Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in realinterrobang's LiveJournal:

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Friday, November 20th, 2009
10:25 pm	Coming Home The vet called me today to let me know that Nero is doing beautifully, and can come home tomorrow. According to her, he's still a little unsteady on his feet, but I would be too, if I'd just lost a leg. On the other hand, he's eating and drinking and everything just fine, so that's really good. Apparently he's also tolerating the fentanyl patch (I can't get away from those things!) really well*, so I won't be faced with the impossible task of trying to pill him. I'm picking him up tomorrow afternoon! _____________ * I'm just hoping he doesn't get addicted to them and then go through withdrawl and start seeing bugs on the walls. At least he doesn't own any shoes, let alone heavy ones. Current Mood: cheerful Current Music: "The Staunton Lick," Lemon Jelly (4 Comments |Comment on this)
12:28 am	Surgery According to the vet and the "veterinary candy-striper" who's looking after Nero, he came out of his surgery with flying colours and is doing very well in the ICU tonight, and not showing any signs of pain, so everything is going swimmingly. It's weird that he's not here, and I'm having intermittent urges to pet something feline. They've got me well-trained, they have. Current Mood: gloomy Current Music: "St. James Infirmary Blues," Louis Armstrong (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
12:17 pm	I met a cat with a wooden leg named Smith. What was the name of his other leg? I'm taking Nero to Guelph again tomorrow, so they can amputate his leg. I decided that the operation was the most humane thing to do -- I don't think I'd like to live with (and die from) untreated cancer, and I think he's healthy and robust enough (I hope!), even despite the FIV, to come through it okay. ...I still feel lousy about it... Have a picture of the boy: Current Mood: blah Current Music: no (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
12:30 pm	Maybe the so-called hype isn't actually hype, guys? I'm getting tired of hearing about how H1N1 has been "overhyped" in the media -- no, frankly, it hasn't. It was looking as though it was going to be very deadly, which so far hasn't happened, but it's not exactly pleasant to begin with, and when it does kill people, it's also killing the young and healthy besides the usual vulnerable populations. (Besides which, it's also everywhere.) A twelve year old hockey player died in Toronto the other week. And on the 11th of this month, University of Ottawa professor and award-winning chemist Keith Fagnou, 38, father of three, died of it. He was not known to have any underlying medical conditions, and is described in the article as being someone who "is healthy and vibrant, who is active and doing the right sorts of things and who took care of himself." His wife is a doctor, to boot. This is actually a fairly big deal. (I'm still on the mend, for what it's worth, and it's been over two weeks now.) Update: handsvermillion says he's got the Hiney Flu too, and wound up in the hospital via ambulance because his lungs decided to take a few days off without arranging for appropriate temporary staffing first. Current Mood: annoyed Current Music: no (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 16th, 2009
12:37 am	A moment of musical geekery I was reading about this classical pianist, Sara Davis Bruechner, who was born David Bruechner. Just out of curiosity, I went to YouTube to see if I could find anything by her, so I could really get a better sense of her playing than the brief clips in the video attached to the NYT article. I found this video, Busoni's "Toccata (Preludio, Fantasia, Ciaccona)," which is astonishingly technically complex. (I was having trouble following the notation, and, as dglenn will tell you, I have a fairly rigourous musical education.) On listening to the piece, I thought to myself (and said to eviltomble, "This guy is a late 19th C. Romantic -- his stuff is too weird and unmelodic to be anything earlier than the late 19th C., but not weird, atonal, and unrhythmical enough to be well into the early 20th C. (e.g. the really deconstructionist nineteen-teens type stuff), has those long, sweeping runs characteristic of Romantic composition, and is too formalist to be a really modern composer, since modern classical composers tend to either do formalism with melody, or complete abstraction." I went to Wikipedia, and found: Ferruccio Busoni, April 1, 1866 – July 27, 1924. Apparently I was a little bit out, because the piece dates from 1920, but I am quite pleased to have nailed him down fairly specifically as to time period -- he really does seem distinctly to sound like someone who came of compositional age right around 1900 or so. At least one of these references calls him a "Post-Romantic," which is a designation I've actually never heard before... Current Mood: amused Current Music: none actually (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 14th, 2009
12:39 am	Quotes, I Disavow Your Toxic Culture Edition How can kids be convinced that they're depraved because of some mythical "sin" if you don't lie to them? -- Glen Davidson, Pharyngula, comments Oh, right, I forgot about the Domino Effect: after the Taliban unify Afghanistan, they will conquer Pakistan as well, and then they will subjugate Iran and India and, poof, Second Caliphate. Just like when the Communists used Vietnam as their launching point for the invasion of California. -- scarshapedstar, Balloon Juice, comments New reporter second day on the job: “If I won the lottery, I would buy a Krispy Kreme store, lay down on the machine and glaze myself.” -- from Overheard in the Newsroom I escort at Planned Parenthood and every time they ask me "what if your mother had an abortion?", I smile - she did, between me and my older brother. I know good and damn well I was a wanted child. -- museclio, Shakesville, comments Once again, I must state that I will consider giving up atheism when the universe ceases to dump evidence against a benevolent creator on my lap. -- John Ball, Sadly, No!, comments A very common misuse of basic statistics is when anti-vaxers point to the fact that, during outbreaks, often more immunized people than unimmunized people get sick. If a child with measles walks into a room of 100 preschool children, 1 of whom is unimmunized, a statistically plausible outcome would be that 6 children will develop measles, the single unimmunized child, and 5 of the immunized children. This is because there is a roughly 5% vaccine failure rate after the first dose of measles vaccine. So, more vaccinated children than unvaccinated children will become infected. Anyone familiar with the simple statistical concept of percentage will quickly see the problem with using this as an example of why vaccines don't work. But for those who don't see this, here's the clarifying point. Suppose that same child with measles walks into a room with 99 unimmunized children and 1 vaccinated child. The most likely outcome would be that approximately 95 children would develop measles. Almost all of the unvaccinated children would get the disease, (the secondary attack rate for measles is over 90%) and the vaccinated child would most likely be protected. So, does the vaccine work? -- John Snyder, Science-Based Medicine, comments If I wasn't standing to the left of namby-pambies, how in the hell would any of them know where they stood on any given issue? -- Kimberely, Hullabaloo, comments Fundie persecution = "Inability to use force to make people do what we want them to." -- raven, Pharyngula, comments [O]n yesterday’s WTF podcast, Zach Galifinakis told Marc Maron his dark-skinned Greek uncle’s favorite story about being told to go to the back of the bus in NC in the 50’s, when the bus driver mistook him for a Negro. When the uncle told the bus driver he was not a Negro, but Greek, the bus driver told him, “Then you can’t ride this bus at all!” -- Tom Betz, Balloon Juice, comments Reporter to Editor: “We’re really working without a net here.” Editor: “We laid the net off.” -- from Overheard in the Newsroom This is kinda why I hate Twitter, btw. It combines all the cluelessness of high-schoolers texting each other, but with the reach and nonstop trolling of usenet. -- Sheesh, Sadly, No!, comments By 1932 hunger was so widespread in Kentucky and West Virginia that the American Friends Service Committee was forced to restrict its food relief to people who weighed at least ten percent less than normal for their height. -- Ronald Edsforth, The New Deal: America's Response to the Great Depression, pg 86, via Google Books Certainly I can't be the only one snickering at the thought of an error message being documented as part of a procedure. ;) 1. Do X. 2. Do Y. An error message appears. Click OK. 3. Cry. -- Bill Swallow, TECHWR-L [This sounds like my normal testing procedure. -- ?!] [T]here are uglier mammals around than naked mole rats. but not many, and not by much. -- Nomen Nescio, Pharyngula, comments Reporter: “In what other job do you get to ask: ‘How many dots in motherf…er?’” -- from Overheard in the Newsroom Only the goyim vote retail. -- SomeNYGuy, Sadly, No!, comments Perhaps this letter writer would like to explain to those of us who were born pre-Roe to parents that emphatically didn't want them how it's better to grow up in a household where the monster that's trying to kill you is your own father. No joke. He did. Also my pro-life grandmother spent years telling me how I wasn't wanted and shouldn't be here, then shed go off to Mass to get her self-righteous on. Given the choice, I'd have chosen to be aborted, thanks. -- Abra, Shakesville, comments, on a very bizarre anti-abortion hate mail received by Melissa McEwan Disarm all American men between the ages of 18 and 76. james, I'm in such a foul mood today that, when I read your comment, my first thought was, "yeah, disleg them too." -- james k. sayre and Anonymous, Echidne of the Snakes, comments Stephen Tyler looks like a Skeskis from The Dark Crystal at this point. Or Barbara Streisand. Or both. