For some reason, the Trophy Wife™ said I needed to share this video today. Since the enormous thread has grown again, I figure this is as good a place as any.
It’s not often you hear about testes weighing a ton and pumping out gallons of sperm from David Attenborough.
Becca, I also killed mint, by meticulously following the care-and-feeding instructions.
The mint, various varieties, in my yard do just fine with me ignoring them, except to miss them with the lawn mower.
:-S :-S :-S
You were already in debt, so suing wasn’t affordable, I bet.
Sounds deeply scary. I mean, I didn’t seriously expect I could help you, but what you describe is… in the outer reaches of my imagination. :-S I actually have to congratulate you for getting out of that hell.
That’s at least something! :-)
I didn’t think you were wrong.
I just said I was surprised based on what little I had been told over 10 years earlier. Thanks for the explanation.
Any mint I plant near a garden goes in a container.
GHP (@500):
Ohhh, somebody posted a recipe for something I’ve actually cooked! I love gimbap (or, as I’ve also seen it transliterated, kim-pap)!
For those of you having trouble visualizing it, this is essentially a sushi roll… but with distinctly Korean flavors (and, of course, no raw fish). When I taught in Korea, students would often have gimbap in the lunches they brought to school, and it’s also a popular picnic food. Makes a great party appetizer, too: Slice the rolls (this takes a little practice and a sharp knife, and it helps to clean your knife frequently) to make 1/2-in. thick rounds and serve on platters with a little soy sauce for dipping.
BTW, you can buy prepared Korean-style pickled radish (dikon) at your local Asian market, and you can also buy beef pre-sliced thin for bulgogi, which also works well as the meat in this dish.
Gyeong Hwa, since you’ve posted one Korean recipe, maybe you can help me with another: One of my favorite Korean dishes is the stone-bowl (hot) form of bibim bap. Last spring, I found a pair of stone bowls in a Korean supermarket (actually “International,” but the stock was at least 80% Korean stuff), but I haven’t had much luck finding a good recipe for the dish (plenty of recipes on the web for the more common cold version of bibim bap, though). Any chance you have one in your file box?
Ol’Greg, it sounds like you did not drop out; you left, for excellent reasons.
#477 Bill Dauphin, OM
I can only talk about my own experience. No apologies.
I married my wife because I loved her and we both wanted to share the rest of our lives together. Not because of her figure. I thought she had a lovely smile but that smile comes out only when we are together. Many people might call her plain (but not while I’m around). She isn’t. I like what she has to offer. She doesn’t need to carry out major structural modifications to reinforce my love for her. That would be her choice but she knows she doesn’t need to prove anything.
What do I like? What she is and chooses to share.
We have committed ourselves to each other and we accept each other, warts and all.
[Ed. “warts” – that’s Alan B, of course, Not Mrs B. She’s lovely.]
@David Marjanovic: the tie knot algebra was developed by a couple of theoretical physicists at Cambridge; they were intending to prove something about the standard model of particle physics but got sidetracked, as you do. I recommend their book, the 85 ways to tie a tie ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_85_Ways_to_Tie_a_Tie ) which defines an algebra describing the formation of tie knots. I used to tie an ordinary four-in-hand knot by rote. Now I can tie any one of half a dozen favourite knots from first principles, it’s really handy.
At least, it’s handy if you want to be able to tie half a dozen tie knots from first principles.
Unfortunately, the only hot one I’ve dealt with are from restaurants. I’ve one cold recipe on file, but I haven’t tried it yet. Normally, I’d want to try it out to see what I can improve. But this Wikibook article has instruction for making the hot ones.
There is an Asian Supermarket near my house with most of its stocks being Japanese or Korean. The Lao supermarket near my house is mostly Thai or Chinese.
So, what, if anything, repels slugs?
Sharp objects. Try egg shells or wood chips.
I’ll be 64 in May
Bill Dauphin #489,
From my 15 years of home brewing experience, the best way to grow hops is:
1. Peruse the varieties offered at your preferred home-brew supply shop.
2. Select the varieties you wish to use for your preferred brewing style.
3. Put them back on the shelf.
4. Buy those same varieties in pellet form so that you know you are getting standardized IBU’s.
5. Go home and make a sticky mess in your kitchen.
I have tried growing my own hops on two occasions. I managed to harvest plenty of hops, but the resulting beers were substandard to say the least. There are too many variables (sun, soil, etc.) that affect the flavor, aroma and IBU’s to make growing your own a practical endeavor. IME, YMMV.
I realize that the global hop shortage has caused prices to skyrocket in the last couple of years, but I don’t expect this to last much longer as plenty of folks have recognized an opening and stepped up to fill the niche of the home brewing market.
Home brewing FTW! :P
Hoppy beer attracts them and, if placed in a shallow dish about an inch deep (the bear, that is, should be an inch deep) the slugs will slither in and drown, quite happily, in the beer. We use this to protect our peppers.
Hops!
Some of the beer I made with my homegrown hops wouldn’t even attract slugs.
an inch deep bear?
sounds terrifying
/ducks
Rev. BDC: Probably better than a foot deep in a bear (although, it would depend upon which orifice the foot was placed deep in (no, on second thought, it wouldn’t — no matter what orifice it would be bad for the bear and for you)). Sorry. That should be an “ink deep beer.”
I claim middle age combined with raising teenagers (which makes my mental age McCainian).
Alan B>
Of course. I didn’t mean for a second to suggest that how a woman looks — or anything physical, for that matter — could trump all the other core aspects of a person you might choose as a life partner. I was only discussing looks in the first place because I was responding to a comment about looks, and about how men perceive them, esp. in the context of advancing age.
@Carlie (#409) – I have a couple recipes for Naan (with or without the yeast), if you want.
I can vouch for their authenticity. In fact, if people here want easy to make Indian recipes, I will be more than happy to provide.
(Who knew that after following Pharyngula for years, I would start commenting because of food)
And this thread does need more BACON!
Bride:
No problem. I don’t think the man has ever met a woman he doesn’t like. He actually likes children, too. ;)
Dust @ 465:
The Onion’s horoscope for me: Scorpio – Admitting to past mistakes is never easy, so it’s a good thing you happen to be an unrepentant bitch.
Ha! True enough.
Bill:
My husband grows them. He has around 8 different types going now. They need good sun, and a support structure. Don’t overwater, and if you get cold winters, protect them (we use hay over a nice horse manure mulch).
Oh I want I want! The only recipe I tried didn’t turn out that great :/
Of course that could be my fault.
IndieGirl – yes please naan! With yeast, preferably.
Do you also have any recipes for delicious, deep-fried puris/bhaturas?
Bill Dauphin:
I can’t help you with the grilled cheese sandwich recipe right now – I’ll put out some feelers in Atlanta and see what I can come up with.
Right now I’m Walking in the Steps of our Cephalopod Master, i.e. spending six hours in LAX waiting for a 14-hour flight. Not the best use of time in my estimation. However, while I wait let me say that all this talk of delayed degrees is pure amateur league. I have now racked up five decades of post-secondary education without achieving a degree. Started in the ’60s and the last course was circa 2002. Now that I’ve retired I don’t have time for such.
Speaking of bacon @522,
Does anyone else like to buy bacon “ends and pieces”?
It’s basically the scraps of bacon that don’t make perfect slices for display in a plastic envelope. It’s the only form I buy bacon in anymore. It’s awesome; you get some big hunks, some small hunks so when you fry it up, there are some crunchy bits and some chewy bits. And it’s a lot cheaper than the prettified slices.
I highly recommend it.
boygenius, yep, I’ve bought the bacon ends packages for ages, but not for us; for the dogs. Fry it up, and pour it over their dry food, they love it.
Caine, that’s just blasphemy! I used to think you were a reasonable person. I might have to re-think that supposition.
My dogs get top shelf grub (Iam’s); if that’s not good enough for them, then they aren’t very hungry. If they want my bacon, they are going to have to evolve thumbs and pry it from my cold, dead bloody hands.
I’m intrigued; can you buy these bacon ends from any old grocery store?
Bill:
The world’s best grilled cheese sandwich, Buckhead Diner version, is:
– three cheese bread*
– cheddar
– swiss
– scallions
– tomato
– spicy mustard
*The secret is probably the 3-cheese bread. It’s most likely from Buckhead Bread Company, which I believe is part of the restaurant group which owns Buckhead Diner.
