…
     
    Is this real life?

    Yes.
    Yes, it is.
     
    In fact, this “freedom of religion, not freedom from religion” bullshit has been an article of Faith (pun oh-so-very intended) in these h’yar parts (mid-to-southern USAia) for years. And it never is construed to mean that the invariably-Christian speaker is “free from Islam…or Buddhism…or Asatru…or Kemetism”, because only Christianity counts as religion, in the same way that only Christianity counts as religion when “freedom of religion” is being applied to things like vouchers for religiously-run schools.
    –
    “The spheres, similar in size to a tennis ball, […]”
     
    *gulp*
    Peas…the size of tennis balls….
    <nervously toying with *napalm!* sprayer>
    –
    250

  274. cicely says

    I invoke the Pharyngula Hivemind.
     
    A friend of mine who teaches last-hope youth, in hopes of getting their neglected educations up to speed, is looking for free resources for teaching logical thinking, spotting fallacies, and so forth.
     
    Suggestions?
    –

  275. cicely says

    Brony, please take this *large package of hugs and support* with you to your interview. Meanwhile, I’ll keep all my tentacles crossed for you.
    :)
    –

  276. Saad says

    cicely #274

    Purdue’s OWL has a nice resource page. The whole of the “Logic in Argumentative Writing” on the left side may be relevant, but here’s the specific link to the fallacies section:

    Purdue OWL

  278. Saad says

    Dang, for some reason I interpreted your post as asking about a resource for writing specifically. Excuse me if that was unhelpful.

  279. toska says

    Brony
    Good luck to you! I really hope you get the job, but even if not, it’s a good opportunity to practice interviewing and addressing all of those concerns you have. So maybe you can gain something positive from it either way. Phalanges crossed for you :)

  281. says

    Brony @263:
    Good luck!

    ****

    What’s the deal with demanding labor from interns, but not paying them for it?

    ****
    Bigger women have the right to wear what they want. Your comfort level is not their concern. I endorse this message.

    ****

    Goddammit!
    This pisses me the fuck off!
    http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/anti_gay_mom_files_supreme_court_brief_to_uphold_gay_marriage_ban_so_she_can_keep_cash_from_dead_son_s_estate

    Pat Fancher apparently loves money and hates gay marriage and her deceased gay son’s husband so much that she’s now hired an attorney and filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court to “advise” them to uphold a ban on same-sex marriage.

    As The New Civil Rights Movement reported, Pat Fancher is the mother of David Fancher. David legally married Paul Hard in Massachusetts. That’s David in the photo above, on the right, his husband Paul, on the left.

    August 1, 2011, David was mortally injured in a car crash when his car struck an overturned UPS truck blocking the northbound lanes of Interstate 65. Hospital workers refused to provide a frantic Paul Hard any information about his husband’s condition. A receptionist callously told Paul that he was not a member of Fancher’s family because “gay marriages” are not recognized in Alabama. After an hour of pleading for information, Paul learned his beloved partner had died from a sympathetic hospital orderly. The following day, the funeral home director informed Paul that pursuant to Alabama law, David’s death certificate would indicate he had never been married. The administrator of David’s estate filed a wrongful death lawsuit, but again, because of Alabama law, ignored Paul’s loss. David’s mother would be the beneficiary of any award.

    Pat Fancher (image, right) has hired Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore’s Foundation for Moral Law, to fight against same-sex marriage.

    Last month, on her behalf, the Foundation for Moral Law filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court, on the ban in Utah, apparently believing the Court will choose that case, and noting, “the decision of this Court concerning the Utah case will very likely affect the outcome of our Alabama case.”

    The Foundation for Moral Law’s Supreme Court brief contends “that this nation’s laws should reflect the moral basis upon which the nation was founded, and that the ancient roots of the common law, the pronouncements of the legal philosophers from whom this nation’s Founders derived their view of law, the views of the Founders themselves, and the views of the American people as a whole from the beginning of American history at least until very recently, have held that homosexual conduct is immoral and should not be sanctioned by giving it the official state sanction of marriage.”

    And now, the Foundation for Moral Law has filed a motion for summary judgment with the United States District Court for Alabama.

    This is a fucking mockery of what it means to be moral. Yeah, I’m shaking and crying right now bc this shit pisses me off so much. This mother is vile.

  282. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Best of luck at the interview, Brony!

  283. says

    Tony @234

    The separation of church and state doesn’t mean “the government cannot favor religion over non-religion,” Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia argued during a speech at Colorado Christian University on Wednesday, according to The Washington Times.

    Defending his strict adherence to the plain text of the Constitution, Scalia knocked secular qualms over the role of religion in the public sphere as “utterly absurd,” arguing that the Constitution is only obligated to protect freedom of religion — not freedom from it.

    I agree with others up-thread who responded, WTF!? Scalia has got to be one of the worst justices of all time.

    Scalia sees the whole issue as a battle or a war, which is also a bad sign:

    Justice Scalia, part of the court’s conservative wing, was preaching to the choir when he told the audience at Colorado Christian University that a battle is underway over whether to allow religion in public life, from referencing God in the Pledge of Allegiance to holding prayers before city hall meetings. […]

    “I think the main fight is to dissuade Americans from what the secularists are trying to persuade them to be true: that the separation of church and state means that the government cannot favor religion over nonreligion,” Justice Scalia said.

  285. blf says

    I had this vague recollection of hearing an unusual and good version of No Man’s Land (albeit probably under the name The Green Fields of France). However, Ye Pfffft of All Knowledge didn’t list what I thought I recalled, but did list a version by a performer I haven’t heard in years, Attila the Stockbroker. I couldn’t find (and do not recall) his version, but did find a number of other songs / poems. A sampling:

     ●  This is Free Europe, slightly dated but still highly applicable.
     ●  Libyan Students From Hell, also slightly dated but. with a few tweaks, also still highly applicable.
     ●  Every Time I Eat Vegetables It Makes Me Think Of You.
     ●  Asylum Seeking Daleks, a fairly new peice previously unknown to me, and very applicable.

    And after c.30 years, he hasn’t calmed down in the slightest. (He is actually a very nice guy.)

  286. opposablethumbs says

    PS thank you for the nice naked Latvian men, rq, they look very pleasant. I think picture 5 is fantastic! (would Valter Simson be the nominative form of his name???)
    I like the way there doesn’t seem to be a predominant desperate attempt to be ultra-super-macho in most of them – it’s kind of refreshing :-)

  291. rq says

    Comment 202, Tony. ;)

    opposablethumbs
    Close – it would be Valters Simsons. All male names end in S in Latvian (well, almost – there’s a few imported ones that end in O, like Otto and Ivo and Igo), while female names may end in E or A.

  293. rq says

    Anyhoo, home-time. Hopefully that last black tea will keep me awake. Time to go make some non-conversation with the CSG!

  295. says

    Lesbian couple sues OH sperm bank.

    Jennifer Cramblett and Amanda Zinkon married in New York in 2012, and settled in to the all-white suburb of Uniontown Ohio. Within months of their nuptials, Jennifer became pregnant using sperm bought from Midwest Sperm Bank supposedly from a donor carefully chosen by the couple. Everything was coming up roses!

    When Jennifer was five months pregnant, she contacted Midwest Sperm Bank to reserve another eight vials of the same’s donor’s sperm, so that when she and Amanda were ready for a second baby, their children would have the same father. It was during that phone call that she learned there had been a mistake. The couple had requested sperm from donor #380, a white man, but had been sent sperm from donor #330, an African-American.
    Jennifer is now suing Midwest Sperm Bank for wrongful birth and breach of warranty. She claims in the lawsuit that she and Amanda love their daughter, Payton, (photo left) with all their hearts, but they now live fearful of the prejudice their mixed-race daughter will face in Uniontown. The lawsuit asks for compensatory damages in an amount exceeding $50,000 – enough money for the couple to relocate to a multicultural community with good schools.

    There’s a video at the link. I’m not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, they say they love their daughter and I’m inclined to believe them. But OTOH, it really does feel like “we wanted a white baby and you screwed us over”. But then I wonder–is that bad? Then there’s part of me that thinks the parents seem to be placing blame on the sperm bank for the attitudes of society.
    Gah! I don’t know how to feel about this. Very mixed.

  296. Rob Grigjanis says

    Tony @295:

    Then there’s part of me that thinks the parents seem to be placing blame on the sperm bank for the attitudes of society.

    The sperm bank fucked up. There’s enough blame to share between them and the attitudes of society.

  297. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Tony#295,
    My cynicism says it likely isn’t a pure “accident”. Especially if it never happened to the 100 white male/female couples prior to this incident. Who caused this, be it the bosses or some fundie underling, remains to be determined. My money is on the latter.

  298. toska says

    Tony!
    I have a lot of mixed feelings on that story, too. On one hand, the sperm bank definitely screwed up, and I see it as an issue of consent. Women who use sperm banks carefully select their donor, and it isn’t fair for anyone to say, “Well, you wanted a baby, so anyone’s sperm is just fine, and you’re racist if you say otherwise.” The women definitely deserve some compensation, and it is not a trivial matter. But I am very uncomfortable with some of the “damages” they list in their lawsuit. I can’t imagine how harmful this case might be to their daughter, who will likely grow up someday and realize that one of the damages on the lawsuit has to do with her hair type.

  299. The Mellow Monkey says

    Tony! @ 295: Based on other things I’ve read about what Jennifer has said, my feeling is that the gross negligence on the part of the sperm bank is the main problem here and not the race of the sperm donor. I imagine the family is tacking on everything they can to the case in order to prove some sort of measurable harm was done by the negligence, though in an ideal world the existence of the negligence would be reason enough to lay the smackdown on the sperm bank.

    Choosing a sperm donor can be incredibly personal, because even if the donor is anonymous you’re still going to be reproducing with this person. To have that choice taken away and find yourself pregnant by someone you did not choose is horrifying, all on its own. Yet I imagine (IANAL, etc) their lawsuit will be helped if they can show some sort of financial harm, as minor as that is in comparison to the violation of having a reproductive choice taken away.

  300. says

    I haz epiphany!
    I’ve become rather accustomed to the idea of having fairly clear feelings on a given situation. Abortion, feminism, marriage equality, racism…it’s rare that I’ve encountered a story that causes me to have such mixed feelings…to the extent that I just realized that there’s nothing necessarily wrong with having mixed feelings. I think part of me expected that I should come down on one side or the other on this story, and my inability to do so was frustrating. Then I thought “Self: why do you have to have a firm, clear cut opinion on this situation? Why can’t you have conflicting feelings about it?”

  301. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @Tony!:

    Those lawsuits have been going on for as long as there have been sperm banks and IVF docs. Usually, but not always, these suits involve straight couples. In some cases, IVF was a process, but they were supposed to use the (presumably) husband’s sperm. Race was then used to say, “See it’s obviously not Husband’s sperm.” In that case, I kinda get that use of race. But even in those cases, race-difference was used to increase damages (I use that word in the legal sense). Ugh.

    I’ve been super-upset by these suits for a long time. On the one hand, those folks providing sperm/IVF have to be held accountable. Under contract, you might – might! – try to give the baby to the corporation/doctor/person responsible for the mistake and have some kind of legal success. But contract law is about putting you in the position you would have been in absent the contract. It doesn’t contemplate damages in the same way as tort law at all. Give the baby to the corporation/doctor/person? I don’t know if that’s been tried, legally. It would be a damn interesting argument, since that’s what it would take to put the parents in their pre-contract position (that and a refund). I think the courts would take a dim view of forcing parenthood on a corporation/doctor/person in this circumstance (though obviously quite a few would be happy to do it to rape victims seeking abortions if they could get away with it). At best, it seems likely to be taken just seriously enough by a court to be used as a negotiating tactic. (“You’ll not only have to spend all the money to raise this kid, you’re going to be doing all the parenting as well. have fun with all the unpaid work, you sloppy jerks!”) …And probably that couldn’t happen, since the lawyers on the other side would have to believe that there’s a legitimate chance the court would force an adoption as part of the judgement.

    But the human heart? It’s hard not to love your baby, y’know? How could you threaten that? How could you tell your kid you only threatened that as a legal strategy to force an advantageous settlement?

    So you argue publicly – so that should your child ever read this stuff, they will hopefully be least harmed – that **you’re** not upset, **you** love your child, but holy crap, the racism and we can’t possibly expect to do X and Y without extra expenses because society, y’know?

    It’s hard to imagine how people can argue well in these circumstances. It’s fucked. But on the other hand, if the corporations/doctors/people don’t suffer real losses, it’s hard to see how they’ll be motivated to not fuck up again in the future.

    So I hate these lawsuits and at the same time I’m kind of lost for a better alternative than lawyers utilizing every tool – including existing prejudices – to try to make the negligent pay through the nose for being careless with [literally!] peoples lives.

    I honestly don’t know what I’d do as a lawyer with a client that brought me this sort of case. I’d certainly try to encourage them to focus on things non-racial qualities that they were denied in their child (“I read donor 380 went to Utah State, and so did my sister. That helped me imagine myself in his shoes, imagine a deeper connection to him and thus to my future baby. I didn’t connect at all with donor 330, who says he went to some uppity school like Columbia or something in New York 3000 miles away from where I grew up in Nevada. What price can you put on being denied a connection with your child?”) But if there’s precedent for adding value to a suit based on differential in tanning potential, I might actually be in breach of my duty to clients to fail to make an argument in that direction.

    one of the things that makes being a lawyer hard as fuck.

  302. says

    Mellow Monkey @299:
    Thanks for that. My uncertainty is darn near gone now. This is an issue of reproductive rights. Jennifer’s rights were violated. I couldn’t see that before. Thank you!

  303. Saad says

    There’s a video at the link. I’m not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, they say they love their daughter and I’m inclined to believe them. But OTOH, it really does feel like “we wanted a white baby and you screwed us over”. But then I wonder–is that bad? Then there’s part of me that thinks the parents seem to be placing blame on the sperm bank for the attitudes of society.