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. They way I’m going, I’m gonna end up looking like Rip Torn. -- Tommmcatt, Sadly, No!, comments “You know, the production process is the grassy knoll of journalism.” -- from Overheard in the Newsroom I have to say, I hate the dichotomy sometimes raised around this debate between "righteous" and "frivolous" abortions. Y'know what? Not my body, not my right to say whether a woman's choice not to carry to term is righteous or frivolous. It doesn't actually fucking matter whether she's doing it because she can't afford a child, or because she doesn't want to fuck up a promotion at work, or because she doesn't want to get fucking stretch marks. It. Doesn't. Fucking. Matter. It's her damn body. If someone wants to give a life to that fetus, let *them* carry the damn thing to term. If she doesn't want her body used as an incubator for a child she doesn't want, then she gets to have an abortion. Period, end of fucking sentence. -- CaitieCat, Shakesville, comments When I was a kid, the rents dragged me to see Gone with the Wind. I cried when the horse died. The people were all assholes, so I didn't care what happened to them. -- libhom, distributorcap NY, comments In nature, the average woman became pregnant shortly after menarche and gave birth within the year (generally between ages 16-18), gave birth to 8-10 children over her lifetime, faced a 1 in 13 lifetime risk of childbirth death and had a life expectancy of 35 years. We're supposed to believe that in nature teenagers who had 1 in 13 lifetime chance of dying in childbirth, who could expect to have 8-10 children, who had no control over their fertility approached birth without fear. We're supposed to believe that societies with a 1% maternal mortality rate and a 7% neonatal mortality rate "used to birth fine." We're supposed to believe that these same teenagers who left no record of any kind indicating that they found birth empowering, painless or ecstatic, actually approached birth in the same way as 30 year old Western, white women in the 20th century. The entire premise is absolutely absurd. -- Amy Tuteur, MD, Science-Based Medicine, comments But isn't that really the bug up our collective lefty butts? We, progressives who have been shown to have been right over and over again on substantial public policy issues the past 25 years (or even the entirety of American history) for wanting to try new things are forced to listen to the howls of boobs who are almost never correct tell us that WE are crazy, all while they keep trying the same things over and over waiting for a different result... -- williamc, Hullabaloo, comments [I]n some cultures, dramatic and even traumatic initiations are deemed necessary to create new masculine beings. In other cultures, constant proving is necessary -- displays of courage, demonstrations of honor -- to sustain the masculine state. In still others, the focus may be on preventing dishonor, the dreaded state of shame. The very presence of these cultural codes and institutions further underscores the cultural origins of masculinities. One would have to wonder why, if masculinity were an innate unfolding of inherent male attributes, cultures would have evolved such dramatic and pervasive mans for its creation and maintenance. -- David Lisak, "Male Gender Socialization and the Perpetration of Sexual Abuse," in Childhood Socialization, edited by Gerald Handel, via Google Books Asher is a false deity promoted by demons? Her divorce from Yahweh must have been horrible if his friends are spreading those kinds of rumors. -- Humanistic Jones, Pharyngula, comments A good part of the problem is that too many men see "having babies and taking care of them" as something cute and funny that women do, that keeps the little ladies busy, so that they won't bother men in men's much more important work. I have found that if I need to get across to someone that childbirth and childcare are important, I say "manufacturing and processing the future of the human race". It gets laughs, but if I challenge the laugher, he generally can't respond, because what I said is true. -- Granny T, Echidne of the Snakes, comments It would be interesting to see what would happen if we got some liberals elected. -- dglenn, phone conversation, 9:17PM EDT, 11 November 2009 The lamentation of the women is not supposed to include complaints about battery life. -- Substance McGravitas, Sadly, No!, comments What is the acceptable death rate in a population? Got me. In the 80's, if it were AIDS in gay men, any death rate was acceptable, but no death in a Legionnaire was acceptable. Me bitter much? -- Mark Crislip, "Yes, But. The Annotated Atlantic," Science-Based Medicine How do I get my ladybits removed? I'm not using them and never want to, they hurt like hell every few weeks, and people keep using them to deny me ... well, just about everything. -- redsixwing, Shakesville, comments Developer humor does not always live up to the standards of humor required by everyday folks. -- Steve Janoff, TECHWR-L "Separate But Equal" always means the former and never the latter. -- jj, Pharyngula, comments In my second interview with co-founder Sergey Brin, he came in on his rollerblades and he threw his knapsack down on the table and he said, "Ken, let me ask you a question." He said, "Why don't you just publish a book for free online and get a much larger audience for it?" And I said, "Well, I might get a larger audience, but who's going to pay me an advance so I have money to live on since I'm on leave from "The New Yorker" to do this? And by the way, Sergey, who's going to edit my book and who's going to do an index? And who's going to market it? And who's going to pay for my expenses to come out here as many times I'm coming out here?" And, of course, at that point, Sergey Brin changed the subject. -- Ken Auletta, Reliable Sources, CNN (quoted at mattbors.com) It's like having two separate headaches, which are yelling at each other. -- Whet moser, First Draft, comments, on a debate between Joe Klein and Jamie Kirchick [T]eevee has long since officially given up on doing anything but turning its underpants inside out every few years and calling it re-imagining. -- driftglass, "Sunday Morning Comin' Down," d r i f t g l a s s I think one basic difference between conservatives and liberals is that conservatives would rather kill an entire program, whatever it is (welfare, food stamps, unemployment insurance, health care), if they believe that even 1% of the people who are receiving those benefits are somehow not deserving. That’s the only thing that dominates their thinking. Someone is getting something that they shouldn’t. And, it pisses them off. What happens to the other 99% doesn’t concern them. Liberals, on the other hand, well…. We’re kind of human. -- zeppo, Sadly, No!, comments You kill poverty. You kill ignorance. You kill lawlessness and disorder. If you've done that, our true enemies are dead. -- JediBear, Pharyngula, comments Al Qaeda is two guys with a large bank account. The Taliban are about half of Afghanistan and a significant portion of Pakistan as well. And yet the average ‘Murican thinks of both as being somewhat reminiscent of SPECTRE or COBRA or any other number of fictional criminal enterprises with secret volcano lairs and approximately ten thousand henchmen. The average ‘Murican also firmly believes that if and only if ‘they’ control Afghanistan, the most worthless patch of desert this side of Mars, ‘they’ will start building and launching nuclear missiles in our direction, as soon as the Dead Goat Polo playoffs are over. I could go on and on but, in short, I still can’t figure out what the fuck people think we’re doing over there. ‘Winning’ or ‘defeating them’ doesn’t exactly cut it. We weren’t attacked by Afghans, and we never will be attacked by Afghans — after we end the occupation of their country, that is. -- scarshapedstar, Balloon Juice, comments [W]e've internalized enough Reaganite bullshit to know that imperfect victims don't deserve our sainted sympathies. -- Athenae, "From Your First Cigarette," First Draft [S]ome "misunderstandings" are tactical rather than real. Pretending not to understand what someone wants you to do is one way to avoid doing it. This may be what is really going on when a man claims not to have recognised a woman's "Could you empty the trash?" or "The groceries are in the car" as a request. The "real" conflict is not about what was meant, it is about who is entitled to expect what services from whom. -- Deborah Cameron, "Speak up, I can't hear you," The Guardian In medicine we tend to be conservative about changing practice unless there is a preponderance of data to suggest a change is reasonable. Except, of course, if our big pharma overlords take us to a good steak house. -- Mark Crislip, "Yes, But. The Annotated Atlantic," Science-Based Medicine How do Republicans love the Bible so much without seeming to understand the whole “fellow man” and “least of us” bits? -- cyntax, Sadly, No!, comments Current Mood: blah Current Music: "Cursum Perficio," Enya (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 12th, 2009
10:40 pm	Why Adobe Makes Me Tired (And Why They Should Mail Their Entire RoboHelp User Base New Pairs of Underwear) As most or all of you know, I'm a technical writer (among other things -- I also test software and do some EDI document handling stuff). Primarily, in my case, that means help authoring. Which means using Adobe RoboHelp. RoboHelp is kind of a curious beast, having been developed originally by a company called EHelp, which got swallowed by Macromedia, which, in turn, was consumed by Adobe. As a RoboHelp user, it's fairly obvious to me that Adobe essentially bought Macromedia in order to control Flash and a couple of Macromedia's design-related applications, but now owns RoboHelp and a bunch of other ex-Macromedia properties it essentially doesn't know what to do with, and consequently treats like the bastard stepchildren of its product line. (Have a look at those RoboHelp user base numbers; we're not exactly talking about a tiny, uncommon product here -- most of the reason you haven't heard of it, if you haven't, is just that it's a very specialised product.) That's just the context. Here's the story: On Monday of this week, I went back to work for the first time in 11 days. I opened up RoboHelp to work on my major project, which is a rather big project -- it would take almost 1000 sheets of paper to print it out single-sided, and contains almost 2200 "project files," which include the source files for the project, inline images, style sheets, and so on. I clicked on the help topic I wanted to edit in the "Project Files" pane in the software (a visual list that lets you have access to all the files in the project)... ...and the software hung for almost a minute. I sat there staring at the hourglass for a bit, and then I noticed something frightening and peculiar: The scrollbar on the Project Files pane was growing rapidly as I watched, because files were disappearing out of my project until less than a dozen were left. Panic! I checked the project folder on the hard drive to confirm that the files hadn't somehow been erased. They were still there, but somehow RoboHelp was no longer seeing them as associated with the project. (In programmer terms, RH had just nuked almost 2200 symlinks!) I thought, "Oh, the main project file must have gotten corrupted somehow," and went and pestered our technician to get me a backup copy from the last backup. Once the backup copy was on my drive, I tried it again, and watched the very same thing happen. Exasperated, I went to the Adobe user forums (and, once again, had to scroll through an endless drop-down list to even get to the RH forums, because they're not linked on the main page). Pinned to the top of the main RH discussion