Also on the bacon note, I highly recommend hog jowl bacon if you ever run across it.
a feeling I can relate to. As it is, I won’t have graduated from anything yet by the time I turn 30. meh.
at this point, I’d settle for finding an occupation that doesn’t make me suicidal and feeds, clothes, and houses me. Ambition is for mentally stable people with either passion for something, or at least some self-discipline.
just because it says sea salt on the label, doesn’t mean there’s actual, iodine-rich sea salt inside.
electricity bill fluctuates between $50 and 150$ in no pattern I can identify. And I’ve not the faintest clue how much I pay /kwh :-p
aaah, a woman after my own heart :-)
I shall have to remember that. Drowning slugs in beer seems like such a waste of beer…
I don’t know how I feel about the fact that apparently I live on stuff you consider dogfood :-p
Mr. Fire, yes. I’ve seen them sold at most US grocery stores. However, they aren’t usually located right next to the fancy bacon. Ask the butcher or someone in the deli dept.
boygenius:
Noooo, say it isn’t so! The heretic dogs get the evil goodness of bacon too. Bacon ends do make fine eating, they get ignored because they lack the packaged pretty.
As for the monster dogs, I would love to be able to just do dry food, but I can’t. Mahtocante was alive when we adopted Dolly, our coyote hybrid. At the time, Mahtocante was 14 and having a bit of trouble with dry food, so we were in the habit of mixing it with canned dog food. After Mahtocante died, Doll was in the firm habit of mixed food, and she refuses to eat plain dry. I do a variety of things, sometimes it’s mixed with canned (right now, there’s a case of Happy Hips Duck and Sweet Potato Stew), other times broth, sometimes as a special treat, bacon! As you can imagine, bacon is a huuuuuge hit. Collectively, I have 315 pounds of dog in the house, anything that stretches the dry food is good.
Slugs are dealt with by going out on damp evenings with a torch and a pointy stick and a jar of salt. Find, stab, shrivel.
Also, buy the appropriate nematodes from a garden supply outlet (Nemaslug are good) and water the garden with nematode spores. These will devour the slugs from within.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall advocates feeding them to your chickens. Janet Street-Porter advocates cutting them in half with scissors. We have seen Hugh attempting to feed them to people, but in the end everyone agreed that no recipe in the world was going to make that work.
The slug control section in Gardener’s World starts with the eggshells and the beer and ends with tactical thermonuclear weapons. Once you start growing your own plants, slugs seem to bring out the Rage.
Thanks, Bill. No offence taken. I know I’m liable to save the penny and let the pound roll (or however that goes). I guess I’m just getting addicted to seeing those numbers go down on my bills.
I hope I’m less blind when it comes to taxes. (But I’m still annoyed about the license fee.)
Opus:
Zounds! You’ve picked the wrong comic-strip character for your nym, methinks: You’re not Opus; you’re Zonker Harris!
And thanks for the info on the Buckhead Diner grilled cheese… however, the one ingredient I was relatively sure of — Jarlsberg cheese — doesn’t appear! Mayhap they’ve changed their recipe since I had it? It was >15 years ago.
Jarlsberg counts as “Swiss” doesn’t it?
It does in my personal taxonomy of cheese.
Dear god, how I love the Onion.
–o–
Sorry to hear about the state of the
Independent. I knew they’d had some flirtations with anti-vaxxers, if I recall Goldacre correct, but they did manage to do some good frontpages. I was in Bath during the last Chuck’n’Camilla brouhahah and I really liked the “Here are some other things happening today, that you may be unaware of” headline.Gads, cruising well past 60 here and wondering why people in their low 30’s are so concerned about whether they have wasted their lives. I have had good jobs and bad and high and low income – and I still do not know what I want to do when I grow up. Enjoy the tour, you do not get to repeat. One of the worst experiences I ever had was sitting with a dying uncle for several days and listening to him express regret about almost every choice he had made. I do not intend to have many regrets, certainly not about most of what I have done. Right now, about the only real regrets I have are not having been able to say goodbye to my last wife and that I did not drink enough champagne when I could handle fizzy alcohol.
OK, maudlin Jeffrey out of the way, back to your normal conversation.
Stephen Wells:
Well, yes, in theory. But the ol’ knees just ain’t what they used to be, and I’m tolerably sure that the average slug could easily out-run me, nowadays. Out-run, out-slither. Whatever. And I’m kinda hoping to get some sleep at nights, rather than standing guard over the tomato tub.
So, egg shells…lots? Will a fairly thin perimeter do? We just don’t eat many eggs these days (tasty little cholesterol bombs…). Would mulchy wood do? Maybe we could mix the two.
Possibly interesting, slug-related anecdote: when I was a kid, my sibs and I used to earn our candy-and-comics money hunting slugs and snails in the iceplant my folks had planted to stabilize the rather steep hill that was a goodly portion of our back yard. They (the mollusks) were worth a penny a piece. We’d collect them in brown paper bags, and salt them down by the hundreds, on the picnic table. (After the count was verified, of course!)
Ah, nostalgia!
of course, my personal taxonomy of cheese may well be stupid and wrong
Norway?
I seem to remember that Patricia grows hops – no idea where to start looking for the link but definitely Pharyngula, probably a couple of years ago.
PS: I’m 67. Felt slightly old on Tuesday when the single offspring turned 40 then phoned her and told her to postpone middle age for a decade. Feel better now.
Naan recipe #1: (This is my favorite since it requires few ingredients)
Makes 4:
350 gm self-raising flour
200 ml soda water
Half tsp Nigella or Sesame seeds
1 tsp sunflower oil or peanut oil
Butter to taste or ghee
1 tsp salt
Heat the soda water in the microwave for a minute or warm it on gas top. Sift the flour with a fine sieve to remove lumps along with the salt. Add nigella or sesame seeds to this dry mix. Then pour half the soda in and crumble the dough mixture. Slowly add in the rest of the soda water in and mix it into the flour with your hands till all the soda is incorporated evenly. Then start punching the dough with your knuckles over and over again in a rolling motion. In the end you will get a pliable dough and that springs back when you touch it. (You can add more flour if the dough is sticky).
Ofcourse, if you have one of those fancy thingamajiggy with dough hook, you can use that too. Me, I prefer to work my frustration out with the dough.
Anyhow, transfer the dough to a bowl greased with the oil. Cover it with a clean, wet cloth and stick it somewhere warm. (On cold days, I put it in my oven setto its lowest setting).
After an hour, take the dough out and punch it well for two minutes. Then stick it back in the bowl under damp cloth.
Another hour later, preheat the oven to 230C for 20min with a pizza stone in it. When it’s hot, line a baking sheet with kitchen foil. Break dough into four equal parts and fashion each part into a quarter inch thick tear shape and place on the sheet. Put on to the pizza stone. Bake for about eight minutes (depends on your oven!). When the top becomes golden brown rub with butter (or ghee)until it melts all over and serve hot.
For Naan recipe #2, I present a video by Manjula – this is a yeast recipe and turns out to be pretty good. Manjula’s kitchen, Naan recipe.
Coming up two recipes for Bhatura (the cheat’s way and the elaborate way). And then to some poori. And then Chole!
Well, yes, in theory. But the ol’ knees just ain’t what they used to be, and I’m tolerably sure that the average slug could easily out-run me, nowadays. Out-run, out-slither.
do this then:
get some sheets of polyethylene (the thick stuff used in gardening, etc.).
cut strips about 8-10″ wide, and encircle your plants.
sprinkle rocksalt liberally on the plastic strips.
slugs will not cross that, or if they try, you will find them curled up painfully the next day.
used to work fine for us when we had regular gardens when I was a kid.
mind you, it obviously doesn’t work too hot if it rains :P
Also, buy the appropriate nematodes from a garden supply outlet (Nemaslug are good) and water the garden with nematode spores. These will devour the slugs from within.
ooh, sciencey.
bioweapons ahoy!
Caine, I was just giving you shit. I understand the need to entice older mutts to eat their grub. Currently, we have almost 400 pounds of dogflesh living with us, but they are all relatively young and hardy. Feeding time is a contest to see who can vacuum up the kibble the fastest. Never takes more than 20-30 seconds.