    Gah! I don’t know how to feel about this. Very mixed.

    You’re right. This is a weird one. I’m having to consider it over and over too. It seems a couple like them is at a weird disadvantage in their choice of using donor. When a white heterosexual couple naturally has a white child, their motives aren’t called into question. Nobody says did you guys marry each other so that your child will be white?

    This lesbian couple doesn’t have that privilege. I’m having a very hard time seeing something wrong with having a preference about the ethnicity of a sperm donor, unless somehow this preference causes harm to donors of other ethnicities, which I don’t see how it does. It’s just like marrying someone of your race isn’t racist. You’re not discriminating against the hundreds of other ethnicities you could have married because you’re not a commodity or a service that they should have access too. You’ve not negatively impacted their quality of life by not marrying them.* Am I looking at this correctly? If there’s some angle of reasoning here I’m missing, I’m all ears.

    The woman using the donor sperm isn’t a commodity or a service that is being denied to the sperm of other donors. So there’s no harmful act committed in choosing an ethnicity. Also, does she have any choice BUT to choose? I don’t think she should have certain information about the donor hidden from her.

    Aaaah, this is the weirdest I’ve felt about an issue in a while, but I think that feels pretty reasonable to me.

    Also, I don’t know anything about Uniontown, but her concern about the discrimination of a mixed-child could be legitimate if the town really is bad enough. One can do a simple thought experiment about living in a genocidal society and not wanting your child via sperm donor to have a shit life.

    * I’m not talking about rejecting someone’s proposal for a relationship because of their race.

  305. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @Tony!

    This is an issue of reproductive rights. Jennifer’s rights were violated.

    yes. And the violators need to pay for that.

    but why are women’s reproductive rights so devalued and black people so feared that the only way to get just compensation is to scream, “But ZOMG, BLACK!”

    There’s every reason for conflicting feelings here. Fuck the system that throws money at, “But ZOMG, BLACK!” while failing to seriously consider the basic underlying violation of women’s autonomy as a tortious source of injury in its own right.

    And, yes, their rights were violated, and not blaming the victim in any fucking way at all for what was done to them, but when they claim that they have to move, that means that they were willing to live in an area where it is literally unsafe for Black folk. They were perfectly happy with that decision. Until they had a black kid.

    WTF? I’m sorry for what happened to you, but what the fuck made you think a place where Black folk aren’t safe is a good place to settle down and raise a family? That’s some serious-ass racism right there.

  306. The Mellow Monkey says

    Crip Dyke @ 305

    I’m sorry for what happened to you, but what the fuck made you think a place where Black folk aren’t safe is a good place to settle down and raise a family? That’s some serious-ass racism right there.

    And a shining example of privilege, in thirty foot tall letters.

  307. Evan Williams says

    Scalia makes me want to not live on this planet any more, more than most shitty people who exist. There are all kinds of shitbags in the world, but this guy is a gigantic shitbag AND he is among a tiny group of people who controls the fate of the “most powerful” nation state on Earth, and will be until he dies. Great. Just great.

  308. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    One of life’s catch 22’s. In the middle of cleaning up a poo incident of the Redhead’s, and one of her friends call. Time to fade away for a while even though almost done. Supporting the support system of a social animal is mandatory….

  309. Saad says

    Evan Williams, #307

    At first I responded to that news with jokingly, but moments later I felt a shiver and thought, “This is pretty fucking scary.” All the implications of such a position (and so openly and confidently stated) held by such a high official are frightening.

  310. Evan Williams says

    Saad @ 309

    Given our luck he will be like fucking Dick Cheney and feed on the blood of virgins to live forever (this is the real reason conservatives push for abstinence over safe sex).

  312. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Ooh, I totally hear that one, Nerd.

    Glad she has that friend in her life as well as you.

  313. A. Noyd says

    Tony (#295)

    There’s a video at the link. I’m not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, they say they love their daughter and I’m inclined to believe them. But OTOH, it really does feel like “we wanted a white baby and you screwed us over”. But then I wonder–is that bad? Then there’s part of me that thinks the parents seem to be placing blame on the sperm bank for the attitudes of society.

    I think they’re suing to get money to offset the cost of having to move somewhere less overwhelmingly racist for the sake of their daughter. I’ve heard from a lot of people of color who grew up in all-white towns and it was really hard on them. Or who were raised by white parents and couldn’t get any support for the racism they faced. And I can respect that these parents want to help their daughter avoid some of that and give her a community where she will have a chance to fit in and feel good about herself.

    What I can’t respect is that they would have been fine raising a white child in their racist suburb. They actually say a white child would have fit in. With all the racists. They don’t want their actual daughter to be victimized, but they would have been okay creating another victimizer? What the fuck?

  314. Brony says

    Thanks for the kind thoughts everyone! I found some documents online by the company that are related to the job so I might have something to aid my preparation. I guess I’m feeling better about it.

    @ Tony 300

    Then I thought “Self: why do you have to have a firm, clear cut opinion on this situation? Why can’t you have conflicting feelings about it?”

    Accepting your emotions with out judgement is the first step to understanding them on their own terms. At least that I what I get out of CBT and mindfulness meditation.

    That is a really tough one. If I try to put myself in their situation (impossible but I’m always trying to do that for lots of reasons) I would think that they are just upset at having to deal with a bunch of bullshit that they did not ask for.
    My inner optimist wants to believe that they are conflicted themselves, but they are having problems and the the sperm bank did mess up something that is pretty serious. So it’s worth getting some damages, and the plan of moving to an accepting multicultural community could mean that a good community gets stronger. As well as a less accepting community losing some good people.
    My inner pessimist says “WTF! there is nothing wrong with a black child! Fight for you child!”. It’s also concerned about what this means,

    …but they now live fearful of the prejudice their mixed-race daughter will face in Uniontown.

    Does this mean the have a reason to expect prejudice? Is it something specific, or are they just paranoid? But here is where I tell my inner pessimist to shut up because he learned some stuff recently and there is pretty good reason to think that the couple is right to worry about prejudice.

  318. mildlymagnificent says

    bassmike, I had a couple of thoughts while I was dressing myself. One. Does she have a mirror in her room or the bathroom that make it easy for her to check herself? Two. Have you ever tried dressing yourself wrong? Ask her to check why it “feels wrong” and then laugh when she points out the label sticking out under your chin or tells you you’ve got two different shoes on. Might not be right for you but could start some thinking about things that would work.

  319. 2kittehs says

    rq @202, lovely chaps indeed. I liked the guitarist, No. 6 – long hair for the win. Now all he needs to do is grow a nice little moustache. :) Also, those whale pics were amazing. Also also, POTATO AAAAAAAAAAAAH NO.

    LiquoriceAllsort @246, thank you for the link to that review of Dawkins’s book (I’m with you there … TWO VOLUMES?).

    I was left thinking, even more than I did already, what a repellent personality he has. He sounds like the worst stereotype of the British colonial system and the public school snobbery, with all the racism and sexism and unthinking, totally self-satisfied superiority, but without any redeeming features of compassion or love or humility or breadth of understanding or even attempts at understanding. He doesn’t even sound like much of a scientist (to this non-science person). No active research since the 1970s? Wat?

    I loved some of the comments in that review, like him trying soooo hard to show he has a sense of humour when he simply hasn’t (no surprise there).

    Tony!     @277

    PUDDING! SQUEEEE!

    A.Noyd@316 – Eeep! And I thought our summers were hot! :P

    WMDKitty @317, I am SO posting that link at We Hunted the Mammoth.

  320. rq says

    So today is national election day.
    And I don’t know who to vote for – but it comes down to the least harmful devil I know, probably. Which rankles.

  321. says

    Oh. Gee. Thanks Bill Maher. Your anti-Muslim bigotry is bad enough. Then you had to add Sam the sexist assclown Harris to the mix?

    Bill Maher and author and neuroscientist Sam Harris battled actor/director Ben Affleck on Real Time on Friday concerning Maher’s recent remarks criticizing Islam.

    “Why are you so hostile about this?” Maher asked Affleck.

    “It’s gross, it’s racist,” Affleck replied.

    “It’s so not,” Maher insisted, though Affleck compared it to using the term, “Shifty Jew.”

    “You’re not listening to what we are saying,” Maher insisted.

    “You guys are saying, if you want to be liberal, believe in liberal principles,” Affleck said, referencing Maher’s monologue last week. “Like, we are endowed by our forefathers with inalienable rights, all men are created equal.”

    Harris, who had complained about criticism of the Muslim religion being dismissed as Islamophobic, countered that liberals should be allowed to criticize bad ideas.

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/10/its-gross-its-racist-ben-affleck-and-bill-maher-clash-over-criticizing-islam/
    Still clinging to the idea that Islam is soooo much worse than the other religions ( even if it were, it would be a matter of degrees; plus, if christianity weren’t held in check to the extent that it is in Western countries, I think we’d see a lot more atrocities than we do already)

  322. chimera says

    Crip Dyke @ 305 and The Mellow Monkey @ 306

    According to the link, at least one of the women is actually from the racist neighborhood. There is a difference between choosing to move to a place you realize is racist and choosing not to stay in same, choosing to leave the place where you grew up. Or the place where you have a good job or own property or simply a place whose ways you at least know. I have an Israeli friend who has been going round and round about leaving Israel for years, she is still there. She does live in a mixed neighborhood — “mixed” meaning in this case that there are Arab neighbors, secular and religious Jews but also some foreigners — but the question remains.

    A larger question is the extent to which you fight and resist or accept and renew social domination when you belong to at least one majority or dominant group (by class or ethnicity or religion or sex or gender and so on) in a given time and place (street, neighborhood, city, region, country, civilization) but also place of work, profession or social network of some kind.

    But back to this couple and their child and their choices. It does seem that they would have been perfectly happy to raise a white child in that apparently whitebread place and yes that is a shining example of privilege.

    I am back from my trip to California after having been grounded there for some time by the strike at Air France. While there, I was walking on a steep and windy back-country road with my dad who has Alzheimer’s. The road was several miles long but dead-ended at a foot trail into a natural park. It was woodsy but densely populated with a lot of ramshackle cabins flying American flags and it was a little after 5 in the afternoon. I figured most of the cars going by were people coming home from work, not through traffic. My dad was waving and smiling at every car that went by. I couldn’t figure out if he was doing that because that’s what people do in that place (a lot of the drivers waved back) or if he was doing it the way a child might do that. Then it hit me: What if my dad and I were black? Would those drivers –all of whom were white– stop and ask us what we were doing there? Would they call in to the police a sighting of suspicious individuals? I suddenly got terribly frightened and realized that despite its natural beauty, I wouldn’t want to live in that place.

  324. Pseudonym says

    Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls@228:

    Yawn, Pseudonym just can’t admit the concept of Redditt being morally wrong and must change, by seeing that the bigotry and misogyny are fixed so that there is nobody hurt from free but irresponsible speech. Misdirection by strawman doesn’t change that argument. The legality of the situation is pure strawman bullshit, and not the subject under discussion, except by those who defend the publishing of tips on how to rape. Also known as rape abettors for a polite term.

    Pseudonym@139:

    That said, investors making a profit off of rape apologias is not my idea of progress. I also find the defense of lauding “virtue without compulsion” rather pathetic. Like many Christianist conceptions of private charity versus government largesse, it gets things totally backwards. The benefit of virtuous behavior is not in the way it ennobles the giver but in the way it benefits the recipient. Preventing rape threats isn’t a good thing because it makes men choose not to threaten rape, it’s a good thing because women aren’t threatened with rape.

    Pseudonym@158:

    I don’t personally use Reddit. I think that they should close down the offending subreddits.

    Pseudonym@162:

    You accused me of abetting rape. I don’t use Reddit. I don’t support their policy. I don’t support rape threats, or allowing them on one’s private site, or protecting them legally. I don’t support writing or hosting rape instructions. I denounce Stalin and Hitler and genocide too.

  325. Pseudonym says

    Sorry for spilling over here, let me know if there’s a better place to take it. For all the talk about how I was derailing the discussion of Reddit’s actions, though, how many other commenters even bothered to engage with Reddit’s own justifications?
    If people still think discussing this is inappropriate, I’ll shut up.

  327. Pseudonym says

    SallyStrange@237:

    Supposing it is legal to incite rape, so long as you don’t name specific intended victims, then what? It doesn’t actually change the dynamics of the conversation any. The thing that made Pseudonym look really bad was the tack he took of being concerned that making incitement to rape illegal (assuming for the moment it’s not) would have some sort of slippery slope effect that would make it illegal to discuss tactics for civil disobedience.
    There are way too many steps between making it illegal to incite others to rape and making it illegal to discuss tactics for peaceful political protest (when in reality, the government doesn’t need any legal pretext to spy on, harass, shut down, and arrest activists planning direct actions and civil disobedience–they do that anyway and always have) to make that discussion look like anything but a ham-handed attempt to use activists’ concerns about freedom of expression as an excuse to let rapists and would-be rapists run rampant.

    I’m sorry that I was apparently so unclear in trying to express my views. I think incitement to rape should be illegal, but I’m not sure it is under current law unless it’s an imminent threat. I’m not the one who brought up the idea of making it illegal to incite crime in general, but you knew that. I think there should be a bright line drawn between inciting violence and advocating nonviolent civil disobedience. It would be nice if bringing up questions of factual accuracy weren’t considered derailing, but oh well.

  328. Pseudonym says

    Al Dente@238:

    Pseudonym @236
    If you want to keep engaging, would you mind posting in the lounge or thunderdome thread instead?
    Why are you still posting here? Get thee hence. Or to put it another way, get the fuck out of this thread!

    I thought that two comments noting that I wanted to stop derailing would be sufficient but not excessive.

  329. blf says

    Pseudonym, Whatever the merits or demerits of a Reply button, please learn to edit-down the quoted comment to the relevant parts. Quoting (repeating) the whole fecking comment is, with exceptions, one of the Many Things™ people do not like about such buttons — too much noise, very little content.

