Comments

  4. cicely says

    CaitieCat:

    That weasel has an enormous pecker.

    It’s not the size of the ‘pecker that matters; it’s how you use it!
    –

  5. opposablethumbs says

    Nice choice of pic :-)
    Makes me feel there should be a story … like the frog and scorpion fable, or a Just So Story or something.

  6. Saad says

    CaitieCat,

    That weasel has an enormous pecker.

    I wonder how much it is in centimeters.

  9. Hekuni Cat, Social Justice Ninja, MQG says

    Hi everyone! I’ve missed you all. Here’s a big pile of *hugs* and *chocolate* and kittens* – take as wanted/needed.

  12. rq says

    Oooo! Hekuni Cat! *pouncehuuuuuuugs*

    Cait
    Judging from the (lesser) weasel’s pose, it looks more like a case of attempted self-gratification. Dunno how a strap-on works with that. :/

  13. Saad says

    CaitieCat

    On closer inspection, I suspect that it’s a strap-on.

    Great. Now there’s tea on my keyboard.

    The poor woodpecker has the most innuendo-y name of all the animals :(

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

    seconding the shout-out to Hekuni Cat.

    seconding the appreciation for the strap-on joke.

    seconding the tea-drinking.

    I’d give you more content, but that would take more seconds than I have.

  19. says

    How does anyone eat anything in those universes, portrayed in TV commercials, where food talks? I’d be creeped out by the idea of eating talking candy.

  21. Morgan!? the Slithy Tove says

    Giliell,
    So sorry for the death of your uncle. Supportive hugs to you and your family.

  23. says

    Bigots in Russia are at it again:
    http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/uncucumbered/russia_threatens_the_un_stop_recognizing_lgbt_spouses

    Last June, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon issued an administrative order allowing the partners of gay and lesbian U.N. employees to receive spousal benefits if their marriage or civil union is legally recognized by their home country, even if the country to which they are posted does not recognize such relationships. ForeignPolicy.com is reporting that Russia is now demanding the U.N. rescind that order. Russian diplomats announced yesterday at a meeting of the U.N.’s budget committee, that Ban Ki-Moon’s order violates a 2004 U.N. General Assembly resolution that leaves it to the government of the county where the U.N. employee is posted to determine whether their same-sex spouse is eligible for benefits.

    Russia seems to be serious about pursuing this complaint. Several weeks ago it issued an “aide-mémoire” to all U.N. members charging that Ban’s executive order:

    “violates the sovereign rights of members states to determine the legal framework of (the) life of their citizens.”

    Moscow complained the policy makes U.N. states that do not recognize same-sex marriages liable for the some of the costs for additional spousal benefits. The Russian’s also warned there would be increase in fraud. According to the Russian’s thinking:

    “Each staff member who is not married can easily register sham traditional or same-sex marriage and can get additional dependency allowances.”

  24. says

    Poor Bush Jr and Cheney–branded terrorists, neither will be granted a travel visa to Venezuela

    President Maduro said American tourists will now have to pay a fee comparable to the one Venezuelans pay to visit the U.S.

    According to RT.com, President Maduro went on to announce former president George W. Bush and vice president Dick Cheney will not be among those granted a travel visa. The Venezuelan president says they are banned as “terrorists” for their actions in Iraq. Also named as persona non-grata were Republicans Senator Marco Rubio and Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, as well as Democratic senator Robert Menendez.

  25. says

    Some thoughtful analysis concerning the sometimes irrational animus aimed at Obamacare:

    […] Research has shown that negative attitudes about black people increase hostility to health care reform, that opinions about health care reform polarized by racial attitudes after Obama’s election, and that nativist attitudes predicted hostility to health care reform. Research has found that white people with high racial resentment, regardless of their opinion on Obama, view health care reform as a giveaway to lazy black people. You can see why people don’t say these things out loud in public, but the eyebrow-wriggling and hinting has been strong throughout this debate.

    The gender-baiting, in contrast, has been way more explicit. Ever since the HHS announced that contraception would be covered as co-pay-free preventive service, conservative media has gleefully portrayed the ACA as a program to give hot young sluts an opportunity to screw on the public dime, an argument that managed to get this narrow provision all the way to the Supreme Court. Never mind that young women with private insurance are no more on the public dime than any other people who have private health insurance. The idea that sexy young things are having fun without you but making you pay for it has been just too provocative for conservative pundits to let facts get in the way.

    Arguably, race and gender anxieties are the reasons that healthcare reform, which would otherwise be a dry economic issue, has been such an ugly fight in this country. […]

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/obamacare-fight-race-and-gender-anxiety-michael-carvin

  27. rq says

    ERMAHGERRRD We just cut off Youngest’s hair for the second time in his life (he had the loveliest head of gorgeous golden-blonde locks) so now he has the most adorable mini-mohawk. And he’s being all cute and shy and coquettish to himself in the mirror.
    *dies of kyoot*

  28. Morgan!? the Slithy Tove says

    Apropos of nothing worthwhile, I was just looking at highlights of Paris fashion week and noted (once again) that regardless of how thin they are, the models’ facial expressions and make up (or lack of) make them look like tortured drug addicts. When will “Sophisticated Ennui” stop being fashionable?

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

    Dad watching NCIS with bated breath because the guy I’ll call “douchebags are so adorable, aren’t they” might have been killed and I mock him because seriously, he’s actually wondering whether one of the main characters will die?
    He leaves me speechless by answering “The women die, don’t they. It’s just the men that never do”.

    And he’s right, because that series has some serious issues with killing off or letting go (with much drama) their women characters so that men could exercise their manfeels.

  31. Phiknight says

    I was listening to the latest freakonomics podcast (that idea must die or something like that), and man they had a ridiculous segment on removing the “atheist” requirement from science.

    Well, I just wanted to vent about that and I thought this would be a good place to . Some of the other segments from the episode are more interesting (and honest).

  32. Ranzoid says

    well that dose it! That evil Kenyan communist Muslim has done it again! It’s bad enough that i can’t pick up a M240 Bravo belt feed machine gun from my local wal-mart! He went ahead and ban ammo too! I mean if he can ban armor piecing m855 ammo without permission from congress, then that foreign usurper from the New World Order can degree any anti christians and therefore anti american thing he wants. How the hell am i suppose to defend my moonshine stills and collection of 1950s era trucks that don’t work from the Zionist Muslim Horde of the Rothchild Army in their blue helments!

  34. cicely says

    Crap.
    This is what happens when you miss a couple of days.
    Giliell, I’m so sorry for your loss.
    *hugs* and sympathies.
    –

  35. Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) says

    Oscar Wilde wouldn’t have thought himself gay.

    Which is kind of ironic, because my understanding was that Oscar Wilde’s mannerisms and fashion interest were a major contributor for Western ideas of [stereotypicall] “gay” behavior and personality.

  36. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Ranzoid @32:
    What on Earth are you talking about?

    And why isn’t it posted in a more appropriate place like the Thunderdome?

  37. says

    A host of the biggest companies in the world, including Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and 374 others have banded together to file an amicus brief in the US Supreme Court stating that all couples should share the right to marry. The brief, which was filed today by law firm Morgan Lewis, actually makes a business case for legalizing same-sex marriage across the country. It claims that the currently muddled and confusing legal landscape surrounding same-sex marriage “places significant burdens on employers and their employees — making it increasingly hard to conduct business.”

    The brief argues that the varying state laws around marriage equality makes it harder and more costly for companies to attract and recruit top talent and administer benefits to employees who aren’t allowed to marry, among other issues. It’s not just huge tech companies coming out in support here, either — the businesses range from smaller, family-owned businesses all the way up to giants like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Comcast, Levi’s, Nike, Proctor & Gamble, Wells Fargo, United Airlines, and dozens more.

    http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/5/8157985/same-sex-marriage-supreme-court-tech-companies

    I wonder if the bigots will advocate for boycotting these companies. That would be fun to see.

  41. Tony! The Queer Shoop says

    Ranzoid @38:
    Are you new to the Internet? Some types of humor are difficult to pull off online.

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

    Ranzoid,

    Was it something like “government manages to introduce a teeny tiny little bill that might make it slightly more difficult for gun fondlers to obtain ammunition, shitfest ensues”?

    That’s what I got from your comment (and yes, I got it was satire, it was just a bit out of the blue – links would have helped)

  43. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Ranzoid

    oh the trials of satire

    No, there is no problem. Other than posting your alleged “satire” in an inappropriate place. Word of advice. Don’t quit your day job.

  47. rq says

    Wow, I’m so out of shape. It’s been yeeeaaarrrrrs since I had to write anything remotely scientific. Turns out, it’s quite challenging, even though I’m not being particularly specific. *sigh* This is what I get for being out of academics for so long, and then agreeing to do a presentation in front of other scientists. In a month. I’m already nervous, and all I have to do is submit something resembling a half-assed abstract by tomorrow morning.
    References scare me the most.

  48. rq says

    Anyone want to read a really short and probably crappy abstract on nothing in particular (entomology in Latvia) within the next half-hour? Or maybe by my morning, 7.30AM? Anyone? Feel free to email me at eye zed ay enn dee ay at go ogle the mail dot com.
    I’m going to bed in a half-hour, though, so if nobody writes me, I’m submitting as is. :P

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

    @Tony!:

    Theocratic malcontent: I’m boycotting Microsoft and Apple and Google!

    Reasonable person: And you’re posting here how?

  54. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    I’ve been looking at my iMac deciding whether or not to see about opening it up and cleaning it out after almost six years, or to buy a new iMac. Visited my favorite online mac parts store, and after years, they finally had an optical drive replacement (Blu-ray/DVD/CD R/W). And SSD’s that weren’t an arm and a leg and the Redhead, and adapters to make it fit. Nice instruction videos. Refurbish HO. Need to make sure I have enough compressed air cans on hand to clean out the accumulated dust. There’s always the shop vac on blower. Maybe the fans will finally go back to intermittent running, when the CPU is working overtime.

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

    good luck, Nerd.

    Sorry, rq, that I wasn’t able to review your abstract. I saw your request after it was too late.

    I am, after a long time unavailable, actually available again for tea-over-skype if you want to e-mail me.

  56. Esteleth, RN's job is to save your ass, not kiss it says

    Hello! Been a bit absent lately, due to New Job hitting me like a ton of bricks.

    Got home about 15 minutes ago from a 12.5-hour shift. Currently staring at an unopened beer, trying to summon the energy to open it.

    Good news: I’m off tomorrow!
    Bad news: I’m working Saturday!
    Better news: The pay rate for Saturdays is higher than the pay rate for weekdays!

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

    Oh, crap.

    I meant to also drop this link.

    The shark cognition descriptions were excellent and conclusions were limited to the reasonably justified. Short references at the end make me want to read up on Grizzly cognition now!

  58. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    good luck, Nerd.

    While I have extensively modified my G4 Mac Cube (still operational, but ssssllllloooowwww), the iMac requires the suction cups I ordered to remove the glass panel before anything can be accessed. Makes me nervous.

  60. Akira MacKenzie says

    NBC News has another puff piece on the popularity of Catholicism’s current chief asshole.

    Honestly, why do people like this creep? The only difference between this pope and the homophobic, Medieval-minded, misogynist, theocrats who preceded him is that Franny has a better PR staff along with a news media unwilling to ask hard questions of religious leaders and millions of gullible rubes who think that photo-ops with the destitute somehow translates to “progressive.”

  62. says

    Oh I bet the manosphere is raging about this:
    http://www.vocativ.com/culture/art-culture/art-feminism-wikipedia/

    Considering only 8.5 percent of Wikipedia contributors are women, the open-source encyclopedia’s relative lack of entries on female artists shouldn’t be all that surprising. Enter the Art+Feminism collective, who this Saturday hosts its second annual Wikipedia Edit-a-thon—a worldwide event that seeks to increase the number of entries dedicated to female artists, and encourage editorship among women.

    Last year’s inaugural Edit-a-thon saw 600 participants get involved, at 31 different sites, which resulted in the creation of 100 new pages and the improvement of 90 existing ones. Organizers provide training on how to create and edit a Wikipedia entry, and also offer childcare.

    Based on that success, this year’s event will take place at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, with 70 other satellite locations in art institutions and colleges as far-flung as Amsterdam, Berlin, Austin, Texas, L.A., Paris and Toronto. There will also be a Google Hangout so anyone can get involved.

  65. auntbenjy says

    Apologies if this has already been posted, but it looks to me like something that needs “Pharyngulating”

    From the web page:

    In early February, 14 senior scientists at four U.S. universities received requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) to turn over three years worth of e-mail correspondence with a handful of agricultural companies, trade groups, and PR firms.

    All of these scientists have proactively engaged with the public to raise scientific awareness about agricultural innovation and contributed to the scientific consensus about the safety of GMOs.

    FoIA requests are a vital tool for a transparent democracy. However, this FoIA is clearly a last ditch witch-hunt by an anti-GMO group to mislead the public and keep scientists from doing their work.

    http://cas.nonprofitsoapbox.com/science14

  66. Nick Gotts says

    Giliell,

    My sympathies to you and your family (particularly your grandmother) on the death of your uncle.

  68. Nick Gotts says

    It’s not the size of the ‘pecker that matters; it’s how you use it! – cicely@4

    Indeed – but you surely need a fairly sizeable one if you want to use it to fly through the air with the greatest of ease!

  73. birgerjohansson says

    -Here are 9 social panics that gripped America, were totally false, and did lasting damage http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/here-are-9-social-panics-that-gripped-america-were-totally-false-and-did-lasting-damage/
    1. Joe Mc Carthy: Reds Under the Bed and Communist Hysteria
    2. AIDS Panic and Misinformation
    3. Satanic Ritual Abuse
    4. Superpredators
    5. The Marriage Crunch
    6. Recovered Memory Syndrome
    7. Crack Babies
    8. Various Disease Pandemics
    9. Heavy Metal, Dungeons & Dragons, Satanism and Suicide

    (actually, a hundred years ago there was also a hysteria about freemasons in USA. And the hysteria about the “yellow peril” including the Los Angeles pogrom of 1871)

  78. Saad says

    rq, #63

    Glitter bomb explodes at lawmaker’s office. And now everybody has glitter on them.

    “You can certainly disagree with your member of Congress or any member of Congress, but this is pretty reckless and irresponsible,” Allen said. “It’s just a huge waste of everybody’s time and resources.”

    THIS is the response that pisses me off. Nothing makes me angrier than when the oppressing party comes out with THIS as a reply to any action that goes beyond mere “disagreeing”. This is the same shit that the racist assholes pulled when there was property damage after Ferguson.

    So if a glitter bomb is reckless and irresponsible, then what is denying women possession of their own bodies?

  80. says

    Ranzoid @32, I got it. I thought it was funny.

    To add to this landscape in which the minds of gun owners make for some strange topography: I heard that one argument for making armor-piercing ammo available to all is the NRA’s attempt at pleasing the ladies. Apparently, the adjustable stock of a popular weapon that can fire the armor-piercing ammo makes that weapon even more popular with the ladies. The female frame and arm length is often smaller/shorter than male gun-owning physiques.

    It is, therefore, pro women’s rights to fight Obama over the banning of armor-piercing ammo. Or something like that.

  82. rq says

    Saad
    Yes, which is why it’s even more important to laugh at them, covered in glitter, and imagining how long it will take them to remove all that glitter from their hair and eyelashes. It’s very small relief for the evil they actually perpetuate.
    Oh, and it’s a fucking glitterbomb. :P A small annoyance causing a mess that doesn’t endanger anyone’s life, much less necessarily requires involvement of the law. You’d think they’d stop and think a little.
    (In other words, I agree with you.)

    opposablethumbs
    Now that is a well-done campaign.

    re: badgers

    It remains unclear why the badger was angry.

    Well, did they bother to interview it??? Maybe it was just looking for a room. Alternatively, Tommy Brock was looking for the children.

  83. Saad says

    rq, 82

    Also, they say “you can certainly disagree with us” as if it’s a civilized academic debate where neither party is hurting the other party. This is like punching someone in the face and saying, “you can certainly disagree with my punch, but don’t hit me back”.

  84. rq says

    Saad
    Well, they were punching to make a point. If you punch back, you’re being violent! :P

  85. birgerjohansson says

    In Turkey, Journalists Who Criticize The President Can Go To Jail http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/06/in-turkey-criticizing-th_n_6814828.html
    .
    Let’s be honest. We ignore Congo’s atrocities because it’s in Africa http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/06/ignore-congo-atrocities-africa-drc-horror
    .
    World Bank Admits It Ignored Its Own Rules Designed To Protect The Poor http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/05/world-bank-resettlement_n_6810208.html

  86. birgerjohansson says

    Meet the “Monuments Men” Risking Everything to Save Syria’s Ancient Treasures From ISIS
    The militant group is pillaging archaeological sites to fund its operations. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/02/how-isis-cashes-illegal-antiquities-trade
    .
    The Brief Life and Private Death of Alexandria Hill. When the government took her from her family, it outsourced her safety to a for-profit corporation. Nine months later she was dead. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/01/privatized-foster-care-mentor

  87. birgerjohansson says

    Trigger warning.
    .
    .
    A woman was punished for being gangraped in Saudi Arabia http://freethoughtblogs.com/taslima/
    The woman of a violent gang rape has been sentenced by a Saudi Arabian court to 200 lashes and six months in jail for the crimes of speaking to the press and indecency.
    But that is OK because oil.

  89. opposablethumbs says

    Yes, that South Africa antiviolence campaign is really strong – great use of wording and image, great presence of mind to seize the moment for a real purpose.

  90. says

    “Do you think it’s a good idea or a bad idea to allow Iran to get nuclear weapons 10 years from now in return for it agreeing that it won’t obtain nuclear weapons before then?”

    That’s a Fox News poll question.

    No part of the diplomatic agreement on which President Obama, John Kerry and the P5+1 are working will “allow” Iran to get nuclear weapons 10 years from now.

    Fox News is now touting the poll results as “84% call Obama-type deal a bad idea.” Fox News is a bad idea. Republican politicians are repeating the Fox News assumptions and their polling data. Wearing their asses for hats.

  91. says

    Chris Christie, as the governor of New Jersey, inflicted many financial wounds on the state. Thanks to these shoot-himself-in-the-foot budget woes, Christie has proposed a 2016 budget that will cut snow removal funds in half. He wants to cut $44 million.

    Good idea, right? /sarcasm

  92. says

    Another “bomb train,” as some environmental activists call the oil-carrying trains, had blown up.

    Firefighters really have no means of putting these fires out.

    […] Galena Assistant Fire Chief Bob Conley said fire crews responded to reports of a derailment three miles south of the city at about 1:50 p.m. He said because of the intensity of the fire, they are allowing it to burn itself out.

    The railroad company, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, said in an email statement that the derailment occurred at about 1:20 p.m. near where the Galena River meets the Mississippi River.

    BNSF said the train has 105 cars, 103 of which were carrying crude oil. The other two cars were buffer cars loaded with sand. A release from the Jo Daviess County Sheriff’s Department confirmed it was Bakken crude oil. […]

  93. says

    Alaska’s Rep. Don Young wants to take gray wolves off the endangered species list. Upset with a letter 79 congressmen wrote to protect the wolves, he went on a bizarre rant. […]:

    “How many of you have got wolves in your district?” he asked. “None. None. Not one.”

    “They haven’t got a damn wolf in their whole district,” Young continued. “I’d like to introduce them in your district. If I introduced them in your district, you wouldn’t have a homeless problem anymore.”

    Do they grow Republicans in Alaska that are especially sociopathic?

    Wolves are hunted, legally, in Alaska. Maybe they send their homeless out in packs to hunt the wolves? This is just so strange.
    Daily Kos link.

    Washington Post link.

  95. says

    CaitieCat @94: LOL re the Klein bottles. Yes, very appropriate topology reference.

    In other news, here’s a Moment of Mormon Madness: a mormon-owned company, LifeStar Network, is offering anti-masturbation clinics for teens. Link.

    Here’s a more obvious mormon website on the same subject:
    http://www.sonsofhelaman.org

  96. says

    This is more of a Religious Moment of Madness, but because it is Utah, it also counts as a Mormon Moment of Madness:

    Government employees could refuse to marry gay couples […] under a new bill released Thursday by the co-sponsor of a groundbreaking anti-discrimination bill.

    SB297 essentially would adopt a Utah State Court policy governing judges. […]

    Under the bill, for example, Gov. Gary Herbert, who has said he would not marry a gay couple if he were asked, would no longer be able to preside over any weddings in Utah.

    Every county clerk would be required under the bill to have at least one person available to marry gay couples or else contract with someone to do it. […]

    Maybe this law will have an unintended consequence: employment for gay county clerks or for clerks that support marriage equality

    The bill also would put into law that religions cannot be compelled to marry gay couples — something the courts have already upheld — and that churches and religious institutions could not be compelled to provide services like meeting houses for same-sex marriages.

    No government employee who refuses to conduct a same-sex marriage could be disciplined or terminated because of the decision, the bill states.

    The bill also says the state could not deny anyone a professional or business license because of their religious views, including their views on same-sex marriage. […]

    Well, that last sentence tells me that the state of Utah has been denying professional and/or business licenses to those who support marriage equality. What kind of doofuses are they that they have to be told not to do that?
    http://www.sltrib.com/news/2254800-155/government-officials-may-not-have-to

  97. Saad says

    Boy saves sister from abduction by sex offender

    A ten-year-old boy in Ireland has saved his sister from being abducted. The boy jumped onto a moving SUV to save his 12-year-old sister from a convicted sex offender.

    The children, along with a second brother, were playing outside near the Cullahill village when a man asked for directions to a priest’s home, The Irish Independent reports. The man grabbed the girl, but her heroic brother jumped through the driver’s window and punched him. While the driver was distracted, his sister escaped from the car.

  98. Saad says

    Re: my #97

    Uh… the guy had served a four-year sentence for abducting a girl?

    What in the world…

  99. says

    This is a followup to #96.

    Think Progress posted a thoughtful analysis of the Utah anti-discrimination bill.

    […] The bill’s language is a result of LGBT and Mormon leaders working together, and it enjoys support from both sides.

    S.B. 296, however, is far from a perfect bill. It contains a lot of provisions that are unique to the legal climate of Utah that would not translate elsewhere. Given the ubiquitous presence of the Church of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) in Utah, it may be the best bill that could pass there — and is thus better than no protections. […] it is by no means a model for other states to consider.

    Utah legislators and religious leaders (sometimes one and the same) are pushing the bill as a model for other states. No, it is not a good model.

    […] the bill only protects LGBT people in employment and housing; it does not address public accommodations (e.g. how businesses treat customers). Thus, as a civil rights bill, it pales compared to the more universal protections afforded other classes like race at the national level. […]

    […] its employment protections contain some commendably robust language. “Gender identity” is accurately defined according to the American Psychiatric Association’s definition, and employers must accommodate the gender identity of employees when it comes to sex-segregated facilities like restrooms, shower facilities, and dressing facilities. […]

    On the other hand, the bill exempts any employers that constitute “a religious organization, a religious corporation sole, a religious association, a religious society, a religious educational institution, or a religious leader, when that individual is acting in the capacity of a religious leader.” Religious leaders are specifically defined as somebody who is an “authorized representative” of a religious organization.