board was a big announcement: RH FILE ISSUE -- FIX. According to the person who'd posted the forum posting, the problem had been going on for almost a week by that point. Apparently what had happened was that Adobe had pushed out an update that had corrupted a couple of DLLs in RH, and the way to fix it was to write to them to get new Adobe beta ones, "sign" a waiver saying that you understood these were test files that could hypothetically smoke your system, and they'd e-mail you the files, which you could then use to update your copy of RH. Which is exactly what I did, and the problem fixed itself. I also want to note for posterity that the two forum posters distributing the DLLs don't even work for Adobe as far as I can tell, although they do seem to have a fairly close relationship with them. Apparently the actual fix for this will occur in the next RH point release, which will come out...whenever it comes out. Do I really even have to go into how stupid and incompetent and unprofessional this really is? I feel like I (and every other RH user who got hit with this, and, by the forum postings, there were a lot of us) just got told, "Yeah, whatever" by Adobe.1 I feel the least they could/should have done (as dglenn suggested) was, when they discovered that their upgrade had broken RH, pushed out another upgrade to revert those DLLs (and/or the entire upgrade) right away, so hopefully very few people would have been affected. I know if the software had gotten broken and then fixed again within hours by two automatic updates, I wouldn't have even noticed (me having been out sick and all). Seriously, guys, RH is (whether you like it or not), the industry standard help authoring tool. If you don't want the product, and you don't give a rat's ass enough about it to do a decent job supporting it , sell it to someone who'll actually do right by it, or open-source it. __________________ 1 Or maybe even, squid help us, "Talk to the hand." Current Mood: annoyed Current Music: Infected Mushroom Live in Tel Aviv, 28/10/04 (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
12:33 pm	So I got this influenza... The H1N1 influenza whipped through Whitebreadville in the last couple of weeks with all the ferocity of a California forest fire. Just about the time when the vaccine became available, I got told by my doctor that I should probably finish the antibiotics I was taking for the sinus infection I just had before I got the shots (H1N1, seasonal flu, pneumococcus) I'd asked about. A week ago last Thursday, I was feeling kind of draggy and unhungry but mostly okay. I went grocery shopping, then came home and basically fell into bed. By 1800h Thursday night, I'd developed a tiny little cough. By 0400h Friday morning, I was burning up with fever and felt as though I was trying to sleep on a bed of rocks. Even my hair hurt. I got out of bed, wrote an e-mail to work saying that I had the flu and wouldn't be in again until further notice, and then went back to bed. I knew I was in a damn lot of trouble, actually, when I thought during this phase, "My abdomen hurts. What the hell is going on with that?", poked around, and felt that all the lymph nodes in my lower belly were swollen to the point where I could feel them clearly. Uh...oh... I spent most of Friday aching, taking Tylenol, sweating buckets, and (unusually for me when I'm sick), showering to get the sweat off. I wasn't coughing too badly, and mostly just felt run down, with basically no appetite whatsoever. I woke up on Saturday feeling feverish and slightly nauseated. I ate some frozen fruit early in the morning to see if it'd cool me down any, and then spent the next 30h or so puking up everything I'd eaten since childhood, or at least that's what it felt like. I was having trouble keeping water down, and even my mom's old standbys -- flat Coke and soda crackers -- were much too much. By Sunday night, most of the GI trouble had stopped, but the cough had ramped up in earnest, and by 0500 Monday morning, I was in trouble. I couldn't lie down without feeling like I was suffocating, and basically hadn't slept at all in 24h or so, even though I hadn't slept much since Friday. I called my mom and had her take me to the hospital on the grounds that I couldn't breathe. They shot me full of Ventolin and sent me home. The inhaler did actually allow me to breathe well enough to get some sleep. (Best part: The feeling of the slowly-tightening iron ring around my neck falling off when the Ventolin started to work.) I took the rest of the week off, and spent most of it getting some sleep and learning how to eat again. Lasting effects: The remains of the bronchitis, creeping fatigue, and a craving for spicy food, as I ate pretty much nothing more substantial or flavourful than Campbell's soup for about six days. Get the shot if you can, folks, particularly if you were born after 1958. This thing sucks, especially if you're immunologically naive to things like it. Current Mood: tired Current Music: no (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
9:12 pm	Quotes, Adobe Makes Me Tired Edition Bonus: Disgruntled Toronto Star editor marks up an internal memo. Editors. They're all the same. :) Me, I think evil goes unpunished because there is a war between various factions of Darkmatter Unicorns and all misfortune is just the collateral damage of this invisible battle spilling into the universe we can see. -- A. Noyd, Pharyngula, comments Yawn. Just another ridiculous circa early 1930s argument based on the premise of false-consciousness. Can you people on the Right at least make some sort of effort to use rhetorical tropes that haven’t already been beaten into the ground by the f’ing Marxists. It’s like you’re not even trying. What did we ever do to deserve this plague of subliterate neo-Trotskyites? -- ThatLeftTurnInABQ, Balloon Juice, comments Jeb 2012: “I’m the smart one. No, really. I am” -- Not-So-Newbie McNymshift, Sadly, No!, comments As someone who's undergone a little involuntary body modification of my own (I have a 6" long scar on my throat--long story), I don't have much patience with people who have to disfigure and flay themselves in order to make themselves look interesting instead of actually being interesting. -- Tim Kreider, "Artist's Statement: Body Modification Around the World," The Pain -- When Will It End? One could equally well argue that our supposed innate moral sense proves that there is no afterlife-- because God was unable to make us immortal, he programmed us with instincts that would allow us to make the best of our short time on Earth. But I won't, because it's still a silly argument. -- Emily, Pharyngula, comments Fried chicken, it should be banned. I'd probably eat broken glass if you covered it in bread crumbs and spice and fried it. -- BlakNo1, First Draft, comments Rights are for all. When only some people have them, they're just privileges. And privileges can be taken away. -- quixote, "You have no rights," Shakesville I must have missed the memo that an abortion isn't "the kind of expense for which health insurance is necessary or even designed." I could have sworn that health insurance was to pay for legal medical procedures without regard to moralizing. It's worth arguing because every inch we give now is another mile they'll take against women's rights. -- Nini, Hullabaloo, comments I’m not trying to suggest this is a dry post. I just felt like putting Chapstick on my nipples. -- SomeNYGuy, Sadly, No!, comments The WPA was great. It was a lifesaver in the South during the Depression. My grandfather worked for the CCCs up in North Carolina. The whole region is still benefitting from the dams and parks and public buildings and all kinds of good stuff built then. -- Violet, Reclusive Leftist, comments Let me tell you about one of my great-aunts, long dead. When she was young, she was all-but-engaged to a young man. She went to get life insurance (she wasn't stupid, and knew what pregnancy could do; her mother had died when she was young, after childbirth). They told her she was a bad risk. She broke off with the young man, never married, and died at the age of 93. -- P J Evans, Hullabaloo, comments You would have thought that the fact it can be difficult to tell the more extreme religious from the mentally ill would tell the religious something about the nature of their beliefs. -- Matt Penfold, Pharyngula, comments If you have one side in it to win (in part because they don’t believe that government can actually do anything constructive, so winning is the main goal for them) while the other side actually is interested in governing (because they believe some good might come of it), the side that’s playing to win will, everything else being equal, win more often than not. -- DAS, Sadly, No!, comments I am an Occam’s razor kind a guy. When I hear hoof beats I think horses not unicorns. -- Keith G, Balloon Juice, comments True story (not kidding at all): Several years ago I was at my grandmother's house with a bunch of other family members. I told them about a funny letter I had seen in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner (a pioneer in the wingnut movement) that asked whether the earth was getting heavier because of the all of the construction going on in southern California (and, presumably, elsewhere). After a hearty round of laughter from most of the attendees, my aunt plaintively asked, "Well, is it?" She really had no idea. If she were still alive, this "bombing the moon" story would have scared the poor woman to death. -- Zeno, Pharyngula, comments i cannot stress enough how important it is that you not forget to add water to your cup ‘o noodle before you put it in the microwave! fiery Styrofoam is made of lose. -- lizzeh, Epicute, comments Hmmm, now it makes me wonder what will be written if I ever do something heroic in my line of work. I’m not married and don’t plan to be, nor do I desire children. So that’s the majority of how they would describe a woman right out. “The funny-looking brown-haired cat-owner…” -- Kookaburra, Reclusive Leftist, comments I'm sure Franklin Delano Roosevelt's polio infection was due to his poor nutrition and living in squalor. -- Jon H, Respectful Insolence, comments Oh, god. The old "you couldn't imagine it if it weren't real" argument. -- apoLOLgetics, Pharyngula, comments Parents find out that they become what they always thought their parents were: kinda dumb. -- Substance McGravitas, Sadly, No!, comments, on new-baby sleep-deprivation mistakes All too often, those whom we would destroy, we first feminize. -- Arthur Silber, "A Depraved, Violent, and Indifferent Culture," Once Upon a Time In the 90s I became a reclusive domestic type, and my Halloween activities turned to pumpkin carving at home with the folks and the dogs. (Note: do not let dogs eat pieces of raw pumpkin. Trust me on this.) I haven’t done that in a couple of years, but I’m almost afraid to look at the new carving kits that are out. I just know that somebody’s gonna come out