Comments

  1. richardh says

    “Video unavailable.
    This video contains content from Fremantle International, who [sic] has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.”

  3. Forrest Phelps says

    To All Here Who Post Comments On This Blog:

    First, thank you. I lurk mostly, so most of you are probably shaking your head right now, saying, who is this guy?

    I am the guy whose Uncle flew over Normandy the day before the beaches were stormed. I am the guy who had a second Uncle who was part of the assault of Normandy. I am the guy who probably wouldn’t be here if the bombs hadn’t been dropped on Japan, because his father, who had fought his bloody way towards Japan, was going to be part of the invasion force.

    I am the guy who served this country for more years than I care to remember, including one war of my own (from a relatively safe assignment; I did receive combat pay and a ribbon (woo-hoo!), but I was no hero). I am the guy who was an atheist in the foxhole. I am the guy whose son was a Navy diver assigned to a Seal team and has had “issues” with some of that, but has come out the other side OK. He now works for the VA helping vets get their benefits.

    I am the guy, like many of you here, who realized (or had confirmed) that there are far too many people around us who do not understand integrity, fairness, compassion, or even have the basic sense to reject an actual threat to their neighbors and, ultimately, to themselves. No matter what happens in the next few months, it is only going to get worse. The only question is how quickly.

    So, PZ, could you please start treating political posts like you do spider pictures? Below the fold so we don’t have to see them? It is your blog, so do as you desire, obviously. I’ll still continue to read your words, except for the political ones.

    Please, let me be clear; I am not trying to tell anyone what to post.
    I think I’m just ranting because that feel like the only thing I have left to do.

    Take care, all, and wear your damn masks. (I know you do).

  4. ANB says

    Nope. Just because “political” posts are scarier, doesn’t mean we can’t face them. I think he posted this one is just because of the one survivor. As it should be.

  6. Allison says

    I’m sure this post and the past few posts had a lot to say, but since I can’t process videos, they were wasted on me. And the text you wrote gives no clue whatsoever as to what we’re supposed to get out of them. (I.e., it’s an Accessibility issue.)

    If you can’t provide transcripts, it would be nice to at least supply a (written) summary, so that people like me can have some idea what you are talking about.

    (An example of a site that does try to be accessible is “the f-word”. Here is the URL for their editorial policies w.r.t. ableism — https: //thefword.org.uk/our-position/the-f-words-position-on-disablism-and-access/
    I also really appreciate that Rebecca Watson, over at SkepChick, provides transcripts for most of her videos.)

  7. says

    The first season was fantastic, the second got a little wobbly, and then they fired Orlando Jones so who knows if there’ll be a third…and I won’t be inclined to watch it anyway.

  8. specialffrog says

    Not only did they fire Orlando Jones, they apparently had him write most of the dialogue for the non-white characters and then fired him because it was ‘too angry’.

  9. davidc1 says

    @1 Those fremantle bastards ,they are the ones who have bought up a lot of old British TV shows ,likewise them bastards at studio canal have done the same with a lot of British films .

  10. says

    I got angry about this stuff years ago. The main result is that people get all defensive about the party of concealed sabotage (a.k.a. the Democrats) because of the party of open sabotage (the Republicans). It’s like seeing people defend George W. Bush because he wasn’t as bad as Adolf Hitler, a tactic the Republicans actually used back in his administration.

    At least, no matter what happens, a horrible, racist, evil old man, on the side of the 1% against the rest of us, who publicly considers it an accomplishment to defeat “the left” and fairly consistently throughout their entire career made the country and the world worse while proclaiming themselves to be a good person, will have their career ended by this election. Of course, we’ll apparently end up with the other one, but once Biden was handed the nomination that was all we could hope for.

  11. KG says

    once Biden was handed the nomination

    You mean once he got more votes than anyone else in the primaries? But of course you wouldn’t have used this turn of phrase if Sanders had won – as I wish he had.

  12. mnb0 says

    Tsssk. You’re so obsessed with Donald the Clown that you neglected what really matters: the Squad now has seven members. Congratulations to Mondaire Jones, Sarah McBride and Ritchie Torres.
    They’ll make a difference, not that old geezer you have been promoting for months just because his name is not Trump.

  14. favog says

    @12: yeah … in the long term. Unless we become a Fascist/Republican (the terms are now interchangeable, it they weren’t already) State in the short term.

  16. KG says

    that old geezer you have been promoting for months just because his name is not Trump. – mnb0@12

    What a remarkably (but from you, unsurprisingly), stupid thing to say. If Trump were called Biden, and Biden, Trump, do you suppose either PZ or anyone else here who disagrees with you would have supported the former? It’s Trump’s actions, and above all his blatant attacks on what democracy the USA has that make a Biden victory not just preferable, but absolutely essential.

  17. says

    Other than watching the reactions of people around me I’ve been posting on thread on nextdoor. A challenge is that nextdoor does not allow national politics in the main feed, they encourage groups for that. Even though the posts were about local politics they got locked instead of the people who could not behave getting consequences. Before the lock I did ok.
    Lots of the national politics references were from Trumpkins who kept deflecting from the local example. To be fair a bunch of Biden fans had trouble tangenting to national references too.