    Yeah, that sounds like a gigantic loophole to me. So, almost everyone is Utah is exempt then?

    The exemption also extends to any corporation or association that is an affiliate or subsidiary of such a religious organization. The Boy Scouts of America (BSA), which is quite prominent in Utah because of LDS [mormon] support, enjoys its own specific exemption. […] the explicit mention is indicative of the kind of discrimination the broader exemption is intended to enable. […]

    […] Any dwelling, temporary, or permanent residence facility that is run by a nonprofit, charitable organization, a religious corporation, or one of its subsidiaries would seemingly be allowed to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity “for reasons of personal modesty or privacy, or in the furtherance of a religious institution’s free exercise of religious rights.” […]

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

    @rq & Saad:

    In yet another instance of terrorism, in the office of another Nebraska lawmaker someone spilled a box of paperclips.

  101. says

    From the ragged edge of the rightwing, here’s an anti-gay comment that is right up there with Scott Lively’s contention that Nazi SS troops were gay:

    Theodore Shoebat […] openly calls for gays to be put to death […]

    Earlier this week, Shoebat posted a new article on his website titled “Islam is a homosexual cult, that wants to bring the world into a homosexual pagan empire,” which featured a video in which he argued that ISIS is run by gays while asserting that a nondiscrimination ordinance recently defeated in Charlotte, North Carolina, was being pushed by “fags” who want to molest children.

    “[…] there are gay people beheading others. It’s something called ISIS. ISIS consists of many homosexuals. Some of their top leaders are homosexual.”

    Shoebat eventually turned his attention to the proposed anti-discrimination ordinance in Charlotte, which he claimed was designed to allow gay men to gain access to women’s restroom so they could molest young boys. […]

    Link.

  102. rq says

    Fucking internet explorer eating my comments and freezing up the tab where I was writing (and planning on copy-saving) the new comment. Damn and blast.

    Anyway, the point: CD It’s only terrorism if it’s the rainbow-coloured, shiny paperclips. Also, yes to skypetea. More via the emu-ailed birdy once the laptop is safe at home and operational (should be next week, it’s out at the doctor’s right now!).

    And Saad @97/98
    I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s all he got. I know of a local situation where the guy got less and in consequence a young girl ended up not only abducted but dead. The guy’s probably due to be out again, if he even went to trial before the statute of limitations ran its course (though I hope this hasn’t happened yet, but the Latvian legal system being what it is, I can’t be sure).

  103. Saad says

    Wow, that’s sad. I shouldn’t be too shocked but just a few years for abducting girls… wth.

  104. opposablethumbs says

    I could hardly believe the 4 years either, Saad.
    Maybe they’ll decide to keep him away from people for a bit longer this time; probably shouldn’t hold our breath though.

  105. Ranzoid says

    Little bit of background to my jokey post:

    The Breaue of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms is planning on banning M855/SO109 5.56mm NATO/.223 Remington Ammunition. Why is this a big deal? M855 ammunition is Military Surplus ammo that has a steel core in the center of the projectile, giving the round greater armored piecing ability at farther distances, this is the standard ammunition that is issue to all soldiers in the field. Now under federal law there is no prohibition for armored piercing RIFLE ammunition, because all rifle ammunition is naturally armored piercing, via a conical shape projectile with an assload of kinetic energy. However there is a federal law against armored piercing PISTOL ammunition that banned in a 1986 law. So what is the deal? The ArmaLite Model 15 platform–AR-15/M-16–has a “Pistol” variant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eph8MejGnA0, here’s one in a larger caliber https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7WsEjkO0fk.
    Law Enforcements is spooked that there is a “Pistol” out there that can blast through Kevlar vest. Serious gun supporters are not pleases. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgyzzzai-Ow, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs-Pu8n_BHg, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PaIIChRMBw

  106. says

    This is a followup to comment 95 about the mormon obsession with masturbation.

    Here’s a quote from the Sons of Helaman website: “If finances are a concern, many of the young men are receiving financial assistance from their ward through Fast Offerings.”

    Right. So if a young man does not have the money to pay for an anti-masturbation and/or anti-porn clinic, he should go to his local mormon ward and ask for Fast Offerings. Those offerings are made above and beyond the usual mormon tithe.

    That would not be awkward at all. Maybe his Bishop can ask for him?

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

    That South African campaign is brilliant. Kudos to whoever came up with the idea.

  109. Ranzoid says

    Lynn,
    Strangely i have not heard that argument before. No wait, i have. Not so much about the M4 Variant, the one with the telescoping stock, but more about how easy it is to use the AR platform because the .223 is really just a .22 on steroids, coupled with a very strong buffer spring in the stock and receiver any shooting novice can start hitting bulls eyes at fifty yards with only a few hours of shooting.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.223_Remington
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AR-15

  110. thunk: prawo jazdy says

    Hi!

    I’m threadrupt, but doing well. Mainly, doing obsessive side projects for fun, and still worrying unnecessarily about my politics.

    Otherwise, life is continuing as its normal, boring self.

  112. Ogvorbis: qui culpam, non redimetur says

    Thunk:

    doing obsessive side projects for fun

    When my father and I were collecting sample rocks in the Grand Canyon (legally (for and exhibit)), we were looking for a specific shale from the Grand Canyon Group. In a talus slope. Dad was kind of obsessive about finding that particular rock. In a rock slide. That kind of obsessive slide project?

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

    Wait –

    Someone is paying for other mormons to go look at porn while getting electric shocks on the insides of their thighs?

    And I thought I would never convert.

  114. Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) says

    Wait –

    Someone is paying for other mormons to go look at porn while getting electric shocks on the insides of their thighs?

    And I thought I would never convert.

    Ohai I maked you an internet and I did not eated it.

    (Did beated it, but only after negotiation. ^.^)

  117. vereverum says

    @ Crip Dyke #100

    someone spilled a box of paperclips.

    They may have upset the box by themselves to escape. Paperclips are an alien life form. For example, you get a box of ’em and no matter where you try to corral ’em, they are soon all over the house (or office), under the refrigerator, sofa, copy machine which even has magnets and bowls to contain them, and, if you look carefully, in the front yard. They are looking for closets where they pupate and become wire coat hangers. Some people say that the safety pin is the larval form of the wire coat hanger, so the theory is open to controversy.
    http://www.leprecon.org/w62/OrAllTheSeasWithOysters.pdf

  118. cicely says

    I am immensely relieved! Son’s prospects for speedy re-employment seem excellent.
    *whew!*
    –
    Esteleth!
    *pouncehug*
    I am sure that you will ultimately kick New Job’s ass.
    :)
    –
    63
    –

  119. opposablethumbs says

    cicely, that’s great news! – digits continue to be crossed for Son :-)

  120. blf says

    I wish someone would rediscover a dodo.

    In the “dumb as” category, there is an embarrassment of richesthe rich.
    In the “even dumber than” category, there is a surprising number born every minute.

    And in the “feathered egg-laying” category, there is not — the mildly deranged penguin insists — any ex-dinosaurs. Or cheeses.

    (The mildly deranged penguin confirms dodo’s didn’tdidn’t grow cheese, albeit they apparently were found of Monty Python, especially the Black Knight. She thinks that is the real reason they went into hiding — “Look, you stupid bird, you’ve got no wings left!” … “It’s just a few missing feathers.” … “Oh, oh, I see! Sailing away, eh? You yellow bastards! Come back here and take what’s coming to you! I’ll peck your legs off!”)

  122. ledasmom says

    Giliell, very sorry for your loss. My sympathies to you and your family.

    Tuesday this week: Somebody backed into coworker’s car and drove off. Coworker’s car was pushed back into my car (no serious damage to either, many random bits broken off front of coworker’s car).
    Wednesday: Walking, a block from home. Meet woman with adorable little brown and black puppyish dog, who barks but does not bite. Dog bit me. Woman says, to dog, “I thought you didn’t bite!” I walk away fast. Voice from half a block back: “Are you all right?” Found out at home that the bite was bleeding. Three days Augmentin and rabies boosters. I work at a vet clinic. Dogs do not bite me there. Policeman called about Tuesday accident while I was at doctor’s office, left message. Still trying to get back in touch with him.
    Gut now rumbling in ominous way due to Augmentin.
    Irritating week.

  125. blf says

    Though I’m not at the teenaged phase yet.

    As you grows up, you eventually will.
    First clew: You probably have stopped wearing diapers.
    Second clew: Your parents are meanies.
    Third clew: Cooties become a real concern.

  126. ceesays says

    *flop*

    THREADRUPT. I am sorry.

    So I write fiction, right? I write fantasy fiction. And I’m writing a novel in a world that has a technology level that’s akin to the early 20th century. My novel begins with the protagonist, a white dude doctor, talking with one of his work friends, a black woman nurse.

    She’s just told him that she’s been accepted to medical school. She’s going to become a doctor. He’s conflicted – she’ll make a great doctor, but it means that he’s losing his work friend.

    so I’ve gotten comments about how that’s impossible. Women didn’t become doctors back then. How would her husband feel about her working? but wait hang on she’s black? no, that’s impossible. black women do not become nurses, let alone doctors.

    black women can’t be doctors, in a book where the most common mode of urban transportation is the bicycle, horse drawn vehicles are still in use, and magic is real. because it’s too unbelievable. but that magical humanoid over there? cool. are there going to be any dragons in this book?

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

    @ceesays:

    I’m so fucking sorry. That’s just bullshit, as you know, but maybe it helps to hear that not everyone thinks the way those sexist, racist critics think.

    Also, Bethenia Owens-Adair. Oregon’s own woman doctor who got her medical degree from the University of Michigan in the 1800s, served as a doctor in south-central/south-east Washington state for a time (primarily Walla Walla, IIRC), then moved to northern Oregon where she became quite visible as the state’s most prominent eugenicist. She was the 2nd woman to get an MD from the University of Michigan. I don’t know the first or when the first black woman got an MD from there.

    But I do know that Howard University School of Medicine was founded soon after the civil war. IIRC, it was just after the 14th amendment was either passed or ratified, so it would likely have been 1867/1868, but it could have been anywhere in the 1867-1875 time frame. No matter when in that time frame, though, it’s sure as hell before the start of the 1900s.

    So slam them with those facts. It may not change their thinking, but it might make you feel better.

  128. blf says

    ceesays, Blow their tiny little minds: Routine chattel slavery of whites was only abolished fifty years before. The doctor has yet to convince anyone (but some of his patients, the black work friend, and the foreign medical board that licensed him) that he is even fit to be considered “human” much less a professional and competent doctor.

    And the reason slavery was ended? The dragons got all fed up with the practice and ate all the priests.

  129. rq says

    ceesays
    And I’m sorry people are being assholes about that beginning, for what it’s worth, I like it a lot. Seriously, you’d think that, especially in a fantasy novel, people would lower their Unbelievable! meters, but I guess some people have limits. :P In addition, as Crip Dyke points out, they just don’t know any history. :P Screw them.

  131. Pteryxx says

    honestly, the heck with Obama – listen to Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, who walked that bridge and suffered wounds on Bloody Sunday and has come back to Selma ever since.

  133. Esteleth, RN's job is to save your ass, not kiss it says

    Home from work. Going to go hang out with meatspace friends.

    12.5 hour shift tomorrow! *jazzhands*

    Hello Cecily!

  135. opposablethumbs says

    Hope you have a good evening, Esteleth – and good luck for that shift-and-a-half tomorrow!

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

    @Dalillama, #134:

    Nice catch!

    Man it just makes those folk look worse and worse that they can’t imagine the possibility of Black women getting MDs in the early 1900s when they were doing it before the civil war ended.

    They consider DRAGONS more believable than Black women getting MDs…50years after Black women actually got MDs. Arrrrrrggghhhhhhh.

    The awful – it hurts.

  139. ceesays says

    I was caught by surprise. Of course, I was also surprised by the assumption that the characters had to be romantically involved, since the protagonist was glad she was taking the next step in her career, but sad that they weren’t going to be working together any more…

  140. rq says

    ceesays
    Yeah, when my (Man) Colleague tells me how it’s great that I’m getting some career development, the romance runs so fucking high at the lab. :P Like what the hell, people have the weirdest ideas.
    (And yeah, I fully admit I used to buy into a whole bunch of weird ideas about people and relationships in stories, too. But I’m better now, I swear!)

    +++

    Is it just me or does Denzel Washington do a lot of revenge movies? And by ‘a lot’ I mean at least two.
    And it’s kind of nice to see a black man in the leading role, but he’s missing two things from the classic white man saviour pose: a flashy car (taking the bus, though, so much more environmentally conscious!) and no womanizing (to be honest, a relief, though the Lonely Black Man / Fatherly Figure trope is a bit tiresome, too).

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

    @rq:

    Yeah, I noticed that about Denzel last year. Was it last year? He did 2 recently anyway. At least 2.

    I still wish we had gotten a chance to see Denzel as James Bond. He would have been a hell of a lot better than Timothy Dalton or Pierce Brosnan, and the way he inhabits a role might have actually inspired folk to write better movies for him. OTOH, maybe it was Denzel that turned them down, based on the movies before Craig from Roger Moore (although, and I may be misremembering, For Your Eyes Only wasn’t as bad as any of the Dalton/Brosnan pics*) just before Craig.

    *FYEO was also the first Bond movie I ever saw. I did see it again as a teen, but I haven’t seen it since, so what do I know.

  142. Ogvorbis: qui culpam, non redimetur says

    Hugs and support to Giliell.

    Our last cat, Dust, the one who once weighed over 30 pounds and could rest his chin on the counter while keeping his back feet on the floor, who purred if you touched him, who had a wonderful baritone “Mrowwww,” died this afternoon. Since Oreo died, he was losing weight. For the last three months, he faded fast. Another cat with kidney failure (all four of our cats have died due to kidney failure — all of them got the tainted food from China a few years back). He is now rejoining the ecosystem.

  143. Ogvorbis: qui culpam, non redimetur says

    rq:

    Denzel Washington was very good as the reporter in The Pelican Brief.” If you haven’t seen it, it is not a revenge movie.

  144. Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) says

    Another cat with kidney failure (all four of our cats have died due to kidney failure

    From what I’ve read domestic cats are prone to kidney failure in general; it’s usually the system-that-fails-first-and-is-the-proximate-cause of death by old age for them.

  145. cicely says

    Aaaaand, our hot water heater’s dead.
    This is a nuisance and inconvenience.
    /First World Problem
    –
    carlie:

    “It remains unclear why the badger was angry.”

    It objected to someone trying to install Linux on it.
    Obviously.
    –
    thunk!
    *pouncehug*
    Good to hear that you’re doing well.
    :)
    –
    blf:

    And the reason slavery was ended? The dragons got all fed up with the practice and ate all the priests.

    *applause and offer of after-dinner mints for the dragons*
    –
    *hugs* and condolences, Ogvorbis, on the loss of Dust.
    –

  147. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Sorry to hear about your cats Ogvorbis. I’m sure you will miss their company.

    PSA, for those in the US, tonight is “Spring Forward” to DST.

  149. Ogvorbis: qui culpam, non redimetur says

    Werekind? Like a werewolf, but it turns into a child?

    Sorry. Should have been weeken. All hail Tpyos and all that.

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

    @Og:

    So sorry for your loss. May you have much love and support.

  154. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    And naturally I start the transition by getting to bed later than usual tonight. *glares in the general direction of the Redhead*

  155. Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) says

    DST. Because sociopathic morning people haven’t kicked everyone else while they’re down enough yet.

  156. says

    Holy fuckballs.

    So that commenter I mentioned the other day? Yeah, she randomly brought up PZ’s lack of posting about Avijit Roy (like it’s her job to tell anyone what to blog about?) and generally slung a bunch of shit about FTB for no reason at all. It wasn’t relevant to the discussion, and turned into a massive derail wherein we’re all a bunch of Islam apologists or something because Reasons, and oh, no, no, she’s totally NOT obsessed with PZ or anything and jesus CHRIST, I’m sick of this person!

    Has anyone else encountered this KoreanKat person?

    If you have, my condolences.

    If you haven’t, I pray you never do — she’s a real unpleasant piece of work.

  157. Rowan vet-tech says

    Ogvorbis, I am terribly sorry to hear about your kitty and your other kitties. Hugs are on offer should you want them.

  158. Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) says

    Ogvorbis, I am terribly sorry to hear about your kitty and your other kitties

    Err…yeah, this too. x.x

    (I was hoping to reassure Og that it was probably a Cat Thing and not an Anything They Did thing).

  159. Rowan vet-tech says

    Kitties are extremely prone to kidney failure. Typically, if they live long enough they’ll get either that and/or hyperthryoidism.

    My pet hypothesis is that hyperthyroidism is an evolutionary advantage because of the kidney disease; it often masks kidney problems by making what is left work harder. I figure that for a tomcat at least, this masking effect would allow him to sire a couple more litters even in his older age, thus passing on the trait. It’s standard practice when treating a newly diagnosed hyperthyroid cat to check kidney function after a couple months of treatment.

  161. opposablethumbs says

    I’m very sorry about Dust, Og. Sounds like a really lovely animal to have lived with, and one who will be missed – my condolences, and hugs.

  164. ledasmom says

    Oh, Ogvorbis, I’m so sorry about Dust and your other kitties. That’s hard.

  171. says

    In Florida, of all places, climate change has been banned by Rick Scott’s office (Scott is the governor).

    DEP [Florida Department of Environmental Protection] officials have been ordered not to use the term “climate change” or “global warming” in any official communications, emails, or reports, according to former DEP employees, consultants, volunteers and records obtained by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting.

    The policy goes beyond semantics and has affected reports, educational efforts and public policy in a department with about 3,200 employees and $1.4 billion budget.

    “We were told not to use the terms ‘climate change,’ ‘global warming’ or ‘sustainability,’” said Christopher Byrd, an attorney with the DEP’s Office of General Counsel in Tallahassee from 2008 to 2013. “That message was communicated to me and my colleagues by our superiors in the Office of General Counsel.”

    http://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article12983720.html

  172. says

    Rightwing assholery in Selma — or how not to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday:

    […] On his way to the commemoration ceremony, Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) said it’s been “powerful” to hear stories from Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), who helped lead the Selma march 50 years ago and was severely beaten by police. But when ThinkProgress asked if he supports Lewis’ voting rights bill, he replied, “I haven’t looked at it. Is there a Senate version?”

    A Senate version was introduced several weeks ago, and currently has zero Republican sponsors.

    Portman, who has advocated for cuts to Ohio’s early voting period and voted against the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, added before walking away: “This day is about more than just tweaks to the Voting Rights Act. This is about ensuring equal justice and learning from the lessons of the past.”

    This year’s congressional delegation also included Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) — a vocal supporter of voter ID laws in South Carolina — and Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), who has tried to pass laws to require proof of citizenship for voting, a policy found to disenfranchise eligible voters in other states.

    Think Progress link.

  173. says

    Lynna @171, that’s kind of amazing: unsolicited evidence, in the wild as it were, of the RWA’s “magical thinking” issue. They really think if no one says the nasty words, the planet won’t get hotter. Frightening to imagine such toddlerish beliefs in people responsible for millions’ prosperity.

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

    @CaitieCat:

    Doubleplus magical thinking

    as it were.

    Rick Scott: as goodthinkful a governor as anyone could ever imagine.

  175. says

    Heya
    Thank you all for your hugs and kind words. About the whole family went to see grandma today. Poor woman, burying your child when you’re 93. And of course I won’t be able to attend the funeral because it’s exactly when I’m at the congress to which I was looking forward so much. But I called my aunt and she understands.
    BUT
    Big but
    Can it be that such a horrible event shakes you out of one of your depressive lows? I’ve been bursting withe energy to get shit done this weekend, cleaning the balcony, pimping a lot of shirts…

    +++
    Ogvorbis
    *hugs*
    Sorry to hear about your cat

    +++
    ceesays
    People are horrible.

  176. says

    CaitieCat @173, yes, I totally agree with you. Good way to put it. These “magical thinking” toddler-adults are in charge.

    Another toddler-in-charge is Sheldon Adelson. He’s not an elected official, but he certainly is a puppet master of lots of rightwing politicians in the USA, and, I just learned, of a lot of hard right politicians and media outlets in Israel.

    Everything you need to know about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress Tuesday was the presence in the visitor’s gallery of one man – Sheldon Adelson.

    […] Data from both the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics and the Center for Public Integrityshow that in the 2012 election cycle, Adelson and his wife Miriam (whose purse achieved metaphoric glory Tuesday when it fell from the gallery and hit a Democratic congressman) contributed $150 million to the GOP and its friends, including $93 million to such plutocracy-friendly super PACs as Karl Rove’s American Crossroads, the Congressional Leadership Fund, the Republican Jewish Coalition Victory Fund, Winning Our Future (the pro-Newt Gingrich super PAC) and Restore Our Future (the pro-Mitt Romney super PAC). […]

    Salon link.
    The article goes on to describe Adelson’s “uniquely pernicious” influence. I snipped a lot out to get to the bit below, which summarizes Adelson’s influence in Israel:

    Adelson owns the daily Israel Hayom, a leading newspaper, as well as Makor Roshon, the daily newspaper of Israel’s Zionist religious right and NRG, a news website. He gives Israel Hayom away for free in order to promote his hardline views – the headline in the paper the day after Obama’s re-election was “The US Voted [for] Socialism.”

    More important, he uses the paper to bang the drum incessantly for Netanyahu and his right-wing Likud Party, under the reign of which Israel has edged closer and closer to theocracy. As Hebrew University economist Momi Dahan put it: “De facto, the existence of a newspaper like Israel Hayom egregiously violates the law, because [Adelson] actually is providing a candidate with nearly unlimited resources.” […]

  178. opposablethumbs says

    Or maybe they’re just assuming that they’ll be dead before the climate affects them, don’t give a toss about anybody else (well, that bit’s a given) and think that if no-one says the nasty words then no-one will get in the way of their sticking to highly profitable business as usual, so they can go right on lining their pockets right now.

  179. rq says

    Stolen from Twitter, to be appreciated here:
    Did you hear about the alien vegetable fetishists? They came in peas.

  181. says

    Something completely different.
    We watched the final of the children’s TV songwriter casting show on Friday. I wouldn’t condone that if it were a regular casting show where horrible famous people make fun of nobodys with the added bonus that the nobodys are kids.
    But this one is different, always very respectful, and, honestly, those kids are just totally kick-ass. They have more talent and skills than many people who are in the charts.
    For their final version they get a famous (some more, some less) musician as support and present their song together.
    So, for some of the incredible stuff they presented:
    The winner
    My personal favourite, even though that’s usually not my type of music.
    He’s really good, too

  182. cicely says

    opposablethumbs:

    Or maybe they’re just assuming that they’ll be dead before the climate affects them,

    Nonsense! They won’t be dead, they’ll be Raptured.

    don’t give a toss about anybody else (well, that bit’s a given)

    …because anybody else who’s worth giving a toss about, will also have been Raptured.

    and think that if no-one says the nasty words then no-one will get in the way of their sticking to highly profitable business as usual, so they can go right on lining their pockets right now.

    plus, that way they can Pretend They Didn’t Know.
    –
    rq:

    Did you hear about the alien vegetable fetishists? They came in peas.