Forgot to add my videos for the day.
In honour of the fight for HCR and the threats of right wing violence as a result –
Blue Moon Diner’s Patty Melt
1 pound lean ground beef
1/2 tsp salt
dash black pepper
3 tsps vegetable oil
1 large thingly sliced sweet onion
1 tblsp butter
8 slices thick Rye bread
4 slices Monterey Jack cheese, thick sliced
1. In a mixing bowl combine ground beef, salt and pepper.
2. Form into 1/2 inch thick patties and fry in skillet about 4 minutes on each side. Set aside and keep warm.
3. Add oil to skillet and saute onions until transparent. Be careful not to brown or they might become bitter.
4. Remove onions; set aside. Drain excess oil from skillet.
5. Butter one side of four slices of bread and grill in skillet.
6. Place bread on platter, butter side up, and top each with a ‘burger patty, sauteed onions and a slice of cheese.
7. Broil sandwiches 5 inches from heat about 2 minutes. Cheese should be melted but not runny.
8. Top each sandwich with remaining slices of bread. Serve hot with a nice side dish like baked beans or potato salad.
Recipe from Retro Diner, Comfort food from the American Roadside by Linda Everett.
Thanks, Indiegirl!
Oh, Amanda fucking Palmer, why did you have to go and put yourself from my provisional shit list (because of the whole Evelyn thing) to my permanent shit list by calling the Klan ironic?
boygenius:
Elroy, I know. I was just shoveling it back. ;D Yeah, when you get over a couple hundred pounds of dog, they seriously go through the feed. Matoska, the latest adoptee (He’s 2 years this April) is a sport, but I call him a mutant. He’s half White Shepherd and half Chow; but *much* larger than he ought to be. I swear, the monster hasn’t actually tasted one piece of food, ever.
The people we adopted him from live over 200 miles away; they had many people come to adopt him, but no one ever did. When my husband got back with our new 7 month old “puppy”, I walked out to the truck and the first words out of my mouth were “what in the fuck is that?” He was 110 lbs at 7 months. He had never been in a house, he didn’t know how to negotiate steps or stairs, he wasn’t car trained, and he didn’t know what a leash was. Or people, really. He was a challenge. You can see his mutantness here, he’s the one with all his feet off the ground as often as possible.
Link for sale of Independent:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/independent-titles-sold-to-lebedev-family-company-1927436.html
No doubt there will be other comments elsewhere.
Hey, David! Are you gonna call that naan a cake, too?
Jesus, it’s a fucking dog ‘n’ recipe club around here.
Even Jimmy Buffet vids would be preferable.
Teehee, Caine, it makes me feel very much at home to hear you refer to me as “Elroy”.
I, too, have a mutant puppeh. He’s a 110 lb black lab with springs in his feet. He can jump up and look me in the eye without even bending his legs. I got him as a pup so he’s well housebroken and socialized, but his pure exuberance and energy is something to behold.
Pure Joy.
Elroy, boygenius, ah, a lab. I’ve never been tempted to have a lab, they are all kinds of adorable though. Friends of mine have a Huskador, a Huskie/Lab cross. She’s great, but a serious chewing machine.
For Sven:
Dog recipes.
Enjoy with your favorite Buffet tunes.
Actually, i should say, lest ‘Tis get the idea that his volley hit its mark, that I find Jimmy Buffet entirely unobjectionable. A fine songwriter working well within the tradition, a relaxed, mellifluous singer, a servicable guitarist, and (from all reports) a charismatic live performer.
It’s just that that’s it. He’s like an old Jack Johnson with better songs. I like some of his songs a lot. *shrug* But I need more from music. MORE! Some weirdness and/or spontaneity and/or outside-teh-box creativity.
Buffet’s in the box.
I’ve always strongly disliked dogs. I just don’t understand why any sane person would want to keep one in their house.
That said, I don’t have anything against dog owners, as such. What irritates me is the number of inconsiderate people who walk their dog without using a lead, and just let it run around on the street. It’s unfair to those of us who are very uncomfortable around dogs.
They make me nervous. I’ve gotten better about it in the last few years… but it is true. I don’t know why. They always did a little.
Oh, I do. Bunch of inconsiderate, anthropomorphizing, oblivious jerks.
Present company excepted.
(Guess I’ll except my brother too, even though he’s not presently company.)
(when he is company, he always brings the damn dog)
(sweetest, mellowest, least objectional dog you could ever meet)
(even so, who wants a fucking dog around all the time? I just don’t get it)
This.
Walton:
That is very inconsiderate. What irritates the hell out of me are people who get dogs, shove them outside and let them bark 24 fucking hours a day.
I live very rural, and most of the places I walk with my dogs, I never encounter any other people. If they are going to be around people, they are leashed and kept close. When I walk, I’m usually on a photo walk; the dogs are trained to stay close and stay quiet. They are both voice trained and sign trained. I think if you’re going to have dogs, it’s best to train them and train them well; unfortunately, most people simply can’t be bothered.
I’ve always strongly disliked dogs. I just don’t understand why any sane person would want to keep one in their house.
‘raspberry’
While I am more of a cat person, I have always gotten along well with dogs. I find it easy to read their intentions and can act accordingly. I am the person who will walk up to large dogs like St Bernards, Great Danes, and Dobermans hold out my hand and proceed to pet.Most of the owners usually say that people step away. I response is this, the dog would let me know if I was not wanted.
@boygenius:
Absolutely – you’re spot on. I buy it because I cook things with bacon in them far more than I just cook bacon to eat with eggs.
@Gyeong – Gimbap recipe snagged for the cookbook. We’re really too light on Asian cuisine, so any more you have would be greatly appreciated!
On slugs – I’m glad iambilly had luck with the tin-o-beer-for-drowning trick, but it didn’t work for me. Neither did putting down a perimeter of salt. Those fuckers were so tenacious. I could go out at night with a flashlight and the vegetation was just (shudder) undulating with them. I picked them all off and drowned them in soapy water one night, but I was just too repulsed to do it again.
I resorted to poison pellets, because I would have lost my whole garden. And I’ll do it again. Killed those sumbitches.
@Indiegirl – Naan recipe snagged. I’ll have to work on my technique – my last try was an utter failure.
Tantalizing hints at toothy goodness for Jadehawk. Unfortunately, the only teeth actually shown are seriously small.
I’m too busy on the “sins of omission” thread and would like to go to bed soon (having got up at 7:15 today after a night that was interrupted several times), so I’ll just submit this before catching up.
Except…
…this makes me, like, uneasy.
Suicidal? Please try to stay alive at least till the dig… …I’m thinking of an appropiate smiley, but can’t find one…
Or are you just saying that your artistry doesn’t make enough money, so you depend financially on your boyfriend and/or your parents?
Josh @ #566
Another method I heard of is to put a pizza stone into an outdoor grill, get the whole shebang rocket hot, then cook for about one minute with the lid closed. I haven’t tried it yet, so I can’t vouch for it. The method comes from the author of 660 Curries – The Gateway to Indian Cooking
well no; the artistry is doing well enough, theoretically. But it’s a temporary solution to a problem that will continue for another 40 years or so. And all jobs I’ve ever had other than this one made me desperately miserable; having bosses and customers and co-workers and a pre-determined schedule all make me miserable, and the thought of someday having to go back to that makes me… less than ecstatic about the “another 40 years or so” part.
Dogs are okay. I can take them or leave them alone. I like cats. Unfortunately we had to put Rogers down today. She’d fallen off my daughter’s bed and broke her spine. She was 18, had lived a happy life, and died knowing she was loved.
‘Tis, I’m so sorry about Rogers. That’s never easy.
A gay high school student is inspired by the saga of Constance McMillen and asks for permission to bring his boyfriend to prom. His school, after initially balking, said yes. Sounds great.
His parents kicked him out of his home.
I know this happens all of the time. And it truly fucking sickens me. Here is to hoping simply because there is some media spotlight that he ends up living in a decent place. Too many of these teens end up on the streets.
Oh Tis that made me cry a little. I’m so sorry you lost your kitty but it sounds like you guys gave her a very good life.
Today a close friend of mine phoned and had found a lost kitten. Looks like he has a new cat now. I’m almost jealous, but I already have two kitties so my house is filled to feline capacity right now.