  330. Pseudonym says

    bargearse@235:

    Pseudonym @ 227
    For what it’s worth I always assumed you’re posting in good faith. I’ve reread all your comments and I don’t think you’re a rape apologist. The first problem is you’re using the same tactics and talking points that MRAs use. It’s hard to tell the difference between someone who’s genuinely asking questions, pointing out other issues or playing devil’s advocate and someone who’s just being a malicious arsehole. You think you have a point and you’re just trying to back it up but at this point it’s hard to distinguish you from the bad guys.

    Look at what Marion Pierce wrote, for example, and what I wrote in response.

    The second problem is focusing on legal minutiae in a thread about about various “how to rape” forums is really fucking insensitive. This isn’t an abstract concept for a lot of people including a lot of people who read and comment here.

    I appreciate that, and honestly if I hadn’t been accused of inventing a strawman or of being a rape abettor after I responded to someone else’s explicit suggestion, I wouldn’t have pushed the point.

  331. Pseudonym says

    blf@329:

    Whatever the merits or demerits of a Reply button, please learn to edit-down the quoted comment to the relevant parts.

    Like that? Or do you prefer the system where every fourth comment contains a broken blockquote?

  332. Pseudonym says

    By the way, Tethys, if you’re so concerned about derailing how about not continuing to post derailing comments in the thread in question? Now please explain what you meant when you said that civil disobedience was a constitutionally protected right.

  333. Pseudonym says

    Tethys’s lessons for how not to be a narcissistic asshole, step one: accuse someone of intellectual dishonesty for accurately quoting the comment that you had just suggested that they needed to read.

  334. rq says

    Pseudonym
    I think you’re looking for the Thunderdome. Much more appropriate venue for what you’re trying to do
    And yes, civil disobedience is a constitutionally protected right. How else is a government supposed to know their entire system is shit?

  335. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Evidently Pseudonym didn’t read the Lounge instructions, where things discussed in the Lounge are done with kindness, which means certain topics, like his present burr under the saddle, are better taken to the Thunderdome.

  336. says

    I’m adding to the many comments up-thread about Justice Scalia’s recent remarks. Previous comment #’s: 234, 236, 273, 283, 307.

    […]In an unusually radical argument for a high-court jurist, Scalia reportedly insisted this week, “[The Supreme Court’s] latest take on the subject, which is quite different from previous takes, is that the state must be neutral, not only between religions, but between religion and non-religion. That’s just a lie. Where do you get the notion that this is all unconstitutional? You can only believe that if you believe in a morphing Constitution.”

    The implications of such an approach are pretty remarkable. In Scalia’s vision, the Constitution – a secular document, which separates religion and government – empowers the government to favor supernatural beliefs over disbelief. Government couldn’t favor Baptists over Buddhists, the argument goes, but laws can favor both over those he dismisses as “secularists.”

    If U.S. policymakers passed a law that deliberately treated American atheists as second-class citizens, Scalia seems to believe that’s perfectly permissible under the Constitution.
    […]

    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/week-god-10414

    See also:
    http://www.acslaw.org/acsblog/everyone’s-god-is-no-one’s-god-antonin-scalia-and-the-scourge-of-‘ceremonial-deism’

  337. blf says

    Like that?

    Correct.

    Or do you prefer the system where every fourth comment contains a broken blockquote?

    People are fully capable of following a narrative without having the whole fecking conversation quoted back at them. Reasonable people are also tolerant of borkedquote’s, embadings, and other mistakes.

    I assume your “every fourth comment” claim refers to something here at FtB. Please provide a reference (e.g., link to such a mistake-prone posting&comments) so I and others have a chance to understand what you are talking about.

  338. Pseudonym says

    rq@334:

    And yes, civil disobedience is a constitutionally protected right. How else is a government supposed to know their entire system is shit?

    I’m sorry for my tone. I still don’t see how civil disobedience can possibly be a constitutional right. The entire concept is self-contradictory. The whole idea of civil disobedience is breaking the law because it is unjust, and the constitution is the foundation of the law. How can there possibly be a legal right to break the law?

  339. Pseudonym says

    blf@337:

    People are fully capable of following a narrative without having the whole fecking conversation quoted back at them. Reasonable people are also tolerant of borkedquote’s, embadings, and other mistakes.

    In this particular case I was posting extended quotes because I was trying to move discussion from another thread, and given that with the manual reply system currently in place people don’t provide and hence aren’t used to seeing links to the comments they’re replying to, and the comments I was replying to aren’t even on this page, and the comment numbers also aren’t reliable, I thought that fully quoting comments would be acceptable. (Incidentally, your post calling me out for extended blockquoting contains neither a link to my original post nor a reference to the comment number.) Is there a style guide here?

  340. rq says

    Pseudonym
    Because laws that are deemed higher than human rights are unjust laws. A legal system that sees itself as more important to uphold than the rights of those it applies to is no good system at all. Sometimes a flaw in the system can only be revealed by disobedience to the system – if people see a need to be disobedient, then there is something about the system that doesn’t work.
    And a broken system must be fixed. Polite conversation? Too easy to ignore. By breaking the law, sometimes one can show where it is deficient. The law is not immutable – we as people have a right and a duty to change, develop, progressively improve any law that applies to us and other people around us, to everyone’s mutual benefit. That is why civil disobedience (which doesn’t always require breaking the law, but breaking social norms? definitely) is necessary.
    Now take it to the Thunderdome. It’s not so much your tone as your adversarial stance and determination to call everyone out for wrongdoing that belongs there.

  341. says

    Pseudonym @ 338:

    The whole idea of civil disobedience is breaking the law because it is unjust, and the constitution is the foundation of the law. How can there possibly be a legal right to break the law?

    You don’t seem to understand civil disobedience. It’s a complex subject. In many cases, civil disobedience is done well within the law, simply by claiming rights authorities don’t expect you to claim, such as refusing to identify yourself to police, or saying no to a search. Those things are your right (at least here in the States), yet you will generally find yourself coming in for punishment if you claim those rights.

    Also, since you seem somewhat deficient in the reading department, kindness is obligatory in the lounge. If you want to call people assholes, take this to thunderdome.

  342. blf says

    Do you drive faster than c.5 mph?
    Was there a a flagman walking in front of your car warning people of your approach?

    If the answers are Yes and No, respectively, then in some states (of USAlienstan) you are breaking the law. Assuming you have indeed driven illegally in those states, then What was your fine and/or How long did you stay in prison / jail?

    Whilst civil disobedience usually isn’t about obsolete laws, the concept is similar: There are laws which are silly, and/or unjust, and/or lack a sound basis. The current protesters in Hong Kong are upset at the lack of democratic accountability, those in Ferguson at the racially-biased “law enforcement” and local local of democratic accountability, and some near where I live for similar reasons to Ferguson albeit a different set of minorities (Roma and Muslims).

    Civic disobedience has been recognized, as valid, since antiquity (e.g., Antigone). I think the term originates with Thoreau, who was protesting against — and was joined by numerous others — slavery. Which, at the time, was legal and, in the USAlien Constitution, the famous 3/5ths of a person nonsense.

  343. Pseudonym says

    rq@340:

    Because laws that are deemed higher than human rights are unjust laws… That is why civil disobedience (which doesn’t always require breaking the law, but breaking social norms? definitely) is necessary.

    My understanding of civil disobedience was that it involved breaking the law by definition, but if that’s incorrect it’s useful to know. I’m sure that certain kinds of civil disobedience (as practiced by Thoreau, Gandhi, or MLK Jr.) have unquestionably broken the law, though, and I don’t see how it’s logically possible for a constitution to provide legal protection for lawbreaking.

    Now take it to the Thunderdome. It’s not so much your tone as your adversarial stance and determination to call everyone out for wrongdoing that belongs there.

    I’m sorry for making admittedly impolite remarks. If that’s the kind of discussion I wanted to have, I’d be in the Thunderdome. But to quote the OP, “[y]ou can discuss anything you want, but you will do it kindly.” I’m sick of being involved in a discussion where I’m constantly accused of rape apologetics, intellectual dishonesty, and various other forms of bad faith. Does “[y]ou can discuss anything you want” not include polite but adversarial debate about contentious topics?

  344. Pseudonym says

    blf@342:

    Whilst civil disobedience usually isn’t about obsolete laws, the concept is similar: There are laws which are silly, and/or unjust, and/or lack a sound basis… Civic disobedience has been recognized, as valid, since antiquity (e.g., Antigone). I think the term originates with Thoreau, who was protesting against — and was joined by numerous others — slavery. Which, at the time, was legal and, in the USAlien Constitution, the famous 3/5ths of a person nonsense.

    I don’t understand what you’re arguing against. I agree that civil disobedience is morally legitimate, but I don’t see how it could be considered constitutionally protected to break the law. When Thoreau wrote his essay on civil disobedience, it was for refusing to pay taxes because the government supported slavery and the Mexican-American War, iirc. That doesn’t mean that refusing to pay taxes for moral reasons is constitutionally protected.

  345. Portia (aka Smokey the Advocate) says

    Hullo, lounge.

    I’m shamefully rupt. Life, man, meatspace life. Very demanding, people wanting things and stuff.
    Lots of migraines lately. I went to the doctor for what seems to be bronchitis, guess I’ll have to go for a migraine analysis and maybe meds for that next.

    How’s things, fellow loungers? I have not gotten out of bed. It’s cooooold.

  347. says

    Portia, sorry to read that you’re under the weather. I hope that your doctor can figure out what’s causing the migraines, and get them stopped. *offers gentle hugs and hot tea*

    I’m having a string of pretty nice days this week, after the great plumbing distraction on Monday. I’m waiting for the next Shoe of Damocles, though, because there’s always one along sooner or later.

  348. Portia (aka Smokey the Advocate) says

    Beatrice:
    Ain’t that the truth. How’ve you been?

    Anne:
    I’m glad your week have been lovely, in spite of the plumbing fiasco. Thanks for the sympathy. I think I might just drag myself up to make a new cup of chai :) or maybe the Earl Grey with Lavender. Mmm, yeah, that sounds tasty.

  349. rq says

    Pseudonym
    I replied in the Thunderdome. Take it out of here, please. You’re not adding to the friendly atmosphere right now, though I admit I’m a bit emotionally touchy at the moment. Just don’t talk to me anymore.

  351. says

    Here’s a doozy for our “Republicans (conservatives) saying stupid stuff” file:

    Barack Obama and the First Lady have kept a tight lid on photos of their precious daughters being released by the press. Still, we have seen a startling lack of pictures from the early years of Malia and Sasha. Now we have evidence that this may not be due to the fact that Michelle has ordered the press not to release them, but that they do not exist.

    Malia and Sasha little resemblance to their parents. As FOTM points out, this could very well be because the two girls were adopted, possibly from Morocco. Just as we have seen with their father, there isn’t much evidence of their background. Online searches for Malia and Sasha’s birth records come up dry.

    Lot’s and lot’s more, some of it even worse than the above, in the Daily Kos article. For example:

    It has to do with DECEIVING the American populace. None of us would care if the children were adopted or not. What concerns us most is the incessant need to lie and deceive. It isn’t necessary ! An honest American family is what we need residing in or White House . Not a liar ! A liar is capable of anything ! Obama is a deceiver , A fraud, An impostor ! American’s should not stand for that ! As far as the children , No one is saying that the children are guilty of anything . They were placed in the position of question . I have no guilt questioning their legitimacy. Barack and Michelle have always been pathological liars . Of course , I believe these children aren’t theirs.

  352. says

    More from the Daily Kos article (link in #351):

    michelle is a man, obama isnt a man hes a sissy queer muslim, they cant produce together

  353. Morgan!? Militant Pacifist says

    Hi Horde,

    I feel like a class A idjit. I mentioned to hubby the other day that I don’t see very many people of color up here on the mountain. There are a few, not many. Most of the year round permanent residents are poor, or near poor, (I don’t think the middle class exists anymore) but almost all white. Hubby snarked, “What did you expect? This area was first settled by Mormons.” They still have an overwhelming presence. The Hispanic population seems to be growing. I’m wondering how many people live here because there are so few black citizens? Shit.

  354. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Portia,

    Not enough time to meet my friends, either in meatspace or here, but otherwise I’ve been pretty well. I think I read something about you getting a rise, so congratulations on that. I’m sorry to hear about the health problems.

    rq,
    The Lounge feels more comfortable already.
    *hugs* if you wish.

  355. Portia (aka Smokey the Advocate) says

    Morgan:
    I know those moments of “Oh, shit, there’s my white privilege again, cuz I didn’t even have to think about that.” Yep. : /

    Beatrice:
    Bummer, sorry you’re too busy for socialization. Hope you’re doing ok. *hugs* if you want ’em.
    Thanks for the congrats and the sympathy. The raise turned out to be more than I thought it would be, which was pretty neat.

    –
    I’m almost done with a project so of course I’m already salivating over a next pattern to begin. :)
    I realized that because my cousin is due in March, and I’ve made a 6 month sized baby sweater, I’m literally a year ahead of schedule on this one I’m just finishing. Now that’s out of the ordinary.

  356. rq says

    Portia
    Yes, earl grey is fine. Considering the mood right now, lots of sugar and a good serving of cream should do, as well. :)

    Beatrice
    Thanks, I’ll take the hugs, too!

    Lynna
    Seriously, do these people think about the things that they say?

  357. says

    Seriously, do these people think about the things that they say?

    From the evidence, I would say they think about those things a lot, and repetitively. Doesn’t seem to slow them down, or to give them pause.

    I wonder sometimes if they are not just stuck in a loop and in need of a reboot.

  358. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Portia,

    I’m making it up to my best friend, since I’m taking two whole days off and we’re going to make a trip to Italy. Now all I have to do is try to spend more time here and everything will be really… good.

    huh, I knew there was something dodgy about my spelling of rise raise.