    So…the vegetable fetishists are aliens? And they came to Earth looking for a little Strange?
    *shaking head*
    As long as they aren’t cross-fertile with the peas.
    –

  183. chigau (違う) says

    It’s that time of year.
    The days are getting longer.
    We are moving the snow and ice from the shade into the sun.
    The magpies are make their sexy noises.
    The waxwings are mobbing.
    The jackrabbits are living up to the “mad as a March hare” thing.

  184. JAL: Snark, Sarcasm & Bitterness says

    So my mother got beaten up and her husband arrested by the church people running a nightly shelter. Since she’s been trespassed off property here, I have to clear it with management before I can move her in, which they probably won’t allow. (Another friend offered to bring her in right now but mom didn’t want to risk them getting fucked over too and just left instead.)

    So she’s homeless, disabled, broke, and alone.

    …Help? Money for a hotel for her and next months rent would guarantee she can get a place next month. I’ll check with her about the rates and stuff when she calls me, the phone is currently dead and she didn’t want to stick around for food and charging and stuff. She just…left, crying, limping, bruised and bleeding. :(

    I don’t know what else to do.

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

    Oh, fuck JAL.

    I’m so sorry.

    I’m still trying to get a stable source of income myself or I’d send money right now.

    Best of luck. We’re good folk here, and many of us have jobs. You’ll get some help. I know you will.

  186. says

    Jeez, I was going to mention my sad news, but you’ve all done a fine job of making it trivial.

    I took it easy today (it’s spring break!) and I was reading the latest Terry Pratchett, Raising Steam.

    It’s fucking terrible. Doesn’t even sound like Terry Pratchett. Either he’s worse off than I feared, or it’s written by someone else (rumor has it his daughter is taking over). It’s talky, but none of the familiar characters sound like themselves — Vetinari is a regular little chatterbox. The exposition is tedious. I feel like Discworld is over now.

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

    I’ve only ever read one Pratchett book, Wee Free Men, and that recently. I wouldn’t know enough to know if he went downhill or not.

    Does he have some medical condition impeding his writing such that he would want his daughter to take over, or is he just getting tired of writing Discworld? The first is sad, the second is just the normal risks of art. There was no guarantee he would write so many books to begin with, y’know? He could have gotten tired of the work (he must have had enough money) long before now.

    in any case, if there are more books than Raising Steam for which I should watch out, do let me know. For now the Tiffany books are interesting to me (I picked up the second a couple days ago, but got distracted. I might get back to it this coming week).

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

    @Rowan:

    Ah. Sad then. Don’t go gentle in that good night, Mr Pratchett!

  190. chigau (違う) says

    I don’t think Raising Steam was all that awful.
    It was just … different.
    …lalala…
    …just a river…

  191. chigau (違う) says

    Crip Dyke
    Since you have read The Wee Free Men, you owe it to yourself to read the other three books in the arc.
    (is there anything better than the Nac Mac Feegles’ swords glowing blue in the presence of lawyers?)

  192. ledasmom says

    I thought “Snuff” was distinctly off as well, and even “Unseen Academicals”, a bit – it lacked the pure joy and facility with language, seemed a bit forced, if that makes sense. But then “I Shall Wear Midnight” was fine. One knows there must be a end, but one hopes, impossibly, that there will not be.
    I have not read “The Last Hero” or “Wintersmith”. I think I will wait a bit longer before I do. For me they are the last ones.

  194. chigau (違う) says

    “…all brothers, but not necessarily brothers-in-law…”
    is straight-up Terry Pratchett
    he is leaving us
    I am unhappy with people parsing all the commas
    …lalala…

  196. Rowan vet-tech says

    My kittens are developing proper eyes. Squash, the little brown and white runt is the leader of this new stage and the inner corner is barely open on BOTH eyes. Butternut has a single corner open. Zucchini should go tomorrow and Acorn, the biggest and fluffiest of the lot looks like he has another day or to go.

    This means that soon I will no longer be able to walk anywhere within potential line of sight without inspiring loud cries of “MEEEEEEEEEEE”. Oh blessed silence, how I shall miss thee.

  197. says

    One more thing CD and I have in common: no huge love for Pratchett. I don’t dislike his work, and all I’ve seen of the man has been positive (politics, outlook, so on), but I’ve never found him funny. I’ve read the very first book, which I’ve been told was not very good by fans, and Monstrous Regiment, which kinda got up my nose a bit on its trans tropes (deceptive, self-interested, et c.). Neither made me laugh, even once.

    Damned sad that he’s having such difficulty, though, as so many of my friends think so highly of him and his work. And as I’m not a sociopath, I guess: I’ve nothing against the man, I just can’t quite see any fabric on the emperor. Probably my eyes.

  198. rq says

    JAL
    Fuck I’m sorry, that’s terrible… I’ll see what I can do.
    Please accept some *hugs* if you feel so inclined.

    +++

    Speaking of cats, I left the butter uncovered last night. Found feline tongue-prints all over it this morning.
    The trouble is, neither one will look me in the eye…

    I’ve only ever read one Pratchett book (Snuff) and it was good. Not OMG I WANT MORE good, but good enough to look into his earlier work, esp. since most people seem to recommend the older books anyway.
    One day I’ll get started on my giant reading list. :P

    Yesterday we went to the Museum of Nature, the local one. Bonus: for families of 3+ children, entry is free of charge. Yay! And it was rather nice. Middle Child has been pestering us to go for something like 2 weeks, because he wanted to see the dinosaurs. Well, it’s a small collection, mainly focussed on Latvia – which was underwater during the reign of the big dinosaurs, armoured fish and the like. Personally, that was the best part about it, and they had enough general dinosaur stuff to make everyone happy. Geology section was pretty solid, and the stuffed animals and birds are good, though a bit moth-eaten. Especially the penguins. The whale skeleton was a hit (the museum only has it because a small whale washed up on the beach one year), as were the touch-screens in the sustainable ecology/ human-nature interaction exhibits (they’re all about renewable energies and stuff, it’s pretty decent). Botany and entomology actually have some creative presentation methods that make looking at plants and insects interesting for the kids (botany esp., they have a large climbing shelf with small cupboard doors all over it, so kids can climb up and around and open them and look). Then there are two Latvia/Baltics-specific exhibits, one on amber and the other on forests. The anthropology section, though, is so. horribly. dated. They still have basically the same exhibits (incl. explanatory text) from like the ’60s or whenever they opened that section up. I’m fine with the development-of-Latvian-culture parts, but there’s a whole bit on the races that just seems… off. Definitely needs an update. The kids didn’t notice, though – by that time they were tired enough just to want to look at the skulls for a bit and then leave. :P

  199. says

    ‘morning
    Survived the battle for the clothing at the supermarket. Spring/summer stuff on offer and I’m afraid that #1’s stuff from last year will pass completely to the little one once I bother to check. She really grew a lot last year…
    Which takes me to people fucking acting like I didn’t know shit. As I mentioned, we had a small family meet up yesterday. Two people kept telling me that #1 was really tall. Well, she isn’t. Really, I just had her height taken at the doctor’s, she’s at the 12th percentile, which means that 88% of girls her age are taller than she is. I mean, I also constantly see her together with other kids her age. You’d think I’d be a competent person to tell, as opposed to those people who only see children up close when they see my kids, right?

    JAL
    Fuck, I’m sorry.

    rq
    If you send something to JAL, could you just send the money you owe me along? That would make things easier.

    +++
    Speaking of money, we need a new washing machine. Fortunately that doesn’t break the bank for us, but looking for one demonstrated again how poor people are fucked over twice. The differencr in price between a good one and a very good one is 300€. The good one uses twice as much energy as the very good one. With current electricity prices we figured that we’d break even in 4 to 5 years. The difference between a good one and a cheap one is 300€ again and two to three times as much energy as the good one. Which means that after 5 years people who can afford a very good one will have spent less money alltogether than poor people and still have a better washing result and hopefully a more durable machine.
    Unless they’re us, because this will be our third machine in 8 years…

  200. carlie says

    On Pratchett – if you don’t like one or two Discworld books, reading others may or may not help depending on what the problem is. If you dislike his writing style, there isn’t much point in trying others. If you don’t like the characters, though, you may well find something else of his that you would like. There are several different threads following different characters (think of focusing on different neighborhoods within a state), and they’re all quite distinct. I’m really meh on the wizard books, but I like the Watch books and the witch books, and the ones featuring Death and Susan are my favorites. Here’s a page that has images of reading order for the different strains (in a few languages). Here’s another. Unfortunately I can’t find a text-based version; everything that’s coming up is images.

  201. birgerjohansson says

    Vegetarians… A vegetarian restaurant in Lublin, Poland has been named “Umeå” by the owners, because one of the owners is a heavy metal fan, and Umeå has a metal festival each year.
    Embarrassingly, I live in Umeå but know very little about metal music except for Rammsteins “Du Hast”.

    — — — — — —
    JAL, words are cheap but you have my sympathy. I live on the wrong goddamn side of the ocean which makes helping out difficult.

    — — — —
    PZ, yes, I quit reading the novel halfway through. Sad.

  203. says

    What I did today:
    I drove 25km
    I picked up a piece of paper.
    I moved that paper about 200m and handed it in at another office.
    I drove back 25 km.
    In other words, I handed in my application for my final thesis.
    I was a bit conflicted about whether to puke or to faint on the 200m.

  204. Ogvorbis: qui culpam, non redimetur says

    JAL:

    safe hugs to you and yours.

    rq:

    And if it were three white Christians killed by someone from an Islamic country, it would still be on the 1/2 hour cable news cycle.

    Giliell:

    Fantastic.

    —–

    We are starting to adjust to a cat-free house. Very strange.

  206. rq says

    Giliell
    re: my payment to you
    I can do that, though it’ll be a longer wait for that first intallment on a new washing machine. ;)

    carlie
    Pratchett just never spoke to me in an engaging manner. I liked Snuff and I’ve tried reading other books by him, but I don’t feel like I connect with his writing in a way that makes me want to read it. Snuff was the first book of his I read, beginning to end. And that was only last year.

  208. says

    JAL, so sorry that your mother (and by extension, you) are living in disaster mode right now. I’m too short of cash to pay my own bills right now, but if one of my laggard clients finally pays me, I’ll chip in to help.

    In other news, one of my neighbors is walking up and down the street calling his wayward dog. He is so damned angry that if I were a dog I would run the other way.

  209. says

    I was so pleased to see President Obama address the issue of voting rights restrictions — not just as an issue 50 years ago, but as a pressing issue today:

    […] Right now, in 2015, 50 years after Selma, there are laws across this country designed to make it harder for people to vote. As we speak, more of such laws are being proposed. Meanwhile, the Voting Rights Act, the culmination of so much blood, so much sweat and tears, the product of so much sacrifice in the face of wanton violence, the Voting Rights Act stands weakened, its future subject to political rancor.

    How can that be? The Voting Rights Act was one of the crowning achievements of our democracy, the result of Republican and Democratic efforts. President Reagan signed its renewal when he was in office. President George W. Bush signed its renewal when he was in office. One hundred members of Congress have come here today to honor people who were willing to die for the right to protect it. If we want to honor this day, let that hundred go back to Washington and gather four hundred more, and together, pledge to make it their mission to restore that law this year. That’s how we honor those on this bridge. […]

    Former president George W. Bush, and his wife Laura, gave that part of the speech a standing ovation with lots of applause (as did many others, of course). Nice to see an enthusiastic response from some Republicans.

    Meanwhile, other Republicans took one more step into Stupid Land:

    Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., an honorary co-chairman of the Selma trip and the only African-American Republican in the Senate, said voting rights and the commemoration of Selma should be “de-coupled.”

    “The issue of voting rights legislation and the issue of Selma, we ought to have an experience that brings people together and not make it into a political conversation,” Scott said.

    What? The fuck?

    Republican dunderheads in the House of Congress have refused to even take up the issue of voting rights. That’s been their stance for the past two years. Maybe it is kind of like their approach to climate change. If you don’t mention it, it will cease to exist as a problem.

  211. Pteryxx says

    Is anyone paypal-capable collecting for JAL? I can chip in but only by paper mail…

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

    Since I’m simultaneously binging on Terry Pratchett and on Marvel movies:
    What needs to happen is Tom Hiddleston as Lord Vetinari

  213. says

    In an astonishing breach of protocol and of good sense, Republicans have added another layer to their campaign to scuttle diplomatic efforts to slow down or halt Iran’s nuclear weapons program:

    […] when congressional Republicans invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to deliver a joint-session address, it was part of a larger sabotage campaign. GOP lawmakers, without so much as a hint of embarrassment, are openly trying to derail international diplomatic talks with Iran […]

    A group of 47 Republican senators has written an open letter to Iran’s leaders warning them that any nuclear deal they sign with President Barack Obama’s administration won’t last after Obama leaves office. […]

    “It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system…. Anything not approved by Congress is a mere executive agreement,” the senators wrote. “The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time.”

    […] The letter was organized by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a right-wing freshman who has spent months bragging about his hopes of destroying any diplomatic agreement intended to stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

    The list of the 47 GOP senators who signed on to the letter […] features several presidential hopefuls, including Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio. (Only seven Senate Republicans decided not to endorse the letter: Lamar Alexander, Dan Coats, Thad Cochran, Susan Collins, Bob Corker, Jeff Flake, and Lisa Murkowski.) […]

    Maddow Blog link.

    Bloomberg Review link.

    http://www.vox.com/2015/1/21/7866089/netanyahu-boehner-congress

    The Supreme Court has codified into law the idea that only the president is allowed to make foreign policy, and not Congress, because if there are two branches of government setting foreign policy then America effectively has two foreign policies. […] Letting the president and Congress independently set their own foreign policies would lead to chaos. […]

    The United States and our allies have reached a delicate stage of diplomacy on a key issue, but as far as congressional Republicans are concerned, the United States isn’t really at the negotiating table at all – the Obama administration is. […]

    for the first time anyone can remember, we’re watching American elected officials brazenly trying to sabotage American foreign policy.

    Under the circumstances, it’s no longer ridiculous to wonder whether GOP lawmakers are violating the Logan Act. […]

  214. says

    A bunch of SAE fraternity students in Oklahoma were caught chanting one of their racist songs. University of Oklahoma President David Boren was not pleased:

    “To those who have misused their free speech in such a reprehensible way, I have a message for you. You are disgraceful. […]

    Effective immediately, all ties and affiliations between the university and the local SAE chapter are hereby severed. I direct that the house be closed and that members will remove their personal belongings from the house by midnight tomorrow. […]

    There must be a zero tolerance for racism everywhere in our nation.”

    Oklahoma News 9 link.

    Here are the lyrics of the chant:
    “There will never be a n*gg*r in SAE.
    There will never be a n*gg*r in SAE.
    You can hang him from a tree, but he can never sign with me
    There will never be a n*gg*r in SAE.”

  215. says

    The KKK showed up in Selma this weekend.

    Robert Jones, the grand dragon of the Loyal White Knights of the KKK spoke with AL.com Sunday afternoon and said about 4,000 KKK fliers have been distributed throughout Selma and Montgomery in the last two weeks.

    “We pretty much put out fliers, some against King and some against immigration,” Jones said. “It’s time for the American people to wake up to these falsehoods that they preach about MLK.” […]

    Alabama News link.

    Fox 10 TV link, with photos of the flyers.

  217. rq says

    Lynna
    re: voting rights, Selma, and Bush’s standing ovation
    Well, he has to put on a good face, since his brother will be presidential candidate soon. The Bush name and face will be in again, so might as well get some good PR in now.
    I know Diane Nash specially did not walk the bridge because Bush was walking it, and she did not want to condone what he stood for.
    Also, do you mind putting the Selma links up? I don’t have quite those ones exactly up. Might as well have them there, too. :)

  219. thunk: prawo jazdy says

    A bunch of SAE fraternity students in Oklahoma were caught chanting one of their racist songs. </blockquote

    *Sigh* yes. Given the amount of quiet racism I've heard from many people here, it's not really surprising that it would be magnified in closed communities and by toxic frat culture. It's despicable.

    Thanks for ruining my day, other white people.

  220. says

    This is a followup to #214, in which we see SAE fraternity members being ousted for their racist chants.

    Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity members also displayed the Confederate flag proudly. They touted their history that included 369 members joining the Confederate army.

    The SAE members have been in trouble in the more recent past. In 2013 their St. Louis chapter was suspended over an incident involving singing racial slurs to African American students, along with other forms of harassment. In 2006, SAE members harassed University of Memphis students for dating black women.

    And, of course, there’s more. When you look at the record you find SAE members promoting racism in various ways at most of the Universities where a chapter exists, including Baylor, Valdosta, Oglethorpe. Clemson, Memphis, St. Louis, etc.

    http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/03/09/3631366/racist-chant-frat-long-history-racist-incidents/

  222. says

    Well, we already knew this, but it is nice to have more proof. Digital Learning Alliance, and the companies that join the alliance, are not really interested in improving education. They are interested in sucking on a really big revenue stream. Nowhere is this more evident than in Utah.

    “It’s revenue, revenue, revenue!”

    That’s the message the Digital Learning Alliance sends in its pitches to persuade educational-technology companies to pay their dues and sign up to be part of the organization.

    In return, the alliance promotes and tracks model legislation for lawmakers around the country who want to reform education and put more devices in schools. The goal is to double the amount of money spent on educational technology within three years, with the potential for millions of dollars ultimately flowing to member companies. […]

    Yep, money, money, money. I have nothing against improving technology in schools, but the focus of these companies almost guarantees substandard equipment, maintenance, and integration. Then there are the sneaky contracts that turn out to be trouble when it comes to replacement, upgrades, etc. In addition to hardware, companies in the alliance offer software that often turns out to be shite.

    […] Utah Sen. Howard Stephenson was prominently featured on the Digital Learning Alliance website and in promotional materials, presenting an image of the alliance working hand-in-hand with the powerful Draper Republican who is chairman of the education budget committee in Utah and holds national education-leadership roles.

    Stephenson, president of the Utah Taxpayers Association, has also sponsored numerous bills over the years that have ultimately benefited partners in the Digital Learning Alliance (DLA), including several that could prove to be a windfall for them this year.

    When he was outed for the part he played in DLA, Senator Stephenson claimed to be “horrified.”

    […] “I have contacted them through my attorney and told them to take down those references to me because that’s unethical at the very least and maybe illegal.” […]

    On its website, the alliance touts the success of the “Utah Model,” pumping money into educational technology, which Goodfellow [owner/CEO] says spurs economic development. It also spurs additional revenues for the technology vendors.

    The site includes numerous pieces of “model legislation,” bills that passed the Utah Legislature directing schools to create new programs and find new uses for educational technology […]

    Oh, there’s a tell. Whenever you hear “model legislation,” run the other way.

    http://www.sltrib.com/news/2260562-155/is-parade-of-ed-tech-bills-aimed

    This turns out to be a Moment of Mormon Madness because Utah Sen. Howard Stephenson is a mormon, as are many of the mormon guys who run companies selling digital equipment to school systems. The results are predictably bad on many levels.

    […] the proliferation of so-called vendor bills at the Legislature has become a matter of concern in the education community and, now, for Gov. Gary Herbert.

    Herbert’s spokesman, Marty Carpenter, said the practice of finding software first, then identifying a need for the program “is not a sound practice, it does not honor local control and is not an efficient use of taxpayer funds.”

    Often, he said, the experiments have resulted in expensive technologies “being shelved shortly after purchase because they do not meet the needs of students.”

    “Vendors are guaranteed to profit from the arrangement, while the benefit to schools is hit and miss,” […]

    Senator Stephenson is still bringing “model legislation” to the floor, legislation that would benefit vendors, but not necessarily the education of students in Utah. Vendors are brought in to testify for these bills. Senators are given free trips to resorts to hear vendors tout their wares.

    Stephenson is an example of Republican/mormon legislators who say they want to improve education but who are really working to dismantle public education, and who would love to see the whole system privatized — and, hopefully, infused with more God, or with more mormonism, or with more religion and profit/Prophet/profit in general.

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

    @rq:

    Why do they call him “Nevilu Leninu”?

    Is “Lenin” really synonymous with “long bottom” or is there some connotation of which I am (quite understandably, since I speak no slavic languages at all) unaware.

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

    @Lynna:

    Thanks for the update.

    It also demonstrated to me quite clearly that I have to stop mentally translating “SL” as “St Louis”.

    Also, in St Louis it’s the Post-Dispatch, duh, so I shouldn’t have, not even for a moment, seen “sltrib” in a URL and thought it was out of St Louis.

    That was silly of me. Also? It was unethical, given that mistaking Salt Lake for St Louis is almost by definition violence.

    Sigh.

  227. Esteleth, RN's job is to save your ass, not kiss it says

    I can collect donations for JAL via my PayPal. People can use my nym at the googles as the “send to” email.

    JAL, can you drop me a line to indicate how much (approximately) you need?

  228. rq says

    Crip Dyke
    re: SL and STL
    I committed the same violence, and I’m sorry to St Louis for that, but the url really threw me off there. :P
    Also, Latvian =/= a Slavic language, being Baltic and all, but this Latvian potato extends forgiveness for that violence, too.
    Anyway, re: Neville Longbottom / Nevils Lēniņš – nothing to do with Lenin. One of the awesome things they did with Harry Potter characters was actually translate (or transcreate, more accurately) some of the names, as opposed to doing that whole fucking annoying phonetic thing (otherwise he’d be something like ‘Nevils Longbotoms’ and that’s apparently an atrocity upon the Latvian language, considering all the naming rules we have that must adhere to the esthetic value of the language itself). ‘Nevilu Lēniņu’ is in this case probably the accusative (possibly instrumental) declension of his name. :)

    Esteleth
    Okay, and please let me know if there is a surcharge on the last package I sent out re: forwarding.

  230. Esteleth, RN's job is to save your ass, not kiss it says

    rq
    I am now morbidly curious! Is Bellatrix Lestrange named (Latvian for) “Warrior [feminine] + Strange”? Is Dumbledore’s surname an archaic word for “bumblebee”?

    Re: the surcharge on the last: eh, don’t worry about it. Negligible sum.

  231. Esteleth, RN's job is to save your ass, not kiss it says

    Re: Raising Steam:
    I was also disappointed. Unlike in most of the Discworld books, in addition to being generally too talky, the characters didn’t have well-defined voices. Ventinari talked the same – using the same idioms, same patrician (heh) vocabulary – as the Morporkian street urchin. The plot was incoherent. In general, I felt that – like Snuff and Unseen Academicals – it needed editing. At it’s core, it was a good Discworld-y story, but was executed poorly, and – as I very much enjoyed many other Discworld books (Reaper Man is a personal favorite) – this slide in quality has me distressed, and I’ve concluded that the series is effectively “over.”

    content note: discussion of suicide
    Crip Dyke, Pratchett has announced (re: his Alzheimer’s) that he intends to commit suicide (and he’s been active in the movement seeking to legalize assisted suicide in the UK) when he gets to the point that he is losing his sense of self. As it happens, not too long ago a notice on his website appeared announcing that, due to the disease’s progression, he will no longer be making public appearances. Various conclusions have been drawn from this announcement.