‘Tis, I’m so very sorry to hear that.
Janine:
That is so monumentally fucked up. It happened to too many friends of mine; they never understand the damage they do, nor do they care. I will never understand the mind set that allows them to throw their kids away.
So true. What is wrong with these parents?
When I was in HS several of my friends got kicked out for various reasons. What the hell does a parent expect to happen to their 16 year old kid when they are thrown out on the street?
Some of my friends started hooking and ended up on drugs. Took away years of their life. Others quickly got married. I did something more like this, but for different reasons.
No matter how pissed you are or how homophobic you are who the fuck would throw their kid out?
Just hold your breath until they get through college or into a decent job and then pull back from their private life. Damn people.
/rant
@Carlie: re: AFP – I’m disappointed in her but increasingly unsurprised. She need to take a few seconds to think statements like that through.
@cats and dogs discussion – I like both cats and dogs, but am vastly allergic to them both. At first it was just cats, but recently I’ve been reduced to sniffling and wheezing in the presence of puppies as well. I can be around them for a limited time if two things take place: A) I’ve had Zyrtec and B) the floors are clean/hardwood. I have approximately 2.5 hours til wheezitude, and if I push my luck, I end up feeling like I have a bad cold for a week.
Gotta say I miss the days when I could rub my face in my cat’s belly. Those days be gone forever.
Oh, ‘Tis, my condolences.
I hate them. This is the kind of thing that almost makes me wish there were a hell for such wicked people to go to.
This, my friends, is what religion (and yes, religion is at the core of this kind of homophobia and community reaction) does. It’s enough to override one of the most powerful, universal emotions humans have – an unparalleled kind of love for and desperate desire to protect one’s children at all costs. Suddenly, young Derrick Martin is not their child, he’s a faggot.
Throwing him out of the house while he’s probably got kids at school waiting to beat the shit out of him, and now no parents to turn to. . . I’d better stop.
I know it happens but I’ve never understood why it happens. I can’t think of a anything my daughter could do, other than actively and with malice aforethought trying to kill her mother or me, that would have cause me to put her out of the house.
My condolences Tis. On the bright side, your cat lived a long life with people who loved it.
Why would you raise kids just to watch them suffer in the streets because they’re gay? That piss me off to no ends.
‘Tis:
Yes, that’s because you actually love your child. When parents decide that a fictional super being and his fictional book of stories is the most important thing, you’re prepared to toss your kid to the wolves at a moment’s notice. It is base, ugly behaviour, I’ve seen it up close and personal. What “god” does to people is a horror show.
‘Tis: You have my sympathy.
When I was in Middle School, a kid I knew was kicked out of his house for bringing a book home. And he was 13. This shit is all too common.
It scares me. It just scares me that people can hurt their own children that way. I mean people who wouldn’t beat them can find themselves willing to throw them out like that?
The boy I took to senior prom (he really wanted to go!) was thrown out similarly the next year (his junior). He ended up moving in with an older man who abused him terribly. It was years before he could figure out how to get out of the situation and even then only basically because the guy dumped him.
It’s not just logistics, it really hurts people to be abandoned like that. It’s a horrible thing and it makes me ashamed of sharing the species with the assholes who think like that.
meh, y’all are making me look like a whiny brat, following up my post with REAL problems like that.
which is my stupid way of saying I’m sorry for your kitteh, ’tis. And I’m sorry for the Georgia kid that his parents are such hateful douchenozzles.
Jadehawk,
I love Die Toten Hosen! I used to download their stuff off of Napster and Kazaa because I couldn’t get it in the US.
Jadehawk, your problems are no less real, just different. For what it’s worth, I felt very much like you do when I was a whole lot younger. It’s a very difficult situation, with no easy solution.
Oh, yeah, I can’t find out what a kWh costs over here as easily as I thought. Anyway, there are two prices – from 2:04 am to 7:04 am and from 2:04 pm to 5:04 pm electricity costs less than during the rest of the day.
Awesome.
So far I’ve worn ties about 3 times, and never tied them myself.
On rainy days my grandfather produces incredible massacres all around his garden that way (using hedge scissors). Every day anew, that is.
“Too”?
Why would I call bread a cake…? Are you confusing me with someone?
Jadehawk:
all problems are real problems.
Having had major crisis you don’t think you’ll live through, and nagging essentially content unhappiness that leaves you making strategies for ensuring a quick and deathly death when no one is looking… I really don’t think it’s a linear scale.
You’re fortunate and unfortunate. Whatever your obstacles are though I hope you’re able to do something that makes you happy, even for a little while.
*shrugs*
I’m sorry… I’m a bit fuzzy right now from drinking.
Sven DiMilo:
Some Cecil solo piano…
…plus a little bit of Marilyn Crispell, who seems to think along the same lines sometimes.
:-p
Anyway. Got into a “discussion” with my wife about legalization of marijuana. It hurts to see a very smart and normally quite open-minded and rational person start using so many logical fallacies.
DO IT!!!!
That’s my discussion on the matter :P
Jadehawk, I had no intention of trivializing nor belittling you post. It is just the nature of an open thread. My last post was about how I approach strange dogs.
This was the reason why I went after Barb last year. (Not the sane Barb who sometimes comments here.) She struck me as the type who would kick out her child if the child came out as an homosexual. I met I number of LGBT teens who hustled in order to survive, teens who’s parent disowned them. I just wanted to know the mindset of those parents who would do this to their children.
Let’s just say that the reply was ugly. Barb said that I must have been sexually abused. (Hell, my worthless father blamed it on his shaking me when I was a baby.) I should not base everything on the answer of one hateful moron but I have to wonder how many of these homophobic parents look at other members of their family as ‘the reason why so and so is gay’.
Ol’Greg:
Me, too. She strongly disagrees with me. That’s her right, but I think it’s for the wrong reasons. I think she doesn’t realize that she’s just trying to rationalize a prejudice.
Thank you for your condolences on the loss of my cat.
It’s horrible to realize I loved that cat better than some people love their own kids.
We’re thinking of putting the tub up on salt blocks.
And now, my eyes are leaking on Derrick Martin’s account. Excuse me.
To the possible delight of Walton (@560) and Ol’ Greg (@561), and at the risk of becoming dead to a bunch of the rest of you, I’ll note that I’ve actually eaten the first recipe at boygenius’ link (@558). Mind you, it was in Korea (in 1986), where dogs are not kept as pets, but are (or at least were at that time) raised as food animals, much as pigs or chickens are.
Students took me — brimming with pride, I might add — to sample this delicacy. I hesitate to report that it was very tasty.
That restaurant, which specialized in dog, was the only place I ever saw a pet cat during my time in Korea. As it surveyed a dining room full of people eating its natural foe, the kitteh looked exceedingly smug, I must say.
PS to ‘Tis: Very sorry for your loss. Our own kitteh, Miranda (who has the right to remain silent!), is north of 15 yo now. She seems sound so far, but I’m mindful of the fact that we will be bidding her farewell sometime in the coming years.
Janine:
*Nods* Yep, that’s all part and parcel of the god horror show. I got into one hell of a debate with a godbot woman some years ago, who insisted she would still love her son (if gay) but hate the ‘sin’. When asked point blank what she would do if her son found love and wanted to introduce his partner, in order to share that love with her, she responded with something to the effect of: “well, I’d tell my son I would always love him, but I could never accept his sin and that while he was welcome in my home, his friend wouldn’t be, ever. I would talk to him (my son) about god, and hope he would see the error of his ways.
Ugh. Just having a net conversation with her made me feel filthy.
Of course we’re not. For what it’s worth, I hate the thought of inching by with a wage job. But I’ve come to the realization that I’ll have to deal with it. Still doesn’t mean I want to do it.
I hate when homophobes say that. Sometimes kids turn out gay, just deal with it. Hell I’ve never been abused and I’ve been gay for as long as I can remember (though I spent a greater part of my life denying it.)
Bill, you won’t become dead to me. My husband ate puppy when he was in Qinghai province. He took pics of the food puppies at the open market.
Yikes Bill… they make me nervous but I’m not that vengeful.
That being said it doesn’t seem that much worse that people eat them than it does that people eat cows.
My very well traveled friends tell me dog is quite tastey but cat tastes horrid and has to be cooked into a stew to make it palatable at all.
