Too much traveling lately. Today Skatje and I hit the big city for a couple of events.
-
We attended the Minnesota Atheists fundraiser in the morning. Somehow, I ended up volunteering to give a talk to the Minnesota Atheists sometime this summer, and I also volunteered to speak at Lee Salisbury’s Critical Thinking Club. Then I talked to some of the leaders of CASH, and volunteered to be their faculty advisor. I’ve heard that there is this word called “no” in the English language — could someone define it for me please? (Nah, these will all be fun, so it’s OK.)
-
Skatje forced me to take her to the Mall of America. I tried to explain that as a Communist Anarchist, stepping through the doors of that citadel of capitalism might make me burst into flame and shrivel into a smoking heap of bones, but she just thought that would be funny.
-
There was a meeting of the board of the Minnesota Citizens for Science Education, and I volunteered for a committee putting together an event for summer of 2008.
Now I’m very, very tired, and I think I lined up more work for myself for the coming few months. That’s another reason to hide out at home for a while.
Skatje forced me to take her to the Mall of America.
Your daughter is EVIL. You should force her to go to church or something… =p
Don’t P. Zizzy and Skatje realize that they’re meant to be fighting non-stop? If only the Zizz-meister had brought up his daughter in the Christian way- using regular beatings and threats of eternal damnation. Then they’d have a normal father-daughter relationship.
I’m deeply disturbed that the Zizzathon seems to have such a well-adjusted smart daughter who brings credit to their family. It’s just not right!
She may bring credit to the family…but today she was probably more concerned with who brought the credit-card to the mall.
It was nice to see you there this morning, I was wondering if you had come all that way just to have breakfast for $6.66.
Seriously, PZ, how do you expect anyone to take your firebreathing-suffer-no-fools-gladly persona seriously when you admit to being pushed around by a teenage girl? I don’t want to hear any complaints from you for awhile about how people are unfairly perceiving you as mild-mannered, civil, etc.
I’d type more but my wife is calling me from the other room—something about ‘foot rubbing’.
Scott, while PZ may facetiously claim to firebreathing, teenage daughters actually have evolved this skill. Never get between a teenage daughter and her desired destination!
No staying at home for me:
A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology
Steven Weinberg
A Messenger Lecture at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
May 3, 2007 – 7:30PM (coincides with National Day of Reason)
LOCATION: Rockefeller Hall, Schwartz Auditorium
ADMISSION: Open to Public, Alumni, Students, Faculty, and Staff.
ADMISSION INFO: FREE!
Wait… isn’t “communist anarchist” an oxymoron, The Dispossessed notwithstanding? I nearly burst into flames myself just trying to figure out what such a person would believe (:
“Skatje forced me to take her to the Mall of America. I tried to explain that as a Communist Anarchist, stepping through the doors of that citadel of capitalism might make me burst into flame and shrivel into a smoking heap of bones, but she just thought that would be funny.”
Oh, you’ll become a shriveled heap of bones, but that’s only because you’ll never find your way out of that maze in under a century. OTOH, you *could* live there, and see what strange forms of ‘life’ evolve.
Yea, communist (by definition statist) and anarchist (by definition non-statist) are mutually incompatible philosophies. The Dispossessed, however, is about anarcho-syndicalism. Syndicalism being to Communism vaguely what Libertarianism is to Fascism.
OK, so why are people bickering over the incompatibility of anarchy and communism and not even blinking an eye at the idea of spontaneous human combustion? Even worse, why is everyone so unsurprised at my daughter’s callousness at the prospect of my immolation?
Well, the reason nobody’s surprise at Skatje’s callousness is that some of us hang out in the #pharyngula chatroom, so we know how EEEEEEEEVIIIIILLLL she is.
And yes, Virginia, there is an anarchist communism.
My favourite variety of anarchist by far, though, are the Christian anarchists. Certainly beats the kind of Christian Theocratism advocated by far, far too many people in this country.
I don’t know about you, pi zeta, but the pension funds at my and my wife’s institutions are run, and very well, thank you, by TIAA. Last I heard TIAA was a major investor in the Mall of America. I hope the Mall suckers in millions of shoppers who spend a gazillion dollars making my future secure.
Having said that, I really don’t get the mall life style. One of my wife’s relatives is a malloholic and actually made a special trip, from New Jersey, to MOA when it opened.
I am not surprised at Skatje because:
1. I read her blog, when I can
2. I have teenage daughters myself
3. I HATE TO SHOP!! and have been dragged to malls as the credit card carrier too.
4. SHC is totally awesome…if only it were real….
Seriously, PZ, how do you expect anyone to take your firebreathing-suffer-no-fools-gladly persona seriously when you admit to being pushed around by a teenage girl?
I was a witness to this. She’s simply faster and has evolved an extra set of spikes on her tail, so she has a slight advantage in an argument.
“Skatje forced me to take her to the Mall of America.”
Go to a Church too, why don’t ya!
“I was a witness to this. She’s simply faster and has evolved an extra set of spikes on her tail, so she has a slight advantage in an argument…”
Greg, Greg, Greg. Individuals don’t evolve, populations do.
Or….are you trying to imply that…there is more than one of these….godless…..(Mr. Bill voice) ohhhhhhh nooooooooooooo!