  232. rq says

    Esteleth
    I’ll have to check that one at home, but I’m pretty sure she’s Belatriksa Something-In-Latvian. (They didn’t do all the names, hence Harry is still ‘Harijs Džeimss Poters’, and Hermione is ‘Hermione (her-mi-ō-neh) Grendžera’, which is rpetty terrible if you ask me, and never mind the ‘Vīzliji’ *shudder*.) Dumbledore = Dumidors (no clue), Professor McGonagall is profesore Maksūra (eh), Snape is Strups (which means ‘curt’), and a few of the other professors got Latvian names (Flitwick = Zibiņš, ‘like lightning’; Sprout = Asnīte, ‘sprout’; Moaning Myrtle = Vaidu Vaira (vaids = moan). Then there are some I just don’t get, like why Dudley became Dūdijs (last name: Dērslijs! Woo phonetics!), or why they kept it as ‘Lords Voldemorts’ and not, say, ‘Kungs Voldemorts’ or ‘Valdnieks Voldemorts’. Oh, and the house names in Latvian are: Grifidori, Kraukļanags (direct-translate of Ravenclaw), Slīdenis (which works as direct-translation and an approximate phoneticization) and Elšpūtis (direct-translate of Hufflepuff).

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

    Thanks, Esteleth.

    @rq:

    Also, Latvian =/= a Slavic language, being Baltic and all,

    Oops. I thought ethnic slavs were native to the Baltics and didn’t realize that Baltic languages are a thing separate from (rather than a subdivision or, or something like that) Slavic languages.

    thanks for giving me the learning.

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

    why they kept it as ‘Lords Voldemorts’ and not, say, ‘Kungs Voldemorts’ or ‘Valdnieks Voldemorts’.

    Wouldn’t have anything to do with the anagram, would it? I’ve long wondered how that is handled in so many different translations.

  235. The Mellow Monkey says

    Warning for misogynistic, transphobic bullshit.
    One of the online RPGs I’m involved in is dominated by characters who are white cis guys, from the Marvel universe. My character is the sole POC. Almost all of the canon Marvel characters have been rewritten to be gay, because those are the relationships the players want. One of the characters is actually a woman in the comics, but the player decided he wanted her to be a gay man. Which was kind of annoying (you’re actually going out of your way to reduce gender diversity in this universe?) but whatever.

    And then last night that player had his “Scarlet Warlock” do high-level magic nearly guaranteed to fail for no apparent reason. When the GM allowed him to decide what the consequences were for failure, a red flag popped up in my head. Something was clearly being plotted on an OOC level. It was decided that when the spell failed, Scarlet Warlock would gain female reproductive organs while otherwise presenting masculine.

    …

    The number of “his panties are in a twist” and “he must be on his period” jokes today have been pretty enraging to me, and now Scarlet Warlock wants to get pregnant with his fancy new uterus. A day after having his body altered against his will. But the absolute last straw was when I saw that the character’s sheet has been altered so that under gender he’s now identified as a “c*nt-boy” instead of a man.

    So I’m switching to a new RPG group.

  236. rq says

    Crip Dyke
    Probably the anagram, though in Latvian they changed ‘Tom Riddle’ to ‘Toms Melsudors (sp)’, which still leaves some unresolved letters for the Latvian ‘Es esmu Lords Voldemorts’. I’ll have to check that one at home to be sure, but you’re probably right.

  237. rq says

    The Mellow Monkey
    I’m sorry you had to face that bullshit and I’m sorry people like that exist in gaming circles. :( I hope you find a much more welcoming and inclusive group!

  238. Saad says

    Just read JAL’s heartbreaking post and I would like to help out also with what I can at the moment.

    I can collect donations for JAL via my PayPal. People can use my nym at the googles as the “send to” email.

    Sorry for the dumb question, just want to be sure I get this right. It’s going to be just “Esteleth” followed by the Google part, right?

    JAL, I wish your mother and you the best. I hope she’ll be safe and get better soon.

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

    Hmmmm.

    Toms Melsudors
    ‘Es esmu Lords Voldemorts’.

    so then…

    Melsudos
    ‘Es esmu Lords Volde’.

    which gets us to…

    Msus
    ‘Es esmu Lords V’.

    and so we’re left with…

    ‘E e Lords V’.

    I guess his middle name is

    ELVesrod

    ???

    Except dammit, it probably requires that final s, doesn’t it?

    “ELVerods” or perhaps “ELeVrods”

    And I thought his obsession was with “wands”.

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

    [Insert slash fanfiction joke here]

    “…at least JK Rowling had the good sense to avoid bannination the world over with her qualification, ‘Elder ELVErods’.”

  244. Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) says

    Trigger alert: child abduction

    So, my phone just popped up an Amber Alert for San Pedro.

    Uh, I don’t think I can be much help. :/

    If anyone’s actually remotely in the area, though, details are here.

  245. Esteleth, RN's job is to save your ass, not kiss it says

    IMO, the snarkiest Rowling has ever been is in Tales of Beedle the Bard where there’s a footnote that says, “To date, no witch has ever claimed to possess the Elder Wand [a wand that makes the wielder incredibly powerful]. Make of this what you will.”

  246. rq says

    Crip Dyke
    I just checked the google.
    His middle name is… Svereldo.
    Don’t ask, because I don’t know.

    And I thought his obsession was with “wands”.

    Well, rods, wands, it’s all the same, isn’t it, whether elvish or otherwise (according to your version).

  248. Esteleth, RN's job is to save your ass, not kiss it says

    Got something from you, Saad. :)

  250. carlie says

    “Make sure that your eyebrows are the focal point of your makeup, so that you can draw attention away from the constant look of confusion on your bisexual face. Awesome! You can hardly tell that I don’t know if I’m gay or straight! “

  252. Ogvorbis: qui culpam, non redimetur says

    Spent much of last week with fever and chills. Got better. Now I have a raging head cold. Not fair.

    rq:

    The annoying whinybloodsucking kind, or the DeHavilland twin-engined fighter/bomber that is made out of plywood and one of the most esthetically pleasing aircraft of all time?

  253. rq says

    Ogvorbis
    Considering the fact that it’s 3AM and my current powers of perception, can’t really tell. :)
    I’ll check tomorrow; I’m going home!

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

    @Ogvorbis:
    Get even more weller even sooner!

    @rq:
    Ha!

  257. chigau (違う) says

    Oggie, you’d probably feel better if you had a kitteh.
    I know I would.

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

    @Chigau:

    Part of the problem is the recent death of said kittehs. You probably knew that, never mind.

    @everyone:

    Following PZ’s organic-mac-book link back to the onion, I found another several-years-old article. It’s the most LOLsobbiest thing I’ve seen in a while.

    This quote in particular,

    “Yes, violent extremism against our people will not be tolerated, but come on, if there’s one thing that has no reason at all for existing, it’s cruise ships,” CIA director Leon Panetta told reporters. “Imagine you come from a dirt-poor country that can’t afford running water, and then you see more than 3,000 gluttonous pigs scarfing down all-you-can-eat French toast and whining because nobody told them there was whale-watching in Cozumel. Hell, you’d want to blow up the thing, too.”

    “I mean, have you ever been on a cruise?” Panetta added. “Jesus Christ.”

    but quite a lot of the rest as well…

  259. JAL: Snark, Sarcasm & Bitterness says

    I have good news! The almost best we could hope for at the moment. I spoke with the onsite manager and she said it was fine that my mom stays with us for a bit. The not-so okay part is where she had NO idea my mom was trespassed off by the owner (personally, the day after she complained to him his worker soaked and broke her $50 cart charger, there’s no way I believe that wasn’t on fucking purpose) so we’re just going to lay low and cross our fingers. (Come in after the office closes and workers leave, stay in all night then leave in the early morning hours.)

    Mom’s husband’s court day is Wednesday so we’ll find out what happens then. He’s also got a failure to appear on teh trespassing charge apparently.

    So, for a change I wasn’t completely right about freaking out. Sorry. I do still need $763 for rent next month + internet bill (even if Roomie got a job tomorrow he wouldn’t make enough and it wouldn’t come fast enough) so we wouldn’t become homeless and Mom could get her own place. If that’s okay. (really sucks now that even if she left her fuckface husband she couldn’t just come stay with us. Moving 3 months before school is out would suck but couldn’t happen anyways since there’s no employment for applications and we so cannot stand living her loud, bigoted, occasionally violent fucking husband. Well, I would if I have to but I’d be searching for shelters to get the fuck out immediately but Roomie would go beg everyone else first and probably kill himself (depression with suicidal tendencies already))

    Man, now I feel like such a fuckface for freaking everyone else out last night when I was majorily freaking out. For the moment, it’s just back to can’t pay rent which is both stressful and a relief.

    Life is so fucked up. I’m so exhausted right now I don’t even have the energy to do something to take my mind off it all (or at least try to) but I can’t get to sleep either Ugh.

    Thank you all for your support (*hugs everyone that offered back*(for everyone that doesn’t want hugs, I thank you too I just can’t think of a non-touching gesture to include here, sorry. brain shut off. ) though this. It’s nice knowing there are still people left that don’t suck. Surrounded by fuckheads all the time is overwhelming and makes it easy to forget.

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

    Awesome news, JAL, though I’ll keep hoping something (even) better comes along.

    =========
    In other news,

    Why I love understatement and other forms of dry wit, Exhibit 5300 (b):

    The cartoon fate of Thag Simmons notwithstanding, Stegosaurs and humans did not exist in the same era;

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

    Finally, has anyone studied the responses of persons to a request for a “random” number?

    My postulate:
    Prime numbers are more likely to occur among all positive integers offered spontaneously as “random” or upon request for a “random” integer or number than their actual prevalence among positive integers would justify. This will be true even when a specific range of numbers is given (e.g. “Pick a random integer between 1 and 100, inclusive.”), provided the range is sufficiently large – e.g. “Pick an integer between 4 and 4 inclusive,” will confound the results otherwise expected by this postulate.

    A corollary:
    Odd numbers are more than 50% likely to occur among all integers offered spontaneously as “random” or upon request for a “random” integer or number. This will be true even when a specific range of numbers is given provided the range is sufficiently large – e.g. “Pick an integer between 4 and 4 inclusive” will confound the results otherwise expected by this postulate.

  263. Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) says

    Odd numbers are more than 50% likely to occur among all integers offered spontaneously as “random” or upon request for a “random” integer or number.

    This is likely:

    “Think of a number.”

    “Okay…”

    “Is it 69?”

    “…damnit!”

  265. says

    Good morning

    Re: Harry Potter
    They mostly kept the English names (with the exception of a slight change to Hermine and Riddle’s middle name), which is OK, I think ’cause it’s an English boarding school novel. What was bad was the translations as such. I know, translators are poorly paid, but for such a cash cow they could have hired and paid somebody competent. There are obviuos mistakes. There are no “Adlereule” (eagle owls) in German. It’s not some creature exclusive to the British Isles and not some mystical creature. It’s an “Uhu”. And Heißwasserflaschen (hot water bottles) do not exist either. We have “Wärmflaschen” (warming bottles). And the German grammar is simply clumsy, at times removing all sense from the sentence.

    +++
    MM
    I’m sorry your RPG group turned out to be idiots.

  266. ledasmom says

    “Uhu” must be about the best name for an owl in any language, though it makes me wonder – in German, how is the noise an owl makes written? I mean, in English it’s generally “who” or “whoo”, though most owls don’t really sound quite like that.

  268. Ogvorbis: qui culpam, non redimetur says

    I received books from Amazon yesterday. One of them, How Vertebrates Left the Water (Laurin (2010)), has three (count ’em, three) entries in the bibliography from Marjonovic, D. an M. Laurin! (sorry, I cannot figure out how to do the diacritical over the ‘c’ on this computer)

    The Uhu is also a strange looking bird buit by Focke Wolfe (the FW189) — an observation plane with three fuselages — one for each small engine, and one, almost completely glazed, for the pilot, observer and gunner.

  272. rq says

    Saad @270
    Personally I think they just have opinions on our stewardship of the earth, and are in training to improve things.

    +++

    TW for Bill Cosby and rape – but this is just creepy.

    “Dear Fans: I hope you enjoy my wonderful video message that’s filled with laughter. Hey, hey, hey, I’m far from finished.”

    The stuff of horror movies, if you ask me.

    For something more uplifting, here’s a Latvian power ballad that I’ve been loving on. It’s by the group Indygo and some dude named Ilvars Jansons, called Volcano of Versions.
    chorus: And what do you think –
    Does fire burn faster than the heart?
    Maybe yes, and maybe no.
    And what do you think –
    Will you ever have more than you have already had?
    Maybe yes, and maybe no.

  273. says

    Anybody seen the red box with my hotfix stones? No? I guess that means cleaning up places I pretend do not exist…
    Also, the new washing machine is due to arrive between 1 and 6 today with the promise that they’ll call an hour in advance. I guess it’s not going to be between 1 and 3… My best bet would be between 4 and 5 because that’s when I have to pick up the kids…

  274. says

    JAL, [hugs] offered. I hope you were able to get some sleep last night.

    Giliell, did you look inside the sofa for your stones? Working washing machines are a Good Thing.

    The rest of you, the basket of hugs is full, help yourselves. I’ll be over here in the pillow fort trying to wake up so I can play with craft paints.

  275. says

    Ha!
    Sometimes you just need to complain loudly to the universe.
    The stones have been found. Not inside the sofa but underneath. Only my most sophisticated precision tool has disappeared: a toothpick dipped in beeswax. And the washing machine will arrive within the next 30 minutes.

  277. birgerjohansson says

    Arab League backs Saudi silencing of Sweden http://www.thelocal.se/20150310/eu-raps-saudi-silencing-of-swedish-minister
    (background: Sweden criticized Saudi Arabia, and the Saudis control the votes of the other arab countries since they are economically dependent on Saudi sponsorship)
    Arab League hypocrisy: “The ministers have voiced their condemnation and astonishment at the issuance of such statements that are incompatible with the fact that the Constitution of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is based on Sharia,” read a statement issued by the ministers following their Arab League meeting in Cairo.
    “Sharia has guaranteed human rights and preserved people’s lives, possessions, honour and dignity. The ministers consider the comments as irresponsible and unacceptable,” the statement added

    .
    So you see, the human rights criticism cannot be right, because saudi Arabia is practising Sharia, and that “has guaranteed human rights and preserved people’s lives, possessions, honour and dignity”
    Somebody get a shovel, I smell BS!

  279. The Mellow Monkey says

    JAL, very happy that there’s good news. *HUGS*

    —

    We have some snow melt today. I can tell this has caused loads of humidity because when I combed out my hair this morning it puffed up about two feet wide. Ah, floof.

  280. opposablethumbs says

    “Sharia has guaranteed human rights and preserved people’s lives, possessions, honour and dignity.”

    There was a time once when I thought it was rhetorical to say that feminism is “the extraordinary statement that women are people”.

  282. says

    Giliell, hee hee. When someone around here needs a hammer, I get mine, because I know where all my tools are – in my little wee studio, not lying around in the yard someplace or thrown randomly into the storage room where Husband’s tools live. That does mean I have to make sure that I get my hammer back, but it’s worth the trouble.

    Enjoy being First Washing-Person!

  284. says

    Lynna
    Well, that’s what my dad did when I moved out (probably to prevent me from “borrowing” his). Only that my husband (you may remember that he has a flat where he works) keeps “borrowing” my stuff. Once, when we went on a holiday and he was adjusting the additional mirrors, he complained to my father that with moving house “his tools had vanished”. He said that with a straight face while using one on my screwdrivers that were supposed to be in my toolbox and not his car.* Next christmas I bought a nice ste of screwdrivers and officially gifted him the old ones which he’d spread over 100 km.

    *I since got a complete toolbox for the caravan

  285. says

    Ha! Well, Giliell, having your man claim your tools is just not right, but it is not surprising.

    When my father died, I had to request specific tools in order to get in on the division of tools my brothers were supervising.

    One thing I noticed right away was that my father had bothered to inscribe his name on his best tools. Probably a good idea.

  286. cicely says

    The Mellow Monkey:

    So I’m switching to a new RPG group.

    Sounds like a good move to me!
    I hope you find one that’s a better fit. You know—not composed of assholes.
    –
    Kittehs make everything better.
    Except when they fart in your face.
    On purpose!
    –
    *extra-warm and soothing hugs* for JAL.
    –
    Saad:

    Have you guys seen this?
    Lion opens car door

    “Thumbs? We don’t need no steenkeeng thumbs!
    We can open cans without you, thank you very much!”
    –
    Giliell:

    If my husband thought that by nicking my tools he could keep me from setting up the washing machine so that he could be the first to use it he shouldn’t have married a woman with a toolbox in the first place.

    :D
    Happy New Washing Machine Day!
    (Traditionally celebrated with clouds of bubbles, whether blown through a loop, or in a bath tub. In either case, Assorted Beverages are (also traditionally!) imbibed. (Obviously, champagne would be the OptimumChoice.))
     
    (Obviously.)
    –

  287. says

    A Republican dunderhead says stupid stuff. The categories are Obama-is-a-Muslim, Obama-secretly-supports-terrorists, and Obama-is-doing-nothing-about-ISIS.

    A Republican lawmaker in Maine apologized on Monday for a Facebook post suggesting that President Obama has family ties to the Islamic State.

    Earlier in March, State Sen. Michael Willette shared a post from Conservative News Daily, which included a photo of Obama and the caption, “Why haven’t I done anything about ISIS? Because I’ll deal with them at the family reunion,” according to a screenshot captured by the Portland Press Herald.

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/maine-republican-obama-isis

    After much negative feedback, state senator Michael Willette deleted the post and apologized, calling it “an error in judgement.”

    Other Republican dunderheads (and some religious figures on the far right) who have publicly stated that Obama is doing nothing about ISIS include:
    Rep. Lamar Smith, Republican of Texas
    Family Research Council President Tony Perkins
    Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.)
    Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.)
    Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.)
    House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)
    Every damned dunderhead on Fox News

    Here are some actual, non-spun facts: As of March 8, the USA with its coalition partners had completed 2,753 airstrikes on ISIS targets. The USA conducted 2,213 of those airstrikes, about 80%.

    A lot of the credit for having a coalition to begin with, and for holding that coalition together goes to the Obama administration. The coalition includes: Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, The Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and the United Kingdom

    This is not necessarily good news, but it does prove that the Republican doofuses are lying: The USA has deployed a total of 2,840 military personnel in the area.

    Obama asked Congress to weigh in on this deployment, and to authorize the actions against ISIS. Congress is just not fucking interested in doing so. Could this be, in part, because they want to continue pumping up the myth that the Obama administration is doing nothing against ISIS? And therefore we need to go to all out war, with battalions of troops on the ground? Or do Congress critters just not like to engage in a debate that would require them to do their homework?

  288. Saad says

    Jeremy Clarkson suspended by BBC

    A BBC spokeswoman said: “Following a fracas with a BBC producer, Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended pending an investigation.

    Clarkson was put on what was called his final warning last year following a racism row after claims that he used the n-word while reciting the nursery rhyme Eeny, Meeny, Miny Moe during filming of the BBC2 programme.

    [. . .]

    He previously faced a storm of protest from mental health charities after he branded people who throw themselves under trains as “selfish” and was forced to apologise for telling BBC1’s The One Show that striking workers should be shot.

    [. . .]

    Last year, the show was censored by Ofcom for breaching broadcasting rules after Clarkson used a “racial” term during the programme’s Burma special, which had aired in March last year.

    I don’t really follow Top Gear, but I get the feeling he has a lot of FREEZE PEACH type fans. I’m sure we’ll be hearing from them if it turns out the suspension was due to another bigoted utterance from him.

  290. Esteleth, RN's job is to save your ass, not kiss it says

    I could have sworn I just commented? I guess I didn’t.

    I did some math. Based on the donations I’ve already gotten, JAL needs another $660 by the end of the month. If PayPal doesn’t work for you, shoot me an email (esteleth at gmail) with some alternate ideas.

  291. says

    This is a followup to comments 32, 80, and 105 in which armor-piercing ammunition is discussed.

    Our presidential candidate and current Senator, Rand Paul, has always been whacko when it comes to guns and ammo. He thinks the UN is going to force the USA to “CONFISCATE and DESTROY ALL ‘unauthorized’ civilian firearms,” while creating “an INTERNATIONAL gun registry, setting the stage for full-scale gun CONFISCATION.” (Capitalization and scare quotes are in the original letter.)

    Paul is also the guy who got all fired up in 2012 about armed meteorologists and post office workers. Now Rand Paul is fired up about handguns that can use armor-piercing “green tip” bullets. Banning such ammo is, in the Randian mind, an “outrageous assault on the Second Amendment.” He is using this “outrageous assault” to raise money from his base.

    …Paul is urging his supporters to help thwart the move, calling it a “backdoor route to imposing President Obama’s gun control.”

    “Recently, Obama’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATF) announced they will ban .223 M855 ammunition,” Paul wrote in a letter posted to the website of his political action committee, RANDPAC. “The BATF has a March 17th deadline to hear public comments on this outrageous assault on the Second Amendment. And I’m counting on your immediate action to help RANDPAC flood the agency with a message from America’s pro-gun majority.”

    CBS News link.

  292. says

    Good news:

    Nearly five years since President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law, a nonpartisan report announced Monday that the projected costs are continuing to fall.

    In the latest forecast by the Congressional Budget Office, provisions of the health care law will cost 11% less, or $142 billion in savings over the next 10 years, than what the agency originally projected in January. Additionally, the law will cost 29% less for the 2015-2019 time frame than the CBO’s initial forecast when the law was signed in March 2010.

    MSNBC News link.

  293. Grewgills says

    @ledasmom #266
    Uhu in Hawai’ian is parrotfish. They tend to be pretty quiet though.

  294. opposablethumbs says

    Clarkson is the kind of idiot who thinks it’s ever so naughtily cute and funny to brag on air about having eaten the meat of rare and maybe endangered species. Exactly the kind of idiot who brags about being “non-PC”. Who thinks it’s cute and funny to make racist jokes (the sexist ones go without saying). He’s an embarrassment.

  295. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Ugh, one of those days. Finally took the gold probe to get the flat tire fixed, and on the way to the tire store the muffler fell off. On the way back to work, after needing to purchase a new pair of tires (too much wall damage), more of the exhaust system starts to fall off. Will I still have a car by the time it gets to the muffler shop tomorrow morning?

  296. says

    This is a followup of sorts to comments #214, 219 and 220 in which the racist chants of Oklahoma fraternity members were discussed.

    Fraternities in general seem to have a problem with tolerance, and with spelling:

    […] confidential rules for pledges from Phi Gamma Delta (known as Fiji) at the Univ. of Texas.

