This is the lounge. You can discuss anything you want, but you will do it kindly.
Status: Heavily Moderated; Previous thread
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
This is the lounge. You can discuss anything you want, but you will do it kindly.
Status: Heavily Moderated; Previous thread
TMM
*hugs*
Tony!
Shouldn’t it be the landlord’s responsibility to fix/replace the washer? (IIRC you rent.) Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean anything, the landlord here still hasn’t fixed the broken dryer in the laundry room.
I stumbled across this video about something that Lionhead Studios got into hotwater over, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfs-Nx1Ngl0
Is she right? is she wrong? Is it a double standard for the internet media to single out only one of the two pictures and scream about sexism in a very tongue-in-cheek advertisement that uses silly puns?
Thunderdome, please, Ranzoid.
Mormons show once again that they are two-faced liars. The mormon leaders, at least, are two-faced when it comes to GLBT issues. They made a big show, lots of PR coverage, over taking a couple of baby steps to ease housing discrimination. For the cameras they shook hands with GLBT leaders in Salt Lake City. The mormons said they “love everyone.”
http://fox13now.com/2015/04/10/lds-church-asks-u-s-supreme-court-to-rule-against-same-sex-marriage/
Yay for Audley!
I’ve been a Maudlin Anti-heroic X-man without you.
Seriously.
Smoking cigars, drinking scotch that just won’t intoxicate me, and cutting through the deadbolt when I lock myself out have all become too damn routine. I missed you.
Where is thunderdome? I’m not finding it.
Never mind, found it
You found it? Good. Stay there. You are now confined to the Thunderdome. Don’t post in any other thread.
@Lynna:
What is “traditional marriage” to the LDS church?
If there was an anti-polygamy “revelation”, was that long enough ago that monogamous marriage is “traditional” now? How long are we talking about, to establish a tradition?
@Crip Dyke
As far back as the last vision of the archangel Macaroni.
Are visions associated with lysergic acid viable for inclusion in the canon?
Also, do images in burnt toast Count as visions?
And if my spell check randomly inserts capital letters at the beginning of Words (it happens a lot) does this mean my new PC is posessed by demons?
Tpyo has colonised my PC as well. Time for an exsorcism.
Does this mean we can talk about Daredevil?
Because goddamn is Daredevil an amazing show. Fucking MCU and taking all my money from me with quality entertainment :(
Yeah, DD has started pretty strong, gotta say.
Can y’all see this?
⸮
& # x 2 e 2 e ;
without the spaces
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony_punctuation
test
&hearts
♥
♥
♥
from emoji keyboard
♥️
weird
Previously, in the [Lounge]:
Damn, FossilFishy; I’m sorry.
*hugs* are available if wanted/needed; fresh-squeezed, finest-quality.
–
Happy late-birthday, Rawnaeris, and I’m sorry about your…condition.
I offer *hugs*, and *the barf bucket*—at your discretion.
–
Tony!, I’m sorry about your washed-up machine.
Those symptoms sound all too familiar. The first couple of times, it was something The Husband could send off for the malfunctioning part and fix it. After that, though, it couldn’t be made to *vooom*.
Do you have anything like ReStore in your area? Used furniture and appliances, and assorted other things of a building supply/home improvement nature, some of them very good that have been donated because someone simply is replacing a functional unit with another one they like better, and often at quite good prices.
–
Mellow Monkey…I am so sorry about your friend.
*hugs*
Fuck cancer.
–
–
FYI: Netflixs Daredevil show is 13 episodes and they should all be available now.
Thats the plan for all the MCU/Netflix movies.
oops.
Series. Not movies.
A quick note to the horde about my recovery from spinal fusion surgery.
I still don’t feel enough pain to justify even taking a Tylenol. A glass of wine is quite justified, though.
The docs said to walk, walk, walk. Since it’s hot, humid and rainy in South Texas, we’re doing my walking in buildings.
Yesterday, I walked on my walker in the grocery store, pointing out what hubby should put in the cart.
Today we walked in the mall, stopping at Soma for more soft sleep shirts to wear under my back brace and a quick stop at Starbucks.
My biggest problem is that our pillow top mattress traps me and my brace like an upside down turtle, and I can’t move all night. That will be solved when my rented hospital bed arrives tomorrow or Tuesday.