  360. says

    More additions for our Republicans/Conservatives saying stupid stuff file:

    Nearly six years into Barack Obama’s presidency, birthers are still grasping for evidence that the president is lying somehow about who he is or where he was born.

    In an interview with Denver radio host Peter Boyles this week, Mike Zullo, the “lead investigator” in Sheriff Joe Arpiao’s “Cold Case Posse” suggested a new lead for birthers: Maybe Obama’s mother wasn’t actually his mother!

    Zullo told Boyles that he doesn’t know who Obama is, but “all that I can tell you is I don’t believe he is who he purports to be.”

    He said that he disagreed with fellow conspiracy theorist Joel Gilbert’s assertion that the president’s real father was American labor organizer Frank Marshall Davis. Instead, he said, “I would be focusing real hard on who’s the mommy.”

    Right Wing Watch link.

  361. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Portia,

    Tuscany. It’s only 4 days, so we chose an organized trip. Benefits: someone to drive us around without us having to organize transportation or ho(s)tel & we can ditch the group and go exploring on our own if we decide to.
    Which we’ll probably do on our day in Florence, since I’ve already been there and can show her the best places which tour guide might not think important enough.

  362. says

    Beatrice, the rise/raise thing is a UK/US split, in that order; a pay rise is a pay raise, in Birmingham (England) and Birmingham (Atlanta) respectively. Many Europeans learn UK English, it being the form closer to and historically considered more prestigious, so you may well have heard “rise” much more often. :)

    rq, *hugs* and hope the company thing goes well, with the least amount of gender essentialism necessary to function.

    Portia, ! Hi, Smokey! Glad to see you here, sorry you’ve been migrainey, that sucks igneous substances.

  363. says

    Any Swedish-familiar people able to answer my #168? I’m really curious.

    I watched “The Bridge” recently, the original Swedish/Danish production, first season, and loved it. One thing I noticed in it were a couple of pronunciation things, both about names. The female lead is Saga Norén, and the Swedes all call her Saga, while the Danes sound like Säga – is Martin doing that just to get her back for calling him Röhde instead of Rohde, or is that just a Danish thing? The same happened with Daniel – Swedes said Daniel, Danes said Däniel.

    I haven’t been able to figure out a search that will find me the answer online.

  364. Portia (aka Smokey the Advocate) says

    Beatrice:
    I’m so happy for you that you get to do such a fun thing with your best friend. Hope the organized part is seemless and worry-free.

    Cait:
    Ah, I see. Thanks for the “new think I learned today” :)

    And Hi! Good to see you here, too. I’m being sooooo lazy. But I’m not sorry! I can be lazy sometimes! It’s ok!

  365. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    CaitieCat,

    It could be, since both my elementary and high school teachers taught us BE. Or I wanted to write raise, but missed a letter and accidentally stumbled on a correct spelling.
    Could be either. :)

  366. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Thanks, Portia.
    I’ve been traveling so much lately I don’t even bother putting the suitcase away any more, but I’m really looking forward to this (non-business) trip.

  367. Saad says

    Yup, the news has been extra shit lately. And this one hits right at home for me. Just read this article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about sexual assault cases over the past couple of years at major universities here:

    I don’t know why it still shocks me, but this did:

    The 18-year-old freshman was discovered by fellow students, passed out in a men’s shower stall at a University of Georgia dormitory wearing only an oversized T-shirt that wasn’t hers. Curled up in the fetal position, a dark bruise ran the length of her neck.

    The last thing she remembers: a tall male buying her vodka drinks at a downtown Athens bar the night before. Crying and confused, she told campus police she may have been drugged. And raped. But the end of the night is a blank. She doesn’t know.

    […]

    Records reviewed by the AJC show UGA campus police aggressively investigated the woman’s case, tracking her movements to a dorm room, and identifying the male student she was with. The male student told police they had consensual sex. Police obtained search warrants and scoured the student’s room for date rape drugs, sending every stray pill they found for testing.

    The campus police investigative report stretched several hundred pages. But ultimately the case concluded, as most do, without criminal prosecution. Toxicology tests concluded the woman had only alcohol in her system, police said.

    So a girl found unconscious and half-naked in a fucking MEN’S shower in a UGA dorm with a bruise on her neck cries and reports being raped. Police even identify the man who she says did it. The man says the sex was consensual. Toxicology tests show the woman ONLY had alcohol in her system.

    Duh! Of course! Just alcohol! Never mind that she was found in a state which should immediately cast strong suspicions about rape. Hey, as long as the asshole just merely says the sex was consensual, who cares what the silly little girl says, right? Who cares what the physical evidence suggests. I thought it was only in Muslim societies where one man’s testimony is worth that of multiple women’s. Maybe if she had two female witnesses the odds might have been in her favor.

    Also, last year alone the five major colleges had 70 reported sex offenses. I can’t even come up with a rough estimate of how many didn’t get reported. The article says some victims choose not to involve the city police. Should that really be an option in a heinous crime like this? Can I choose not to involve the police if my son is murdered? Isn’t it a matter of public safety if there’s a murderer on campus? Why the fuck not for rape?

    I live in this shitty state. I went to universities here too.

  368. rq says

    Cait
    Thanks, no gender essentialism today (in fact, Husband’s younger brother’s gf insisted that she would only come today if she would be given some manual labour to do, none of the traditional women’s work – I can support that as a resistance towards being inadvertently pushed into that traditional role while not denigrating the work involved).
    Just called out some ableism (“Wow, she’s such a schizo, with that point of view!”) that was accepted and got nicely defused by Husband (“Wait, is that the rumour going? That she has schizophrenia?” “No, it was just a slur.” “Oh. Well, you can’t apply that here.”).

    BeatricE
    It sounds like a fun trip, really beautiful country-side, from what I hear! Hope the weather is good for your trip, too. :)

  369. Saad says

    I really apologize for not putting a trigger warning. I meant to go back and do it before submitting since I quoted the article, but forgot because the post ended up being longer than I though. I’m really sorry!

  370. Saad says

    Also, the point about some victims not choosing to involve the police: I don’t mean the victim is at fault for not involving police. I’m mad that the system is so fucked up and lacking in support that the victims feel scared to involve the police.

  371. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    rq,

    I think I like your husband’s younger brother’s girlfriend. It’s really difficult to stand up for yourself regarding men’s/women’s work division without making women doing traditionally women’s work look bad.

  372. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    I don’t understand what’s going on in Thunderdome right now, and I’ll leave it for tomorrow morning to go over while drinking my morning coffee.

    Good night, it was really nice to chat a bit here again.

  373. says

    rq, I posted an appreciative response to your guest post over on Dana Hunter’s blog. It hasn’t shown up yet, so I expect it’s caught in the lint trap (all that cat hair). No biggie, but I wanted you to know that, yes, I agree and thank you for saying what you said so clearly. Cup of tea?

  375. Portia (aka Smokey the Advocate) says

    Hi Dalillama:
    Good to see you.
    *hugs*

    –

    matchdotcom is so spammy. I deleted my account, dude, stop being so clingy. Let me go, we’ll both be happier.

  376. 2kittehs says

    Portia @355

    I realized that because my cousin is due in March, and I’ve made a 6 month sized baby sweater, I’m literally a year ahead of schedule on this one I’m just finishing. Now that’s out of the ordinary.</blockquote

    Great admiration from fellow knitter, here! Also sorry you're ill, hope those migraines get their marching orders soon.

    Beatrice, ooh, seeing Florence! Hope you have a great time.

    CaitieCat @362

    Beatrice, the rise/raise thing is a UK/US split, in that order; a pay rise is a pay raise, in Birmingham (England) and Birmingham (Atlanta) respectively.

    That’s interesting – here in Oz I’d say I’ve had a raise, or a pay rise. Snark: last raise I had, the general manager said it was “substantial”. How much was it? 25 cents an hour.

    I stumbled on this today – a compilation of the top ten best cat commercials. Enjoy, fellow subjects of the Furrinati.

  378. says

    Beatrice:
    Yay for spending time with a friend (I need to try that sometime soon).

    ****

    Portia:
    Glad to hear the raise was more than expected.

    ****
    I was prepared to post a link to this article and just laugh and give a chuckle at how amusing it was (the headline sounded funny). Then I read more of the article, and I’m ticked off:

    Civet coffee is among the most expensive coffees in the world—a cup can cost $80. Coffee beans that have passed through the digestive tract of this cat-sized creature native to southeast Asia make a remarkably smooth brew, producers and aficionados say. But the cost isn’t just financial. Although civet coffee, also known by its Indonesian name, kopi luwak, originated with beans collected from the feces of wild animals, increased demand has encouraged producers to keep the animals in cages and force them to subsist on a nutritionally deficient diet of coffee beans.
    http://www.wired.com/2014/10/civet-coffee-without-civets/

    Yes, civets aren’t human beings. So what? They don’t deserve to be treated like that. Imagining myself in the place of one of these creatures, kept in a cage, and given a nutritionally deficient diet all for the pleasure of other beings…that sounds like a torturous experience. Thankfully, one compassionate human being has come up with a way to create civet coffee without treating these animals so cruelly:

    “It’s the fois gras of coffee,” Camille Delebecque, a synthetic biologist, said during a recent visit to WIRED. Delebecque saw a depressing civet farm on a trip to Indonesia a few years ago, and it got him thinking about alternatives.

    After conducting a few DIY bio experiments in his kitchen, Delebecque decided to start a company. He teamed up with Sophie Deterre, a food scientist whose experience includes working on bitter orange aroma for Grand Marnier, to develop a fermentation process they say mimics some of the changes that occur in coffee beans as they wend through a civet’s digestive tract.

    Their company is called Afineur, and they hope to have beans on sale by the end of the year. Delebecque says the price probably will be between $50 and $100 a pound—not cheap, to be sure, but considerably less than the hundreds people pay for a pound people of true kopi luwak.

    The main effect of passing through the gut of a civet is to make the coffee less bitter and astringent, Delebecque says. It also changes the flavor profile in more subtle ways. Protease enzymes in the civet’s gut chop proteins into smaller bits, which in turn alters the aromas present after roasting.

    Afineur’s fermentation process doesn’t recreate exactly what happens inside the civet, but is “inspired by it,” Delebecque says. Scientists haven’t yet characterized the microbiome of the civet gut in any detail, but it probably involves thousands of strains of bacteria, many of which would be difficult to cultivate in the lab. Delebecque declined to offer specifics about the microbes Afineur uses, but they probably comprise a much smaller but carefully chosen selection of bugs, some of which are easier-to-cultivate cousins of civet microbes. The fermentation takes two days, after which the beans are roasted.

  379. Portia (aka Smokey the Advocate) says

    2kittehs,

    Great admiration from fellow knitter, here! Also sorry you’re ill, hope those migraines get their marching orders soon.

    Thank you:D It’s an odd feeling… but here’s a photo. Laying around all day had a small biproduct, I actually got it done!

    Thanks for the migraine sympathy. I feel better now. Hoping to wake up feeling well.

  381. Portia (aka Smokey the Advocate) says

    Anne,
    Thank you so much for saying so. You’ve just tickled me pink.
    How’s your weekend going? As nice as the week?

  382. says

    Portia, yes, and thank you for asking!

    I think Elder Daughter had a good natal day today, too – she came home from her morning bird walk with a photo of a western tanager, very rare in these parts. She’s 26 today (and how the hell did that happen?) and quite the dinornithologist.

  383. Portia (aka Smokey the Advocate) says

    Anne
    Happy birthday to Eldest Daughter, I’m glad it was a nice one. Fun to find a rare specimen on her birthday:)

  384. chigau (違う) says

    I be ‘rupt.
    but I have advice
    5 hours of karate is too much for the decrepit.
    –
    tomorrow will be better

  387. 2kittehs says

    Portia, that’s lovely work! What type of cabling is it at the ends of the ribs? That’s a nice effect.

    chigau, five hours? O: Props, O decrepit one, I’d be finished after five minutes.

  388. Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) says

    WMDKitty, make sure you keep the eating and bed separated. Unless you’re low on fiber, I suppose. O.o

  391. blf says

    I just returned from lunch at what is, possibly, the best restaurant in the village.
    I was the only customer there today. It’s normally besieged by business and yachting types, so getting a table was. in itself, remarkable.

    Good lunch, with a rather rather large desert: So large, in fact, i feel like ex—ARRRRGHH! FOOPHMS!
    BOOOOO—BLLLAGGGG…GGGH!—GASP!—OOOOOMMMM…

     

     

     

    +++ COMMENT TIMEOUT. +++
    +++ SENSORS INDICTED COMMENTATOR BLEW UP. ***
    +++ NO TRACES OF PEAS, HORSES, OR CELERYS DETECTED +++
    +++ ALSO INSUFFICIENT CHEESE. +++
    +++ REBOOTING MULTIVERSES… +++
    +++ STANDBY FOR TEMPORARY DISRUPTION OF REALITY. +++
    +++ NEW MULTIVERSES SCHEDULED TO HAVE A MORE RATIONAL VALUE OF π. +++

  394. opposablethumbs says

    I thought the Nancy Fraser interview was pretty interesting, but I have a huuuuuuge problem with her decision that the term “feminism” itself is irredeemably tainted (or so she seems to think). I believe that’s a massive mis-step. Why not simply say – as she effectively does elsewhere – that in Europe-and-the-USA-and-Canada-and-Australia-and-New-Zealand feminism has historically focused too much on white and mostly well-off middle-class-and-up women? Why not say that feminism needs to be more inclusive and particularly more open to the viewpoints of people who are not white or wealthy or cis or living in industrialised countries etc.?
    I just don’t think you can say what she does about feminism without throwing too many people and their achievements under the bus and handing ammo to people who would be only too happy to mansplain the world to rights while ensuring that the women STFU. It’s perfectly possible to criticise racism and elitism without rejecting feminism itself; feminism does not belong to a mostly-white mostly-wealthy elite even if their voices have been and are too dominant (just like atheism doesn’t belong to a bunch of sexist asshats no matter how loud they shout).