    Those rules, while they include “no drugs,” and “Respect the Ladies,” also include offensive ones like “No interracial dating,” “no Mexicans,” and in all caps€“ “NO FAGETRY.”

    That last misspelled rule apparently means no gay people. […]

    http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/davidbadash/texas_frat_bans_fagetry_and_interracial_dating

  299. says

    esteleth
    What happens to me ever so often is that I type, click preview and forget to submit…

    +++

    A heartwarming insect story, with hopefully a happy ending.

    Of course my very tired brain read “incest” and went “WTF is wrong with rq????”

  300. rq says

    Giliell
    In case that ever actually happens, you have my permission to contact Interpol and declare the real me as missing.

  303. rq says

    awakeinmo
    What, you actually want to pay what the thing is worth?? I prefer the illusion!!

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

    @Tony!, #301:

    Okay, I’m going to have to admit that I followed your link and then followed your link’s links. I just did not want to believe that this one was true.

    First, kill all the law students: because I really don’t want to live in a world where I face the possibility of SCOTUS overturning Seattle’s Minimum Wage on the basis of the 14th amendment rights of fucking McDonald’s.*

    *Also, I looked for a USA birth certificate for McDonald’s and couldn’t find one. Presumably I’ll find the naturalization paperwork any minute.

  306. says

    CD @305:

    Okay, I’m going to have to admit that I followed your link and then followed your link’s links. I just did not want to believe that this one was true.

    No worries. In fact, thanks for mentioning this, bc I decided to follow one of the links in that article (which I hadn’t done before). The USA Today link reveals more information about the lawsuit:

    The complaint, signed by former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, alleges a slew of legal shortcomings with the minimum wage measure, from incompatibility with federal trademark law to violations of the state and federal constitutions.

    Among the arguments:

    —By increasing the costs for franchises associated with out-of-state companies, the law discourages those companies from doing business in Seattle, thus violating the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution, which reserves for Congress the regulation of interstate commerce.

    —By treating independently owned franchises differently from local companies of similar size, the law violates the rights of the franchises to equal treatment under the law.

    —By imposing higher costs on franchises, the law makes it difficult for the out-of-state companies that own the franchise trademarks to maintain the quality of those trademarks, in violation of federal law.

  307. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    By increasing the costs for franchises associated with out-of-state companies, the law discourages those companies from doing business in Seattle, thus violating the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution, which reserves for Congress the regulation of interstate commerce.

    How, when every other franchise business is subject to the same laws. It’s not like McDonald’s in Seattle expects its customers to drive to Walla-Walla for a burger. What a bullshit argument.

  308. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Oops, bad example in #307. Drive to Portland, OR (interstate commerce) instead of Walla-Walla, WA (intrastate commerce).

  309. says

    If you haven’t heard, members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at the University of Oklahoma sang a racist song. In response, school officials suspended the organization and shut it down. SAE’s house chef, Howard Dixon is, unfortunately, out of a job (he’d been the chef for 10 years). Thankfully, some compassionate people sought to ease his financial burden:

    One campaign for Dixon, launched on Indiegogo on Sunday, has raised more than $43,000 toward its $50,000 goal.

    “Today we received the news that some ignorant kids have quickly destroyed something that thousands of men built,” wrote Blake Burkhart, a former student and the fundraiser’s organizer. “Because of these kids’ actions, many will be affected. None more so than Howard.”

    “That man is going to walk up to the SAE house… and hear that he no longer has a job. He is going to learn who [he] has been working for,” Burkhart continued. “And through some cruel twist of fate, he has to lose the job that he has held for over a decade. He is going to lose his job because of a bus full of racist kids.”

    Burkhart didn’t immediately return a request for comment; According to The Oklahoma Daily, the future of the staff employed by the chapter remains “unclear.”

    Some donors have shared the campaign on social media using the hashtag #helphoward, or left messages of support on the campaign page itself.

    “Good luck to you, Howard,” reads one such message from an anonymous donor. “Thank you Blake for helping your fellow man. Best wishes to everyone at OU, to learn to overcome history and forgive one another.”

    A second fundraiser for Dixon, started on GoFundMe, has raised more than $12,000 — and hopes to raise $38,000 more.

    “Howard has been a hard-working and loyal employee for over 15 years, always making it in through rain, sleet and snow,” the GoFundMe organizer wrote. “He was one of my best friends during my time in the house, and my first thoughts are for him and his family. He has always been there for us and my heart is broken for him tonight.”

    A representative from the GoFundMe fundraiser told The Huffington Post that both of the campaigns’ organizers are in contact with each other, and said all the proceeds will go directly to Dixon.

    That brings a smile to my face.

  310. Saad says

    What an absurd form of sexism:

    Moscow offers low-income women free husband rentals

    “Moscow City Hall Takes Pity on Those Without a Russian Husband,” was The Moscow Times’ headline on a piece about the recently announced social service, which will supplement existing municipal services that help with more “feminine” chores such as cooking and cleaning. “Husbands” will be free of charge for low-income households, and moderately priced for others. The Times writes:

    The hired “husbands” would be available to perform tasks traditionally viewed as a man’s job in Russian households, such as replacing a leaky faucet or attaching shelves, deputy chief of City Hall’s social protection department Andrei Besshtanko told Izvestia newspaper.

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

    Oh, I am Groot!, Batman, you’re going to make me do this, aren’t you Tony!?

    Here I go, doing legal analysis of the constitutional arguments in a case involving litigants I don’t know, in a state I’ve never lived, in a country I no longer call home, even if I do still hold its citizenship.

    I’m going to have to do this in bursts, because it’s giving me a sad just to comment on this stuff.

    Also, I’m going to do this off the top of my head and without reading all the relevant filings,*1 so anyone catching errors, please please let me know. qwints has been good at that in the past. Maybe if I really fuck something up, qwints will save us all.

    Okay, here goes.

    FIRST:

    —By increasing the costs for franchises associated with out-of-state companies, the law discourages those companies from doing business in Seattle, thus violating the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution, which reserves for Congress the regulation of interstate commerce.

    Wow does this seriously misunderstand case law. As a constitutional interstate commerce case, this fundamentally misunderstands Wickramasinge v Freidricksburg. Okay, actually Wickard v Fillburn, IIRC (I always remember Wickard, but I can’t remember if it’s Fillburn or not. I think so, but not certain).

    Constitutionally, interstate commerce was originally the exclusive domain of federal regulation. Intrastate commerce was originally the exclusive domain of the states and their subsidiary powers (the counties and municipalities, primarily). Makes perfect sense.

    But then congress wanted to institute laws that applied nationally – not merely at the moment goods cross a state line, but within a state. There were a number of reasons for this, and they were mainly rejected until the later 1930’s. But along comes Wickard v Fillburn. Fillburn was a farmer whose use of wheat on his own farm was impacted by federal regulations. Wickard was Commerce Secretary or Ag Secretary or something like that. Probably Ag, but I don’t remember for certain. Wickard represented the FDR administration who argued that they were trying to regulate a commodity traded nationally and internationally, and that commodities by their nature cannot be effectively regulated nationally or internationally unless they are also regulated locally.

    The outcome? SCOTUS ruled (I can’t remember half of who was even on the court,*2 much less who wrote the opinion, so don’t ask) that action that was predominantly or even entirely local in nature could be regulated by the federal government if such local action had interstate effect.

    Now, this is really, really crucial: The court did not rule that local action wasn’t local. The court did not rule that local action was in fact interstate. The court ruled that the prohibition on Congressional regulation of local action could not stand against a coherent law or set of regulations **if** that law or those regulations reached local actions in a manner necessary to regulate commerce that actually was by definition interstate.

    How does this translate into anything related to our former Solicitor General’s argument?

    The former solicitor general is taking a case (really, a line of cases, though they are canonically held to have started with Wickard) that states that

    the federal government can, sometimes, regulate something local, provided the situation meets certain criteria

    and trying to turn it into a case that states that

    the state has no power to regulate something local if the federal government also has power to regulate it, because SOME things the federal government can regulate are things ONLY the federal government can regulate, ALL things the federal government can regulate are things that ONLY the federal government can regulate.

    In other words, they are citing a case that says, “some local actions have interstate effects, and thus can be regulated as necessary to regulate those interstate effects” and turning it into, “local actions aren’t actually local actions. Period.”

    Legally? This is fucking stupid.

    I bet there’s even a case somewhere that cites something apparently local and finds it is actually an interstate action. But that’s going to be saying “it’s an interstate action for the purpose of applying the Commerce Clause to the constitutionality of statute X”. It’s not going to be saying that local actions are not reachable by state regulations. It’s a manner of expression that depends on the professionalism of lawyers, on the honesty of lawyers not to rip a short phrase completely out of context to make it mean something that it plainly did not in that case.

    In other words, it’s a judge trying to write a decision in less than 1000 pages and deciding playing pollyanna is the best way to cut some language out.

    Sadly.

    *1 …In part because I want this to be my analysis. If I read the court documents, I’d have to inevitably (even if I only read one side) read arguments against this shit and I’m testing my own memory here, because if I have to do this shit, at least I can get that out of it.

    *2 …Stone, Black, Frankfurter, and Douglas were all on this court, I’m pretty sure, b/c it was an early-40s decision. Beyond that, I can’t remember the names of any justices who might have been there. Except Thurgood Marshall. He wasn’t a Justice at the time, but you can consider him practically fucking camped out @SCOTUS from virtually the day Charles Hamilton Houson took him on. It’s also possible I’m engaging in a wee bit of exaggeration here. But it’s for your own good, I tell you.

  314. says

    Now that I’m almost done university, I realize that I’m going to have to be dealing with a very different set of challenges.

    And everywhere there is advice for careers, investing, and so on. But what advice is trustable? Here at ftb if I have inquiries into science and arguments about the supernatural, I have no trouble finding something useful. But what about all of these other life concerns?

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

    Continuing to fisk the arguments that USA reports are being made by McDonald’s through their lawyer, our former Solicitor General [one hopes fervently they aren’t actually the creation of the mind of our former Solicitor General, but one perhaps hopes in vain]:

    —By treating independently owned franchises differently from local companies of similar size, the law violates the rights of the franchises to equal treatment under the law.

    Okay, this isn’t legal bullshit on its own. Except that it’s either using “violates the rights” wrongly, according to the US legal definition; or it uses “violates the rights” according to the Canadian definition and similar definitions in other states, such as South Africa, where a right can be violated by a law and yet the law can be upheld because violating rights only to that extent is justifiable and constitutionally permissible [the US has no concept of “permissible violations of rights”, in the US they just say it’s not a violation of right if it is permissible]; or, in the third possibility, they’re making an ethical/philosophical statement with no legal force or effect.

    In case 3, they’re bullshitting and they shouldn’t waste our time or the court’s time.

    In case 2, unless they are moving for a change of venue to the Supreme Court of BC, they are complete idiots. Canadian law isn’t being applied.

    In case 1 I say that they are wrong because allegations of rights violations are adjudicated in different ways according to the nature of the right. This is referred to as a situation of “levels of scrutiny”. Rights that are explicit in the constitution + rights that are nearly explicit in the constitution are most likely to be adjudicated according to “strict scrutiny”. Strict scrutiny requires that an action that would otherwise violate rights must be narrowly tailored so as to intrude on persons’ liberties in the most narrow of ways. Moreover, the narrowly tailored statute or action must be an attempt to accomplish a compelling governmental interest. For the purposes of the 14th amendment, most frequently only allegations of racial and religious discrimination are adjudicated according to strict scrutiny.

    Below this is “heightened scrutiny” or “intermediate scrutiny”. Exactly what deserves intermediate scrutiny is highly arguable, but in practice it is mostly for 14th amendment rights related to gender and/or sex. Here the governmental interest must only be important, and the means chosen must merely be “substantially related” to the goal.

    Below that is “rational basis”. Although in 14th amendment rational basis cases – cases where the basis for creating a legal distinction used for different treatment is not found in the constitution directly or by reasonable and narrow inference, and where, per Carolene products, one is dealing with a distinction that has not been used to define a minority that has been subject to a history of discrimination and has little political power and a couple of other things- the standard ostensibly requires that the law is rationally related to a legitimate (e.g. not illegal) government goal, in actual practice the “rationally related” doesn’t even require that much. it actually presumes that laws are rational, and even when presented with evidence that shows that the law not merely fails to further, but actually harms the government’s efforts towards the identified goal, the court merely muses about whether any legislator could rationally have believed that the action would further the goal.

    Thus if the government passes a law stating that a 5 gallon open bucket of kerosene must be kept in every kitchen in order to further the quite legitimate goal of reducing residential fires, and we come along with evidence that the government’s goal, far from being furthered, is actually being undermined — to wit, people that obey the law are much more likely to experience a residential fire — a government willing to defend this law must merely state that the legislators involved thought that having open kerosene would scare people into being more careful with fire.

    It’s rational to think that people scared of fire would take steps to prevent it. It’s rational to think that being near open kerosene would make someone scared of fire.

    Voila! This meets the form of defense to which a government is entitled under rational basis.

    I’m not saying a court would actually uphold such a law. The court does have some modicum of common sense. However, I make the point that it’s not **actual rational relationship between means and goals** we’re talking about here. In that case, if the means had the effect of undercutting the goal, the court would strike the law. In actual practice, the court merely asked if it was reasonable to believe that the means chosen **might** have a positive impact on achieving the goal.

    Much argument is centered on level of scrutiny, because if a case is decided using rational basis, the government is nearly predestined to win. If the case is decided using strict scrutiny, the government is likely (but not nearly-predestined) to lose.

    The distinction drawn here – franchisee vs. locally owned – is not a distinction that defines an insular minority (on either side) subject to a history of discrimination and having little political power. Thus Carolene Products in/famous Footnote 4 isn’t going to get McDonald’s into Strict Scrutiny territory.

    The courts really try to avoid intermediate scrutiny, and this is not a gender case. Intermediate scrutiny, then, is actually probably the least likely standard for adjudication in this case.

    That leaves rational basis, which is, after all, the default standard unless a case for heightened/strict scrutiny is made in court.

    So…

    This case is almost certain to be decided using rational basis unless there are factors of which I’m not aware. Even granting full 14th amendment rights to corporations (“full” meaning in every way fully comparable with those of natural persons), cases of age discrimination are decided using rational basis. Lots of cases are decided using rational basis that one would think might require a higher standard of scrutiny/ more governmental justification. SCOTUS permitted mandatory retirement ages for judges for instance, when many of that would consider that age discrimination and would want more than rational basis invoked.

    So here we are, the quoted basis for distinction is “locally owned company vs. locally owned company that is also a franchisee of an out of state entity”. There is no reason for using anything other than rational basis. Rational basis almost always favor the government action or law. Thus before listening to specific argument, it’s ridiculously unlikely that McDonald’s would prevail.

    Now I’m not saying McDonald’s couldn’t win on a non-14th amendment point of law, but the argument against a legal classification of businesses according to franchisee/non- is almost an impossible basis for success.

    Any competent lawyer would know that.

    Thus, if they were actually using “violation of rights” in the technical sense used in US law, the odds that they are correct about that are between “slim to none” and “none to none”. In fact, the odds are that they are

    Wrong, wrong, wrong!

    They should fucking know better.

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

    —By imposing higher costs on franchises, the law makes it difficult for the out-of-state companies that own the franchise trademarks to maintain the quality of those trademarks, in violation of federal law.

    Okay, I don’t know shit about (US) federal trademark law. I’m not equipped to analyze this. There are even a great many constitutional questions which I’m not equipped to analyze, but US trademark law? Not equipped to even begin to analyze this argument.

    So here I’ll stipulate that they may or may not be arguing with incredible incompetence, but if they are, I am even more incompetent so their incompetence is not obvious to me.

  318. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    CD, I don’t see a problem with price differential. It costs a few cents for a Big Mac in downtown Chicago than it does here in the far suburbs. Higher costs. Because of that, I don’t see an issue. There is no promise the price will be same everywhere.

  319. says

    Today I did four loads of wash and finished painting and otherwise embellishing my clipboard. I have a nice glass of wine and a big mug of decaf tea. I’m trying to hold out for a bit longer before I toddle off to bed, but Husband is watching The Voice*, so I may have to give up sooner than I’d like.

    *Partner solidarity has its limits. He watches American Idol, too. Bleah.

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

    @Nerd, #318:

    Generally agreed, but given that I don’t know anything about US trademark law, I can’t tell you whether or not the specific legal argument is merely unsupported by facts which would demonstrated a truly relevant increase in costs that pose an illegal difficulty for the law in relation to trademark… or if the argument itself is complete bullshit because the law could not be reasonably construed to be on their side even if the facts were on their side.

  321. vereverum says

    @ brianpansky #314
    Essentially a first draft, so don’t be surprised at rough spots and hopefully I’m not too much a Polonius. Did you hear about the friar that robbed a bank? Felonious monk.
    Rule one: write it all down on paper. At the very least type it into a word processor. Writing is better.
    Where do you want to be in 50 years? Where living? What doing? Write it down so it’ll be the same next week as it is today. You can’t get to where you’re going if you don’t know where it is.
    Quit the FPS video games and play chess.
    There are people you know and trust; ask them. Not just an odd question now and then, but perhaps discuss (…) over dinner or spend an afternoon in the park discussing (…). What did they do?
    Find people who know what they’re talking about and listen to them, but research them to be sure they really do know. I have a very good friend who once told me about a certain brand of suit. He talked about how comfortable it was, how easy to put on & off, etc. Problem: he had never owned or worn a suit coat in his entire life.
    Find people who enjoy what they’re doing. How did they come to that point?
    Use the power of the internet for research research research research of organizations. Organizations have websites: if you discover a website without an organization click the x on the browser tab. And go for a cloud of witnesses, not just one or two. And use the word “reviews” at the end of some searches about organizations. Search media sites for stories about [whatever]. You should’ve been learning research methods regardless of your field. Use those methods. Make it a project.
    Whatever it is, if it’s good advice whomever you are reading won’t be the only place that gives it. OTOH there are lots of scammers doing the same scam. Use sites like scamadviser. Once you find a busted scam, learn how the scam works so you can spot it later.
    Like anything worthwhile, it takes some effort but you can’t make application of what you’ve learned unless you know where you’re going.
    Financial planning for example.
    Don’t trust advice from those who make more money than you do if you follow their advice.
    Get rich quick is a myth. I have talked to a lot of people who’ve been to Las Vegas but I have yet to talk to one who actually reported losing money! If this is a representative sample, and it is, the entire industry would’ve collapsed years ago if what they say is true.
    Financial planning, etc., doesn’t mean saving for a new car, but it is probably just about the same for everybody. Think long term. Look at feedthepig dot org. It’s the longest term thing you’ll have to deal with and while they say age 25-… that’s really too late, you should start at 18. Look for org sites that don’t profit if you take their advice, sort of like public service announcements. Many government agencies also have sites to advise how to… and how to avoid….
    Look at AARP. You’re going to be old someday so look at what the old people have to deal with and plan accordingly.
    If not USAian use your local equivalents but the idea is the same. Find out what you’ll be facing and plan how to meet those situations.
    Once you’ve adopted a strategy, keep watch over it. Some thieves are clever and sometimes good plans go bad. Eternal vigilance is the price of later security.
    Full disclosure. I’m retired, I started preparing when I was 18 but not seriously ’til I was 27. During my working years, I found many inexpensive things that I like doing. I started a couple o’ years before the big day and practiced what I was going to do to be sure I could do it and even started regularly doing some of them. On the first day when I got up, I didn’t have to figure out what to do; I just went on with my life.
    Objection: you’re obsessing on retirement.
    Answer: why else would you need financial planning? Just live from payday to payday. Millions do by choice and there is nothing wrong with that. I know people who do that and are quite happy with it. They’ll be working ’til the day they die and enjoy every minute of it, but they don’t need financial planning for what they are happy with. And it saves a lot of effort and worry during your life, but it’s a decision that has to be made early and there aren’t any do overs.
    So, before you start on your journey, be sure you know where you are going.

  322. chigau (違う) says

    brianpansky
    Before you start investing…
    Do you know how to do grocery shopping?
    Laundry?
    Rent an apartment?

  324. says

    Turns out we were wrong. Chameleons don’t use pigment to change their hue:

    Humans have long been fascinated by chameleons’ changing color to dazzle mates, scare rivals and confuse predators. On Tuesday, scientists said they uncovered the mechanism of the feat and that the results of their investigation astounded them.

    Rather than use pigments to switch color, nanocrystals in the lizards’ skin are tuned to alter the reflection of light — channeling blue wavelengths when calm and yellow or red when excited, researchers found.

    “We were surprised,” Michel Milinkovitch, a biologist at the University of Geneva told AFP.

    “It was thought they were changing color through … pigments. The real mechanism is totally different and involves a physical process,” he said.

    Color-switching in chameleons is the preserve of males. They use it to make themselves more flamboyant to attract mates and scare off challengers or duller to evade predators.

    The mature panther chameleon used in the study, for example, can change the background color of its skin from green to yellow or orange, while blue patches turn whitish and then back again.

    In most other color-changing animals, the pigment melanin alters a color’s brightness by dispersing or concentrating within cells called melanophores, thus changing color intensity but not hue.

    This process had long been thought to explain chameleons’ color change as well, the team said. But that theory turned out to be false.

    Skin analysis revealed that the change is regulated by transparent nano-objects called photonic crystals found in a layer of cells dubbed iridophores, which lie just below the chameleon’s pigment cells.

    Iridophores are also found in other reptiles and amphibians like frogs, giving them the green and blue colors rarely found in other vertebrates.

    In chameleons, however, nanocrystal lattices in the iridophores can be tuned to change the way light is reflected, the university said in a statement.

  325. chigau (違う) says

    Tony! #324
    jeez, that God guy was one smart cookie.
    How did He manage that tricky cell stuff in lizards whilst, at the same time,
    managing underwear in humans?

  326. Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) says

    Rule one: write it all down on paper. At the very least type it into a word processor. Writing is better.

    Why? Having severe hand cramps and the inability to go back and easily insert things without having to start all over certainly doesn’t improve my work output….

    Quit the FPS video games and play chess.

    …oh.

  328. vereverum says

    @ chigau #322
    your comment reminded me of a commercial on TV many years ago.
    it starts with a young man standing in a grocery store in front of either meat counter or canned veggies. he just stands there for most of the ad then turns and wanders away at which time the announcer comes on and says if it wasn’t for (fast food chain) some people would just starve to death.
    secondly, I don’t remember where, but I read of a course offered by a school (adult education) about functional literacy, it taught what you recommend to learn, how to balance a checkbook, how to operate coin-op washing machines, how to grocery shop, etc.
    Ah, memory is a wonderful thing, too bad it’s random and can’t be controlled.

  331. says

    @vereverum, 321

    well I’ll have to read that tomorrow, but thanks for the response.

    @322, chigau (違う)

    if these are serious questions

    brianpansky
    Before you start investing…
    Do you know how to do grocery shopping?
    Laundry?

    yes

    Rent an apartment?

    Well, since I think I got lucky with the place I found which I’m at right now, it’s possible I don’t know enough about this.