    I responded to a bunch of general expressions of disgust about politics on nextdoor with the point that politics is a general human instinct and it’s irrational to try to remove it. Instead they need to be specific about what political behavior they don’t like.

  22. robro says

    mnbo @ #12 — Can’t speak for everyone, of course, but I was watching the races that included “The Squad.” I consider expansion of that particular tribe to be a positive step. One of these days we in California might introduce some new Squad members to replace the aging mainstays we currently send to Washington.

    It’s sad to realize how many white Americans don’t realize that the race divide victimizes them as well, though certainly not with the same degree of punishment. There is some evidence that suggests the invention of “slave” forced labor and “indentured” forced labor was intended to keep working people divided in the English colonies. What better way than along an easily identified marker like skin color.

  23. says

    Forrest Phelps @3, you should be aware that nobody here has any way to know how much of that autobiographical post is actually true. What we do know, because we can read what you’ve written, is that the core of your message, boiled down to its essentials, is “Can’t you even try to cover up the shitty bits of America?” You should know that that… isn’t going to fly here.

  25. Alt-X says

    Not really sure what your military background has to do with anything. I’m an Atheist, my two ex-army brothers are atheist, my dad & uncles are ex-special forces and atheists, and my grandfather, WW2 vet was an atheist too. Why would any of this matter to pz’s blog?

  26. davidc1 says

    I see in the news in places repubs have ben chanting Stop the Vote ,while some in other places have been chanting Count every Vote .
    And the latest chart i have seen shows Biden needing 6 votes in the EC ,and having nearly 4 million more votes in the popular vote .What will happen if he doesn’t get to 270 EC votes ?

  27. Reginald Selkirk says

    Off-topic:
    Five-eyed fossil ‘shrimp’ found in China could be evolutionary ‘missing link’

    Enter Kylinxia zhangi, a shrimp-like creature preserved in fossils found in China’s Yunnan province…
    First there are those eyes – three smaller ones in a row on its head, with two larger ones directly behind.
    It might sound bizarre, but it’s a feature scientists have seen before, in an ancient creature called Opabinia, known informally as a “weird wonder”.
    And the Kylinxia’s two spiky front appendages, researchers say, are reminiscent of another creature thought to be an arthropod ancestor: the Anomalocaris…

  28. says

    @26 We will have Trump for four more years. We will watch our remaining integrity burn down, but we can’t stop fighting.

    Hell we can’t stop fighting even if JB wins, because its obvious that the majority of people who share my skin color are racist, sexist, xenophobic, transphobic fuckwads, or at the very least that isn’t a deal-breaker for them (and that is almost worse).

    No matter what, get angry and fight. However, the way our system works, even though its most likely Biden wins, I suspect he won’t…

  29. davidc1 says

    Been leaving comment on a faceache site called stand with trump ,all the god botherers are doing the weeping and gnashing of teeth bit.. One wackaloon was going on about sharpiegate ,they say the voting machines in Az will not read sharpies ,only ball points ,so they forced the voters to use sharpies ,lol.
    I wonder if that applied to Biden voters as well .

  30. says

    @#11, KG:

    Bill Clinton admitted that the entire Democratic establishment ganged up to throw their support behind Biden, despite his own supporters liking him the least of all the people running, because they were afraid particularly of Sanders but in general of having a candidate who would actually move the party left.

    As always: centrism is a gateway to fascism. The Clintons and Biden ought to have been booted from the party over their various betrayals. Instead, they’re in control, and continuing to lose elections. Dunno if you noticed, but Biden’s coat-tails are basically nonexistent, even if he manages to win. The Democrats belittled and slapped down all their enthusiastic supporters to back a pro-1% racist rapist. If you’re still defending him, you’re an idiot.

  34. KG says

    <

    blockquote>Bill Clinton admitted that the entire Democratic establishment ganged up to throw their support behind Biden – The Vicar

    Of copurse they fucking did! So what? He got the nomination because more people voted for him than for Sanders,. If there had been the deep and widespread hunger for radical progressive change you want to believe in, Sanders would have swept the primary vote. Try accepting reality for a change.

    The Democrats belittled and slapped down all their enthusiastic supporters to back a pro-1% racist rapist. If you’re still defending him [biden], you’re an idiot.

    I’ve never defended Biden, except from your lie that you (or anyone other than him and any actual victoims) know whether he’s a rapist. You cannot point to a single post where I have done so. I wanted Sanders to win the nomination, I’ve consistently described Biden as a weak candidate and a standard-issue conservative. And I’ve repeatedly described you as a liar and as someone who has done their best to keep Trump in power, which you are.

  36. captainjack says

    Vicar is a lazy whiner who wants a hero to save America so he/she/they doesn’t have to do anything but run his/hers/their mouth. If I’m wrong, Vicar, regale us with the illustrious history of your activism.