I’m now feeling that I’m starting to recover and I’m looking forward to starting PT. I’m also looking forward to water aerobics when the pool opens this summer.
I am not sure this is allowed, but the rules say “anything” so here it goes:
My high school academic team is raising money to go to a national tournament in Atlanta in less then 2 weeks.
We have a GoFundMe account ( http://www.gofundme.com/qccqfq4 ) set up. If you donate, we would appreciate it.
If you cannot afford to donate, at least spread the site.
If Memories Pizza can raise 800K, why can’t a small rural school raise enough to do this?
Thank you for your help.
magistramarla @20:
Woo-hoo! I can only imagine how good it must feel to be rid of the pain. Many happy hugs (I’ll even throw in a few *higs* too).
****
I had another pleasant conversation with two guests tonight. These two are a married, heterosexual couple who frequent the restaurant at least once a week. They often discuss politics and current events. I’ve chatted with them about many things going on in the world, and we share many of the same progressive views. Last week when they came in, I showed them an article over at This Is Colossal and they both geeked out. I could tell from watching them how much they enjoyed scrolling through past entries and I warned them that this could be a timesink.
Anyway, we chatted about tax season, which led to talking about how long they’ve been together, which led to a discussion about why they don’t currently have wedding bands. That led to a chat about how we all don’t like how society pushes people to associate love with material objects (in this case, diamond engagement rings).
Having shared with them some of my political views in the past, N asked me if I was active in any local political organization, to which I told her no and explained a little about my current situation (financial, transportation) and my slight introversion around people I’m unfamiliar with. That last part shocked them as they’ve seen me interact at work with many people. Once I told them that being at work makes the difference, they understood.
Somehow-I don’t recall the exact specifics-something D said prompted me to respond with “I’m black, gay, and an atheist”. He (D) did a double-take. “What was that last part?” he said. When I repeated that, both of them kinda had that look of acknowledgment and responded “so are we”.
I thought that was so cool. It felt like we moved into a new employee/guest territory. We chatted about separation of church and state, and being an atheist in the South. D told me about his father who is a Baptist pastor, and N told me about her mother who prays for her because she doesn’t believe. They both told me that they keep to themselves a lot socially and in their work environments. I gathered that’s in part due to their atheism, as well as their social justice views.
It really was a very pleasant conversation with two really cool people, and I’m glad we weren’t so busy at work that I couldn’t converse with them. From what I could tell, they seemed to feel similarly.
****
Dalillama @1:
I do rent, but it’s a home. And I bought the washer.
****
Giliell:
Thanks for the heads up on the washing machine. I’ll check in the next day or so on that.
Good night all.
My comment is awaiting moderation?
Not again.
Testing.
I need a fucking vacation.
I got a comment-awaiting over on another thread. I had three of the last four comments …
Magistramarla, so glad the back pain is minimal. Wow.
magistramarla
Great news.
Oh, fucking hell.
Police to Arrest Mom of Quadriplegic Man With Cerebral Palsy Abandoned in Cobbs Creek Park
She abandoned her (adult) son in the woods with nothing but a blanket and a bible. Sure, his wheelchair was, like, ten feet away, but he’s quadriplegic — tell me how he was supposed to do anything to un-fuck himself in that situation, when she deliberately set out to fuck him up?
I hope she rots.
Morning
Belated Happy Birthday, Rawnaeris
YAY! magistramarla
Your description of the shopping trip made me laugh, as it reminded me of the scene I witnessed when I visited my parents last week. One of the neighbours, lets call her “Aunt Elsie”, is as old as my gran, but a lot better healthwise. Still, she’s 89 and now she needs a walker and crutches which means that she can’t plant potatoes anymore! So she made her 50someting son plant the potatoes, standing next to him with her crutches, detailing what exactly he had to do and pointing to each lump of earth that was NOT in the correct space, in her opinion.
+++
Goodness, stupid monkey brain.
I really needed to check my transcript of records to see if everything that should be on it IS on it and that I really do have all the classes I need. Should be easy, right? ONly that the thought that something might be wrong made me panic so I pushed the thought away. Today I was a good girl and checked the stuff and while some classes have not been put on the transcript yet, I know I did them and everything is fine.