  332. vereverum says

    @ Azkyroth #326
    Reinforcement of the thoughts, this is the establishment of ends and means stage so starting over is a very real possibility. Also it may slow you down some to think more about what you’re writing. I find that I remember the contents of a letter I write more than an email letter.
    OTOH I see your point and I believe there is probably very good planning software to accomplish the same purpose. If I were starting over and going the electronic route I’d probably use OneNote in Office.
    .
    @ Tony!
    It’s a sign of the end times!

  333. chigau (違う) says

    brianpansky #331
    They were serious questions.
    Look into that apartment thing.

  334. says

    There are actually studies that show that students who take notes by hand remember the content better than students who type on a laptop. Of course, if for some reason somebody has motoric issues with handwriting, that probably doesn’t apply.

  335. bassmike says

    Just checking in to leave *hugs*.

    I haven’t really got a lot to say at the moment. It’s one of those quiet times for me I guess.

  336. birgerjohansson says

    Re. 277, 278,
    Now the Saudis are pulling their ambassador from Sweden in protest of being criticised for violations of human rights after having violated human rights.
    Our asshole conservaitives are trying to score points by criticising the government’s handling of the matter. Actually, this is one of the few times I do not criticise the social democrat government. They are assholes too, but they did the right thing.

  337. says

    Have a video link, to the panel “What I Couldn’t Say” at the recent All About Women conference in Sydney:

    http://youtu.be/8KaQSI9hsaM

    featuring Anita Sarkeesian (who sums up what she couldn’t say succinctly at the beginning of her segment), and others I haven’t heard of, but all worth listening to, I think. I especially liked the last speaker, Jane Caro.

  338. opposablethumbs says

    Hi bassmike :-)

    Here’s to the Swedish govt.’s good move, birgerjohansson

  339. birgerjohansson says

    Newly discovered bacterial family may become a weapon in the fight against malaria http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150216092149.htm
    new family of bacteria that are common in malaria mosquitoes has been described by researchers at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)* and Uppsala University (*in Umeå)
    It is exciting that these bacteria so far are only found in disease-carrying mosquitoes and their hatching waters, says Olle Terenius

    ”- We are looking for bacteria that live in the mosquito gut and which grow quickly when the mosquito has taken a blood meal. The idea is to genetically modify these bacteria to produce substances that stop malaria parasite development.”

    — — — —
    Drug restores brain function and memory in early Alzheimer’s disease http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-03-drug-brain-function-memory-early.html (levetiracetam) “What we want to discover now, is whether treatment over a longer time will prevent further cognitive decline and delay or stop progression to Alzheimer’s dementia,”

    — — —
    This should be from The Onion, but it isn’t
    “Arkansas Republican gave adopted girls to rapist because they were ‘possessed by demons’: report http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/arkansas-republican-gave-adopted-girls-to-rapist-because-they-were-possessed-by-demons-report/

  340. birgerjohansson says

    Also, on anti-malaria bacteria “The bacterial family Thorselliaceae, as well as the genus Thorsellia, is named after the now 96-year old Professor Walborg Thorsell — a legendary mosquito researcher who began her research in the 1970s and then for several decades developed mosquito repellents at the Swedish Defense Research Establishment to be used by Swedish soldiers in wartime”

    Walborg Susanna Thorsell, born 12 februari 1919.
    I am glad she is alive to experience this honor.

  341. says

    Hullo bassmike *waves*
    +++
    I thought Saudi arabia couldn’t commit crimes ’cause oil…
    Renewable energy must be a bigger enemy to salafist islam than beer and porn.

    +++
    Bit of everyday sexism.
    Today #1 had a school breakfast, i.e. the parents* prepared a nice breakfast together so the kids could have a nice breakfast together.
    As the story goes, get two parents together and they’ll swap stories. We were 4 women, and I’m the only one with only girls, one with boy and girl, the other two with two boys each. They were “complaining” for 20 minutes straight about the problems they have with their sons. I said something and one woman goes “Oh god girls, I think that boys are less complicated!” And I was “didn’t you just tell me for the last 20 minutes about all the problems you have with your son?”
    But of course, with boys it’s individual problems, with girls it’s the horrible fault of being female….
    *did I say parents? I meant mothers.

  342. says

    Very few bipartisan bills manage to make their way through the House of Congress and the Senate these days. The anti-human-trafficking bill was an exception.

    I say “was” because Republicans snuck anti-abortion language into the bill, and, luckily, Democrats caught the sneaky move at the last minute.

    […] the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act, would fine traffickers to create a fund to support victims. […]

    Senate Democrats “discovered that Republicans had slipped anti-abortion language into the bill.” […]

    Even Democrats on the Judiciary Committee said they had no idea the abortion provision was in the bill. Some suggested they had been misled.

    The argument that Republicans intentionally tried to deceive Democrats is actually quite sound. A similar proposal, without an abortion provision, was introduced in the last Congress, and as this year’s process got underway, GOP senators provided Dems with a list of minor alterations to the bill’s language. The anti-abortion measure wasn’t on the list, and Democrats moved forward, taking Republicans at their word. […]

    All of a sudden, one of the year’s easiest bills is likely to be derailed by the GOP’s insistence on an unnecessary culture-war provision. […]

    Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, added in a statement, “The Senate should protect victims of human trafficking but should not do so at the expense of women’s access to safe and legal abortion. The majority of human trafficking victims are women and girls, and they need access to the full range of reproductive health care services without barriers.” […]

    Maddow Blog link.

  343. says

    Human traffickers take away freedom and choice from many women and girls (and a lesser number of boys). Now Republicans in the Congress of the USA want to take away any choices these women and girls may have concerning their reproductive rights — and that holds true even after they have been rescued from trafficking.

  344. says

    Rachel Maddow presented an excellent segment on the way(s) in which some Republicans in Congress have tried to undermine negotiations with Iran.

    The segment is about 11 minutes long and it covers history as well as the current situation. Maddow does an excellent job of satirizing the childish, arrogant and incorrect aspects of the Tom Cotton letter to Iran’s leaders. Humor and news — love the combo.

  345. pHred says

    Giliell
    I stink at those things – the sitting around chatting with the other mothers stuff. They side-eye and keep me at a distance these days since I don’t play the “stereotype”-“uh-huh” game. (i.e. someone says “X group does this” and everyone else agrees and gives examples.)

    They use the “girls are so hard” line over here too and I have never understood it. I have one of each and have always thought – they are kids, they are individuals, they are different. Of course I also commit the critical sin of actually paying attention to my kids, listening to them and even believing them when they tell me something. Crazy, huh.

    The school has a carnival night where they do things like face painting, and simple games for prizes – one of the things going on was hair coloring – for a couple of tickets they would use colored hair spray and give you green, red, blue, etc. stripes in a kids hair. I heard a boy asking to do this and his father told him “no son of mine is gonna do that – its for girls – its gay.” Yep – that’s the mentality around here. Sigh.

    Sigh – I am just babbling – I should be grading papers or something by I still feel awful. I want this stupid cold to go away.

  346. Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) says

    There are actually studies that show that students who take notes by hand remember the content better than students who type on a laptop.

    I find this is more or less true for *following along with a verbal lecture*, where the pace is generally just slow enough to avoid cramps and keep up provided I don’t more than halfway try to write in straight lines, form letters with consistent proportions, or do any meaningful formatting, but fast enough to make it difficult to keep up with the spacing, line breaks, etc. formatting required from a computer (and computer-note-taking is just impossible if there are equations involved), but emphatically anti-true for making any kind of note, list, or memo more complex than a grocery list at my own pace.

    I find ConTEXT agreeable for the latter.

  347. says

    pHred
    Oh, I’m the spoilsport in these rounds as well, unfailingly countering their gender essentialism. What I find particularly “funny” about the “boys are less complicated” phhrase is that the actual percentage of kids completely fucking up, doing drugs, skipping school, committing petty crimes, despising education is much higher for boys than for girls.
    Of course I also don’t believe that that’s an inherent quality of boys, more of a result of exactly that kind of thinking.
    OTOH, I find those chats always somewhat reassuring. I might have 99 problems, but my kid not understanding the watch ain’t one of them. (Big topic at the moment. She didn’t get it in class, probably because she didn’t pay attention, and no matter how smart you are, you don’t understand the watch until you either watch it for a long time or somebody clues you in, but it was a matter of 15 minutes or so)

  349. Ogvorbis: qui culpam, non redimetur says

    Tony!:

    Well. . . . The Bush White House had hundreds of private email accounts which they used to perform both overtly political and overtly governmental business and then they deliberately destroyed the archives of those emails so they would never see the light of day so now the GOP must show that Hillary Clinton is a war criminal, is subverting the Constitution, is flouting the Will of the People, and is an all-around criminal to show that the Bush emails were small potatoes and that she should be hounded from office because she used an account that the GAO knew about, an account that archived the government business emails, and an account that communicated almost exclusively with other government accounts (other than sending emails to her evil daughter) she should not be allowed to run for public office because it is only okay if you are a Republican. Clear?

  350. Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) says

    It’s the Greedy Oleaginous Pigfuckers. Of course it doesn’t make sense.

  351. says

    This is a followup to comments 213 and 394, in which we discussed the fact that one Republican politician, Tom Cotton, drafted a daft letter to Iran, and a bunch of other daft Republicans signed on. The blowback is huge, which is appropriate in my opinion.

    […] Both of Kentucky’s senators, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, signed the letter. Their state’s Courier-Journal asked:

    Has Congress gone crazy? […]
    A blatant attempt to sabotage the discussions to limit Iran’s nuclear capacity, the letter is signed by by 47 GOP senators, aligning themselves — President Obama noted ironically — with hardliners in Iran who oppose any deal with the United States.

    The Concord Monitor focused very directly on New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte:

    Unlike the thousands of other times she has signed her name, Ayotte will remember this signature. How could she forget? It’s not every day that a United States senator attempts to undermine U.S. foreign policy and weaken the nation in one cursive swoop.

    Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey signed the letter, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s editorial board wrote:

    The senators who signed the letter should be ashamed.

    The Salt Lake Tribune’s headline is almost all you need to read: Utah senators increase risk of war. Although the editorial itself is worth a look:

    It will be up to history to judge whether the latest partisan stunt joined by Utah Sens. Mike Lee and Orrin Hatch amounts to an act of End Times warmongering or merely another bit of cringe-worthy buffoonery on the global stage.

    Um, guys? Forget dismissing it as “cheeky” [Yes, the latest excuse coming from Republicans is that the letter was a sort of joke, was meant to be “cheeky” — are you fucking kidding me?] or hedging about how you “react[ed] maybe in not the most effective fashion,” this might be a chance to practice just saying “we screwed up.”

    Link

  352. says

    Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said some stupid stuff … again.

    […] “secularization,” Jindal warned, will eliminate religious freedom and “without religious liberty there is no freedom of speech, there is no freedom of association, it is worse than this president is bankrupting our country financially, morally, as well as our foreign policy standing. All of that is true but it’s worse than that. He’s trying to change the idea of America.”

    He lamented that “we have never before had a president this ideologically extreme, who does not believe in American exceptionalism, does not believe in the American dream that you and I were taught, does not believe in religious liberty and has effectively, for six years, done everything he could to change our culture on all three of those areas to become a new country, a new American dream, a new conception of liberty.” […] Link.

  353. says

    Anti-gay activists want to make sure that children across the USA do not get the message about bullying.

    A coalition of anti-gay groups is once again urging parents to keep their children out of school on the annual anti-bullying “Day of Silence.” The Illinois Family Institute published the call to action on its website today, signed by activists including Matt Barber, Concerned Women for America’s Penny Nance, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality’s Peter LaBarbera, Scott Lively, Linda Harvey, Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver, and MassResistance’s Brian Camenker.

    Calling the GLSEN-sponsored event “the queen of all the numerous homosexuality-affirming activities that take place in public schools,” the activists allege that it is meant to “indoctrinate 16-year-olds.” […]

    link

  355. says

    Tom Cotton (see comment 351) wrote some other stupid stuff before he wrote that letter to the leaders of Iran. From Cotton’s college days at Harvard, we find:

    […] ”Men are simple creatures. It doesn’t take much to please us.” — is Cotton’s October 1997 column on what women really want. Anecdotally — based on conversations with a small sample of Harvard women — Cotton concluded that women’s “greatest fear in life” is being left by their husbands.

    Taking this as the gospel truth, Cotton advocated reform of no-fault divorce laws, lauding a law written by then-Louisiana State Rep. Tony Perkins (now president of the right-wing Family Research Council) providing for “covenant marriages,” whereby spouses could only divorce if there was fault. Such innovative approaches, along with the patriarchal prescriptions of groups like the conservative Promise Keepers organization, would allow women to fulfill their “deepest hopes.”

    As for those women whose deepest hopes consist of escaping loveless marriages or reclaiming personal autonomy: tough luck, apparently. […]

    Salon link.

  356. says

    We already knew this, but here’s another super duper study that finds homeopathy ineffective in health treatment.

    An analysis of over 225 medical studies and 1,800 scientific papers has found that homeopathy is ineffective as a health treatment. Its authors urge that “people who choose homeopathy may put their health at risk if they reject or delay treatments.”

    The study, carried out by Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council—along with an independent company brought on board to ensure that the analysis wasn’t biased— examined the effectiveness of homeopathy according to the scientific literature. Its authors write that it found “no good quality, well-designed studies with enough participants” to claim that homeopathy works any better than a placebo or brings about any health improvement any more effectively than other kinds of treatment […]

    http://gizmodo.com/huge-meta-study-finds-homeopathy-ineffective-in-health-1690747203

    http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/_files_nhmrc/publications/attachments/cam02a_information_paper.pdf

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

    I thought my movie evening would be spoiled when a really smelly man sat in the seat next to me (PSA: People, water and soap are your friends. So is deodorant.) But then came the movie and ruined it completely.

    Right at the beginning, what plays behind the introduction? A silhouette of a woman dancing around a pole. Sometimes the silhouette is obviously in a burqa/niqab.
    I was expecting a movie mocking racism against Muslims in Europe and Muslims … I don’t think it managed to deliver, even if we discount the casual sexism. The main character is a Muslim who is mistaken for a terrorist because the police are racist. In the end, he stops the actual terrorists (who are also Muslims). I dunno, I guess the movie is trying ot play with the stereotypes and mock them, but in my opinion it fails on most accounts.
    Main guy rants about people thinking every Arab is a terrorist but then there’s a scene where terrorists send him out in a burqa to conceal that he’s carrying explosives. LOL. So funny, such wit.

    One point I liked: the most dedicated terrorist is a convert from Canada Quebec.

    Otherwise, a real disappointment. Maybe I’m not getting satire.

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

    I haden’t actually listened to Take me to church in its entirety, paying attention to the lyrics, until yesterday.
    Now I have it on repeat. Someone take youtube away from me!

    Take me to church. I’ll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies, I’ll tell you my sins so you can sharpen your knife

    And the video. … *wipes a tear away*

  359. carlie says

    I fell down today and now my knee really hurts even though I took ibuprofen.
    I fell down walking down my friend’s driveway to my car.
    I was at her house because I was bringing her some food.
    I was bringing her some food because she was home sick.
    She was home sick because yesterday she fell at work and hurt her knee and broke her wrist.
    So I went to see her and fell and hurt my knee.
    *sigh*
    It’s the ciiiiircllllleee, the circle of liiiiiiiifffeeee…..

  363. jste says

    I haden’t actually listened to Take me to church in its entirety, paying attention to the lyrics, until yesterday.
    Now I have it on repeat. Someone take youtube away from me!

    Take me to church. I’ll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies, I’ll tell you my sins so you can sharpen your knife

    And the video. … *wipes a tear away*

    Holy fuck. I never really understood what that song was about before. That film clip is powerful.

  364. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Dang, been a bad week so far. On top of the new tires and falling off exhaust system, I took the gold probe in this morning to get the exhaust system replaced, and turns it also needed new CV joints since the rubber boots had broke and the grease in the joints had dried out. (90,000 miles on the originals, not a surprise, and the symptoms match my observations). Then, getting the last tests for minor surgery tomorrow to remove a flap of tissue in the bladder at the opening to the urethra, the EKG showed a slight difference between today and the last one. Not an emergency, but surgery postponed until this is checked out. Ugh, probably means a stress test. With a sore left heel and right big toe… And the Redhead’s caregivers had everything planned out.
    Everything, including me it seems, is falling apart.

  365. carlie says

    Thanks – I feel pretty stupid. At least she fell on ice; I fell because I tripped over my own pants leg. (wide leg pants, and I’m short) And 20 years ago I could have taken that fall and not even noticed, and now my body’s all “ugh, don’t do that!” on me.

    Nerd, you have had too much going on. :( Is there anything we can do to cheer you up?

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

    @pHred:

    I stink at those things – the sitting around chatting with the other mothers stuff. They side-eye and keep me at a distance these days since I don’t play the “stereotype”-“uh-huh” game. (i.e. someone says “X group does this” and everyone else agrees and gives examples.)

    Oh, I’m even worse. I was in a group of mothers hanging out while kids were doing an activity and the mothers around me were carping about this stereotypical behavior and that one.

    I’m not making this up, I said:

    Although you know what else annoys me? Have you ever noticed the tendency to buy into the availability heuristic? I hate that. And women are just as bad.

    I didn’t say which group’s badness women equalled, but I got a couple quizzical looks and a couple of statements of vague support and the conversation moved on. In exactly the same way it had been.

    The problem is you do that enough times and you end up saying it in front of someone with an actual understanding of psych literature, and then you’re in trouble.

    =======
    Speaking of trouble, I cracked open a bottle of wine without anyone else in the house for the first time in I don’t know how long. Maybe I did it once last year, but if I didn’t, it’s been decades.

    …And my inexperience showed. I didn’t just crack open the bottle, I cracked the cork as well. Damnit. At least I have 2/3rds of a cork to shove back in the bottle before I fridge the 3/4ths I won’t drink tonight.

  367. says

    CD @366:

    …And my inexperience showed. I didn’t just crack open the bottle, I cracked the cork as well. Damnit. At least I have 2/3rds of a cork to shove back in the bottle before I fridge the 3/4ths I won’t drink tonight.

    That reminds me of my first time opening a bottle of wine. It was a few days after I finished training at a local restaurant (an upscale one-though not fine dining-that offered roughly 300 bottles of wine for sale). On that hot and humid day in July of ’04, I presented a bottle of wine to a table and in the process of trying to open it, I broke the cork. I was mortified. I don’t recall exactly how the guests reacted, but I don’t *think* they were overly annoyed. Me? I wanted to crawl into a ball in the corner.

    (click on this link and look at the second image. That’s a lovely pic of the outside seating at that restaurant; my cork-borq happened at a table close to those in the image)

  369. chigau (違う) says

    I have discovered that there are good reasons that “heuristic” has never been in my vocabulary.

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

    @Tony!

    I can’t tell you how much I want to deliberately confuse some MRA by constantly repeating his use of “cock-blocking” as “cork borking”.

  372. says

    Here’s an article from Fast Company–20 years of global progress for women and girls in data and maps.

    Mothers are always telling daughters about how much worse times were for women when they were young. That’s a good thing, because it means the cause of gender equality has generally marched forward. But there’s still a long way to go, according to a new report that looks at the last 20 years of progress. Hopefully today’s new mothers will be telling their daughters this story too.

    The Full Participation data visualization and associated report, put together by the joined forces of the Gates Foundation and the No Ceilings initiative of the Clinton Foundation, is the result of analyzing 850,000 data points spanning two decades and more than 190 countries (the full data set is also available here). They released it on March 9, the week of International Women’s Day and 20 years since countries committed to ensuring “full and equal participation of women in political, civil, economic, social and cultural life” at a 1995 United Nations summit in Beijing.

    The report highlights major gains made towards this goal since 1995. In education, for example, boys and girls enroll in primary school now at nearly equal rates worldwide, which the report frames as a major achievement. In health, the rate of maternal mortality has been halved and girls born today can expect to live four more years on average than those born in 1995. As for legal rights, nearly all of the 56 national constitutions adopted since 1995 guarantee gender equality (compared to only 79% of earlier constitutions).

    The gains are naturally uneven around the world—as well as by race, income, sexual orientation, and a host of other factors. Even today, nine countries still legally restrict a woman’s freedom of movement, and one in four women around the world is still married before her 18th birthday (This figure is about one in two in India). In 2013, almost twice as many women were living with HIV than in 1995—and women at ages of 15 to 24 have infection rates twice as high as young men. Almost two-thirds of the world’s illiterate adults are women, many of whom live in poverty.

    There are also entire major areas where the report says “the pace of change has been far too slow,” such as security, economic opportunity, and leadership.

  374. bassmike says

    Carlie I hope your knee gets better soon.

    On the subject of young children: I can’t see that girls are in any way inherently more difficult than boys. However, in my limited experience, the most problematic kids, certainly in terms of rough play etc, have been boys. Whether it is due to a difference in attitude from the parents or a fundamental difference between the sexes, I couldn’t say. But that’s just my small world of experience with infants and I only have a daughter.

    Talking of which, she’s being awkward at the moment. She’s been biting other kids and, when she gets home from nursery, she doesn’t want anything to do with me. She was a pain this morning too. It’s hopefully just another short-lived phase that she’s going through. Who knows?

    Why didn’t she come with a manual? I’m sure all the answers would be in the FAQs!

  375. says

    Good morning

    Nerd
    *hugs*
    I hope everything goes well with the surgery

    carlie
    *gentle hugs* for you, too.
    When I broke my foot is was taking a step forward on the even and not slippery living room floor. And talking about tripping over your own pants, I have a small scar next to my eye from such an event. Unfortunately the corner of the radiator was very close so I didn’t get up my hands in time. I was lucky, because it could as well have pierced my eye…

    CD
    I’m always fascinated when people who have a boy and a girl declare that every difference between the two of them is due to their sex.

    bassmike
    You can join me in the pillow fort. #1 threw a complete tantrum this morning. I admit I threw half a tantrum, but if you call me names and shout at me you don’t get to enter my car…

  376. bassmike says

    Giliell you have my sympathy. There’s nothing worse than a tantrum at exactly the wrong moment. As parents we bear the brunt of the worst behaviour of our kids. Parenting is hard!

    I’ll be in the pillow fort with Giliell if anyone needs me.

  378. bassmike says

    Giliell I like the joke! I too am geeky enough to really like that sort of humour.

  382. opposablethumbs says

    My sympathies to your knees, carlie, and to all of the rest of you too! My knees also add their own vote of insubordination :-(

    Parenting is hard, and also a mug’s game because no matter what you do you will get things wrong. Just not always the same things.

  387. Esteleth, RN's job is to save your ass, not kiss it says

    The BBC is reporting that Terry Pratchett has died. :( :( :(

  390. bassmike says

    RIP Terry. Whether you enjoyed his books or not, he came across as a warm compassionate human being. I will miss him.

  391. opposablethumbs says

    Gutted. I do love almost all of the books, and he was a damn sight funnier and more generous-spirited than most.
    The Sam Vimes economic theory of boots says a hell of a lot, imo.
    RIP Terry, and condolences to his friends and family :-(((((((

  392. bassmike says

    He had such a gentle sense of humour. There was a program about him a few years ago and when asked why he had four monitors attached to his computer, he said it was because he didn’t have room for five.