with a Sexy Jack O’ Lantern pattern, and then I’ll have to kill myself. -- Dr. Violet Socks, "Take back Halloween!", Reclusive Leftist By the way, per the DSM itself, religious delusion is not treated as craziness unless it’s cross-cultural. Jewish guy thinks he sees Jeezix in a tortilla or piss stain or something, then he’s nuts. Catholic guy seeing the same thing gets a fucking pass. Head-candling assholes make too damn many accommodations to whichever culture they’re stuck in, instead of speaking up for mental hygiene for all. -- M. Bouffant, Sadly, No!, comments One time, I was making sugar cookies and mistook the recipe calling for cream of tartar as tartar sauce. They tasted great, just like they were supposed to, so long as you could get past the little green chunks in the cookies. -- Kyla, Epicute, comments We kill people here like most people get gumballs from a gumball machine. -- El Tiburon, Balloon Juice, comments, on the Texan justice system [I]mpartiality has become confused with neutrality. An impartial journalist would call a crackpot a crackpot, a neutral journo on the other hand is not allowed to make a decision one way or the other despite any amount of evidence. That is why any story, say about climate change for example, will ALWAYS finish up with comments from deniers or opposing views, for 'impartial balance' when it is in fact insidious neutrality. -- cylusis, Pharyngula, comments I was just watching a story on a certain new network that I won’t name. They were detailing a media watchdog report on television violence. In the last year violence against women on prime time TV shows increased 120%. -- monchichipox, Reclusive Leftist, comments Religion is too important to leave it to the preachers and priests. -- General Winfield Stuck, Balloon Juice, comments It also means that I'll wind up dating Scarlett Johanssen an infinite number of times, be president of the world an infinite number of times, and put my foot up Dinesh D'Souza's butt an infinite number of times. There will also be an infinite number of southern baptist Richard Dawkinses to argue with. Infinities have really interesting properties, that way. Glenn Beck will always be an idiot, though. -- Marcus Ranum, Pharyngula, comments, on the multiverse Jesus is a lot like Elvis. I love the guy, but the fans can get pretty creepy. -- Major Kong, Sadly, No!, comments [William F.] Buckley was one of the last conservatives with a brain. I think he misused it, but at least he had one. -- Equisetum, Pharyngula, comments They just don’t understand that there is a difference between order and justice, and the thing that they crave is order. -- Spiny Norman, Balloon Juice, comments The only doctor who openly does late-term abortions now won't sit in a window with the shades open because he's been threatened by some fanatic who told him a bulletproof vest won't do any good because his killer will aim for a head shot. -- Meteor Blades, "What's Really Pissing Me Off," Daily Kos Anyone who thinks a woman should be required to carry around a dead fetus inside her body until it spontaneously aborts, is a demented ghoul who has no business being anywhere but a psych ward. -- Sam Simple, Hullabaloo, comments You look at the most extremely religious fanatics today, and they all share an obsessive focus on "justice." And eye for an eye, it's what's fair. That's why they can be both against abortions and for the death penalty. You have to pay the price for your actions, whether that's the burden of a child or the electric chair. -- H.H., Pharyngula, comments I have to thank Gorbachev for dismantling USSR in a way that avoided civil war or bloodshed. Without him, it could have gone a lot worse. But he wasn't why it went away. The USSR went away because the people wanted it to. Good riddance to bad rubbish. -- lpetrazickis, "Berlin Wall," LiveJournal Well indeed, anyone who thinks that Dick Armey and Sarah Palin and other shitbag grifters are fighting for them is probably getting his IQ measured on the Richter scale. -- Ted the Slacker, Sadly, No!, comments By the time Reid and Obama and Pelosi and the dems are done with this thing, it will mandate everyone's last nickel goes to Wellpoint, the banning of birth control, the defining of menstruation as abortion and the outlawing of tampons, the outlawing of all gay marriage, and mandatory faith-based medical counseling before seeing a doctor. Oh, and some more war supplementals and a megabank bailout tacked on. Have I missed anything? -- Sharkbabe, Hullabaloo, comments I want wonderful prose, because it makes the information easier to take in. Spare me the cliches, badinage, jargon, and kitschy symbolism. We have a rich language, the product of thousands of years of evolution. Let's use it well. -- AR, Torontoist, comments I have a diopter of -12. Without my glasses I can't recognise a face at 10 feet, although I hope that I'd still have a decent chance of seeing (and avoiding!) a truck heading towards me. It might not count as exactly half an eye, but has to be less than 100% by any way of measuring. So - less than 100% of an eye is still useful... -- jugglinbob, Pharyngula, comments, on the old creationist "What use is half an eye?" non-argument Goldman Sachs buys all their politicians in bulk. -- Citizen_X, Sadly, No!, comments Liberals dominate the media....this has been announced by Rush Limbaugh. And Thomas Sowell. And Ann Coulter. And Rich Lowry. Bill O'Reilly. And Robert Novak. And George Will. And John Gibson. And Michelle Malkin. And David Brooks. And Tony Snow. And Tony Blankely. And Fred Barnes. And Britt Hume. And Larry Kudlow. And Sean Hannity. And David Horowitz. And William Kristol. And Hugh Hewitt. And William Buckley. And Oliver North. And Joe Scarborough. And Pat Buchanan. And John McLaughlin. And Cal Thomas. And Joe Klein. And James Kilpatrick. And Tucker Carlson. And Deroy Murdock. And Michael Savage. And Charles Krauthammer. And Stephen Moore. And Alan Keyes. And Gary Bauer. And Mort Kondracke. And Andrew Sullivan. And Nicholas von Hoffman. And Neil Cavuto. And Matt Drudge. And Mike Rosen. And Dave Kopel. And John Caldara. And Deborah Howell. And Richard Morin. And John Harris. And Gordon Liddy. And laura Ingraham. And Larry Elder. And Tammy Bruce. And Neal Boortz. And FOX DJ ManPal. And Rusty Humphrey. And Laura Schlessinger. -- Gilly Gonzylon, Eschaton, comments Current Mood: tired Current Music: no (Comment on this)
Friday, November 6th, 2009
11:14 pm	Quotes, Mending Slowly Edition [A]t a certain point, there are only so many things you can accurately test. When Europe says it wants to build a $40 billion LHC, you can't give everyone a crash course in particle physics to convince people of the research value of the Higgs Bozon. When the FDA recommends a 2000 calorie diet, how do you even begin validating that kind of statement? I don't have time to fact check every niggling detail of the universe. At a certain point, I have to take it on faith that the bones in the Natural History Museum aren't some elaborate forgery and that the Theory of Electricity will hold when I try to turn on the light in the morning. -- Zifnab, Pharyngula, comments The parallel complaint is always "What am I supposed to tell my kids?" That also shows they don't like their beliefs exposed outside the "norm." Tell them the truth, that you hate these certain people, explain why you hate them, tell them you expect them to hate them too. They're YOUR kids, it's your responsibility to raise them even if that means raising them outside the majority. Own your beliefs and enforce and replicate them as you wish,if you feel you must, but it's not up to society to reinforce them or conform to them or cover up their implications for your innocent kids. Carry your own damn water, haters. -- virgotex, on bigots' arguments, First Draft Dissuading “talent” from working at these places: also a FEATURE, not a bug. These places don’t DO anything. They just make money by moving money from one column to the other. They are so far divorced from actual economic activity (people and businesses designing, making, buying and selling stuff or people and businesses performing useful services) that every brilliant PhD they absorb might as well have been strangled in his crib for all the advancement society gets out of him. It is GOOD if such people do not waste their lives dreaming of new ways to leverage bond issues. -- Lurking Canadian, Sadly, No!, on David Brooks' lament that "top talent" was deserting AIG et al Don't Green Our Vaccines, Maroon Our Whackaloons instead. -- Militant Agnostic, Respectful Insolence, comments All I wanted is what I always want whenever I go to replace something: exactly the same thing I had before. I don't need twice the gigabytes or RAM or megapixels or centons or whatever; I never even used like 14% of the capacity I had on my risibly obsolete computer. I've often wished, as a consumer rather than a citizen, that I lived in some Soviet Russia-like state where there was exactly one make and model of everything, so that when you needed new shoes, say, you'd just go to the store, ask for a size 10, and that was it, you'd be done, you'd have your goddamn shoes, nstead of having to choose between forty different brands of shoes that like a very complex and uninteresting game of "Can You Spot the Differences?" But of course the same thing you had before is never available anymore. Always the features you particularly liked have been discontinued or replaced with new, improved, much worse features. -- Tim Kreider, "Artist's Statement: Grievances 08," The Pain -- When Will It End? It's hard to continue to believe in a god that never appears when you pray, but always shows up two hours after you snarf down 3 grams of 'shrooms. -- Brownian, Pharyngula, comments “I used to manage AIG’s CDO/CDS division” is translated by future employers as “I need another ship to sink.” -- Willy, Sadly, No!, comments You don't "educate yourself" in chemistry by reading up on the wisdom of the alchemists. Oh sure, it's great for a laugh, but it isn't teaching you chemistry. -- Pablo, Respectful Insolence, comments By the way, in 1987, after my first visit to the United States, Vice President Bush accompanied me to the airport, and told me: "Reagan is a conservative. An extreme conservative. All the blockheads and dummies are for him, and when he says that something is necessary, they trust him. But if some Democrat had proposed what Reagan did, with you, they might not have trusted him." By telling you this, I simply want to give Reagan the credit he deserves. I found dealing with him very difficult. The first time we met, in 1985, after we had talked, my people asked me what I thought of him. "A real dinosaur," I replied. And about me Reagan said, "Gorbachev is a diehard Bolshevik!" -- Mikhail Gorbachev, quoted in "Gorbachev on 1989," The Nation I grew up believing that demons were real and they were literally lurking around every corner, waiting for an opportunity to lure me into evil, and these