  395. says

    HI there

    *sigh*
    I can deal with kids being kids. I’m learning to deal with #1’s non-neurotypicalness.
    But fuck if I can deal with adults behaving with all the emotional maturity of a 3 year old.
    Last night we went to the local Greek restaurant to celebrate Mr.’s birthday. #1 had written him a poem and painted a picture to go with it AND she had painted the envelope as a gift wrap. It was brilliant.
    Only, when she read it out to him, she noticed that she’d written “toy” where she wanted to write “trap” and freaked. out.
    Now, you can think me a horrible person, but I don’t believe that the other guests at the restaurant have to deal with my kid shouting and screaming, so I took her out of my sister’s lap, who looked oh so hurt because she thinks that she would have calmed her down within no time and took her outside where she could scream and shout to her heart’s desire and told her that she cannot behave like this in a restaurant and that we can go back in when she’s ready again.
    Yeah, so she calms down, we go back inside and what do all these oh so clever adults do? Despite me asking them to drop it, they keep talking about the picture and the poem.
    IT DOESNT FUCKING WORK WITH HER. That’s why I asked them to drop it. Because I know her. With a neurotypical child this might work brilliantly, console them, offer them alternatives, praise their work. With her, no chance. She needs space. She’ll get back to it when she’s ready and whatever you say will only make it worse. But noooooo, apparently dealing with her every day means that I know less well what works than everybody else, right?
    So she got upset again and I told her we would have to leave if she didn’t calm down. Yes, I know this sounds harsh, but that’s another thing with her: Sometimes she just needs you to tell her to stop.
    At this point my mum in law thought she needed to tell me what to do and what not and I politely told her “please don’t get involved here”.
    Yeah, guess who had a lot of hurt fee-fees to nurse for the rest of the evening while I had to keep #1 from freaking out again (food did the trick. Low blood sugar really makes things worse), but also to make up to everybody because it was obviously all my fault.

    ++++
    beatrice
    Have a wonderful time in Italy

    +++
    Portia
    I have been thinking of you lately. Mostly because some of “my” students insist on translating “firefighter” with the gendered male form. I always think “Portia would kick their sorry asses”.

    +++

    From that Maher-Harris-Affleck article:

    “It’s the only religion that acts like the mafia,” Maher said.

    I taken being historically illiterate for 500, Alex!

    ++++

  399. rq says

    Giliell
    What Anne said.
    And a whole lot of sympathy (yes, I spent a lot of the day yesterday with my dad, newly re-arrived in-country, why do you ask?).

  400. says

    rq @393:
    Thanks for linking to that article on sex and disability. It opened my eyes to another form of privilege I have. Tim and Natalie seem like a wonderful couple and I’m glad they’ve gotten involved in activism.

    I also should mention this is one of the rare times when reading the comments is not a bad experience. NONE of them were bad. Most were supportive. Natalie’s mother commented a few times and she expressed trepidation upon clicking on the article. I think she expected a torrent of horrific comments. I’m glad that didn’t happen.

  401. says

    Giliell @395, I applaud your taking of the out-of-control child out of the restaurant. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve been seated next to children that were having a meltdown for more than an hour. In some situations, parental cajoling, comforting, threatening (sometimes even spanking) … nothing works.

    The only thing that is truly best for the child and other patrons is to whisk the child out of the situation.

    You acted appropriately in my opinion.

  402. Portia (aka Smokey the Advocate) says

    2kittehs –

    Thank you! It’s actually a lace pattern, thanks for noticing it:) It’s from a book of lace patterns. I can’t find something like in online to show you, but it’s basically just yarnovers in the shape of a circle with corresponding k2togs, if that makes sense.

    Giliell:
    I like that that makes you think of me :D Last night a fellow female firefighter told me she wished she had me handy really often to tear apart sexism when she sees it. ^_^

    So sorry for the way your MIL (et al) reacted. Lucky #1 has a parent so interested in tuning your approach to what works for her. *hugs*

    –

    A friend suggested breakfast at the greasy spoon down the street, and I’m really glad she did because it got me in gear for the day right away. Went to Aldi (discount grocery store, mainly bec they don’t have a lot of staff or extras) and feel very accomplished just for having that one thing off my list. On to the next thing!

  403. says

    Giliell @395:
    Hugs.
    I think you know best how to handle #1, so people ought to not offer their unsolicited opinions. They should also be respectful when you ask them to drop a particular subject bc you know how #1 will react.

    Plus, what Anne said.

  404. Pteryxx says

    Seconding Tony – thanks to rq #393 for that article about the Rose Center for Love, Sex, and Disability. They’re based in Toronto and happen to be having their first major event, a sexy fashion show, TONIGHT. Daily Xtra:

    Of course there are people who don’t have sex, but in general, yes, disabled people do engage in sexual behaviour. In celebration of that oft-ignored fact, The Rose Centre will soon hold a fashion show called I’m Sexy and I Know It.

    The Rose Centre is geared for all sorts of disabilities, visible or not, and one of its aims is to bring together disabled and able-bodied people. So, some of the models will be disabled, some will be able-bodied, and some will strut while others will roll. Everyone will be sexy.

    One of The Rose Centre’s directors-at-large, Sara Cancelliere (who uses the gender-neutral pronoun they), says that while businesses and designers have generously donated clothing for the show, it’s not really about the clothing. “It’s more of a self-fashion show,” they say. “It’s about wearing what makes you feel sexy and celebrating your body as it is. So some of the models are wearing their own clothes.”

  405. says

    Clouds of migrating butterflies caught on radar:

    Keen observers of our radar data probably noticed some fairly high returns moving south over southern Illinois and central Missouri. High differential reflectivity values as well as low correlation coefficient values indicate these are most likely biological targets. High differential reflectivity indicates these are oblate targets, and low correlation coefficient means the targets are changing shape. We think these targets are Monarch butterflies. A Monarch in flight would look oblate to the radar, and flapping wings would account for the changing shape! NWS St. Louis wishes good luck and a safe journey to these amazing little creatures on their long journey south!

    https://www.facebook.com/NWS/posts/10153480982684041
    U.S. National Weather Service page.

  407. The Mellow Monkey says

    opposablethumbs @ 394, while I agree that the term feminism shouldn’t be abandoned, I have different reasoning from you. For one thing, I think if there are WOC who have too much baggage with white dominated feminism and prefer working together under different labels, I’m not going to question their decision. For another, straight white cis middle-class-to-wealthy western women have benefited massively from feminism and every time I see one saying that feminism is dead, feminism is too corrupt, white feminists should stop speaking/acting, I get a little ragey. Allow me to illustrate the source of this rage.

    First, A Concise History of Black-White Relations in the USA.

    Now, a feminist version. (This same dynamic applies to all sorts of groups and axes of oppression, but for the sake of simplicity I’ll focus on white privilege.)

    Scene: A massive tiered pyramid sits with a wealthy white man on the very peak of it. Closer to the lower tiers a White Woman and a Woman of Color are standing, looking up toward the top.

    WW: That’s not fair! He’s only up there because of all of us down at the bottom supporting him.

    WOC: Yeah! We should dismantle this whole thing, so no one’s stuck down here.

    WW: You can’t dismantle a pyramid from the bottom, though. Better help me up there and then we can fix things together. FEMINISM!

    The WOC aids the WW. She provides support, gives her tools, bears the brunt of weight. In return, just as the WW gets to the second highest tier, she kicks the WOC in the face.

    WOC: Ow! You fucker! Instead of helping me up, you’re pushing me down just like the asshole at the top!

    WW: Oh. Oh golly. Oh geez. You’re right!

    The WW sits down in self-absorbed despair.

    WW: Oh no. Now I’m just as bad as him. I guess feminism isn’t any good after all. I’d better not do anything more, so I don’t cause further harm.

    The WOC is frantically waving her hand over the edge of the tier, looking for help up.

    WOC: Not…helping…!

    WW: I have done enough damage. I’d better let her fight this without me.

    Close up on the WOC’s hand over the edge of the tier as her fingers slowly fold down to give the WW the bird.

    ~Fin~

    If you’ve benefited from an unfair system, then you’ve got a goddamned duty to do something about those that the system exploited. Shutting up, walking away, doing nothing, changing labels instead of minds, etc, is worse than useless. I don’t believe Susan Fraser is advocating any such thing, but I know I’ve encountered a number of people who use the excuse of feeling guilty over their privilege to, in fact, do jack shit and never speak up. Abandoning the term “feminism” without actually doing anything useful is right up their alley.

  408. says

    Just after intermission, about 50 people interrupted the St. Louis Symphony’s performance of Brahms Requiem on Saturday night, singing “Justice for Mike Brown.”
    As symphony conductor Markus Stenz raised his baton to begin the second act of German Requiem, one middle-aged African-American man stood up in the middle of the theater and sang, “What side are you on friend, what side are you on?”

    In an operatic voice, another woman located a few rows away stood up and joined him singing, “Justice for Mike Brown is justice for us all.” Several more audience members sprinkled throughout the theater and in the balcony rose up and joined in the singing.

    Scroll down to watch the video. It is amazing.
    Daily Kos link.

  409. says

    Portia @402,

    Last night a fellow female firefighter told me she wished she had me handy really often to tear apart sexism when she sees it.

    I see a great marketing opportunity here. Portable Pocket Portia, handy for all your sexism destruction needs! Seriously, though, you are very good at sexism-skewering.

  410. opposablethumbs says

    we go back inside and what do all these oh so clever adults do? Despite me asking them to drop it, they keep talking about the picture and the poem.
    IT DOESNT FUCKING WORK WITH HER. That’s why I asked them to drop it. Because I know her. With a neurotypical child this might work brilliantly, console them, offer them alternatives, praise their work. With her, no chance. She needs space. She’ll get back to it when she’s ready and whatever you say will only make it worse. But noooooo, apparently dealing with her every day means that I know less well what works than everybody else, right?

    Oh, a thousand times this! A person who lives and works with a non-neurotypical child (or any child) ever day gets to know the tells and also what works and what doesn’t. It makes me grit my teeth with frustration when other adults who have no fucking clue and who don’t live and work with this child and don’t know them as well as you do still persist in thinking they know best and that they’ve got the magic solution to make it all work out. Aaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhh ::bites furniture::

    Mellow Monkey, I think you put it much better than I did. And I think you’re right that Fraser is not advocating doing nothing; I don’t know her or her work, so I’m just going off that interview I linked, but it does look like she advocates dropping feminism out of the social justice lexicon – and I don’t see how you can do that without eliding the oppressions specific to WOC. Does that make sense?

  411. Portia (aka Smokey the Advocate) says

    TMM:
    Amen. (pardon the expression)
    –
    One load of laundry
    One dishwasher load running
    One NASTY cabinet, cleaned out (I love my new vacuum)
    Groceries put away
    Coffee made and drunk up

    It’s warming up, and the drizzle cleared away. Might be time for a run.

  412. Portia (aka Smokey the Advocate) says

    Anne:

    Portable Pocket Portia, handy for all your sexism destruction needs! Seriously, though, you are very good at sexism-skewering.

    Yes! I love it. And thank you. Some days I feel proficient and other days I just feel like I’m alienating people and/or being a coward. Ah well.

    Oh! That reminds me of a minor victory though! Last night we had a benefit for a member of the auxiliary – she has outrageous medical bills and we “guest bartended” at the dive bar down the street. One of the guys, M, is always a jerk about the fireman/firefighter issue, has told me “The world’s not out to get you” when I made a joke about someone calling me a fireman. Last night, he introduced me to someone as “our premier kickass female firefighter”. And for once, he didn’t make a Big Passive Aggressive Point out of using the right term to describe me. So that was nice.

  413. Brony says

    @Giliell

    Now, you can think me a horrible person, but I don’t believe that the other guests at the restaurant have to deal with my kid shouting and screaming, so I took her out of my sister’s lap, who looked oh so hurt because she thinks that she would have calmed her down within no time and took her outside where she could scream and shout to her heart’s desire and told her that she cannot behave like this in a restaurant and that we can go back in when she’s ready again.

    You don’t have to feel guilty at all. Being non-neurotypical is not an excuse for bad behavior. It’s less “I can’t help it” and more “understanding the rules requires choosing the right learning strategy”. It might look harsh, but I can tell you that a Tourette’s child can need some similarly harsh lessons as well. There is a point where sometime the message just won’t sink in without let’s say my parents literally throwing away a portable gaming system. It really sucked at the time, but they kept their message about why consistent and over time I saw how it was screwing up things related to school. Getting over that excess “self-centeredness” is challenging. I wish they were as consistent about everything but there is a lot I don’t blame them for. What you are doing has no perfect rule set that works with every parent with every level of knowledge and support.

    Yeah, so she calms down, we go back inside and what do all these oh so clever adults do? Despite me asking them to drop it, they keep talking about the picture and the poem.

    IT DOESNT FUCKING WORK WITH HER. That’s why I asked them to drop it. Because I know her. With a neurotypical child this might work brilliantly, console them, offer them alternatives, praise their work. With her, no chance. She needs space. She’ll get back to it when she’s ready and whatever you say will only make it worse. But noooooo, apparently dealing with her every day means that I know less well what works than everybody else, right?

    Everyone wants to help, and everyone thinks that what they have will work. It’s one of the drawbacks of how we work socially. The real human diversity is buried under excessive cultural symbols that pretend we are all the same. That makes me a little torn on the word “neurotypical”. Technically it’s appealing to something that does not exist, except in cultural stereotypes. So it’s important but does little to point at the real differences functionally.

    Yeah, guess who had a lot of hurt fee-fees to nurse for the rest of the evening while I had to keep #1 from freaking out again (food did the trick. Low blood sugar really makes things worse), but also to make up to everybody because it was obviously all my fault.

    Ugh. Like the fact that you were willing to take her home had nothing to do with thinking about others? I’m sorry you had to deal with that.