My parents lived in Korea for a few years. My mom says their neighbor raised dogs for butchering and that it is even a certain breed, like the way we might say Black Angus or something.
Definitely makes vegetarianism start to look more appealing.
I feel awful for Derrick Martin. It makes me realise how lucky I am to have a secure, comfortable home life and a good relationship with my parents. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to be in his situation.
And condolences, ‘Tis, on the loss of your cat.
I won’t join in any other discussions because I’m not thinking too coherently. My head is full of contract law; I’ve been studying continuously since 9am on Thursday morning, apart from a break to go to the gym and to cook dinner, and it’s now 1.30am on Friday morning. I still haven’t done as much work as I’d hoped, so will have to get up again in a few hours. I hate finals. :-(
Bah. Work.
I generally like my work. I think. But it’s been a long time since I’ve belonged to an organization that didn’t, frankly, piss me off incredibly in various ways.
I swear… It’s always forms and meetings and performance reviews and training this and file this and report that and frankly, sometimes, I want to take whomever has put the latest pile of such crap in front of me, grab them by the scruff of the neck, shake them violently screaming somethin’ like ‘FUCK OFF I HAVE REAL WORK I COULD BE DOING!’ and then toss them and their fucking forms through a window…
I know. I know. Anger management. Need more anger management. It’s all good. It’s cool. And no broken windows or necks around here actually. Honest… Or at least not today.
Now you might think these are trivial, minor concerns, some stupid, inconsequential Dilbert joke, but no, they ain’t, not always. It adds up to serious fucking pain in the ass sometimes when it’s about office politics and not pissing off the wrong people who really can fuck with your salary and advancement and life in general if they don’t like your attitude toward form X. And when you feel like your creative spark is constantly being doused in a bucket of soul-klling bureaucracy every time you manage to get it lit, tenuously, again… And the moment you come up with something good some idiot is gonna call you to ask you why you’re not more of a team player… And you’re gonna be sorely tempted just to hang up.
No, I’m not a team player. Not especially. I mean, I can fake it a bit, but let’s be reasonable, here, folks… It’s not like it was ever supposed to be my strength, exactly. And I coulda sworn that was printed on my box, attached to my instructions, too, so what’s with the whining about it now? More cogently: asking me why I’m not is about as good an idea as telling certain folk to smile…
Hell, speaking of, you want me to smile? Trip and fall into an open manhole or somethin’. That’d make me smile. Mebbe even laugh.
‘Kay. Unnecessary nastiness, I guess. But anyway… On my bad days, it amazes me anything whatsoever gets done. You could swear there’s so many people in the world trying to prevent the same, it’s a wonder we’re not all starving, sitting at home, ‘cos all the cars are held up in committee and the roads have been put off ’til Q2 when the meeting to arrange the session to schedule the face to face at which we’ll discuss the shape of the table around which we’ll meet in the preliminary session approving the forms to be filled out weekly when picking the colour of the asphalt can finally get underway…
I do have my moments. I get to thinking: there has to be a way to make a living that isn’t so spectacularly infected with people who apparently mostly just want to give me grief and make sure I don’t get anything worth doing done… Failing that, there has to be something just generally simpler and less stressful…
Like robbing banks. That looks pretty easy, actually.
Well, less paperwork, anyway…
(/Heads off to check want ads…)
:-O
It’s nice that you’ve kept your sense for proportions, but don’t lose sight of some kind of absolute scale. :-]
And concerning job prospects, your studies next year can only help. If nothing else, they could get you into a graduate program, where… well, today I left the lab after 10 pm, because I only seriously woke up around 6 pm or something, and nobody cares. (I even got some work done! :-) ) No schedule; no boss, just a helpful supervisor; no customers; no underlings (though that kind of thing depends on the country).
Sometime tomorrow, most likely on the next subthread, I’ll post the (…well…) recipe of what I had for “dinner” this evening. Now I’m almost too tired to stand up and go to bed. :-)
I’m not completely sure about that. After all, she made very clear that her sense of morals is better than her god’s (and she apologized for that).
Caine, right now I have MSNBC on. (Olbermann and Maddow. Surprising, isn’t it.) There was an ad for the Salvation Army, touting the good they do for the homeless, alcoholic and drug addicted. One has to wonder how many of those who were homeless, alcoholic or drug addicted ended up that way because of people who share SA’s homophobia? That they were driven there in part of being kicked out of their homes or made to feel shame.
I give no money to the bell ringers.
Tis,
I’m sorry to hear about your kitty. I’m glad she was loved by your family.
Again: when you’re too tired, you can’t work. It’s just not possible.
‘Tis, I’m so sorry about your cat. We just had to put down our oldest cat (only 12!) on Monday – she went into complete organ failure, probably the result of cancer, said the vet. It’s being very hard on my daughter, whose cat she really was.
I can’t imagine putting either of my kids out of the house, unless, as said above, one of them took sudden violent actions against someone else living here… and then it would probably be into psychiatric custody, if I could swing it. But acting punitively against either of them? I’ve invested too much time, energy and love into those kids to turn on them like that. And for what? the crime of loving another person? can’t imagine it.
Some years ago my wife and I visited Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Outside Gettysburg we stopped at a restaurant for lunch. It was had prix fixe menu and for lunch they served rabbit. It was excellent. We went there again for supper and had venison. When we got home we told our daughter about this restaurant. Her reaction was, “You ate Bambi and Thumper on the same day!”
Janine, I’ve wondered the same thing about SA. “Godliness” seems to be nothing more than a thin wrapper around the ugliest, bases, filthiest things a human can be. I don’t give the bellringers anything either. If food, clothes and shelter were given without the god quotient, I might feel differently.
Becca, so sorry to hear about your cat too.
Condolences, with *clenched paw salute*
That would seem to put poor Flower on the breakfast menu…
pee ew
‘Tis, I’m so sorry about your cat. We just had to put down our oldest cat (only 12!) on Monday
so did we (16).
I’ve eaten dog meat, many years ago in rural China. I remember it was kind of tasty and served in a stew type dish. While shopping in the wet markets you could see them all sitting there in their cages alongside the chickens. They were all of the same breed, a type I’ve not seen again but the closest I could describe them was kind of like a cocker spaniel.
I’ve travelled fairly extensively and been to some pretty bizarre and unusual places but I’ve kind of always prided myself that I’ll eat anything to be found there at least once to try it. I did however draw the line at the deep fried whole tarantulas in the Myanmar. That’s pretty fucked up.
As an corollary to that I’ve eaten in some dodgy arsed places and have never ever gotten sick. I believe I have a cast iron stomach.
Ichthyic, so sorry to hear about your cat too.
Condolences on the losses of the kitties… loosing a pet is so heart breaking. My sympathies.
Caine, this links to a nine year old article but it shows just how homophobic the SA is. Read it and gag.
How about ant larvae in Issan, Thailand.
I’ve eaten crikets and water bettles in Cambodia. Other than that most of my diet is prety plain.
yeah, this week has been teh sucky.
first the cat, then today I find out I really do have to get the liver biopsy.
*sigh*
hmm, strangest thing I’ve ever eaten?
probably BBQ Sperm Whale.
it was…
purple.
didn’t taste too bad, though, kind of like if you took beef and “concentrated” it to double-strength.
Ichthyic, ouch! Good luck with that.
Janine, went and read. Gag is the very least thing I want to do. That’s quite the corrupt perch they’ve found for themselves.
I found this the other day and thought you guys here might like it.
http://www.krakenrum.com/
Pictures of the bottle here:
http://www.notcot.com/archives/2009/10/kraken_rum_the.php
Oh Ichthyic, sorry to hear you have to do the biopsy. My breast biopsy was done during breast surgery, so I was happily drugged unconscious for mine.
Becca and Ichthyic,
More condolences for kitty loss. I fear the day when the older kitty dies. She’s getting tired I think.
On a different note, the worst thing I ever ate was, and I’ve mentioned this before, hackfleisch. Absolutely disgusting, but I thought I should try it.
Pygmy Loris:
It’s always hard, but at least when they’ve lived a good, long life, it eases the heartache a bit. I remember when one of ours had reached her 20th year, her kidneys started to fail. She had a lifelong hatred of vets and the vet hospital; she had birthed a kitten once who was terribly crippled and had to be put down. She never got over having that kitten taken away at the veterinarian clinic. I explained that to our current pet doctor. She gave our old gal a heavy dose of pain meds and some extra so she could die painlessly at home. That really helped us out.