  394. says

    Republicans saying stupid stuff:

    Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn thinks the Voting Rights Act is just fine, that it doesn’t need a Congressional fix after the Supreme Court struck down the “pre-clearance” provision. Cornyn is responsible for scheduling floor votes, and he is not going to schedule a vote on proposed fixes. He just said so publicly. He added that, “I think Eric Holder and this administration have trumped up and created an issue where there really isn’t one.” OMFG, this guy is so ill-informed.

    On the Affordable Care Act: It is working better than expected. It is saving more money than predicted. So Republicans have decided to criticize not only the Act, but everybody who mentions the good news.

    Barrasso [Sen. John Barrasso’s (R-Wyo.)], the 4th ranking Senate Republican, mocked the Obama administration for holding an event at the White House this week to cheer new healthcare enrollment figures at a time when the law remains mostly unpopular nationally.

    “It’s time for the White House to stop celebrating and start thinking about the people,” Barrasso said on the Senate floor on Wednesday.

    The Hill link.
    BTW, Barrasso is chairing the group of Senators working on an alternative to ObamaCare — supposedly working. So far, all alternatives are unicorns.

  395. says

    This is a followup to comments 213, 344, 351, and 355.

    Republicans have come up with several excuses for the sabotage-the-negotiations letter that was sent to the leaders of Iran. The letter was written by Senator Tom Cotton and was signed by 47 other senators (Bobby Jindal and other non-senators signed on later). After near universal backlash, excuses were proffered:

    1. We were kidding, it was meant to be “a cheeky reminder.” Just fucking stupid.

    2. Yes, we tried to hamper international nuclear talks, but that was Obama’s fault. “I think that, no doubt, the fact that the president, you know, issued a veto threat on a very common-sense piece of legislation, probably evoked, you know, a good deal of passion,” Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.” [said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.)]

    The reference is to a threatened veto of a bill to give Congress the final vote on nuclear agreements.

    “The president is really taking a risk by not agreeing to get either confirmation or approval from the House or Senate.” Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) Congress does have a duty to weigh in, after an agreement has been reached. Having these doofuses tell lies about the process, and having these doofuses trying to take foreign policy actions into their own hands is a disaster.

    “Even the foreign minister of Iran felt it necessary to “enlighten” the Senators:

    Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who delivered an overview of international law as he critiqued the letter.

    Zarif said he was astonished by the letter, saying it suggests the U.S. lawmakers “not only do not understand international law” — a subject in which he is a professor — “but are not fully cognizant of the nuances of their own Constitution when it comes to presidential powers in the conduct of foreign policy,” according to Iran’s Foreign Ministry.

    The Iranian minister said that “in our view, this letter has no legal value and is mostly a propaganda ploy.

    3. Rand Paul claims he thought the letter would “strengthen the president’s hand.” The letter warned Iranian leaders against trusting and cooperating with President Obama. Rand Paul is incoherent.

    4. We were rushed.

    That last is the new one. John McCain offered that excuse: “It was kind of a very rapid process. Everybody was looking forward to getting out of town because of the snowstorm.”

    Oh, well then, that makes trying to scuttle talks to end Iran’s nuclear weapons program perfectly understandable.

  396. says

    As a followup to comment 395, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also said, “I wish to enlighten the authors that if the next administration revokes any agreement with the stroke of a pen, as they boast, it will have simply committed a blatant violation of international law.”

    Zarif holds a doctorate and two other advanced degrees from American universities. Tom Cotton is a rightwing doofus and a freshman Senator.

    Zarif said he was astonished by the letter, saying it suggests the U.S. lawmakers “not only do not understand international law” — a subject in which he is a professor — “but are not fully cognizant of the nuances of their own Constitution when it comes to presidential powers in the conduct of foreign policy.”

    Rightwing senators in the USA have become an international embarrassment.

  397. Saad says

    Twitter bans ‘revenge porn’

    The company updated its terms of service Wednesday.

    “You may not post intimate photos or videos that were taken or distributed without the subject’s consent,” Twitter (TWTR, Tech30) said in its updated “Twitter Rules section.”

    Only a few states have passed revenge porn laws, and they’re largely ineffective against websites, which are protected by section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act. The act gives platforms like Twitter, Facebook (FB, Tech30) and Reddit immunity when third parties post anything that doesn’t violate federal law.

  398. Saad says

    Three middle school basketball players leave the game to defend cheerleader from bullying

    When three Lincoln Middle School (Kenosha, Wisconsin) basketball players noticed that a cheerleader with Down syndrome was getting bullied during a game, they took action.

    Lincoln basketball players Miles Rodriguez, Scooter Terrien and Chase Vazquez saw some kids were making fun of cheerleader Desiree Andrews during a game. They found the behavior unacceptable and walked off the court to put an end to the bullying.

  399. a_ray_in_dilbert_space says

    OK, Gilillel started with the Heisenberg jokes.

    Heisenberg gets pulled over by a cop while driving.
    Cop: Do you realize you were driving 150 km/hr?
    Heisenberg: Oh, great! Now I’m lost.

    Heisenberg, Kurt Godel and Noam Chomsky walk into a bar. Heisenberg suddenly pulls up short and says, “Wait, there are three of us and we just walked into a bar. This must be some sort of joke. But is it a funny joke?”
    Godel says, “Well, because we’re in the joke, so we can’t tell if it’s funny or not.”
    Chomsky reples, “Of course it’s funny. You’re just not telling it right.”

  400. says

    Saad @398:
    Thanks for sharing that link. Those basketball players demonstrated the importance of bystander intervention and showed the quality of their character. I hope others take note and recognize how important it is to stand with victims of bullying and oppose such abuse.

  401. vereverum says

    a_ray_in_dilbert_space #399
    I’m going to tell that to my friends who understood the heisenberg/schrodinger/ohm joke.
    And, may I submit…
    I’m not sure from which blog I got this, but the nym is cartomancer and the date is 27 June 2014 at 7:35 am (UTC -5) and the post actually had to do with science.
    The philosophy goon squad! I can picture them now – there’s Bill “the Razor” Ockham, idly cleaning his nails with his trademark monogrammed switchblade, then next to him we have bad boy Jez Bentham, who learned every trick he could from watching over violent prisons. Then Benny “The Grinder” Spinoza, Mad Mary Wollstonecraft, “Fingers” Wittgenstein, and finally their shady getaway driver – Zeno the Greek (who has never yet been hit by a speeding arrow, and can outrun Achilles himself in the gang’s battered old Fiat Testudo).
    Ayn Rand applied for a place in the crew, but you actually have to be a philosopher to join.

  402. Ogvorbis: qui culpam, non redimetur says

    carlie:

    Ooof. Safe hugs to you.

    And knees? Intelligent design my pasty white arse!

    Nerd:

    Safe hugs and support to you.

    This is sometimes referred to as ‘old house syndrome’: you start working on one thing and find something else underneath. I’ve noticed that, as I get older, the same thing keeps happening to me.

    Tony:

    Heh…cork-borking.

    I wonder if any of my cow orkers ever corkborked.

    (Or is that too out there?)

    Esteleth:

    The BBC is reporting that Terry Pratchett has died. :( :( :(

    Fuck. I expected this, but not this soon. Fuck.

    Lynna:

    Rightwing senators in the USA have become continue to be an international embarrassment.

    I think this may be more accurate.

    ===========

    I have been enjoying some VSOP. Possibly a little too much of it. I’ve also been drinking Icelandic beer. Good stuff. Helps to keep the black dog at bay.

    In other news, I discovered this morning that there is actual grass on part of our lawn. It had been so long, I had forgotten. I woke up last night in a little bit of a panic (not a panic attack) and lay in bed for about an hour wondering what was wrong. And realized that I wasn’t hearing the radiator hissing and knocking all night from the furnace working overtime. In my house, the sound of silence is the sound of spending less on heat. Went out to dinner with Wife and Boy on Tuesday at our local good Mexican restaurant. I had oxtail tacos. Very good. It was mariachi night. Luckily, they are good. But do you have any idea how strange it is to hear “It’s a Small World” by a mariachi band?

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

    Oh no. Terry Pratchett’s death came too soon.

  404. blf says

    Azkyroth@346, If yer trying to write down (or type in) everything that’s on the blackboard, or which the professor says, yer doing it so wrong its not even wrong. The idea is to capture concepts and reasons / rationales. Literal copying or transcription is not doing that, it’s just showing how fast you can (or cannot) write / type and yer ear-brain-motor co-ordination (or lack thereof).

    Listening to what is said and re-expressing a summary in a few notes of your own composition — both of which are actually quite difficult skills for many(? most?) people — seems to be far more useful. The synopsis I read of at least one of those studies mentioned about hand-notetakers having better comprehension confirmed that comprehension is aiding by thinking, not by simply transcribing.

    A lot of my own University and professional notes are just one or two pages. Ignoring stuff like URLs and other references, they are my attempts to restate what stuck me as important, either at the time, or because I was confused. I daresay that is vastly more useful than a handwritten (or self-typed) textbook. (The partial exception here is photos / printouts of the whiteboard.)

  405. Morgan!? the Slithy Tove says

    I have a question that may indicate how abysmal was my primary education: Is the art of note taking in class actually taught to students anywhere? It was not taught to me at any time. It would have been incredibly helpful if it had been.

  406. vereverum says

    @ Morgan!? #405
    Some teachers may do it on their own, but I doubt it is in a curriculum anywhere.
    I was taught to read & write by my dad before I went to school and in the first grade, I am told, the school authorities were really upset over that. Not just because I could already read, but, I’ve been told, I repeated some things I’d heard at home, as children do, about the quality and effectiveness of the school’s reading program.
    As Garrison Keillor once mentioned children are not loyal family members, they are investigative reporters with a firm belief in the public’s right to know.

  407. Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) says

    Azkyroth@346, If yer trying to write down (or type in) everything that’s on the blackboard, or which the professor says, yer doing it so wrong its not even wrong. The idea is to capture concepts and reasons / rationales. Literal copying or transcription is not doing that, it’s just showing how fast you can (or cannot) write / type and yer ear-brain-motor co-ordination (or lack thereof).

    BLF, I graduated Magna Cum Laude with a double-major in Mechanical Engineering and Physics. I think I have some sense of what works for me as an approach to absorbing material in class.

  409. says

    This is a followup to comments 395 and 396.

    Many mainstream media outlets are getting it wrong, or they are ignoring altogether the ignorance of international law that Republicans displayed in their stupid scuttle-the-negotiations letter. Al Jazeera got it right, though. They explained the issue perfectly:

    The key element missing from the GOP Senators’ letter, however, is that the deal is not being negotiated between Iran and the United States; it is being negotiated between Iran and the P5+1 group, in which the U.S. is joined by Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China. Even if the U.S. is the key player in that group, the deal being pursued reflects an international consensus — the same consensus that has made sanctions against Iran so effective.

    This was likely in the mind of Iran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, who dismissed the letter as “of no legal value” and a “propaganda ploy.” Zarif noted that the deal would indeed be an international agreement adopted by the U.N. Security Council, which a new administration would be obliged to uphold — and that any attempt by the White House or Congress to abrogate, unilaterally modify or impede such an agreement would be a breach of U.S. obligations.

    http://america.aljazeera.com/blogs/scrutineer/2015/3/9/what-46-republican-senators-may-not-understand-about-iran.html

    Okay, CNN, CBS, ABC, and every rightwing news outlet in the USA, please read or watch Al Jazeera (or do both if you are dense) so that you too can understand what is going on here.

    Non-Proliferation Treaty actions are governed by international laws enacted in 1968, and in force since 1970.

    Daily Kos looks at possible explanations for this much dumbitude in the ranks of rightwing politicians:

    […] The one explanation for this mass ignorance that makes sense is that most of these guys are Birchers. John Birch Society adherents and paranoids. Their spiritual lives are tied to Holy Writ claiming that the United nations is a communist conspiracy, home for secret armies, a scheme to steal home firearms… a cousin to Sharia Law.

    Plus, they skipped school when international law and treaties came up. And the concept of national sovereignty. As with all of Sarah Palin’s Real Americans, they know that all that stuff is evil. […]

  410. says

    More information from Daily Kos — an extension of the efforts to explain international law to Tom Cotton and his 46 silly buddies in the Senate:

    Let’s review 10th Grade civics for final clarity: the United Nations Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons was approved in 1968 and ratified to become effective in 1970. It is the law for this planet (excluding non-ratifiers.)

    This NPT is the sole instrument for enacting non-nuclear weapons agreements at national level. Permanent Members of the Security Council and Germany because they’re a big trading partner (“the P5+1”) do the negotiating. Agreements are ratified by votes of the 15 Members of the full Security Council.

    Security Council. United Nations. Not the United States Senate.

  411. a_ray_in_dilbert_space says

    vereverum,
    That’s good. Reminds me of Monty Python’s Philosopher’s song.

  413. David Marjanović says

    Yay, Heisenberg jokes! ^_^

    Something that’s also funny, but much less pleasant (link in German):

    The IS has a tradition of declaring people apostates left and right. Apostates, under Sharia law, must – must! – be put to death. Other Muslims tend to be extremely reluctant to declare any self-identified Muslims apostates; al-Azhar University, the most famous theological institution of the Sunni world (in Cairo), hasn’t (as an institution) ever declared anyone apostate in its 1000 years of history; last year they were asked to declare the IS apostates and declined.

    So, the IS had a judge called Abu Jaafar al-Hattab. Before joining the IS, he used to belong to a terror group called Ansar ( = sword of) ash-Sharia. He became the IS’s top law scholar. Sure enough, the Sharia commission he led declared all enemies of the IS apostates, including an-Nusra, the al-Qaida affiliate that rules northeastern Syria.

    And then al-Hattab declared that anyone who doesn’t call an apostate an apostate is an apostate himself. Ayman az-Zawahiri, y’know, the boss of al-Qaida, hadn’t declared the Shiites apostate enough; promptly al-Hattab declared him an apostate.

    For the first time, the IS leadership knew fear. Who next, they asked?

    So, a few weeks ago, they had al-Hattab and a few people who agree with him arrested. It is not known what has become of the others; he has been beheaded. Of course.

    The revolution is eating its children.

    Rightwing senators in the USA have become an international embarrassment.

    They’ve been without interruption at least since Barry “Nuts” Goldwater; I don’t know how widely people like Thurmond were known internationally.

    And now consider that Goldwater sounds downright reasonable when compared to what his party has become.

  414. says

    http://mediamatters.org/research/2015/03/12/media-adopt-double-standard-with-demands-for-in/202858

    Media outlets are demanding that Hillary Clinton be subject to an independent review of her personal email account to disprove their own baseless suggestions that she engaged in illicit activity or failed to properly disclose all work-related correspondence. The demand ignores that every State Department employee, regardless of whether they use government or personal accounts, decides for themselves whether or not to preserve their emails.

  415. says

    Is this FOX “News’ ” attempt to reach out to African-Americans?
    http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/03/11/meet-alveda-king-the-fox-news-contributor-who-b/202857

    Fox News has hired Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to “provide social and cultural commentary” for the network as a contributor. King is an extreme anti-LGBT activist who has compared same-sex marriage to genocide and claims homosexuality is a “knockoff” sexuality created by the devil.

    On March 6, Fox News announced that it signed King as a contributor to “provide social and cultural commentary” for the network. Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes touted King’s “passion and mission for social change” as a “valuable contribution” to the network.

    But unlike her uncle, Alveda King — who goes by “Dr. King” after receiving an honorary degree from Saint Anselm College — is primarily known for her work as a right-wing activist, including her extensive opposition to LGBT equality and reproductive freedom. King currently serves as the Director of African-American Outreach at the anti-choice organization Priests for Life, and previously served on the boards of multiple conservative organizations, including Heartbeat International, Georgia Right to Life, and Abortion Recovery International.

    King’s decade plus history of speaking against LGBT and reproductive rights has won her praise among conservative. She was a featured speaker for Glenn Beck’s 2010 “Restoring Honor” rally in 2010, and has previously been a frequent guest on Fox. In a Salon profile detailing Beck’s love for King, Loretta J. Ross, a black reproductive rights activist, noted that conservatives have recruited King “to be a front, to be a face … It’s a culture war wedge, to try to use gay rights and abortion as a way to build rifts in the black community.”

  419. says

    Crap.
    **HEADS UP**
    My link @418 is to an article at the Gaily Grind, a site which is often NSFW (I don’t think the article itself is, but there are images and links to other articles that contain adult material).

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

    Oh, Giliell & ARIDS:

    Those are great! They’re the top 3 of 10 physics related jokes I’ve seen in this last bit of time.

    Of course, the other 7 were probably very, very funny, they just were curled up so tight I none of my instruments could read them.

  422. says

    I was going to go to a board meeting for the Tool Library, but when I went outside, I found that some asshole had taken off and stolen the bracket that held my handlebars. Starting tomorrow, I’m working from 9 am to about 130 am for the next 3 days, and now I have to allow for fucking bus schedules in that too, because I can’t get the part I need tonight.

  423. carlie says

    Oh wow, Oggie, oxtail tacos sound amazing. I love oxtail, but I’ve only had it Dominican style with rice and beans, bone-in so you have to work to pick the meat out. To have it all concentrated in taco form…mmm.

    My knee didn’t hurt quite as much today, but late this afternoon I realized I had knocked my arms harder than I thought. After the ibuprofen wore off and after sitting at my desk on a computer the whole day, my hands were both almost entirely numb and obviously swollen (shoulders were also sore, from the impact of stopping the fall yesterday). I went home and took more anti-inflammatories, drank about a quart of water, and ate every diuretic food we had in the house. Feeling better now. Something weird is going on around here, though – my fall was minor to start with and even more minor compared to everyone else. In addition to the friend who fell and broke her wrist, I found out our secretary fell and tore ligaments in her shoulder a few days ago, and another friend at work’s wife fell and had a horrid leg break before that. It’s like our gravity is suddenly different or something.

    Speaking of which, anybody watch Gravity Falls? Because WHOA on the last episode finally making that big reveal, and learning about all the clues for it I hadn’t even known about before.

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

    sorry, dalillama.

    Hell, I’d give you a ride if I were still close enough to you.

    Good luck with transport – at least the local transit isn’t too bad. You could be in Fort Worth, after all…

  425. says

    pretty ‘rupt; been alternating busy and depressed for a while. *hugs* generally, and especially for IJoe, (hi!) Oggie (Condolences),JAL (Wish I could help) &anyone I’ve missed who’s having bad times lately (sorry).

  426. says

    Giliell 341

    *did I say parents? I meant mothers.

    The elementary schools in our district have a book fair run by the school librarians at least once a year, usually twice. It’s a chance for the kids to get books inexpensively (for the most part). I like to go to them to work with my kids and help out their fellow students. As a generally lazy person, it’s one of the things I really like doing at school.

    So, my daughter starts kindergarten and we learn about this Book Fair, and being the stay-at-home dad that I am, and since we’ll buy books for our kids at the drop of a hat, I go during my daughter’s class time. I listen to the speech the librarian gives the kids about the books (I almost have it memorized now – “if a book has a note that says last copy, they can order it, only one item that isn’t a book can be bought” — bookmarks, erasers and pencils, posters, etc). That first time, though, she ends the speech with, “And I’d like to thank all the moms who came to help.”

    I am not extroverted in these situations, but I couldn’t stop myself from giving a mildly surprised, “Who?” We laughed then, I still laugh now at the memory. I mean there was me and a handful of “moms” there, so I would have thought I stood out, and the librarian still glossed over me. And I know that now she knows who I am and I don’t know if there are that many other parents of kids in the school who the librarian knows by name.

    And in the 14 – 18 Book Fairs since then (2 kids for 6 years, though some years the dates didn’t work out for two Fairs), she has never failed to thank everyone who came to help.

    Also, I drop off and pick my kids up at school rather than putting them on the bus (that changes when they go to Middle School). If something interesting enough to relate to my wife happens while I am waiting for my kids after school, I end up starting my stories with, “One of the other mothers…”

    I didn’t think I was breaking that much new ground being a stay-at-home dad, but maybe I am in the area I live in (the area in which I live?).

    carlie

    I hope your knee feels better soon.

    Nerd

    I hated when the exhaust system started falling out of my first car. This was many years ago, but still, it sucks. I hope everything works out.

  427. JAL: Snark, Sarcasm & Bitterness says

    Update: Mom’s husband is out of jail and I think that’s the end of it but Mom’s back out there with him and hasn’t given me any more information. We didn’t have any problems with her staying her or anything like that either. Next obstacle is next month’s rent.

    Also, I’m so fucking irritated today. Got 3 hrs of sleep before getting Little One up for school, an hour when I tried napping before she got home and then another hour when I fell back asleep when she got home. Right now I’m trying to not let it out on others and calm down but I feel ready to rip Roomie’s headset off since he’s voice chatting while gaming and getting so loud. Which just makes me pissed off at myself and makes it worse. Grrr.

  428. carlie says

    ajb47, good on you for pointing out the librarian’s language. Spouse is a stay at home dad too. :)

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

    That sounds awful, JAL. I know that when I’m not living up to my ideals, I can hate on myself something fierce.

    Here’s wishing you better times soon. And a Studebaker to get there:

  430. says

    carlie

    ajb47, good on you for pointing out the librarian’s language. Spouse is a stay at home dad too. :)

    I have always pictured myself as being the “second person to do [almost] anything” just because I’m not assertive or confident enough to be the first. I’m not and I’ve never been. Somebody else I know does something, I’ll [generally] try it. (There are several foods that I just can’t get myself to eat, and heights and spiders are right out.) I know I’m not the first Household Manager Dad (Sometimes I like to pretend I have the word Manager in my title), but I didn’t think I was new enough to be… elided? glossed over? I wasn’t forgotten, per se. It felt more like I was so novel that even though the librarian (a nice person who is great at her job — both my kids like her) knew I was there, she just said “moms” like it’s always been moms instead of other relatives.

    Even in the last six years, there are now more people who seem to be dads picking their kids up from school, though almost all the in-school events are populated by moms. (In addition to the Book Fair, they have a shop they call the Secret Santa shop for kids to buy their own presents for friends and family for the holidays, they have a Mother’s Day shop – I think Father’s Day is too close to the end of the year, there is usually a Field Day where the kids do various athletic games outside.)

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

    Even in the last six years, there are now more people who seem to be dads picking their kids up from school,

    ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

  433. says

    Morning.
    I really need to tell you something that happened this morning*, which makes me equal parts proud and very, very sad.
    #1 struck up a conversation about princesses (my favourite topic!) and went on like this: Princesses can be any skin colour there is. There is totally no reason why a girl should be the servant and not the princess just because she’s got brown skin. She can be a princess, too!
    Of course I’m proud of her. Good girl! But holy fuck where did she even pick that up? Apart from everywhere, probably. Next person who tells me that racism is over and that representation doesn’t matter gets a metaphorical punch in the face.