  414. says

    Ach, you’re wonderful people.

    Brony

    It might look harsh, but I can tell you that a Tourette’s child can need some similarly harsh lessons as well. There is a point where sometime the message just won’t sink in without let’s say my parents literally throwing away a portable gaming system.

    ATM we’re trying a combination of a bonus system and raising her self awareness. I made her a picture with removable butterflies and flowers and she can earn them for certain things. If she gets 20 in a week she gets a Filly horse. But before I give her the flowers she earned that day we sit together and I first ask her what was good in her opinion and what might require some more work, and then I give my opinion.

    Everyone wants to help, and everyone thinks that what they have will work.

    I generally really like my MIL, much better than my own mother, but she has this strong desire for harmony. So she will give in for the sake of peace and expects everybody else to do the same. That the peace is only superfluous is besides the point for her. No wonder #1 doesn’t heed her at all, and then my MIL is offended because of that. *sigh*

  415. opposablethumbs says

    Believe me, Giliell, I hear every damn word of this. The hardest thing can be family/friends/people anywhere who don’t get what is going on and leap to the (superficially obvious) conclusion that you are bad parents. Because a lot of behaviour from non-neurotypical kids who may find some situation or other hard to deal with looks superficially like the poor behaviour of a kid who is spoilt. So you’re struggling to deal with something, and on top of that you get disapproval from others plus an optional dose of well-meaning interference.
    I remember times when the only other people who actually got it were – the parents of some of the other non-neurotypical kids …

    Anyway fwiw I think your system sounds excellent and the amount of extra time and energy you’re putting into it is awesome. And also fwiw, we eventually got through the whole impossibly-difficult phase (we needed countdowns and timers and reminders and negotiating and extra planning planning planning …). There are always new things to deal with, but it feels wonderful to see what Spawn has accomplished and to hope that for all we fucked up a million times, we managed to help a bit too :-)

  416. Brony says

    @ Giliell
    If already know about it I apologize, but have you done any reading on the distinctions between reinforcement/punishment in positive and negative contexts?
    http://bcotb.com/the-difference-between-positivenegative-reinforcement-and-positivenegative-punishment/

    The distinctions can get a little weird but I did learn this stuff while I was trying to train as a teacher. I’m actually in a discussion with a teacher on a Tourette’s forum and talking about how some of these work better with TS than others.

  417. says

    This is a rabid pro-lifer:

    http://wonkette.com/562461/pro-life-sociopath-todd-kincannon-has-simple-solution-for-ebola-execute-all-patients

    Former executive director of the South Carolina GOP, Trayvon Martin clairvoyant, ethics-free attorney, and avid penis self-photographer Todd Kincannon is proudly pro-life — with one exception, of course, in that he wishes Wendy Davis had been aborted. But he also recognizes that sometimes, in the face of a serious health crisis, you just need to man up and kill everyone who’s been infected or exposed. At Wonkette, we are sometimes given to exaggeration. But this is not an exaggeration: in a series of tweets on Saturday, Todd Kincannon, not satisfied with rightwing prescriptions like travel bans or embargoes on affected nations, literally advocated killing all Ebola patients, and napalming their villages for good measure, too.

    This is what they’re talking about when they say “compassionate conservatism”?
    And I wonder what his solution to the infected Ebola victims living in the US is…

  418. Brony says

    @Giliell
    If I was accidentally doing what your relatives were doing in 416 I apologize and would like to know if I was. You clearly already know what works for you and I can see those sorts of principles in what you are doing. I think that the subject is interesting and was not making any suggestions, but intent is not magic…

  419. The Mellow Monkey says

    opposablethumbs @ 410

    I don’t know her or her work, so I’m just going off that interview I linked, but it does look like she advocates dropping feminism out of the social justice lexicon – and I don’t see how you can do that without eliding the oppressions specific to WOC. Does that make sense?

    Yes, it does. Doing so just strikes me as a way for white feminists to avoid the ugly bed they made. You made this mess, now fix it. Don’t go running away from it as if changing the name does any good. And if it involves white feminists declaring themselves womanists or some other appropriation of a label created specifically by WOC who felt their needs weren’t being met by white dominated feminism? No. Just. Fucking. No.

    —

    A quick one question test to see if I’m depressed:

    Did I have a four hour “nap” in the middle of the day and never eat a single real meal?

    [*]Yes
    []No

    I know at least part of it is from the stress of trying to get this contract signed. I asked a single question and now it’s been over two weeks since anyone has gotten back to me. I know things can be slow, especially in the publishing industry, but it’s awful to have it dragged out like this.

    Making it worse is this dysfunctional crab pot stuff. I have multiple family members who are outright angry at me for possibly succeeding at something and looking to tear me down. Or, as one enterprising unnamed family member did, start house shopping for a $600,000 home and telling me in all seriousness that I can help her it.

    Uh. You realize I’m not getting an advance and have $300 in the bank, right…?

  420. says

    Via Comics Alliance, a post on writing characters of color:

    In late August, writer Gene Luen Yang posed a challenge to his peers in the world of comics: Write characters who are different from you, racially and culturally, even if it’s scary. That can be tough to do without being insulting, or tone-deaf, or resorting to stereotypes. What can really help for writers is input from people of the races and cultures that they hope to depict; people who can gauge whether a work has the right level of sensitivity and understanding.
    Luckily, a whole bunch of cartoonists have come together to offer up advice in a post on Midnight Breakfast titled “Writing People of Color (if you happen to be a person of another color).” It’s chock full of insight.
    Led by cartoonist MariNaomi, who is also the driving force behind the Cartoonists of Color Database, the group of eight cartoonists offer up personal anecdotes about their own experience, as well as general advice for how not to be a jerk when you write characters of other ethnicities.

    Here is the full post from Midnight Breakfast.
    (excerpt)

    Silly “ethnic” names and stereotypical dialect should be avoided. If you’re not sure about something, run it by a few of your PoC friends.

    Sometimes I will pencil out a comic strip, and flip the gender and/or ethnicity of, say, a doctor or bus driver or whatever. Their dialogue stays the same, but it is important for me to show people of color in all sorts of situations.

    — Keith Knight, author and illustrator of The K Chronicles, Knight Life, (th)ink

    […]

    Don’t make your Asian character carry a katana and don’t put chopsticks in their hair (this isn’t a real thing, by the way). Ask your PoC friends to read your stories. If you have to ask if something is racist, it probably is. Base your characters on real people, but don’t just project your own feelings into a stranger’s life. Don’t assume that because someone is a minority that they’ve lived a certain kind of life.

    — Maré Odomo, author and illustrator of Internet Comics

    […]

    Don’t abuse stereotypical vernacular when writing African-American characters. Instead, vary speech patterns for your black characters, because we all talk differently!

    —Whit Taylor, comics critic, author and illustrator of The Anthropologists

  421. says

    Dear Lounging Feline-lovers & Canine-lovers,
    20 photos of dogs and cats. The accompanying text for some of these are HiLarious!
    For example:

    Excerpts from a Dog’s Diary
    8:00 am – Dog food! My favorite thing!
    9:30 am – A car ride! My favorite thing!
    9:40 am – A walk in the park! My favorite thing!
    10:30 am – Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!
    12:00 pm – Milk bones! My favorite thing!
    1:00 pm – Played in the yard! My favorite thing!
    1:30 pm – ooooooo. bath. bummer.
    3:00 pm – Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!
    5:00 pm – Dinner! My favorite thing!
    7:00 pm – Got to play ball! My favorite thing!
    8:00 pm – Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!
    11:00 pm – Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!

    Excerpts from a Cat’s Diary
    Day 983 of my captivity. My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects.
    They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength.
    The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet.
    Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a ‘good little hunter’ I am. Bastards.
    There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of ‘allergies.’ I must learn what this means and how to use it to my advantage..
    Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow — but at the top of the stairs.
    I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released – and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously [redacted-the Shoop].
    The bird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicating with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe. For now………

    I redacted a slur contained in there (which kinda soured my enjoyment of that tale of kitty woe)

  422. rq says

    The Mellow Monkey
    Your family members are already preparing for your wealth??? What?
    More importantly, *hugs* if desired, but cookies and tea are on standby.

    *hugs* for Giliell and opposablethumbs

  423. The Mellow Monkey says

    rq, it was a bit off-putting, to say the least. If I made more money than I needed to live on, I would of course be generous and help where I could. But since this is still all hypothetical and my goal right now is just making a livable income, this is counting chickens before you even have any eggs.

    Incidentally, this was the same relative who responded to my car accident by saying that if I got a good settlement I could…wait for it…buy her a house.

    ::blinks::

    The weirdest part is how she’s already living in a house another family member bought and lets her live in rent free. And there’s nothing wrong with the house. I can only hope someday she feels secure enough in her living situation that she stops this.

  424. rq says

    The Mellow Monkey
    … She already has a house?
    Also, $600 000 seems to be aiming a bit high. I’m confused as to her reasoning behind all this.
    At any rate, I hope you get your livable+ income to make yourself comfortable, and I hope she doesn’t become a nuisance in the process!
    I’m sorry the process is taking so slow. But I’m glad it’s happening for you. :)

  425. The Mellow Monkey says

    rq, it’s quite high when taking into account that this relative doesn’t have any steady income of her own. I try not to be too judgmental, because I recognize that so much of her more obnoxious behavior is coming from a combination of desperation, fear, and not really understanding scales of money. I can remember being a kid and thinking that people who owned their own trailers were rich and expecting such people to be able to afford all sorts of luxuries; lifelong poverty can occasionally skew your perspective.

  428. says

    Tony! @421, those photos were hilarious! I’ve always liked the cat and dog diaries, too, though I’m with you on the slur spoiling it a bit.

    I hadn’t watched the video at the end before. Classic. Especially since I’m pretty sure the tail jerk kitties do when walking away is the same as a digital salute. :P

  429. birgerjohansson says

    Tony, the cat is obviously a soul mate of Bucky Katt, from “Get Fuzzy”.
    — — — —
    “Don’t make your Asian character carry a katana”
    Correct. However, Hiro Protagonist in the early Neal Stephenson novel ( a satirical take on libertarian “utopias”) is entiteled to one, on account of having to defend himself in a society where police services have been outsourced to private enterprises. And Hiro is only part Asian.
    — — — —
    Zullo told Boyles that he doesn’t know who Obama is, but “all that I can tell you is I don’t believe he
    is who he purports to be.”
    .
    The obvious response is, can Zullo prove he is who he claims to be? Zullo sounds like an un-american name. Obviously his control in Russia picked the name for him not knowing how proper Anglo-saxon names should be.

  431. birgerjohansson says

    Gilliel
    “But you should hear me speak. I have a posh Brit accent, sprinkled with all the decidedly American vocabulary I pick up from you folks.”
    One of the tropes in Get Fuzzy is the near-impossibility to understand the cockney of Bucky’s English cousin.
    — — — —
    Global income equality now back at 1820s levels: OECD http://phys.org/news/2014-10-global-income-equality-1820s-oecd.html
    -Obviously, we can fix that by giving the top 1% more tax breaks.

  433. bassmike says

    Giliell you have my sympathies. I never understand why some people think that they understand your child better than you do. It’s always been my view that you leave the parenting of a child to the parents – unless there’s obvious abuse taking place. We have family members who are always telling us how to look after our daughter, when the last thing we’d ever do is tell them how to take care of their kids. It’s very frustrating.

    TMM families can be the greatest means of support, but the worst at dragging you down too. Some just feel entitled.

    mildlymagnificent @318. I like that idea! I may well try it.

    I’ve tried implementing some of the suggestions from people concerning my daughter and we had a very good weekend. We had a shopping trip and her hair cut and no accidents! We had a family gathering for MIL 60th birthday yesterday and also no accidents! My daughter was still wearing the same clothes and knickers at the end of the day as the start. Also, minimal tantrums and daddy wasn’t considered the baddie. Maybe we’re making progress……..damn jixed it now.

    Once little amusing incident: following rq’s advice. Instead of saying ‘can we get you ready?’ I said: ‘Who do you want to help you get ready: mama of daddy?’ to which her reply was ‘neither’. Oh well, at least her vocabulary s coming along nicely!

  434. birgerjohansson says

    Mellow Monkey, I hope things will get better

    — — — —
    The Onion: This week saw the first confirmed case of Ebola virus within the United States, the latest development in an outbreak that has already claimed over 3,000 lives. Here are some ways you can protect yourself against this deadly disease:
    .
    -Boil all bodily fluids before consumption.
    -Regularly examine your DNA under an electron microscope for any indication that Ebola has attached itself to your cell membranes.
    -Recognize the symptoms of Ebola, which include fever, chills, and developing symptoms too late to do anything about them.
    -Cover the nose and mouth of Ebola patients when they sneeze to avoid spreading germs.
    -Avoid eating bat soup, which is actually pretty sound advice whether there’s an ongoing Ebola outbreak or not.
    -Ebola can only be spread once patients are symptomatic, so if you believe you’ve been exposed, get all your errands and public trips out of the way before your symptoms start showing.
    -Be sure to stay up to date on developments by signing up for the official CDC phone tree.
    -Try being born one of the 15 percent of rural Gabonese citizens with natural immunity to the virus.
    -Give billions of dollars to pharmaceutical companies.
    If you see a suspicious-looking filamentous virus particle roughly one micron in length, stay away.
    -Continue following lifelong plan of avoiding Dallas, TX at all costs.