thoughts made my childhood and adolescence a very tormented and fearful time. Another one of the beautiful gifts of God and religion. -- Leah, Pharyngula, comments I secretly wept on the stairs the night Ronald Reagan was elected President, because I understood that stupid and mean people really did get their way in the world, even when you grew up. He was a bad actor, an informer during the blacklisting years in Hollywood, and finally a front man for a coalition of Texas oilmen, fundamentalist dingbats, and right-wing psychotics out of Dr. Strangelove. He brought greed, callousness, bigotry, and chauvanism back into style at home and supported torturers and death squads abroad. His legacy includes the embezzlement of almost all the country's wealth by 1% of its citizens, the scapegoating of the poor and black, schizophrenics turned out on the streets, the AIDS epidemic, the War on Drugs, acid rain, Iran-Contra, and over two hundred dead United States Marines. He believed in Armageddon and astrology and didn't know the difference between reality and things that happened in movies. He was the triumph of image over truth. He was a fool, a liar, and a traitor to his country. He made me ashamed to be an American. -- Tim Kreider, "Artist's Statement: 4/17/02," The Pain -- When Will It End? Mince pie. The worst Thanksgiving food ever. Take the driest substance known to mankind but yet still somewhat edible, and wrap a crust around it. That’s a great idea…. -- Zeppo, Sadly, No!, comments Chimpanzees threaten the rain when it refuses to stop. -- David Marjanović, OM, Pharyngula, comments A Google U education is a cherry picker's education. Humans invented science so they could see more than just the cherries. -- titmouse, Respectful Insolence, comments Eight-year-old to dad: Give me another acting exercise! Dad: Try acting not weird. -- from Overheard in New York If there's one thing that's really starting to bother me lately it's the implication that you're oppressed because nobody laughs at your sexist, homophobic, racist jokes. -- Athenae, "The Fish in This Barrel Had It Coming," First Draft [E]ven if you assume America is “center-right”, what would alienate the “center-right” is not socialism but SNAFUs. -- DAS, Sadly, No!, comments In the long run, only nerds are immune to peer pressure. -- David Marjanović, OM, Pharyngula, comments This tea party movement is certainly real. And the people who are signing on are truly upset about the election of a perceived liberal to the White House. (They can't believe such a thing could possibly be legitimate.) But the fact is that Dick Armey is and always has been a tool of corporate America and the groups that are sponsoring this stuff aren't doing it because they think Obama was actually born in Kenya or that he's going to take away everybody's guns, euthanize old people or put conservatives in FEMA concentration camps. They are afraid that the Democrats are going to empower unions, regulate business, stop outsourcing jobs and otherwise try to turn back some of the disasterous policies that are breaking the backs of the average American. -- Digby, "Teabag Front," Hullabaloo The world beyond the wingnut Schwarzchild radius is different. Everyone has a different name, fascists are liberals, the moon is made of Dijon mustard, and there’s teleprompters everywhere. -- MattF, Balloon Juice, comments I’m completely convinced that we could solve most of our lifestyle problems by just not freaking right the fuck out over every last tiny little thing. It’s nearly impossible to make sound, informed decisions about your everyday habits when you’re living in a state of constant, extreme, self-induced panic. -- Dan, Grand High Emperor of Bananas Foster, Pandagon, comments We are pattern-seeking, agent-recognising animals. We are meaning-seeking, understanding -seeking animals. We are animals! Why is it we must pretend otherwise? What's wrong with being an animal? To me it feels like you can't reconcile the human condition with being an animal, which just makes it seem like you have a really low opinion as to what it means to be an animal. -- Kel, OM, Pharyngula, comments Political correctness is not preventing you from being a dick, it's just changing the reception you get. -- Athenae, "The Fish in This Barrel Had It Coming," First Draft My existence is not meant to sexually arouse you and I have no interest in making sure that it does. -- Kris, Shakesville, comments I’m not sure “if you don’t pass the laws we want we’ll shoot you” actually is a “founding principle” of the United States though. Course it is. The same can be said for any nation formed by armed revolution. -- Dr Zen and Sockpuppet #47, Sadly, No!, comments It's also worth remembering that in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, those staunch "liberals" at MSNBC fired Phil Donahue who was the only liberal host on the network at the time, and put uber-wingnut Michael Savage on instead. -- "Fair and Balanced" Dave, Whiskey Fire, comments There's a rule with puppetry: If it's comfortable, you're probably doing it wrong. -- Caroll Spinney (Big Bird/Oscar the Grouch), quoted in the Canadian Press The Randians should be reminded constantly that Ayn Rand thought all Objectivists should smoke constantly, partly to defy the Communist myth that it caused lung cancer. -- El Cid, Hullabaloo, comments My biggest objection to the peddlers of pseudoscience in the exploitation of general ignorance and human misery is not so much their poverty of spirit as their lack of style. At least with a box of Dr. Hammond's Nerve and Brain tablets for the treatment of "Men's Special Diseases and All Disturbances of the Central Nervous System" you got a little smack and a floor show before you died. -- Prometheus, Respectful Insolence, comments Whenever I see a claim for "universal morality", I always wonder if the speaker gets out much, or actually knows any history. -- Tulse, Pharyngula, comments Do witches cast hexadecimals? -- El Cid, Sadly, No!, comments Current Mood: sick Current Music: no (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
3:12 am	Quotes, Hiney Flu Edition Fashion has given us shoes as decorative objects, not footwear. -- Linda Grant, "Real women wear flat shoes," The Guardian The Mist is conservative because... well... there's this government experiment... and, sure, the "Christian" in the movie is totally trucknutz, but... the military shows up at the end... and... well... because shut up that's why! -- Paul the Spud, Shakesville, comments When we were growing up, there was a guy who reminded me a lot of Limbaugh living across the street – fat, stupid, selfish, rude. Just a huge asshole. We made a big deal out of how we were going to tp his house on Halloween, so big weenie went out and bought a bunch of floodlights and strung them up all over the front yard. So, that night, we hopped the fence and festooned the entire back yard with rolls and rolls and rolls of tp. While the ex-Marine and his wife next door watched from their window and laughed. -- Jennifer, Sadly, No!, comments Science is a religion", "You have to have faith to be an atheist", "You worship Darwin/Dawkins/PZed." Why is it that religious people use religious terms to tear down atheism? Why is it an admirable trait for a religious person to have faith in their religion, but an insult when it is applied to non-believers and science? Is having "faith" an insult? If so, why are religious people so happy to have it? -- Calladus, Pharyngula, comments I like the look of beautiful shoes, but until the manufacturers start including a sedan chair and two attendants with each purchase, I shall wear ugly shoes. -- Linda Grant, "Real women wear flat shoes," The Guardian [I'm one up on her -- I don't think most high-heeled shoes are beautiful; I think they look painful! --?!] I don’t remember who butI think one of the current crop of wing nuts had a father who would take bites out of his kid’s cookies saying “this is sales tax, and this is income tax” and so on. And they think this is funny as well. I don’t get it. That’s none other than Grover Norquist, who nowadays compares the estate tax to the Holocaust. So, maybe repeatedly depriving children of treats turns them into rabid libertarians. -- professor fate and N.C., Sadly, No!, comments Ayn Rand told a tale of being asked to give up her toys for a year, and when the year was up and she asked for her toys to be returned she was told they were given away. -- tigirismus, Sadly, No!, comments I thought Stephen Hawking died when he allowed himself to be struck down by Darth Vader, vowing that it would "make [him] more powerful than you can imagine". -- Valdyr, Pharyngula, comments During the presidential primaries, while the news media was on their best behavior to avoid racial stereotypes, it was still O.K. to discuss Hillary Clinton’s “cankles.” -- Joanne Lipman, "The Mismeasure of Woman," New York Times I find this all easier to understand if you treat bigotry like it’s a scarce resource, sort of like platinum. Or truffles. And Ratzo has seen the Anglicans and said, “Mmm, that looks like a valuable reserve of bigots, I’ll have that, thanks.” Except Mooslims want their quota of bigots as well, you know to keep wimmins in teh kitchen and teh gheys in teh kloset. And mullahs living in luxury. So Catholics and Muslims are, erm, eternal foes or something, because they end up fighting over strategic bigot reserves. Otherwise it’s pretty fucking hard to figure out what they want to fight over, it’s not like the fundies disagree over much except the names of their prophets. -- Ted the Slacker, Sadly, No!, comments Prediction: When Hawking does die, there will be a deathbed conversion story. -- Abdul Alhazred, Pharyngula, comments Another kids show of my childhood is one I thought for years had been a measles fever dream. But no, "Andy's Gang," featuring the malign Froggy Gremlin and the creepy cat Midnight, was a real show that ran in the mid to late '50s. -- Noni Mausa, Hullabaloo, comments [Having seen a clip of this, I can understand why; it's singularly creepy and seems to perfectly encapsulate the avuncular authoritarianism of the 1950s. --?!] I love this post and want to spit-shine its periods. -- Melissa McEwan, Shakesville, comments You know, back in the day, even small-government advocates admitted that the government has to step in and cover market failures. That’s why we managed to build a system of roads, highways, schools, fire and police forces, etc., without a bunch of flabby teabaggers marching in protest and demanding that their Congressmen put a stop to it. Nowadays, small-government advocates just shriek “NO! THERE IS NO MARKET FAILURE!” -- Stephen, Sadly, No!, comments “The hands that help are better far than the lips that pray” -- Robert G. Ingersoll, quoted at Alpha Course: Reviewed I keep saying this, but the hard core wingers aren't mostly trailer trash living on Velveeta cheese and ho-hos. They're mostly relatively prosperous people and are often rather