    +++
    re: mums and dads
    Yeah, it’s on the one hand teachers simply reinforcing that shit “Tell your mum, ask your mum, we need some mums to help with typically female tasks” and on the other hand it’s many fathers still buying into that shit and not helping even though they do have time and skills (if you’re able bodied cannot make sandwiches you shouldn’t be allowed to vote).
    I always feel a bit hypocritical, because with Mr. being away during the week I do 100% of child related stuff. But that means I’m doing ALL the chores, the “male” ones as well as the “female” ones, only that the “male” ones are pretty rare.

    *and as mornings go it was a very good one

  434. opposablethumbs says

    Fuck, Dalillama. Sorry about the arsehole who knackered your bike (when you don’t even have time to get the part) :-(
    Hope you can get it soon.
    Sympathies to JAL. I wish I could help. Work has been thin on the ground for a while now :-((((

    Giliell I wonder if one of #1’s friends at school has been told by other kids in recent days that she can’t be a princess, that she has to be a servant because of her skin colour? Which I can imagine would also make #1 pretty damn indignant?

  435. bassmike says

    As yet my daughter has no concept of race. All the other children at nursery are just…other children at nursery. If only she would stay like that. I’m sure at some point she will start asking questions and I know what my answers will be. I’m determined that she’ll hear no bigotry from her parents.

    She was badly behaved again last night. Admittedly, she’s not badly behaved often, which makes these episodes all the more noteworthy. Anyway, she went to bed without a story. I believe that there has to be some sort of consequences otherwise she’ll never learn (for those following Thunderdome – is it violence?). Of course I could be doing it all wrong! That’s the magic of parenting :-|

  436. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Some nittwit claimed measles wasn’t a virus, but rather a psychosomatic illness, and asked for evidence it was a virus, with a reward for doing so. He refused to accept standard scientific evidence, but the court found otherwise….He must pay the reward….

  439. birgerjohansson says

    “Is this FOX “News’ ” attempt to reach out to African-Americans?”

    I imagine it will go something like “we totally have nothing against you darkies”.
    — — — — —

    A Kuwaiti Islamist preacher has called for the destruction of Egypt’s pyramids and Sphinx – one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world – claiming that just because early Muslims did not destroy the pharaohs’ legacy “does not mean that we shouldn’t”.
    http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/isis-muslim-preacher-calls-demolition-pyramids-sphinx-giza-1491363
    If he talks the talk, let him walk the walk. We should force this preacher to spend the rest of his life hacking away at the pyramids…

  441. birgerjohansson says

    New Scientist: US rape test backlog down to mindset, not just money http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22530125.200-us-rape-test-backlog-down-to-mindset-not-just-money.html
    — — —
    Turkey: Vast 3000 BC underground city discovered in Nevşehir is the size of 65 football pitches http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/turkey-ancient-underground-city-discovered-nevehir-size-65-football-pitches-1491745 Actually, more like an underground “town”, probably with a rather modest material culture, but still very interesting.
    .
    Bronze Age bones offer evidence of political divination in Armenia http://phys.org/news/2015-03-bronze-age-bones-evidence-political.html
    Ancient cultures were prone to indulge in divination. Wasn’t astrology practically an official ideology in China? And the Romans inherited a reliance on augurs from the Etruscans. Add the Greek oracles and this find is not surprising at all.

  442. birgerjohansson says

    ExxonMobil got off easy after its massive chemical spill left New Jersey looking like “Satan’s skunk had diarrhea”
    Not surprisingly, Exxon made contributions to the Republican Governors Association that Christie chaired last year.
    Jon Stewart: “Christie said he was a great negotiator, he didn’t say which side he was working for”

  443. says

    This is a followup to comments 409 and 410. Even ayatollah Ali Khamenei thinks the 47 Republicans who signed the scuttle-the-negotiations letter are stupid, are “a sign of a decline.”

    Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, said the letter warning that any nuclear deal could be scrapped by a new president was “a sign of a decline in political ethics and the destruction of the American establishment from within.” […]

    “All countries, according to the international norms, remain faithful to their commitments even after their governments change, but the American senators are officially announcing that at the end of the term of their current government, their commitments will be considered null and void,” Ayatollah Khamenei wrote.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/13/world/middleeast/ayatollah-ali-khamenei-criticizes-republicans-letter-on-iran-nuclear-talks.html?ref=world

    I guess we are all in the position of agreeing with the Ayatollah.

  444. says

    […] Former Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), an expert in nuclear proliferation, said this week that Republicans aren’t just helping the Ayatollah’s position, they’re also helping “weaken” the United States’ credibility on the global stage.

    There’s a degree of irony to this: Republicans whine incessantly about the importance of American influence abroad and the need for President Obama to lead more. At the same time, however, these same GOP lawmakers routinely make it more difficult to do exactly that.

    Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s (R) recently released an attack ad in which he argued, “Everywhere you look, you see the world slipping out of control. We have lost the trust and confidence of our friends.” […]

    Yeah, and whose fault is that, dunderheaded Republicans?

  446. says

    I’m embarrassed for them. For them to address a letter to the ayatollah, who they claim is our mortal enemy, and their basic argument to them is “don’t deal with our president ’cause you can’t trust him to follow through on an agreement.” That’s close to unprecedented.

    That’s President Obama speaking to Vice News about the letter 47 Republican Senators sent to the ayatollah.

    BTW, Fox News has announced that “the White House is reacting hysterically.” Nope. Obama made the point that his team is still focused on getting a non-proliferation deal done with Iran. Obama did not even raise his voice when discussing the stupid letter.

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

    @Lynna, #446:

    the White House is reacting hysterically

    Ah. Yes. Obama’s administration is reacting in a manner sexist douchgabbers consider unreasonable.

    In other news: mountains frequently exceed polar sea level in distance from the earth’s center of mass.

  448. rq says

    So I spent the last two days in training for “First Aid in a Police Environment”, which is, basically, first aid. As the instructor said, there’s nothing essentially different from first aid in any situation, you just have to know the proper steps. For the most part, I really enjoyed it, because the instructor interspersed the dry facts with a lot of stories from his own and his colleagues’ experience. Including all the gory details, so that was a lot of fun to listen to. A few minor notes: a slight show of possible homophobia (instructor: “I’d rather do mouth-to-mouth on a pretty girl than a man.” student: “But it’s very modern these days!” instructor: “I’m pretty conservative.” – DUDE YOU’RE A PARAMEDIC, HELPING EVERYONE.), some of the usual mild sexism/patriarchal thinking but actually relatively little (sad that this should be a good point, eh?) and then today he revealed himself as an anti-vaxxer. *sigh* But I didn’t understand if it was against all vaccines, or just against the encephalitis and flu vaccines (he spoke of two cases – one per vaccine – where people had had bad reactions, as if that made his whole case). And about half the class (of 14) agreed with him.
    But other than that it was rather acceptably spent time.

    *hugs* all around, esp. for Dalillama, carlie, and all the stay-at-home dads.
    Which reminds me, I think I mentioned when we had Middle Child’s birthday party, it was mostly dads who brought their children. What was really neat is that they were forced into the more stereotypical role of having to chat for a couple of hours about kids with each other – which went smoothly. But the most exciting bit was when two of them offered to help out with the cutting and slicing of food, while the third grudgingly did his part (though it was obvious he wasn’t used to it). It was surprisingly refreshing to have fathers offer like that, and then ask for more vegetables and items to prepare. And I find it sad that something like that is an event worthy of note.

  450. rq says

    TW for death of Terry Pratchett (for those of you with tears still available): Reinstate Terry Pratchett. It’s a petition to death. Someone on Twitter said that if it reaches 20 000 signatures, Death will trade Terry Pratchett in for Jeremy Clarkson. 12 000 signatures so far.

  451. rq says

    Saad
    re: the FB discussion in the Tdome, if you like, you can email me at the email in comment 48 this page, this thread and I can connect you up to Tony.

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

    @rq:

    While tremendously amusing and contemptuous of Jeremy Clarkson (but I repeat myself), this was Pratchett’s choice after all.

  453. Esteleth, RN's job is to save your ass, not kiss it says

    This is your periodic reminder that I’m collecting funds for JAL. PayPal donations can be sent to my email (esteleth at the google). I can also be emailed at that address to discuss alternate methods if PayPal does not work for you.

  455. says

    timgueguen @19:

    How does anyone eat anything in those universes, portrayed in TV commercials, where food talks? I’d be creeped out by the idea of eating talking candy.

    I just noticed this comment and it has my mind wandering.
    I’m wondering what humans in animated movies eat. The first movie that comes to mind is Disney’s The Little Mermaid. There’s all manner of sentient sea life in that movie. Do the humans of that world eat fish? Shellfish? Octopi?
    Maybe they’re all vegan.

  456. says

    Can someone with more computer expertise explain something to me?
    Throughout the day, I’ve gotten the message “website is offline” when I’ve tried to post a comment here (and a few times in the past). What causes this?

  461. rq says

    I’m starting to feel guilty about not going in to work after all. I’ve been lying about and keeping the migraine symptoms under control, and it’s making me think I should have ignored them in the first place, even though I could feel the impending nausea and things are still all sparkly all over. Oh well, there’s still tomorrow.
    Back to the couch for me.

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

    So I wrote a really long comment, but it was a total TLDR.

    Can I please just get a hug? Thanks. I’ll imagine it’s for me and not just because you’re all really nice people who’d give a virtual hug to anyone who stumbled in sounding sad.

    Was that passive aggressive? It probably was. Sorry.

  463. says

    In a particularly ironic twist, some nuns have taken Bill O’Reilly to task:

    “Maryknoll Sisters were deeply saddened when our Sisters were killed in El Salvador, and shocked when we learned of Mr. O’Reilly’s statement inferring he witnessed their murder,” the statement said.

    “This is, of course, untrue and we hope Mr. O’Reilly will take greater care in the public statements he makes in the future,” it added.

    The Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland also offered a statement, calling for reporters covering the tragedy to do so with a spirit of “integrity and honesty.”

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bill-oreilly-maryknoll-sisters-condemn

  465. says

    Expect ignorance and willful stupidity to be concentrated in one spot in the USA this weekend.

    […] Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, and Bobby Jindal are all scheduled to make an appearance this weekend at “The Awakening,” an event organized by Liberty Counsel featuring a myriad of radical anti-gay and anti-Islam activists.

    Among the participants will be Kamal Saleem, who has carved out a career for himself as an anti-Islam expert, supposedly based on his years as a leading Islamic terrorist with ties to Al Qaeda, Moammar Gadhafi, and Saddam Hussein before finally converting to Christianity.

    The “insights” that Saleem provides in his capacity are generally nonsense and his entire tale of a previous life as a terrorist is highly suspect and filled with unbelievable tales such as how, at eight years old, he outran Israeli military fire while carrying a dead friend on his back after a botched weapons smuggling operation. […]

    […] Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver spoke to a local Tea Party group in Orlando, Florida, where he pitched the upcoming event by specifically citing Saleem’s participation in it as a reason for people to attend. In selling Saleem’s life story as a vicious terrorist who was saved through Christ, Staver made a rather startling claim when he asserted that, in his terrorist past, Saleem had thrown Jews off the tops of building in Lebanon. […]

    […] three leading Republican presidential hopefuls will be speaking at an event alongside an anti-Semitic murderer who was never tried or punished for any his crimes … but that is apparently not a big deal because that murderous terrorist has since found Christ and repented.

    Right Wing Watch link.

    Reminds me of that stupid song that PZ discussed on the front page, the song with its advice for Muslims to go home. I guess they could also convert to fundamentalist christianity and that would please so-called patriotic Americans. What a lot of ugliness.

  467. says

    Beatrice, I’ll send you hugs. Not passive-aggressive, just human.

    rq, here are some hugs for you. Sparkly awfulness associated with migraine should go away. Also guilt, dispense with guilt.

  470. says

    You know how a lot of Republicans take refuge in the “I am not a scientist” statement when they want to deny global warming etc.? Well, Senator Ted Cruz is taking that one step further. He is redefining science.

    The Republican dunderhead from Texas thinks that if he says that Earth Science is not a “hard science” he can find some wiggle room in climate statistics and models. Science mag link.

    Some scientists are surprised:

    The idea that the geosciences aren’t hard science comes as a shock to Margaret Leinen, president of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and a former head of the National Science Foundation’s geosciences directorate.

    Ted Cruz further refined his definition of hard science as opposed to earth sciences programs:

    “We’ve seen a disproportionate increase in the amount of federal funds going to the earth sciences program at the expense of funding for exploration and space operations, planetary sciences, heliophysics, and astrophysics, which I believe are all rooted in exploration and should be central to NASA’s core mission,” Cruz said at yesterday’s hearing on NASA’s 2016 budget request. “We need to get back to the hard sciences, to manned space exploration, and to the innovation that has been integral to NASA.”

    Yeah, Mr. Cruz, you cannot take climate change out of the picture by saying it doesn’t fit in the “hard science” category. I know you don’t like spending money on Earth Science stuff, but really, it is important.

    […] California now has only enough water to get it through the next year. […] Link.

    In an op-ed published Thursday by the Los Angeles Times, Jay Famiglietti, a senior water scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, painted a dire picture of the state’s water crisis. California, he writes, has lost around 12 million acre-feet of stored water every year since 2011. In the Sacramento and San Joaquin river basins, the combined water sources of snow, rivers, reservoirs, soil water and groundwater amounted to a volume that was 34 million acre-feet below normal levels in 2014. And there is no relief in sight.

    The Los Angeles Times article uses reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cornell University and Columbia University to back up the data and reports from NASA.

    That’s nothing according to Ted Cruz and his ilk — it’s not hard science.

  472. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Ah, success! On my iMac, I replaced the OEM hard drive with a solid state drive, replaced the dead optical drive with a new BR/DVD/CD burner, and removed what seemed like a bushel full of dust from the innards, and especially the main cooling fan. Booted right up, and everything is working.
    *does a little happy dance*

  473. Saad says

    rq, #460

    For thinking about: Why are white people expats when the rest of us are immigrants?

    Woah… never really gave that any thought. It’s eerie how deep prejudices and bigotry can go and how elusive they can be to spot.

    rq, #461

    I’m starting to feel guilty about not going in to work after all. I’ve been lying about and keeping the migraine symptoms under control, and it’s making me think I should have ignored them in the first place, even though I could feel the impending nausea and things are still all sparkly all over. Oh well, there’s still tomorrow.
    Back to the couch for me.

    Ever since you told me what you do for a living, I imagine your job is like Dexter’s. I mean the actual work, not the extracurricular activities.

    Tony, #454

    I’m not too active on there, but just send you a message.

  474. rq says

    Saad
    Yah, that article made me stop and think, because I was like, “Well, obviously I’m an ex-pat!” and then I started to think about why. So yeah, guilty party right here.
    Also, as for my job, well… all the TV shows stole the awesome lighting and flooring, so we make to with bad fluorescents and dirty-looking linoleum. Othewise, it’s exactly the same. :P But with more paperwork. :D

  475. says

    Lynna @465

    Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, and Bobby Jindal are all scheduled to make an appearance this weekend at “The Awakening,” an event organized by Liberty Counsel featuring a myriad of radical anti-gay and anti-Islam activists.

    …The earth plans to open its crust beneath them in an act of righteous defiance.

    I’m sorry, was I daydreaming out loud?

  476. opposablethumbs says

    {{hugs}} to Beatrice. Which I would totally deliver in person if acceptable, if we weren’t several countries and a bit of water apart.

  477. says

    Governor Scott Walker has embellished his conservative bona fides in many ways, some of which include lying and/or exaggeration.

    […] “And they brought over a pair of white gloves to me and they said, ‘No one has touched this since President Reagan. It is his mother’s Bible that he took the oath of office on. Mrs. Reagan would like you to hold it and take a picture with it’,” Walker said […]

    Audience members can be heard gasping, then applauding as Walker tells the story.

    But library artifacts curator Jennifer Torres told The Progressive magazine in a series of emails that it was Walker who had asked to view the Bible while at the library.

    “We decided to remove the Bible the day Gov. Walker was in town to comply with his request, took the Bible back to collections after the photo and re-installed it on exhibit a few days later,” Torres said in the March 4 email.

    Torres also said in the email that Walker’s assertion that he was the first person to touch the Bible since Ronald Reagan was untrue.

    “Since the president’s passing, several staff members and conservators have handled the Bible, all while wearing gloves,” Torres said in the emails. “It is unknown if President Reagan was the last to have to have touched the Bible without gloves, but it is doubtful.” […]

    Good story though, right? Walker can’t be trusted.
    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/scott-walker-reagan-bible-curator

  478. says

    Zebra fish are in the news.

    […] Scientists studying cancer have netted a $1.1 million expansion to double the university’s [University of Utah] supply of zebrafish for a series of studies — research they say could help find new treatments for cancer. […]

    School trustees earlier this week signed off on a plan to add more tanks, update equipment and renovate research and office space at the Huntsman Cancer Institute’s Zebrafish Core Research Facility.

    At the U., a basement aquarium holds 75,000 fish. With the new expansion, the aquarium capacity would grow to 150,000.

    Researchers can trace nearly two dozen different models of cancer through the transparent bodies of the fish, including leukemia, liver and pancreatic cancer, brain tumors and melanoma. […]

    Scientists sometimes inject the fish embryos with cancer cells. In other cases, they observe varieties that are genetically more prone to certain cancers. One such creature circling a tank this week had a bulging eye tumor.

    Researchers euthanize sick fish if they swim in spirals or show other signs of pain. […]

    http://www.sltrib.com/news/2278414-155/little-zebrafish-offer-big-hope-for

  481. says

    awakeinmo @475:

    …The earth plans to open its crust beneath them in an act of righteous defiance.

    Remarkably similar to my fantasy.

    The rightwing love affair with the fake terrorist/born again christian is just so icky, so wrong.

  482. rq says

    Maybe we should just start blaming natural disasters on the rightwingnuts, loudly and often? Because we can? Maybe the earth will listen…

  484. Saad says

    Actually, 3/14 or 3-14 are a terrible approximations for pie. Those of us who write the date as MM.DD may continue observing it today.

    The 22nd of July is a more appropriate day to celebrate.

  485. Morgan!? the Slithy Tove says

    Here are several hugs, Beatrice. One for each paragraph in the TLDR.

  486. Portia (aka Smokey the Advocate) says

    I am so rupt. I’ve missed y’all. *hugs* all around.

    But especially for Beatrice. Hope you’re ok.

  488. Portia (aka Smokey the Advocate) says

    HIiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
    :D
    I’m being so lazy. But it’s sunny and pretty out.

    We’re out of water in the village…I’m hoping this gets fixed soon. The water tower is empty. Thank goodness we’ve got the Mississippi River right there if there’s a fire.

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

    Thank you.
    (If I don’t list people I can be sure I won’t forget to list someone)

    It’s just loneliness and some other feelings.
    I’m watching The Fall now. I want to be Stella Gibson when I grow up.

  490. says

    rq @483, loved the Cow Pi. That was awesome.

    In other news, a small town in Canada has outlawed swearing.

    The way the bylaw is worded, even whispering a curse word in public could land you a $150 fine, […]

    There’s also a curfew for teenagers, and a section of the law that allows police to break up any assembly of more than three persons.

    Taber is a little town in the shadow of the Cardston mormon temple in southern Alberta. I suspect a Moment of Mormon Madness played a part in coming up with the “Community Standard Bylaw,” though an ex-mormon who used to live there says the population is a mix of mormons, mennonites and calvinists.

    Metro News, Calgary link.

  491. says

    Good evening

    beatrice
    *hugs*
    And may I tell you that I really like you? And by that I mean you, in person. You especially. Not because I’m just a nice lass giving virtual hugs.
    I hope that doesn’t come across creepy. Uhm.

    +++
    opposablethumbs

    Giliell I wonder if one of #1’s friends at school has been told by other kids in recent days that she can’t be a princess, that she has to be a servant because of her skin colour? Which I can imagine would also make #1 pretty damn indignant?

    That’s totally possible. 2 girls she’s friends with at the daycare are biracial. As it happens, their dad is African American and long back in the States, their mum married to a white guy now, so the two girls grow up black in a white world without anybody who could teach them or help them. When the younger one was still in preschool with #1 I once overheard her when she showed the picture she’s painted to her mum and explained to her that really, that blonde white princess girl in the pic was her.
    Nearly broke my heart.

    +++
    Also, did Mr. just try to correct my Spanish?
    Sometimes he’s such a mansplainer….

  492. says

    In honor of Pi, I liked this New Yorker article.

    Excerpts:

    […] The beauty of pi, in part, is that it puts infinity within reach. Even young children get this. The digits of pi never end and never show a pattern. They go on forever, seemingly at random—except that they can’t possibly be random, because they embody the order inherent in a perfect circle. This tension between order and randomness is one of the most tantalizing aspects of pi. […]

    What distinguishes pi from all other numbers is its connection to cycles. For those of us interested in the applications of mathematics to the real world, this makes pi indispensable. Whenever we think about rhythms—processes that repeat periodically, with a fixed tempo, like a pulsing heart or a planet orbiting the sun—we inevitably encounter pi. […] [The article goes on to include Fourier series, math formula alert.]

    Through the Fourier series, pi appears in the math that describes the gentle breathing of a baby and the circadian rhythms of sleep and wakefulness that govern our bodies. When structural engineers need to design buildings to withstand earthquakes, pi always shows up in their calculations. Pi is inescapable because cycles are the temporal cousins of circles; they are to time as circles are to space. Pi is at the heart of both.

    For this reason, pi is intimately associated with waves, from the ebb and flow of the ocean’s tides to the electromagnetic waves that let us communicate wirelessly. At a deeper level, pi appears in both the statement of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and the Schrödinger wave equation, which capture the fundamental behavior of atoms and subatomic particles. In short, pi is woven into our descriptions of the innermost workings of the universe.

    So that’s what I’ll be celebrating when the clock strikes 3.14.15 9:26:53—safe in my burrow, waiting out the mayhem.

  495. rq says

    Well, tomorrow is supposed to be the highest-pressure day in three years in Latvia. We’ll see what that does to my head.
    In the meantime, I have now cried my way through two movies (don’t worry, this was entirely intentional, as I went ‘sappy-and-romantic’ tonight) and I think that means I’m allowed to go to bed. And try going to work tomorrow. :P
    Good night, everyone!

  497. Saad says

    Ugh, I had a post typed to Beatrice that got lost when I posted (website is offline thing). But you have my sympathies on the loneliness.

    And I was going to tell you I enjoyed Broadchurch 1st season very much. Netflix doesn’t have season 2 yet, so I guess I’ll have to wait.

    Also, I’ve been watching Dicte, which is pretty good so far. It’s also a crime/murder show with a woman reporter as the lead character.

    Oh yeah and Stella Gibson is awesome.

  498. says

    Wait, rq! Which movies? Because I am known to tear up in certain situations and I’d like to know before I stumble on the ones you just watched.

    Beatrice

    I want you to know that I enjoy your posts here on Pharyngula (not just in the Lounge). I do actually keep personalized hugs for a lot of the folks who frequent the Lounge and I wish I was better at expressing them.