Caine,
I’m grateful (in a general, non-religious sense) that your vet was so kind as to allow your loved one to die peacefully at home.
We have no idea how old our girl is. She followed my boyfriend home from a hike in the woods near his old house and never left. That was about 11 years ago (he remembers that he was in high school). At the time, she was a fully-grown mature cat and, again according to the bf, the vet said she’d had several litters before he got her spayed. My current vet figures she’s at least 13 maybe as much as 15 or 16 years old. Sometimes she’s lying so still when she’s asleep that I stare until I can tell she’s breathing. I don’t ever want to walk up and pet her if she has passed away and her body has already gone into rigor. This happened with my guinea pig back in high school and it gave me the permanent heebie-jeebies about bodies in rigor, particularly bodies of individuals I love.
I find non-pet people to be very odd. A friend of mine thinks that it’s no big deal when a pet dies because you can always replace them. When she said this to me while I was bawling my heart out after my parents had to put our beloved dog to sleep, I nearly hit her. Instead I said, “If your daughter dies, it’s no big deal ’cause you’re still young enough to get pregnant again.”* She didn’t seem to think the two were related at all, and shortly left my house. My friend didn’t speak to me for two years. When she did call again, claiming to not remember why we stopped talking I asked if she still thought pets were replaceable. After a pause, she said that maybe she’d been insensitive and was willing to look past my outburst. I told her she had no soul and to never speak to me again. Then I hung up the phone.** Yes, it was vindictive, but damn satisfying.
*That was mean as hell, but I had just lost my beloved pet. Actually telling me I could just go to the pound and get a new one was, at best, terribly rude and at worst, horribly cruel.
**For the record, this is probably the worst thing I’ve ever said to a person I called a friend. I’m very understanding, but being a jerk when your friend is suffering means you’re not a friend at all.
teabagger meltdown link-dump:
death threats and vandalism, one possible attempted murder, the Teabagger Queen fanning the flames, and Fox News pretending like it’s exactly the opposite.
Pygmy Loris:
Sad to say, I’ve had that conversation, but thankfully not with someone who I considered a friend. I know people who don’t get the whole pet thing, and that doesn’t bother me. It does bug the hell out of me when they make stupid assumptions about those who do have pets though.
My pets are animals, they aren’t child substitutes (a statement/assumption that gets on every nerve), they aren’t people substitutes of any kind. I’m practical when it comes to animals, I’m not one of those who anthropomorphizes them. However, they are creatures of individuality which add to my life, and I don’t appreciate people who are unable to to at least extrapolate that they are as important to me as certain people or things are to them.
As for your former friend, that was quite the display of insensitivity, to say the very least. I doubt my reaction would have been any different. Whether or not you fully understand a person’s grief, it’s generally not a good idea to stomp on it wholesale.
Jadehawk:
It’s these little moments that expose the teabaggers for what they are, not that they try to cover it up all that much.
Pygmy Loris, it would seem the your ex-friend lacks in empathy. While cats and dogs do not have the same cognitive abilities as humans, they do have personalities, desires, quirks and means to express this. They are not interchangeable. You say that your were being vindictive but you had every right to be. If that was the meanest thing you said to a friend, just keep in mind it was no where near as mean as what she said to you.
You are better off. But you already know that.
Irish pubs to open on Good Friday for first time
Since we’re being maudlin, I had to put down my 14yo kitteh last summer due to his kidneys failing. He spent his last 2 days in the hospital and when the vet called to tell me that it was hopeless, I asked her to pull the plug and dispose of him (Jerry; full name Jerome John Garcia).
The stinkin’ vet couldn’t comprehend that I didn’t want his remains even though I expressed my opinion that “he isn’t Jerry anymore”. Tried to make me feel guilty for not clinging to the ashes of what used to be my cat.
I guess they don’t teach bedside manners at vet school.
boygenius:
That’s harsh, Elroy. I expect better of my veterinarians, but sometimes you don’t know these things until something specific happens. Several years back, one of our cats, Tai, was slowly losing his ability to move. He had an inoperable growth on his spine and had to be put down. The vet who was dealing with all this was new to the pet clinic, and as difficult as this was for us (Tai was only 9 years old), I ended up feeling awful for the vet, as it was his first time having to deliver such news, and he was terribly affected by having to do it.
Caine,
Yeah, too many people think I have pets because I actually want a child, but I just haven’t had one yet. My pets aren’t children, but they are very important to me. When I’m away from my cats I feel their absence and I’m always excited to see them again. I presume that if I ever decide to spawn I will love my child far more than any of my pets, but that doesn’t decrease my feelings for my pets.
Janine,
Each of the four cats I’ve had were different from the way they liked to play all the way down to exactly where they wanted to be scratched and petted. My dogs have had similarly diverse personalities. They are/were not interchangeable.
Thanks. I actually need to hear that. It’s really hard for me to let go of a friend, even when that friend has become toxic or abuses our friendship. I’m never really sure how I come across online, but in real life I tend to do anything for a friend, which does end up with me being walked-on sometimes. I’m much better than I used to be though. I actually say to some of my friends “If you can’t be bothered to call me unless you need something, I can’t be bothered to help you.”
Pygmy Loris:
That’s a very important thing to assert. A friendship is mutual; if only one person is getting something out of it, they aren’t a friend.
boygenius,
What a horrible vet. I haven’t had to have any of my pets (those that were specifically mine, not family pets) put down, but our three of our family pets were put to sleep at our vet’s office. It was heartwrenching, and the vet was very understanding about the fact that we didn’t want the remains. My dad absolutely dreaded the idea of carrying a container with the physical remains of what used to be our pet home. All of our pets that died of natural causes at home are illegally buried in out in our back yard. Each is marked by daffodils.
Caine, Fleur du mal | March 26, 2010 12:36 AM:
This religion is clearly gaining adherents in Ireland.
She was actually a very good veterinarian, as far as treating the actual illness goes. I think she just had a mental block when it came to how other people address the loss of a pet. She couldn’t imagine that I wanted nothing to do with the remains. I suspect that religion was a factor since she had “goddidit” stuff all over the walls.
(re: gull and starfish) The water-vascular system only works in water. It’s open to the environment.
Or saliva? I think gulls got saliva.
(Ever seen a gull’s tongue? Very odd-looking, sort of on a pedestal.)
Not to be too indelicate for this refined place: I’ve learned that one aspect of a swallowing problem is an immediate huge increase in mucus production. Analogizing between human and gull tracheal/esophageal interchanges might be dubious, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find that that part is similar. Anyway, that gull seemed unable to get rid of that starfish after three hours.
I suppose all the adult gulls of that species (I forget; I think it was a western gull but might’ve been a California) on Stow Lake that day could have been passing the same starfish around so everybody got a toke, but that’s likely not the parsimonious explanation.
they might pray, protest and erect the Stations of the Cross
Ask me about the Sixth Station sometime. Or don’t; I might be in a bad mood.
Damn, I’m sorry about all the cats. Matt the Cat was definitely concerned that we got back so late from the SF Garden Show tonight, but I was dead on my feet and couldn’t get down and romp with him. Can’t fix everything; sorry.
Oh. Pygmy Loris, I think the daffodils are a lovely marker for your lost companions. First to come up in the spring and you can even run over them with the lawnmower and they will come right back up. :)
Auntie Ron, I’m sure Matt the Cat will forgive you for not romping with him this one time. But knowing the feline tendency to hold a grudge, I would recommend romping at the soonest possible opportunity. Nobody wants an unromped kitteh trolling the house.
Auntie Ron:
The oft-changed story of Berenice/Veronica, right? Veronica’s veil and all that.
Listening to PZ with scooter just then I was reminded of this timeless classic :
Dawkins at Lynchburg–Q&A
Cat owners are fools. Cats only exist to steal souls and sell them to Satan. In return, the Power of Satan causes the “owner” of the cat to serve the cat for the entirety of its natural life. In this way, cat owners are both enslaved and Damned to HELL.
In this way, cat owners are both enslaved and Damned to HELL.
…but they’re fluffy
My wife wants to watch Expelled tonight. I agreed on the condition that I could get drunk first.