well-educated (most likely in practical fields). They're not stupid and ignorant, they're demented and mean. -- John Emerson, Hullabaloo, comments Whether it’s Keith Olbermann of MSNBC calling Michelle Malkin, the conservative blogger, “a big mashed-up bag of meat with lipstick on it,” or Glenn Beck of Fox News suggesting that “ugly women” are probably “progressive as well,” women these days are portrayed as either witches or bimbos, with pretty much no alternatives in between. -- Joanne Lipman, "The Mismeasure of Woman," New York Times I'm assuming that "same goddamn jokes since the sixties" is referring to the years 60-69 CE. -- Flewellyn, Shakesville, comments, on right-wing humour What's the differece between Lawrence Welk and a Moose? With a Moose the Horns are in front and the Asshole is in the back! -- Lanceisabeach, Youtube comments You liberals with your research and statistics, and your evaluation of best policies based on that information. Why, next thing you know, there will be no place in our politics for screamers and would-be-bullies. And then where would be? I’ll tell you where … HitlerCommieSharia, that’s where! -- laym, Sadly, No!, comments 49 seconds. Since there is probably no currently viable way to ascertain before and after medical states, all Legitimate Citizens are assumed to be capable of enduring 40+ secs of electrocution. Only criminals die. Also witches. -- mitb, Hullabaloo, comments, on a man who was killed by being shocked for 49 seconds with a Taser Not only did I (not Jewish, but with no Christian roots to speak of) not find the Exorcist _remotely_ scary, I thought it was utterly ludicrous, almost impossible not to laugh at, and without doubt the most over-rated film ever made. It made the minions of Beelzebub look like a cross between David Copperfield (the Las Vegas magician not the Dickens character) and Monseiur Creosote from the Monty Python movie. Honestly, levitating beds and projectile vomiting? Rotating heads? Is that the best the Lord of Darkness can manage? Rank amateur. Us humans could teach him a thing or two in the evil stakes. -- FourthAttempt, Shakesville, comments [Personally, I think 2001 is the most overrated movie ever made, but otherwise, I agree. The Exorcist was a great movie; I laughed my ass off all through it. --?!] Weird demon-infested 14th / 15th-century art? Say it isn’t so. -- Smut Clyde, Sadly, No!, comments If the only way you can support your beliefs is by claiming that all ideas, from Scientology and Young Earth Creationism to Ohm's Law and the theory of evolution, are equally matters of faith, then your only line of defense is to endorse ignorance and the pretense that everything we know is stupid. It is contemptible. -- PZ Myers, "Ask 'em what they really think," Pharyngula It aint cool to call for backup, you dig? All the cops at the gym I worked out at last year watch Ultimate Fighting religiously too. Sadists. -- Michael, Hullabaloo, comments I prefer Father Greely’s thesis that it’s the Catholics who get to say whether they are Catholics, not Douthat or the Pope. -- Honus, Sadly, No!, comments I suspect this is a part of why genuine progressives befuddle them - they can't grasp the idea that for some people, values and principles aren't simply badges of group membership, but things to actually live by. -- Rana, Shakesville, comments Five'll get you ten most of the people fantasizing about grenade launchers have never fired a Super Soaker. -- Athenae, First Draft, comments I have always believed that all comercials should be broadcast live. They'd be much more interesting. -- drmorose, YouTube comments, on television I always generally took dolls to be about role playing except you don't level up and get extra HP in it. -- eviltomble, chat, 12:36PM EDT, 27 October 2009 Pope Benedict is the Nixon of the Catholic church. -- Honus, Sadly, No!, comments The best way to deal with solipsists is to punch them in the face. It makes you feel better, and the solipsist would have to put it down as being self-inflicted. -- Matt Penfold, Pharyngula, comments [I]n my local drugstore, the pregnancy tests, ovulation prediction kits (none of which work worth a shit, btw), condoms and lube are all in a locked case that you have to ask a pharmacist to open. When I complained, because hello, embarrassing, the manager told me such things were often stolen and re-sold on the street. So is your bottled water, I replied, but you don't lock that up. Only the sex things. He told me to write a letter to corporate. -- Athenae, First Draft, comments Humans have sex for reproductive purposes -- I would bet we're the only ones who are that insane. Everyone else just does what they like to do. This is like saying that animal X eats to keep their metabolism going -- only a few crazy people do that. Everyone eats because they like eating. -- frog, Not Exactly Rocket Science, comments I wouldn't trust Stephen Harper to wipe his ass unless someone told him gold nuggets were falling out. -- Jenn, phone conversation, 2:51 PM EST 2 November 2009 Current Mood: awake Current Music: no (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
7:42 am	Back! Alive, with Ventolin assistance. Now that I can actually lie flat, I think I'm going to do that. No test for H1N1; they didn't really seem to think I needed one. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
5:36 am	going to hospital mom is taking me very short of breath, fingers tingling... See you soon! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 1st, 2009
11:08 pm	My lungs have started to hurt How bad a sign is that, exactly...? Current Mood: sick Current Music: no (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
7:19 pm	Awww... Worst Hallowe'en Ever! :( *whine* If I'm gonna puke on Hallowe'en, I prefer it to be because I overdid it on candy, not because I'm too sick to keep anything more substantial than broth down for very long... Current Mood: aggravated Current Music: no (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, October 30th, 2009
7:18 am	La grippe ?!'s normal body temperature: 36.3. ?!'s current body temperature: 38.1. Argh. Current Mood: sick Current Music: no (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, October 25th, 2009
1:49 am	Quotes, Horrors! Edition The biggest folly underlying fundie demands to marry church and state is this: the very same people who claim the government is corrupt, incompetent, and can do nothing right are the ones who insist that it should be involved in everyone’s salvation. So the people who insist that religious faith and personal salvation are the most important things in life are the same ones who want a corrupt and incompetent institution that can do nothing right to help them in their cause. And it’s never yet occured to a single one of them. -- Jennifer, Sadly, No!, comments High executive pay is a form of corporate looting and has little to do with any need to "retain talent". -- Whispers, Hullabaloo, comments An eagerness to trust in personal experience, search for validation, and interpret according to what one already "knows" to be true are seen, by the religious, as humble, praise-worthy character traits. They should be fostered and encouraged. Skeptical or critical thinking, on the other hand, is a negative trait. You must not want it to be true. -- Sastra, Pharyngula, comments Rush's tears are so rich in irony they're leaving rust stains on his microphone. -- bughunter, Hullabaloo, comments Eventually it softened up and became more like fruit, but at first it was like a brilliantly-flavoured chew-toy. -- dglenn on eating dried tamarind, phone, 24 October 2009, 2:45AM EDT Today my alphabet soup spelled out “recycle”. So keep laughing, dirty fucking hippies. -- Vacuumslayer, Sadly, No!, comments Every great fortune is built on a crime. The hands of the rich in America drip with human blood. So looks like I’m the only one who stands up and says it out loud—the rich are monsters. They got their money by killing people and abusing their workers. The main difference between Jack the Ripper and Andrew Carnegie is that Carnegie killed more women when his toady Frick called in the state militia to murder striking workers. If a rich person hasn’t committed murder directly, he’s done it indirectly by refusing to test for e coli in cheap contaminated meat or refusing to test for melamine in poisoned imported Chinese foodstocks. The rich are sociopaths and murderers and anyone who doesn’t hate them is a codependent bully worshiper born to be a chalk outline on the sidewalk. -- mclaren, Balloon Juice, comments Australian creationists are the worst and most bullheaded because they come from a continent-sized museum to evolution. --defiantskeptic, Pharyngula, comments Male reporter: “Wait, how did you get him to tell you that? He never talks to me!” Female reporter: “Tits – they’re better than subpoenas.” -- from Overheard in the Newsroom In what world is “The Dead Zone” conservative? The hero unmasks a right-wing fundie political candidate as a coward in front of cameras, thus preventing a future nuclear holocaust. -- another jim, Sadly, No!, comments, on a Townhall.com writer's list of "conservative horror movies" Okay, okay — a liberal horror movie: King Kong. An animal is torn from its natural habitat by ruthless businessmen and transplanted to an unnatural setting. Though the creature does upset the status quo, and though the status quo is brutally reinforced at the end, our sympathies always lie with the reluctant monster. The biplanes, the enforcers who try to return the world to normal, are depicted as savage destroyers, and the audience never doubts that Kong never should have been removed from his natural world. -- Scott, Sadly, No!, comments, on a Townhall.com writer's list of "conservative horror movies" Best horror movie for liberals? “The Horrible Fucking Sick Twisted Minds of Conservatives.” -- Vacuumslayer, Hullabaloo, comments Fox is not the press. Fox is a wingnut whorehouse. -- driftglass, "Sunday Morning Comin Down," d r i f t g l a s s People are ignorant, and can be made more so with the "right" kind of effort. -- yyri, Hullabaloo, comments [T]he only way [Conrad] Black could become Baron Black of Fleet was to give up his Canadian passport and become a British subject only. Which he did, complete with epic tantrums in the pages of the National Post about how Canada had driven him away by being MEAN to him, and we weren’t worthy of his citizenship. Some years later when he was on trial in the US for various white collar crimes, he tried to get his Canadian citizenship back. Alas, the government at the time laughed heartily at their ex-citizen’s request. -- Raincitygirl, Balloon Juice, comments The Mist is a conservative movie? The Mist? Where one of the chief villains is a wackadoodle evangelical, and the ending is basically a condemnation of the whole “you’re on your own” conservative mindset (and whose unmatched bleakness also implies that there’s no such thing as a merciful God)? -- dlauthor, Sadly, No!, comments