  435. birgerjohansson says

    Linkbombing:
    Trio win Nobel medicine prize for brain’s ‘GPS’ (Update) http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-10-trio-nobel-medicine-prize-brain.html
    .
    First commercial quantities of cellulosic ethanol from woody biomass marketed http://phys.org/news/2014-10-commercial-quantities-cellulosic-ethanol-woody.html
    .
    Researchers develop green tea-based ‘missiles’ to kill cancer cells more effectively http://phys.org/news/2014-10-green-tea-based-missiles-cancer-cells.html
    .
    Biologists identify pot gardens as salmon threat http://phys.org/news/2014-09-biologists-pot-gardens-salmon-threat.html

  436. birgerjohansson says

    Second Lunar Eclipse Of 2014 To Bring ‘Blood Moon’ On October 8 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/05/blood-moon-2014-lunar-eclipse-video_n_5928452.html
    …perfect time for a blood sacrifice. BTW if you have a sturdy oak, you can just hang* the offerings to Oden in it.
    (* In every sense of the word, if you do it the traditional way)
    — — — —
    What we can learn from things that used to be funny. http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2014/09/american_cornball_review_christopher_miller_book_about_the_formerly_funny.html

  437. rq says

    bassmike
    That’s awesome for the great weekend and progress – if it is a jinx, it’ll be a short-lived one, especially if she’s gotten the hang of things.
    Regarding “Neither”, yes… that’s exactly the pitfall we had with Middle Child: a vocabulary too far advanced (and probably an over-developed sense of individuality, too, but he’s not growing out of that one…) , but the question still works more often than it does not. :) We just had to figure out different methods of cajoling and bribing. :)
    Speaking of vocabulary, Youngest is going straight to full sentences – full sentences and sound effects, actually.

  438. rq says

    Speaking of milestones, Youngest has also had 5 days and nights of being completely diaper-free and sans accidents. I would consider him potty-trained.
    (And the only reason we stopped using diapers was because we ran out and neither myself nor Husband felt like spending the money to buy a new pack, considering the end of the month and all that, so we went ahead and tried him overnight in underwear… to grand success and much morning peeing (in appropriate receptacle)! The one time he had a bit of an overnight mess was when he got up to pee, couldn’t find his potty, but took off his own wet pants afterwards and crawled into bed beside Husband for the rest of the night. When I asked Husband in the morning why Youngest didn’t have any pants on, he was confused – apparently, Youngest didn’t even bother waking Husband (I was out at work). Yay!)

  439. opposablethumbs says

    I said: ‘Who do you want to help you get ready: mama or daddy?’ to which her reply was ‘neither’.

    Hey, only a toddler and already she’s pulling a Kirk on you and re-defining the parameters of the test! :-D

  440. bassmike says

    rq 5 days nappy-free sounds like a great success. One day we’ll get there! How old is your youngest BTW?

  441. says

    HI there!

    Brony
    No worries. There’s also a huuuuuuge difference between talking about things on a forum and meddling with things when the shit hits the fan.
    I try to practise “natural consequences” and a reason based approach as much as possible, but with #1 that’s often difficult. With her, sometimes the best thing is to blatantly bribe her until the desired behaviour has become a routine, like when she was drawing on her schoolwork last year. We (us and her teacher) told her to stop, we told her that this is not allowed, we explained that she was rendering her work unreadable and that look, she got so distracted she missed half the questions in a test, offered her more spare paper to doodle on, nothing worked. Then I paid her 5 ct for each clean sheet by the end of the week for 6 weeks. Never had this problem again :)

    opposablethumbs
    Oh yes, the bad parent. What makes this even worse is that some things that work with her are also somewhat similar to my mother’s abusive tactics. Not the same, but close enough. For example, I was not allowed to be angry or sad except on rare, approved of occasions. I would always be overreacting or, if I so much as made a sad resing face, I would have to be analysed so mum could tell me exactly what was wrong with me. Because of this, telling a screaming and crying kid to just stop goes against everything I hold dear and I need to remind myself that she is not me, and I am not my mother (and I will not punish her by withdrawing my love and I never ask “what’s wrong with you?”)

    MM
    *hugs*
    Some people have an unlucky combination of entitlement (in the true negative sense of the word) and bad maths skills at the same time. Last week I taught some 9th graders maths and as sad as it sounds, I see several people filing for bankruptcy in the future. Those kids have no sense for sums, they did not recognises that there must be something wrong with 10% of 120 = 120.

    ++++
    teacher rant
    School politics and stuff. Horrible.
    As I mentioned before there are lots of kids at that school who don’t speak German. Recent refugees, mostly fro Iraq and Syria. Of course they need to go to school, but instead of getting them into language classes where they can learn some basic German, they get put into regular schools with some work that should help them. Today I sat next to a little girl who faithfully copied her Latin letters. Only she had no clue what she was actually doing, so every speck of dirt on the copies got integrated into her letters. I corrected some of them and showed her how they are actually written, because the poor kid was faithfully learning letters that don’t exist. Where’s the fucking sense in that?

  442. rq says

    bassmike
    Youngest is 2 and a half (May baby 2012), and he’s so far the most advanced of all three (iirc, your daughter is same year but April…?). Eldest took until past 3 and a half to be securely diaper-free with no accidents. That was… ayuh.

    Giliell
    Poor kids, it’s no wonder they have problems integrating if they’re not being given the proper tools to do so. :( I’m glad you’re around to help some of them out, at least.
    And *hugs* for the kid situations.

  444. bassmike says

    Yes rq my daughter was born in April 2012. She was premature, so she should have been born after your youngest. Ultimately, all kids are different and develop at different rates I guess.

  445. rq says

    bassmike
    Oh, definitely, plus things that one learns quickly takes another much longer, while that same child learns something else a lot faster than the first one. It can be frustrating, especially since we humans are so good at comparisons and drawing conclusions from incomplete info and making patterns out of nothing. Either way, it sounds like your daughter is well on her way to nappy-freedom as well, just have to stick it out a little longer! *hugs*

  446. bassmike says

    rq *hugs* back! Yeah, yesterday, having no accidents, was a welcome break from having to wash clothes!

  447. says

    Yay for bassmike
    I hear you on the laundry front. Seems like #1 has finally managed to control her bladder (again, all we needed to do was to find the right switch. She doesn’t like the pee sensor, so she doesn’t wet the bed anymore) and it’s almost like the dirty laundry is only half of what it used to be.

    +++
    All children are freaking individuals. We had an early talker and an early walker. And some kids are late in both. Some kids never crawl on hands and knees but learn walking just fine. There’s HUGE variation and I hate it when they’re all treated like they’re some product that needs to be within certain specifications.

  448. rq says

    Giliell

    I hate it when they’re all treated like they’re some product that needs to be within certain specifications.

    This. For some reason, it’s especially noticeable when going to see doctors and they have all those average values and they get that look when your child is somewhere not quite on the curve. Height, speech, weight, appetite… Any variation from the norm seems to be treated like some unusual anomaly (Friend had major issues with Doctor trying to manage her second daughter’s appetite), even though that curve is a collection of differences.
    For example, with Eldest, when he was 2, we went to see the neurologist (no, not like that – here the neurologist merely checks reflexes and neural development) and she was a bit worried because he wasn’t speaking clearly. Then we went to see her when he was 3, and she was so ecstatic because he was speaking ahead of his age, with no particular interference or assistance, just natural development. So… yeah.
    And it’s awesome when the laundry is reduced even by a little bit. :)

  450. says

    Huh. Apparently, I am persona non grata (or is that non posta?) everywhere on FTB except here. My posts vanish into the ether without a trace, never to return. Oh well, I was just saying nice things, and I babble too much anyway.

    So, huzzah for potty progress and coming to an accord with little ones!

  451. says

    Anne @450:
    I’m sure it’s not that. FtB probably has the same problems that PZ was talking about upthread.
    Also, it sounds suspiciously like you’re encountering the problems I had for months last year (I would post all over FtB and my posts would just disappear; I had to contact Ophelia and Stephanie and Jason individually to pull my posts out of the spam trap-even though I hadn’t used any words that would trip their filter; I was only able to post at Dispatches and Pharyngula…except there were a few times I couldn’t comment *here*. It was quite annoying.)

  452. rq says

    Anne
    I’m tellin’ ya, it’s those fibres you’re ingesting. Try switching up: Youngest gets by on the lint from wool blankets and my sweaters, maybe something like that?
    But we’re glad to have you at least here, hopefully the rest of FtB will let up (I have the same issue when at work (here and ETEV work, the rest don’t), and I believe Tony had the same issue a while ago, and it was resolved eventually, to everyone’s satisfaction and benefit – you may want to contact a tech person about it if it continues).

  453. says

    But rq, cat hair is such a good source of natural fiber!

    I’m more amused than anything else right now. But if the symptoms continue, I will contact my doctor a technoperson. Yes, I’m silly. I’m in a generally good mood right now anyways, although the big black cloud of depression is constantly threatening to engulf me. Does it ever really go away? At least I have good company, even if they’re all on the internet, and tea, and cats, and my family, annoying though they are sometimes.

  454. says

    rq
    I find it noticable that many children who do not speak clearly or very little make enormous “progress” once they start preschool. Because before that they’re with their known caregivers who either :
    -understand their “unclear” pronounciation
    -understand their non-verbal communication
    There’s no fucking need for them to change that.
    My BFF is currently babysitting her grandson who’ll turn 2 in January. So far he speaks about a dozen words (and two of them are my daughters’ names :) ). If he wants something he takes his gran by the hand, leads her there and points “diiiiiis”. Works fine.

    +++
    o-ohhh, I just sent my first angry (but very polite) parent at parent message on WhattsApp. You can call me a coward but I don’t fancy calling directly. Let’s see if I get any reply.The little brat destroyed #1’s toy and hit the little one. I know #1 always complains about the boy not behaving in school either.

  456. rq says

    Giliell
    Definitely that, which is how Middle Child gets by (they even understand him in pre-school now…), but Eldest just happened to be a bit slower to speak. He caught on quick, though, and was very fast into sentences rather than one-word pointing. Youngest is the same way.
    Good luck with the response, I totally get you on the ‘cowardice’ (I’m the same way – email for me!). I hope she at least listens to your concerns without brushing them off completely!

    Anne
    Woollen blankets are also a great source of fibre. As is the carpet. And, I’ve heard tell, paper. So you have options. Maybe one will align with the internet stars for you. Just sayin’! ;)
    *hugs*, too.

  457. Portia (aka Smokey the Advocate) says

    I woke up without a migraine this morning! Yay! (rolled up towel under the neck seems to be the ticket, at least today)
    and then I got a package full of chocolate from Latvia! What a day!!
    :D :D :D :D

  460. says

    An example of treating low-income citizens very badly indeed, while simultaneously treating banks very well:

    Deborah Calley maintains that she was unaware she owed any back taxes and of the ten certified letters sent by the county, only one was sent to her home, the other nine were sent to banks. She steadfastly maintains she never received a single notice. She’s also been willing from the get-go to pay the $2,000 debt, but the county has rejected her offers, preferring to sell her mortgage-free home […]

    “The government will take her home — the only thing that she has that she owns that’s paid off free and clear. That is her future and her retirement and her kids’ future.” […]

    This is a common occurrence, particularly for the elderly. Banks are getting away with taking people’s homes on the basis of one missed property tax payment. The system is rigged against the homeowner. Daily Kos link.

  461. says

    Does a fetus need a lawyer? Alabama legislators think so:

    This spring, Alabama Republicans passed an extreme new law that would force minors who want to have an abortion without a parent’s permission to undergo a grueling court trial—and it would give judges the right to appoint a lawyer for the fetus.[…]

    But years before Alabama passed this new law, some state judges were already appointing lawyers for fetuses. The results weren’t pretty.

    […]The Supreme Court has ruled that states with such parental involvement requirements have to provide an out for young women who fear abuse or have have cut off contact with their parents. Alabama, like 36 other states, allows a minor to ask a judge for permission instead. The process, known as a judicial bypass, is meant to be swift, non-confrontational, and strictly confidential.

    Alabama’s new law sets up time-consuming inquisitions. It requires district attorneys to cross-examine minors who want an abortion without parental approval, and it allows DAs and lawyers for fetuses to call witnesses to testify against the pregnant girls. Under this measure, a judge can adjourn bypass hearings for long periods of time, and a judge can disclose the minor’s identity to any person who “needs to know.” If a minor’s parents become aware of a bypass hearing—which the Supreme Court intended to be confidential—the law allows the parents to participate in the hearing and be represented by a lawyer. […]

    State Judge Walter Mark Anderson III revived the controversial practice in later cases. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, he appointed attorney and local pro-life leader Julian McPhillips to represent fetuses in nearly every one of the dozens of bypass hearing held in his court. […]

    McPhillips: You say that you are aware that God instructed you not to kill your own baby, but you want to do it anyway? And are you saying here today that notwithstanding everything that you want to interfere with God’s plan for your baby?

    […]
    http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/alabama-abortion-law-attorney-fetus-lawyers

  462. cicely says

    Ebola Makes a Lousy Bioweapon
    –
    WMDKitty:

    This is a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming and Awesome.

    Indeed it is!
    *sniffle*
    –
    Hi, Portia (though I’m a coupla days late)!
    *time-stamp-defying pouncehug*
    I hope the brochitis(?) and migraines are better.
    –
    Anne:

    […] I’m waiting for the next Shoe of Damocles […]

    *chortlesnortle*
    Nice turn of phrase.
    I’ll have to nick it!
    :D
    –
    Lynna@ 351: There’s a site I will not link to called Before It’s News that contains a lot of such speculations…such as that the Obama are in a marriage of convenience, or a same sex marriage…or both at the same time, for all I know. Featured attractions include obvious photoshoppery as “evidence”. Every now and then, someone barfs something from there up on my Facebook.
     
    I think they’re using a “throw all the mud, however unbelievable, and hope some of it sticks” tactic.
     
    (Later)
    I was just noticing that there seemed to be an unusual number of Monarch butterflies hereabouts, recently.
    :)
    –
    Saad, it’s obvious that that woman chose to be half-naked in a men’s shower.
    How could it be any other way?
    </sarcasm>
    –
    2kittehs:

    I stumbled on this today – a compilation of the top ten best cat commercials. Enjoy, fellow subjects of the Furrinati.