Going to take notes too, this is setting up to be one horrible evening…
You married a masochist !! I don’t believe in cutting your arm off just to be able to feel that it will hurt like hell, which you could have known beforehand, to be honest.
I will get drunk too, but listen to some good music(and play some myself) in the process.
In local news: Australia’s best known prize for portraiture, the Archibald, has been won by artist Sam Leach for his painting of musician, actor, comedian and writer Tim Minchin.
I saw that, and I liked the reasoning behind the portrait too.
Kel, that’s a major reason for my posting it here! :)
Jake doing some miracle thing with a guitar playing “While my guitar gently weeps”
Sorry to hear about all the dead pets. My wife’s just delivering our dog to the kennels for a week while we go to the b-in-law’s place in the French Alps (so may not be posting)! May be the last time we feel we can leave her, as she is 10, though in good health.
Ichthyic,
All the best.
I have a wine glass full of tawny (formally known as port [stupid EU regulations]), I have a pen and notebook, I’ve so far drank half a bottle of nice Australian wine. It’s time to watch Expelled.
*shudder*
I could be watching something interesting and informative… why am I chopping off my own arm? I already know it’s going to hurt like fuck!
Since the thread has taken a melancholy turn, this seems appropriate:
Elton John – Song For Guy
Kel, have a nip.
…
You’re about to enter Jabootu‘s domain.
Relax, man — get into the Zen of its purity.
I’m 40 minutes into the film, onto my 2nd glass of tawny, have 1.5 pages of notes and when Jonathan Wells is being quotemined as a segue into the Origin Of Life, you know you have a bad film on your hands.
50 minutes to go… 50 minutes to go…
Anyone seen Ratzi’s latest yet?
I see they still don’t get the point
Accusing the media of glossing over the facts?
Is shooting the messenger a rite of the RC church?
What I don’t get is that every time a Catholic higher-up admits to knowing about abuse, isn’t that a crime? Isn’t that obstruction of justice? Sexual abuse isn’t a sin, it’s a crime. Covering it up is a crime. They’re admitting to it, so why no arrests?
I’m sure that the position will depend on the juristiction, but can anyone explain what fucking relevance does ‘Canon Law’ have?
As has been shown in the UK recently (the BNP’s constitution re membership) the rules that an organization write for itself are subject to the law. Why is should a religious group be different?
Might be reading a bit into this but…
Bush shakes a Haitian’s hand then wipes it on Clinton’s shirt.
Wow.
They’re letting Bush leave the country?
Couldn’t finish the movie tonight, will finish it off tomorrow I suppose. I’m surprised they got the likes of Lennox and McGrath to shill for the side of creationists, here I was thinking Lennox was a firm evolutionist – but that may be because I heard him say as such during a debate I attended.
You’re not reading anything into it.
He’s still an asshole.
I’ve heard some explanations that he has a bit of OCD/germ thing going, but that’s still no excuse. People with OCD do things like make sure they have whatever they need to feel clean handy (sanitizer in the pocket or whatnot); they don’t do things so obviously rude as to wipe on other people. He’s just an overprivileged entitled jackass.
This is a great interview on NPR with the SPLC‘s director of publications and information Mark Potok regarding Right-Wing Extremism going mainstream.
Really shows how easily lead some members of the right are when it comes to outrageous claims.
But then again, that’s not really too much of a shock.
Listen to it.
Oh fuck.
I just listened to Joesph Farah on NPR.
I think my head is going to implode.
Our pets are companions, but more than that, they’re therapy animals for my kids, particularly my daughter (depression, I suspect she’s bipolar). They’re not substitute children: the purpose of having children is to have them grow up and become independent individuals of their own.
changing subjects (whiplash anyone?), the emerging radical right terrifies me. They’re whipping themselves up into a frenzy that can’t but end in violence. I’m glad I live out in the country rather than in a city, because I’m afraid it’s the cities that are going to burn again (remembering the 60s unfondly).
some blogs I follow (making light particularly) is comparing this to the lead up to Kristallnacht. I hope that the radical right is too much in the minority for that, but I’m glad I live spitting distance from Canada.
I hope that the radical right is too much in the minority for that, but I’m glad I live spitting distance from Canada.
Come to Canada, we have cookies.
On an unrelated note, I’ve always wondered: How did the endless thread actually start, anyway? And how did it ever get this long?
Living in the Dallas area this is a real fear of mine :(
We will, I guess, either make it or not.
Portcullis coming, I fear, but I’ll take a chance:
BoSOM (@614):
Yah, I’m mostly an “I’ll try anything once” person, myself. That said…
…I, too, will turn some things down. I’ve learned, for instance, over the years, that slimy and gelatinous food is unpalatable to me, so I ususally will pass on stuff like sea slugs and jellyfish… the kind of “food” to which my wife and I assigned the umbrella term Disgusting Sea Creatures® while we were in Korea. Awful smells are tough for me, too: There’s a popular street snack in Korea, wok-roasted silkworm larvae, that I never tried despite having been told it was very tasty, because the smell coming off the hot wok was so vile I literally couldn’t walk up to a vendor without gagging.
I also would demur from eating any endangered species (The Freshman, anyone?), any of the great apes, and maybe (depending on cultural context) cetaceans… but generally, there’s nothing I wouldn’t eat, if it were a normal part of the cuisine of the place I was visiting, just because the animal it comes from is cute, or beautiful, or anthropomorphised in some other part of the world.
Re pets as people: Every pet I’ve ever owned (mostly cats, other than the occasional caged rodents of childhood) has been an individual, and special to my family, and dearly missed once departed… but I’ve never understood people who act like their pets are people: If your dog or cat (or horse or rabbit or…) were anything like a person, wouldn’t that make you, as a pet owner, something like a slaveholder? Personally, I prefer to see pets as highly individual, treasured companions… but in any case, not people. YMMV.
I’ve never understood how the right attracts people. I can only imagine a giant survey at some point. Would you like to:
__ Stand in the way of progress
__ Hurt people
__ Destroy property
__ Weaken the economy
__ Socially isolate yourself
__ Be recorded in history as a giant dumbfuck
If you checked more than three things you may have a future in the reactionary right!!!
I agree with you Bill but hoooooooooooooooo boy I feel this thread is getting ready to take a serious turn to ” the finger pointing at you animal killers who are immoral assholes”.
Shala:
From a Jar of peanut butter.
This thread needs more bacon.
And as I am having some right now, I am hereby mentioning as much.
With eggs. And coffee. And baguette.
(/That’s all. As you were.)
Nonsense. It was seeded from a 1000 year old bacterial culture.
It was rediscovered as a biofilm on a showerhead in Oshkosh and sent to PZ by an anonymous fan.
Bill,
I sometimes have the feeling that my dog owns me, I serve his food at regular times, I brush him when he needs to, he takes me out for walks and when he’s on leach it looks more as if he’s walking me than the other way round, I send his tennis ball for hours on end in the garden to keep him entertained, he occupies about 70% of the space on my bed when I’m asleep… Or I’m a really bad slaveholder ?
All of this sounds way to familiar
too damn it
grumble
Rev BDC (@671):
Yah, maybe it’s time to pivot. Speaking of which, how ’bout effin’ Syracuse, eh? My bracket was already mostly dead, but if ‘Cuse had won the title, I had a chance to win our group. Now my bracket is only good for lining birdcages!
Ol’ Greg (@670):
I’m afraid I think it’s depressingly simple: By promising folks unfettered freedom of personal action, and telling them they ought to be able to keep all their money no matter what, the right appeals to the basest of our natural desires. It’s easy to appeal to fundamentally selfish, greedy people this way.
As to how the right attracts good people, the unfortunate truth is that they do so by convincing them that their neighbors don’t deserve the sharing, assistance, and deference a good neighbor would normally be inclined to afford… and they do this by, in both subtle and unsubtle ways, asserting that one’s neighbors aren’t fully people: They’re not Christians, they’re not patriots, and they’re not (if they happen to be ethnically diverse, or — FSM forfend! — female) really fully human at all… and thus you can ignore the sense of duty and social equity you might otherwise feel toward them. This is why I think right-wing ideology will always go hand in hand with racism, sexism, religious prejudice, and class warfare.