British accents, like nuclear power, can be used for good or evil. -- nixscripter, Pharyngula, comments Managing Editor to Editor in Chief: “You don’t have to be a perverted raging alcoholic with a filthy mouth to be a journalist!” Adviser: “But it helps!” -- from Overheard in the Newsroom large companies now exist as a platform for executive compensation -- Eric U., Balloon Juice, comments [W]hen you make crazy mainstream, the corporate right starts to look pretty reasonable. even as it has not a single solution to the problems it made. -- damaged goods, d r i f t g l a s s, comments I used to work in a GMP microbiology lab. You know, testing nutraceuticals and stuff for microbial contaminants. One time we opened up a packet of herbal sups and there were insects crawling around in the packet. ALL the herbal stuff is FULL of all sorts of microbes. Especially anything with ginkgo in it. I don’t know why. But we used to have to count the ginkgo sample results in a laminar flow hood so that we wouldn’t contaminate everything else with the mould that grew IN BETWEEN the incubated plates. -- Hinemoana, Pharyngula, comments The American people were propagandized into being ok with torture. -- yyri, Hullabaloo, comments [H]orror is, in general terms, one of the more conservative forms of literature — it’s all about something coming in, upsetting the status quo, and the protagonists’ struggle to return things to the way they were before. -- Scott, Sadly, No!, comments We will never forgive the Canadians for not surrending immediately when our mighty forces invaded them (oops, kindly offered to liberate them) during the War of 1812. The sheer ingratitude! Yeah, and then we kindly offered to liberate your White House from its fire insurance policy. How did that work out for you guys? -- jl and Raincitygirl, Balloon Juice, comments [The first commenter probably thinks he's joking, but the rhetoric was almost exactly that, actually. --?!] Current Mood: awake Current Music: "Dead Disco (Kylie Kills Mix)," Metric (Comment on this)
Saturday, October 24th, 2009
12:03 am	Quotes, Glowing Speculas (not Speculaas) Edition PZ gets a prezzie! Tax credits are a stupid joke. They don't magically produce income to pay for things. -- JHF, Balloon Juice, comments Sharon Kaufman, a medical anthropologist at UC San Francisco, observes that our concept of risk has evolved from an external threat that's out of our control (think: statistical probability of a plane crash) to something that can be managed and controlled if we just make the right decisions (eat less fat and you'll live longer). Improved diagnostic tests, a change in consumer awareness, an aging society determined to stay youthful - all have contributed to the growing perception that risk (of death, illness, accident) is our responsibility to reduce or eliminate. -- Amy Wallace, "An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All," Wired Crazy makers attract attention. Attention attracts paying sponsors. The end result of capitalism is narcissism. -- mlm, Hullabaloo, comments [W]e only ever tell the story in retrospect. Poverty is a useful lesson, once you're wealthy. Hunger may make the feast seem sweeter but there has to be a feast for you to taste first. Nobody says, while hurting, this pain is teaching me something. It's only afterward, when the pain is gone. It has to be over, first, before it can become A Moment, and that's where the idea that one should be grateful for one's misfortune becomes the worst kind of condescension. Kids today don't know how rough you had it. They only know how rough they have it, because That's all any of us know. So don't tell me my pain will be useful someday. And don't ask someone else to endure something you think will be good for him. The only lessons you're responsible for are your own. You can't tell me what was worth it. You have no idea. None of us do. -- Athenae, "Worth It," First Draft One pretty much gives up most rights in order to "serve," other than the right to die for one's societal construct at the hands of someone from a different societal construct. -- M. Bouffant, Sadly, No!, comments I am very confident that, by the time Congress is done fashioning this bill, my health insurance premiums will probably increase by at least 25 percent, the quality of care will diminish by a similar 25 percent and the insurers will probably see profit margins expand somewhere between 25 and 50 percent, depending on what they have to pay out in political contributions. -- Rex, Balloon Juice, comments I hate it when cereal comes out my nose. -- JackC, Pharyngula, comments I was born in the 50s and raised mainly in the deep south. Mother and "Aunt Pat" were upper class and very much in the closet. About 15 years ago my mother passed, alone in the hospital, as I was out west, and Pat was turned away. Soon my kids could be having kids. Family and those close to me know my story, but I think I'm ready to be more "out" about my parents. Individual's stories humanize minorites. -- Anonymous, Ask Nicola, comments None of this shit would be happening if Ken Lay had DIED IN PRISON. Remember Ken Lay didn't die. he just disappeared into George Bush's witness protection program. -- Yo-Ma Ma and Ed in Montana, Hullabaloo, comments Why is it that only atheists seem to have to carry this disclaimer? If a Christian convention is held, or even a rally to fight the "rise of secularism," they never feel compelled to give a hasty little reassurance that of course they're not trying to prevent people from believing whatever they want, they're not disrespecting the individual's rights, they're not attacking anyone's beliefs, they're not out to take away anyone's freedom to be an atheist, and so forth and so on. They don't fall all over themselves apologizing for seeming to be acting as if they want to change people's minds, nor do they assume that doing so is an act of aggression or intrusion into private spheres. Nor should they. -- Sastra, Pharyngula, comments Muir has his head so far up his ass he can bite his own tonsils. -- jim, Sadly, No!, on idiotic right-wing cartoonist and frequent target Chris Muir "Star Trek" is a cultural comet. From its tiny, ancient core -- a mere 79 episodes, airing before we set foot on the moon -- a seemingly infinite tail has grown, its glow still bright after 43 years. The original series (featuring James T. Kirk, Mr. Spock and Dr. "Bones" McCoy) ran for just three seasons, from 1966 to 1968. All of the techno-bling we associate with the show -- communicators, transporters, warp drive, phasers and Tribbles -- was introduced during that first run. It’s staggering to reflect that the premier episode aired during NASA’s two-man Gemini program -- five years before the first pocket calculator. -- Jeff Greenwald, “Obama is Spock: It’s Quite Logical,” Salon From everything I see, Repubs and the right in general want the world to suck up to them. They truly believe that no one gives them the respect they deserve, and they think they deserve it because they are better than everyone else. It's a seriously disturbed group. -- EstimatedProphet, Hullabaloo, comments [W]e aren't coming for your kids, we ARE your kids. -- RickR, Pharyngula, comments, on anti-gay bigots The most irritating thing about data mining (besides the whole right-to-privacy thing) is knowing that people are trading data about me for profit and I don't get a cut. -- dan macenroe, First Draft, comments “No taxes at all”? Really? No property taxes? No sales taxes? When they fill up at the pump, it recognizes them as a deadbeat and shaves off the local, state, and federal taxes? And they don’t pay payroll taxes? 47% of them? That’s weird, ’cause 86% of Americans pay more in payroll taxes than they do federal income taxes, so dumbass is working with a vanishingly small sliver of America, assuming he can find said country on a map, in which to visualize his deadbeats. Once again, a conservative’s politics are a function of his ignorance. -- JM, Sadly, No!, comments I'm a lawyer. If I didn't have a sense of humour I'd have to kill myself. -- Bride of Shrek OM, Pharyngula, comments My wife and some of her friends once decided to watch 300 for the hawt man on man quasi-action, but they found all the violence distracting. -- DAS, Sadly, No!, comments Rush had no problem with the owners of America calling the shots until they decided that he was too radioactive to own a business in which the valuable talent is majority African American. -- Digby, "How Do You Like It Now?", Hullabaloo There is, I am afraid, no doubt that Britain has such a terrible food history because we actually love eating appalling things. -- William Sitwell, "A Relish for Rubbish," The Daily Mail If my opponent makes an argument, I can't fairly call him a douche. I must examine his argument. If my oppenent makes a factual claim, I can call him a douche, if being or not being a douche is relevant to his credibility in bearing witness to the claim. -- titmouse, Respectful Insolence, comments Okay, I’ll be the odd man out. I hate the rich for their money. The vast of ‘em inherited it, the rest got it by thieving and lying and scamming and committing outright murder, either directly or indirectly. Bernie Madoff is the rule, not the rare exception. If you look at the history of how people got wealthy in America, it’s a long history of murder and theft—Leland Stanford promising to deed land to farmers and then after they developed it with homesteads, he kicks them out and takes over their land. The Appalachian Coal Mine wars in which the coal mining companies hired Baldwin Felts private detective goons to murder striking miners and gun down the local sheriff. The River Rouge plant strike, in which Henry Ford set up machine gun emplacements and hired thugs with axe handles to beat Walter Reuther to a pulp. The Pullman Strike in which striking workers demanded a living wage and were shot down like dogs by the state police. The Triangle Shirtwaist company fire, where young girls were locked into sweatshops and died screaming when a fire swept through the building and burned them alive. From thalidomide to DDT, from cars without seatbelts for 50 years to insurance companies revoking the insurance of dying children, the way you get rich in America is by murdering people…legally. Some people have suggested that if Americans had any balls, they’d slam every rich person up against a wall and shoot ‘em in a series of firing squads. Personally that sounds extreme to me but when you study American history, it’s hard not to admit that an argument could made to that effect. When the wobblies talked about lining rich people near a slit trench and walking down the line, shooting each rich criminal in the head one at a time so they fell forward into the lime pit trench, that strikes me as unreasonable and unacceptable. When you study American history and realize that young girls were used in coal mines to haul carts of ore because when they died of overwork, they were cheaper to replace than horses, you start to realize where such unacceptable suggestions came from. -- mclaren, Balloon Juice, comments Tinkerbell is not emo or punk; She possesses some junk in her trunk. Her skirt, which is scanty, Lacks visible panty; If you want me I’ll be in my bunk. -- Smut Clyde, Sadly, No!, comments Current Mood: sick (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