    :) :) :)
    The cat-herding one is my favorite.
    –
    How To Protect Yourself Against Ebola, from The Onion.
    –
    *hugs* and sympathy for Giliell, on the restaurant episode.
    –
    Tony!:

    in a series of tweets on Saturday, Todd Kincannon, not satisfied with rightwing prescriptions like travel bans or embargoes on affected nations, literally advocated killing all Ebola patients, and napalming their villages for good measure, too.

    *stunned silence*
     
    Was he planning to use such tactics to prevent it from spreading in Texas, as well? Napalm Dallas? After all, there are people there who’ve potentially been exposed, too.
    I’m betting…not.
    –
    *hugs* and encouragement for The Mellow Monkey.
    Some of your family sound like real winners. What…do they think you won the lottery for Big Money?
    –
    420

  463. says

    Cicely

    I was just noticing that there seemed to be an unusual number of Monarch butterflies hereabouts, recently.

    Unusually large, I hope. There’s been a catastrophic drop in the Monarch population over the last 20 some years, and losses in a number of other species as well. The Monarch decline appears to be related to extensive use of ‘Roundup Ready’ corn and soybean crops and corresponding increases in the use of Roundup, which has destroyed the milkweed on which the population subsists.

  465. rq says

    Dalillama
    I should find the link, but I read that they’re actually expecting a surge in population for next season. Don’t remember the explanation, either, but it was a surprise to researchers, too.
    (Not that this takes away from the general trend of decreasing populations in any way.)

  468. A. Noyd says

    The skin on my hands is so dry right now that my iPhone’s Touch ID has trouble recognizing my thumbprint. (I’d use lotion, but I despise the feeling of lotion on my skin beyond all reason.)

  469. says

    A. Noyd, I use this stuff called Udderly Smooth Udder Cream – it soaks right into my hands, so it’s good when I’m sewing or crafting and don’t want glop on my work. Also it doesn’t smell like much. I get it at the drugstore, but I’ve also bought it at Ace Hardware.

  470. A. Noyd says

    My mother pointed out the submission guidelines for this journal because of how excessively pretentious they are. Someone should try to Sokal those motherfuckers.

    ~*~*~*~*~*~*~

    @Anne
    Thanks, I’ll check it out. Lack of smell is good, too. I put some lotion on my feet (which are also dry) the other night and then wrapped them in socks. They still smelled so much I had to go wash them off half an hour later to give my nose a break.

  473. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Ah, able to help the Redhead a little bit in the morale department.
    She has season tickets to the Lyric Opera, but is unable to go with her present condition. WFMT is carrying a live broadcast from the Lyric, Cappricio, which is her next ticket. Playing in the background downstairs at the moment. If anybody wants to listen in, their web site, has a listen live function….

  474. says

    We have some chemists in here, no?

    Beautiful Chemistry is a new collaboration between Tsinghua University Press and University of Science and Technology of China that seeks to make chemistry more accessible and interesting to the general public. Their first project was the creation of several short films that utilize a 4K UltraHD camera to capture a variety of striking chemical reactions without the usual clutter of test tubes, beakers or lab equipment. I definitely would have paid a bit more attention in chemistry class if we’d had the opportunity to watch some of these. Filmed and edited by Yan Liang.

  475. says

    And some people who appreciate music?

    This is a great video of polyphonic overtone singing by Anna-Maria Hefele, where she precisely demonstrates the almost inhuman ability to create a harmony of two notes at a time using a single breath. Overtone singing is the same technique used by Tuvan (or Mongolian) throat singers of which there are several other great videos to watch on YouTube. Also check out this demo by Alex Glenfield, or this clip lifted from I’m not sure where. (via Stellar)

  476. A. Noyd says

    @Anne (#472)
    There’s one around here somewhere. I see people with the bags walking by sometimes. Maybe I’ll try to find it and pick up some frozen meals that aren’t all a variation on the same five dishes while I’m there.

  477. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    We have some chemists in here, no?

    *voice of Lurch from the Addams family* You rang?
    Nice micro photography.

  478. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Dang, Renée Fleming must be good. She sang a lullaby in the opera. Some “baby bird” fell asleep as a result.
    Now for the opera to end so Nerd can get some sleep. Ah, sounds like the closing credits. ZZZzzzz…..

  479. says

    Anne @471

    WMDKitty @466, 2kittehs @toolazytoscrollbackthatfar, there’s also the charming little maneuver wherein the cat runs under something, then sticks her butt back out and lashes her tail at me. I call it “giving me the tail”.

    ROFL! I take more notice to see if Miss Mads does that. She’s very fond of hiding under furniture with her butt in the air. Not sure if she’s mooning me or thinks it’s her best view.

  480. toska says

    I spent the first part of the day muddled and depressed, but an afternoon of kitty cuddles and FtB lurking has improved things. I still always feel guilty when I drop previously held plans for sitting around at home (especially when the previous plans were physical activities), but I think it was a good choice overall.
    ****
    In regards to potty training-
    You all are heroes. As a childless (and likely to remain that way) person, I think it’s important not to take for granted how difficult it is to raise children. Good parents ROCK.

  481. thunk: metallocene says

    Phew!

    Back from a weekend with my family. It was surprisingly nice, which is even better.

    Also, I have plenty of stuffed animals, but my favourite is one flamingo I got several years ago during my annual northern vacation. I still keep it in bed. Couldn’t hurt.

  482. says

    2kittehs, at the time, I was trying to get Shadow to come in, and she din’ wanna. So she went under the potting bench, stuck her head out and made eye contact, then turned around again and gave me The Tail. It was pretty obvious what she was saying, and it wasn’t polite. Cats.

  485. says

    Wow. For the past week, I’ve been highlighting various anti-black stereotypes, as discovered here, in a series of articles by Dr. David Pilgrim. I just posted the penultimate entry, the Jezebel, and I was wondering what the site might have to offer after I finish the final entry. There is *a lot* more material to discuss from this site. For instance, this:

    Dunkin Donuts Blackface

    There is a Dunkin Donuts franchise in Thailand. I did not know this until I received an email from Beth Greenfield, a reporter with Yahoo.com. She informed me that the Thailand Dunkin Donuts franchise had used a woman in blackface for their Charcoal (Chocolate) Donut campaign, and she wanted to know “What is it about the use of blackface that causes such a negative reaction with Americans?” She concluded her email by asking, “Does the ad seem appropriate to you?” After reading her email, I went to the Internet and searched for the story.

    The Thailand Dunkin Donuts campaign was both a television and print promotion. In the television advertisement, a woman with light skin eats the chocolate donut and morphs into a woman with shiny black skin, bright pink lips, with a 1950s-style beehive hairdo. To see the short advertisement, view http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQMKqeHgEEs. The woman, her skin darkened, also appeared on many posters in public places. The posters included the slogan-translated from Thai-that reads, “Break every rule of deliciousness.” To view the poster visit, http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/dunkin-donuts-apologizes-racist-thai-campaign-article-1.1442463.

    I discovered what one often discovers about racial imagery, namely, that it offends some people and does not offend others. Human Rights Watch, an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights, condemned the campaign. “It’s both bizarre and racist that Dunkin’ Donuts thinks that it must color a woman’s skin black and accentuate her lips with bright pink lipstick to sell a chocolate doughnut,” said Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch. “Dunkin’ Donuts should immediately withdraw this ad, publicly apologize to those it’s offended and ensure this never happens again.” Nadim Salhani, the CEO for Dunkin’ Donuts in Thailand, was not initially apologetic, saying, “We’re not allowed to use black to promote our doughnuts? I don’t get it. What’s the big fuss? What if the product was white and I painted someone white, would that be racist?”

    I called Greenfield, the reporter, and we discussed my views about the advertisement campaign. We talked about whether I considered the imagery offensive. I said yes, I did, because it was in the tradition of the blackface imagery that appeared on 19th and 20th century performance stages in the United States.

    For much of this country’s history, it was safe to mock African Americans-and one of the most popular methods of disrespecting black people was through blackface. This is not news to anyone who knows American history. Whites blackened their faces, pretended to be black people, and then acted as buffoons. This is what I mean when I say that blackface “taps into the long tradition of whites being safe to escape their whiteness.” The escape was temporary. It was done to remove the cultural restraints against middle-class white people acting as fools and idiots. When the performances were over, the performers returned to their socially approved roles, leaving behind a trail of anti-black insults.

    It is clear that my comments struck a nerve. I received emails similar to the one that you sent. Including this one:

    “For real? You are out of your damn mind!!! Ever seen people that work in a coal mine? Just like the ad!!! It’s about coal as in charcoal! Not racist at all what a joke! Educated? I think not! Way to go Ferris State !!”

    It seems to me that these emails share much in common, including this inference: “If something does not offend me, then it should not offend you.” That sentiment has always struck me as…well, arrogant, especially when it comes from people who are members of a dominant group, meaning a group which possesses a disproportionately large amount of the power, wealth, and status in society.

    “It doesn’t offend me, it shouldn’t offend you.” The complaints of sexists, racists, homophobes, transphobes and more can be distilled down to those two sentences.

  489. rq says

    Yes, it takes three Nobel prize physicists to change a lightbulb. Clearly, they have LED their field in energy efficiency.
    (Jokes shamelessly stolen from twitter.)

  490. birgerjohansson says

    From Ed Brayton’s blog:
    BBC Exposes Fraudulent ‘Psychics’
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=u4qGfNViVN8
    “The BBC did an expose where they caught three “psychics” faking it with a very clever trap. They planted a fake story on a website about a guy who once ran a chocolate factory and invited the “psychics” to tour the factory and communicate with the spirits there. And wouldn’t you know it, they came up with all the details of the fake story that had been planted.” BWAHAHAHAHAHA.

  491. carlie says

    Also, post-docs and the crisis in science. Makes me re-think graduate school.

    And notice, those people were in applied science areas. Think of how much more dismal it is in areas that aren’t economically important, like taxonomy and studying the past and other ridiculous things like that.

  492. rq says

    carlie
    Why can’t they just pay scientists loads of money and give grants out like candy, and make people think that science is a worthy and valuable career? Everyone’s lives would be so much better if they treated us (financially) like bankers and businesspeople (except without the corruption, I know scientists would be better than that… right?).

  494. says

    An addition for the Republicans-saying-stupid-stuff file:

    “Hi, I’m Scott Walker. I’m pro-life, but there’s no doubt in my mind that the decision of whether or not to end a pregnancy is an agonizing one. That’s why I support legislation to increase safety and to provide more information for a woman considering her options. The bill leaves the final decision to a woman and her doctor. Now reasonable people can disagree on this issue. Our priority is to protect the health and safety of all Wisconsin citizens.”

    To translate this, you need to know that Scott Walker equates medically-unnecessary vaginal-probe ultrasounds with “more information,” and that passing laws that close health clinics is a prime focus of Mr. Walker.

    I also think that “protect the health and safety of all Wisconsin citizens” is a dog-whistle that anti-abortion activists hear as “a fetus is a person.”

    The smarmily-worded campaign ad also indicates that Walker is worried about losing women’s votes. He should be. He thinks women are not going to parse the speech in that ad and figure out what he’s really saying?

  495. rq says

    Lynna
    Of course. Our pink fluffy brains have too much estrogen vibe to understand the true logic of his rational words. *tsk* Now give me something to nurture!!!

  496. says

    Another addition to the Republicans-saying-stupid-stuff file: Iowa Republican Senate candidate, Joni Ernst, still thinks that, yes indeed, there really were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. And Joni is leading in the polls. Iowans might actually elect this woman.

    Rachel Maddow exposed Joni Ernst’s profound ignorance: Myth of Iraq WMDs still pushed by Republican candidate.

    This is the tenth anniversary of the Duelfer Report, which confirmed that there were no WMDs in Iraq.

  498. says

    Okay, now we’ve seen three reports of teachers accidentally discharging firearms — just this season. This idea of arming teachers has already been proven to be a bad idea.

    A criminal justice instructor at Technology Center of DuPage in Addison accidentally discharged a handgun during class Friday afternoon, striking a file cabinet and hollow wall, officials said.
    The instructor, a retired FBI agent, wasn’t authorized to have the gun on school property, said Jim Thorne, the school’s director.

    “It’s not part of the curriculum. It’s nothing we knew he had,” Thorne said.

    Three students were watching the instructor’s demonstration about 1:30 p.m. in an office adjacent to a classroom, where other students were preparing for the start of class, Thorne said.

    No one was struck by the bullet, which ended up lodged in another classroom, he said.

    http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20141003/news/141009335/

    Previous incidents involved a 6th grade teacher who suffered minor wounds from porcelain shrapnel when she shot a toilet in a faculty restroom; and an Idaho State University professor shot himself in the foot during class. This is all since August 25, 2014.

  499. Pteryxx says

    via BB: Connecting low restaurant wages, tipping, and sexual harassment. Mic.com:

    The issue of sexual harassment from co-workers especially affects female workers in the tipped wage sector. Women who live off the $2.13 an hour stipend (versus the full federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour) reported higher rates of sexual harassment. “Tipped workers experience a highly sexualized work environment that is specific to their occupations, and most of these experiences are borne by women,” the report said.

    The solution? Erasing low wages in the tip system would reduce sexual harassment and be beneficial to women, according to Saru Jayaraman, the co-founder of ROC United and study’s author.

    […]

    For its part, the National Restaurant Association, a restaurant industry business group, slammed the report and said it takes sexual harassment charges “very seriously.” In a statement to CBS News, a spokeswoman said the “assertion from ROC that the tipped wage somehow increases sexual harassment by customers is another effort to confuse the reality of the tipped wage in the industry.”

  500. Saad says

    Florida towns disbands police force

    The move follows a revolt by five Waldo officers, who said that they were forced to meet an illegal ticket quota and that evidence was being stored improperly by the department’s interim chief.

    [. . .]

    “That’s legalized robbery,” Smith [neighboring sheriff] said. “And we shouldn’t be doing that.”

    Oh, please, please, please let this sentiment within the police spread like wildfire.

    Now if only this can happen about racism…