It’s no accident that the polite term for right wing is conservative: It’s all about people of privilege conserving their favored position.
(Hey, Rev, think that’s a big enough distraction from the eating-cute-critters discussion? ;^> )
All of my brackets are officially lining for the bottom of the bird cage.
now to find a birdcage
and a bird
@679
Yeah, but K-State is going to the Elite Eight for the first time in 22 years. Yeah!! Basketball is not really my sport, but what Martin has done with this team is really impressive. He did a good job recruiting some real talent to this team, and motivating them to play as a team. I’m learning to appreciate basketball watching them play (for which I’m sure my wife is very grateful, as it means she’s not watching the tournament alone). :-)
I’ve also heard the explanation for why so many working-class stiffs are Republicans is that it’s aspirational – since they work hard, and play by the rules, and they deserve it, surely someday they will be rich, and when they are they won’t want all kinds of taxes and restrictions and whatnot. So the only way to protect their fantasy future life is to make things easy on the actual rich people who exist now.
Really getting ill watching Ray Comfort’s attempts to use gifts as a way to trick people into paying attention to him. He’s been giving away leather vest, jackets, Red Lobster gift certs (meh) and now $100.00 worth of groceries.
I’d make a comparison to the creepy guy in the van cruising the neighborhood with a box full of candy but then I’d be afraid that the Colgate Twins Milqetoast crew of morons might erupt into a volcano of tears and spittle.
But the right is lying about this. They pretty much always are. How the hell do you convince people you are giving them unfettered freedom while taking away most of their freedom in the name of… freedom?
Yeah, build a fear of equality because equality is the enemy of freedom, but freedom is only free if you are the oppressor. The bulk of the right will never know what it feels like to have the freedom they imagine. Fucking Shopenhauer lives I guess?
Yeah and then I guess it is at that point a game of kill or be killed to weed out the “enemies” and ensure greater chance at freedom. I suppose you get bonus points for having a far external enemy no one really knows the name or shape of to give a sense of group solidarity while in reality the group is being divided and weakened.
But this is so clearly socially destructive!? When your fellow citizens are your enemies you have turned your back on civilization entirely.
I think you have actually enlightened me a little though on the connection between right wing fiscal ideology and the hate that infects it.
I was, most of my life, fairly fiscally conservative largely because I strongly support business and don’t fear the corporate power or concentrations of wealth the way that some do. That being said I do see a need to limit and mitigate that power to keep it from obstructing an at least marginally free market. I don’t believe, I guess you could say, in any invisible hands. It’s all the work of people.
I’m a non-pet person for the opposite reason. It’s a huge deal, I get really attached, and bonding with something with a 20 year tops life-span is something I’d rather avoid. It was hard enough when the dog I had as a kid died.
Of course, a couple years ago I found a month old kitty whose mother wouldn’t take care of it, and couldn’t let my family take care of it because they’re huge flakes. So I took it in. Then down the line, my wife talked me into getting a second cat so the first would have a companion kitty to play with. So now I have two cats.
To clarify my comments @679:
I was not saying that conservative political thinking is intrinsically racist/sexist/etc., nor that individual conservatives are necessarily those things (esp. not you, Walton!). Instead, I was saying that right-wing ideology is intrinsically selfish; the isms come in secondarily, because dehumanizing the “other” is useful in justifying an intrinsically selfish way of thinking… <>especially in justifying it to people not naturally inclined toward selfishness.
I’m stuck with trying to find evidence that this ever happens :-)
@Bill, 679
One thing you left out is the right draws people by giving them someone else to blame for their problems. I mean, look at Limbaugh. He basically built himself up by telling white people the reason they can’t find work is those damn illegals stealing all the jobs. Their whole platform is a pattern of scapegoat after scapegoat.
Carlie (@682):
Ding, ding, ding!!
Yeah, the way to make an ideology of privilege appeal to the nonprivileged is to convince them that they will be privileged in the sweet by and by. Or, worse yet, to convince them they would already be privileged if they weren’t being kept down by the socialist leanings of their neighbors.
Ol’ Greg (@684):
That’s because you and I define — and value — “freedom” differently than those on the right: To them, “freedom” means the ability to do whateverthehell they want, entirely without regard to the (to us, self-evident) fact that their lives are inextricably interdependent with the lives around them.
I like to think I have a more nuance, humane notion of what “freedom” means… and I’m pretty sure you do!
Paul, you basically have the exact same story as me insofar as pets. I grew up with three kitties as a child and they all lived well into my college years. I never got my own pet because I work too much, am gone too long, and just didn’t want to make an animal sad.
But then I took a kitten because it was helpless and pretty much doomed to be put down (entire litter of black kittens).
I freaking love that cat though. Then a friend of mine fell on very bad fortune and made the hard decision to put his pets down (it’s a long story).
I had promised to take one cat so I did. She’s awful. I’m sorry but she is! I’m trying though and she seems to be making improvements. She’s a dwarf though… really… there are dwarf cats. I don’t mind that she’s a dwarf, I mind that she hates other cats, takes her rage out on the carpet, and bites when she gets fed up with something.
I had overlooked the 470s:
AAAARGH!!! I had managed to forget that “power” is used here, so I translated the German term. The result did sound wrong, but it starts with P…
It’s very counterintuitive that the words “force” and “power” don’t designate the same thing.
Energy/time = power.
See above.
Force * distance.
The exact same thing.
Mass * acceleration.
The charge of gravity. Just like how “positive” and “negative” are the charges of electricity, “red”, “green” and “blue” are the charges of the strong force, and “orange” and “purple” are the charges of the weak force.
Speed. (Not the faintest clue why separate words are used in English.) Distance / time.
Interesting that I haven’t forgotten any of this in the last 10 years. :-)
Probably there’s dust under some keys (breadcrumbs for instance). Turn it around, shake it, and beat it… If your mouse isn’t optical, you need to clean it from time to time, too.
I know; I wanted to add further details and an example.
You know, when I quote something and reply to it, that doesn’t always mean it’s wrong :-D
== == == == == == == == ==
<headdesk>
Ultimately this is the usual argument from ignorance, furthered by culture, that only a human can have a personality while everything else is a mass-produced robot.
Now I know what it’s like to stare at a train wreck.
I’ll pick the message of hope out of it, from the first article you link to:
It is possible to be too crazy – even in America.
And they needed three people to write that single screen up.
Would greatly surprise me if it weren’t the case.
As far as I know, at least the anatomy is pretty much identical throughout all amniotes*.
* Birds, “reptiles”, mammals: those vertebrates with all those extra membranes around the embryo (chorion, amnion) and an eggshell (unless live-bearing, obviously).
:-D :-D :-D
Well, except then it was the government that largely faked popular outrage… it was mostly planned in advance.
Quantum fluctuation. It’s uncaused.
Sorry, wrong thread. It started when a particularly dense cretinist showed up. By the time the delugionist was banned, it had already delevoped a life of its own. You know, the only intelligent thing Michael Crichton ever wrote… “life finds a way”. <raised index finger>
Because we ain’t got a life?
No, seriously. This thread is easily 90 % of my social life.
It attracts those who don’t know better. Ignorance is strength.
Eggs? When you have bacon and baguette, all you need is butter. And I don’t think coffee goes well with it.
I started to say “but how do you get people to believe in something despite all evidence being against it” but I stopped myself.
Ah, I think THAT really hits it. And interestingly enough, it is a position held even by people who are themselves being kept afloat with the help of government assistance. The guy who’s been telling everyone to throw bricks at Democratic offices, for instance, lives entirely off of Social Security Disability.
Paul (&688):
Yeah, the scapegoating aspect is part of what I was getting at in my reply (@689) to Carlie. IMHO, it’s all about making it emotionally safe to be selfish, by defining more and more of the people around you as undeserving “others”; if you can also make them seem not only undeserving, but also blameworthy, so much the better, eh?
This approach also explains the emphasis on “moral” values, which might otherwise seem antithetical to people with a “I do whatever I want” approach to life: To the extent that people can be “morally” marginalized — as infidels, fornicators, and queers, for instance — they, too, can be defined as undeserving and blameworthy.
A few believe that the thread was intentionally created by a supernatural being called “PZ,” but nobody of any intelligence believes that.
Intelligent design? Oh please.
Conversation is going to the dogs.