11:54 am	Conservative Horror Movies?! Just read this. Try not to get dizzy from the spin, especially while you're laughing your ass off... Current Mood: amused Current Music: no (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
7:32 pm	Quotes, I Hate Sinusitis Edition The argument against the medically ineligible is that you are not physically fit enough to serve. As in, if they put you in combat, there is a higher chance you will be shot. The argument against gays in the military is that they will spontaneously start raping people in the showers. It’s the difference between being told, “We don’t hire paraplegics as lifeguards because they can’t swim” and “We don’t hire women as lifeguards because they have cooties.” -- Zifnab, Hullabaloo, comments It's a strange world when we pay a who doesn't know a macrophage from a Big Mac millions of dollars to get on TV and embarrass himself in front of a friggen' transplant surgeon. -- Joseph C., Respectful Insolence, comments ‘And in conclusion, it has become necessary to destroy the Nobel Peace Prize in order to save it.’ -- D. Aristophanes, channelling Thomas Friedman, Sadly, No!, comments Dearly beloved, our reading today is from the Book of Jello, chapter 3, verses 19-22. All religions make me wanna throw up / All religions make me sick / All religions make me wanna throw up / All religions suck. -- dk, Pharyngula, comments While it's easy to get caught up in nationalism and thinking one country is superior to another, as is abundantly clear to anyone who pay attention to global politics and thinks critically, the Neo Con agenda is exactly the same in every single country it's made inroads in (and the same strategies are used to implement the agenda, a great deal of which is about promoting unreality based thinking). Corporations are, of course, not nationalist or tied to one nation and the Neo Con agenda is less politically (or even religiously) ideological than it is corporatist. -- Fifi, Science-Based Medicine, comments I would say, if you love freedom, thank a Liberal. We’re the ones who fought–and yes, died–for everything from the end of slavery to the Voting Rights Act. Also, if you love equality, thank a union member. Unions are the ones who fought (and died) for things like the forty-hour work-week, workplace safety, child-labor laws and minimum wages. And finally, if you love justice, thank a lawyer–yes, a lawyer. Those nasty ol’ trial lawyers are the ones who fight every day to hold corporations accountable for the crimes their wealth would otherwise allow them to commit with impunity. No big company ever made a product less toxic, no mine owner ever provided respirators for its employees, no food producer ever made what we eat healthier, no toy manufacturer ever made a pacifier safer, without the threat of a lawsuit to scare them into virtue. So sorry, but no soldier ever did me a favor by dying, and by killing others, has instead made me much less safe in a world that is sick of our “brave men and women in uniform.” -- Steerpike, Sadly, No!, comments Journalists have convinced themselves that they're these big liberal freaks just because they're mostly opposed to outright discrimination. They honestly think the tea bagger right is the mainstream of the country. -- ds, Hullabaloo, comments Cultural hegemony, Gramsci 101. Millions of Americans questioned [the logic of free trade] from c. 1870 right until NAFTA was passed (we'll remember in November chanted the sell-out AFL-Cio leadership). They didn't. Presidential campaigns turned on the issue; you could even argue that it was the last battle of the civil war. Good manufacturing jobs are gone. The day when a blue collar family could buy a house and send a kid to college are gone. Free trade killed the working class in the US - in exchange you got cheap 42 inch televisions. Bravo. -- wilfred, Balloon Juice, comments The most egregious form of conventional wisdom is probably the urban myth: something which millions of people believe, but which is entirely fictional. -- Felix Salmon, "Freakonomics," FelixSalmon.com Skepticism hasn't traditionally been merely a stance against something, it has been a matter of supporting the honest means at arriving at an answer. -- Glen Davidson, Pharyngula, comments It's true that Prions are more dangerous than bacteria, but they also get much better gas mileage. -- Steerpike, Sadly, No!, comments Right wing christians follow Tomas de Torquemada and not Jesus. -- www.democratz.org, Hullabaloo, comments Imagine serving in a gay military while being straight. Imagine that any time your eyes lingered on a woman’s ass too long you’d be risking getting discharged. Imagine all the talk about people’s gay husbands or lesbians wives. These are people whom you spend 24 hours a day with, for several years, under stressful conditions, and you have to live your life in fear of them finding out that you are infected with teh strait. Why haven’t you found a nice boyfriend yet, BFR? I think Private Jefferson likes you. Imagine dealing with that every day for years. And then it comes out, somehow, that you are straight. Maybe you didn’t tell anybody, but somebody found out, and then you’re screwed. After 5 or 10 years of military service, years of training, you are dumped on the street with a useless skill set and no access to the society in which you’ve spent most of your adult life. Serving in the military is an enormous life decision. It’s not like working at Walmart. You don’t live, sleep and marry inside Walmart. And if you get fired, you can go to work at Target. Nobody expects to work at Walmart for life. Walmart doesn’t have a retirement package worth mentioning. Working at Walmart will not get you killed. -- inkadu, Balloon Juice, comments Neocons take their slogan from shareholder prospectuses. Their programs involve predictable amendments to federal pension plans and tax codes. These initiatives hail an entrepreneurial subject who is willing to negotiate various markets in the course of providing for their needs and wants. If someone promises to make it easier for you to own a home, then what does it matter if you or anyone else has a right to shelter? These policies, of course, cut the tottering legs out from under what remains of the welfare state. -- 'Tis Himself, Pharyngula, comments There’s something Henry Ford just doesn’t like about that Einstein fella, if he can only put his finger on it… -- Wyatt Watts III, Sadly, No!, comments Fox News is on cable. On a good day, on a great day, they get 1-1/2% of potential viewers. Fox is there to service one of the smallest minorities in the country--the extreme right of the right wing and the people who think Fox is a reliable source of news. Murdoch could have called it the "John Birchers Are Pussies and Gun-Cleaning Club" and the viewership would be approximately the same. -- montag, Hullabaloo, comments I think that rape prevention tips given to women today are modern versions of fairy tales. The classics were all about the bad things that could happen if you wandered off into the forest, which hopefully had the effect of keeping kids from wandering off into the forest. Our are all about what might happen if you wear the wrong thing, go to the wrong place, and/or over-estimate your freedom as an adult. -- bellacoker, Echidne of the Snakes, comments Partner: Can you please find a nice Jewish lawyer who can unfuck this situation for me? -- from Overheard in the Office I have yet to see a denialist argument that wasn't either massively ignorant or massively mendacious. -- a_ray_in_dilbert_space, Pharyngula, comments The WaPo has a logic problem-They accept inference (A) Professionalism => Credibility, but don't understand that the contrapositive, inference (B), (not-Credibility) => (not-Professionalism) is also, necessarily, a valid inference if you accept (A). -- MattF, Balloon Juice, comments why is it that 3000 people get killed on 9-11 and we spend trillions on defense but when 46,000 die yearly because of lack of health care, single payer health care is out of the question? -- tr, Hullabaloo, comments I think, those who most Christians regard as "elders" or "those who are much wiser" have exactly the same crap arguments as the religious neophytes who unthinkingly parrot those crap arguments. They have no greater understanding, no better arguments, no more balanced or rational thinking. When it comes to why they believe, they are no better than any other bible thumper; they are just older and more eloquent. -- King Aardvark, "The Big Alpha Fight," King Aardvark's Kick in the Nuts Whenever I hear theist respond that God is loving and just and works in mysterious ways, when asked about the atrocities of the Old Testament. All I can think of is a battered wife with a black eye and fat lip making excuses for her husband saying how he loves her and it was her fault for talking during NASCAR. -- hmmm, Pharyngula, comments All you have to do to get the measles is to inhabit the airspace of a contagious person within two hours of them being there. -- Amy Wallace, "An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All," Wired Oh! I had a question. If corporations are "people" why aren't they taxed like people? And how comes we haven't closed the stupid "headquarters" tax loophole? Relly, if you have more that one branch on American soil/employ than 50 Americans, you're a fucking American company, pay up, motherfuckers. -- Luthe, Balloon Juice, comments Yes, elephants kill more people than sharks (so do hippos), but if you're an American planning to spend some time down the beach over summer, having a fear of being trampled by an elephant would be truly irrational. -- Michael, Deltoid, comments What the HELL difference does it make if people are straight or gay? ... Married is married. Family is family. -- Dickgloucester, Ask Nicola, comments From everything I see, Repubs and the right in general want the world to suck up to them. They truly believe that no one gives them the respect they deserve, and they think they deserve it because they are better than everyone else. It's a seriously disturbed group. -- EstimatedProphet, Hullabaloo, comments The Catholic Church is a feudal organization in a post-Enlightenment world and they STILL don't understand why people keep questioning them instead of just doing what they say. -- Jer, Pharyngula, comments That 19% of Americans believe they are among the top 1% of income earners says a lot to me about the degree of denial amongst the yahoos of this nation. -- actor212, Sadly, No!, comments Current Mood: sick Current Music: "Dead Disco (Kylie Kills Mix)," Metric (Comment on this)