‘Star Wars’ Imperial Army Invades Los Angeles, Attacks Southern California Landmarks (fan-made video) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/12/star-wars-los-angeles_n_7052140.html
.
The Saudis’ War Is Failing at Everything Except Ruining Yemen http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/the-saudis-war-is-failing-at-everything-except-ruining-yemen/
.
Pope Angers Turkey by Calling Armenian Genocide a Genocide http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/04/12/pope_angers_turkey_by_calling_armenian_genocide_a_genocide.html
.
2-Year-Old Falls Into Cheetah Exhibit At Cleveland Zoo http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/11/child-falls-cheetah-zoo_n_7047794.html
Meh. there are plenty more 2-year-olds where that one came from.
Good luck with the ongoing recovery, magistramarla!
Thank you for sharing that TonyTale, Tony! – fair cheered me up, that did :-)
My commiserations on the misbehaviour of your washed-up machine, though. Hope it’s fixable.
Assorted hugs. Particularly to TMM. My friend is coming to the Smoke for the day in a couple of weeks; I’m really looking forward to it but I’m also dreading the possibility that it might conceivably be the last time I see xir as things appear to be moving fairly fast. Fuck, I hope xe even makes it; xe’s going to meet a lot of xir friends, and has said how much xe wants to come.
The Saudis claim that the message from their uber-mullah (claiming that a man has the right to eat the body of his wife to save himself from death by starvation) is a spoof.
I dunno. That boss theologian has a history of claiming batshit-crazy stuff.
.
I have just read “Lucky Planet” about a rather pessimistic assessment of the probability for intelligent life elsewhere. Lots of interesting background information, even if you don’t agree with the author’s conclusion.
The observer bias means that most inhabited planets will be close to the life span of the world by the time intelligence emerges (in our case, something like 700 million years before the oceans start boiling). Also, inhabited planets should almost, but not quite be reaching orbital resonance with the rest of the system.
*sigh*
I went over to my parents’ house to help my sister with changing grandma’s sheets.
Why can’t the poor woman just die? There’s just pain and suffering left. For decades we took good care of her heart, now the fucking thing won’t stop.
[offers hugs to all and sundry]
Gilliell,
hugs, if yo want them.
— — — —
More Swedish music: Avicii – The Nights (Lyrics HD) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSnBlJbvX1E
— — — —
Washington DC, city of barricades. http://www.gocomics.com/richards-poor-almanac/2015/04/12
Further suggestions to improve Washington: http://www.gocomics.com/richards-poor-almanac/2015/04/11
Replacing those buildings with yurts is cool. That magic forest with happy talking animals looks like a good idea!
Tony #23:
You are being punished for “tax season”.
I love waking up and reading from yet another bigot that LGBT people are just like rapists and murderers.
polishsalami @36:
Ha ha.
Btw, welcome to the Lounge!
****
Thanks for fishing my comments out of moderation, PZ.
Ketamine found to alleviate depression http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-04-ketamine-alleviate-depression.html
— — — — — —
“I love waking up and reading from yet another bigot that LGBT people are just like rapists and murderers.”
Technically, they are all chordates.
Tony, here is a story I hope will cheer you up.
“Bigot on Bigot Crime: Le Pen vs Le Pen” https://proxy.freethought.online/dispatches/2015/04/13/bigot-on-bigot-crime-le-pen-vs-le-pen/
Tony #38:
Thanks, and welcome back from Perdition
Crip Dyke @9 and Hoosier X @10: good point regarding polygamy and the current mormon insistence on “traditional marriage.”
Ex-mormons, especially in Utah, will tell you that polygamy is far from dead as a mormon tenet. There are mormon polygamous families all over Utah. HBO’s series “Big Love” was accurate in that regard. Some mainstream mormons even leave the main church to join a polygamous offshoot based on the “traditional” definition of mormon marriage that harks back to Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, etc. The tradition is polygamy.
The so-called manifesto against polygamy in 1890 was a classic mormon exercise in doublespeak. It advised against future plural marriages without requiring the dissolution of polygamous marriages. It was advice, and not a prophet speaking the supposed words of God. Some mainstream mormons think the manifesto is a divine revelation, but that is disputed by others.
After the manifesto, LDS leaders traveled to Mexico and Canada to perform plural marriages. (Remember the Romney family in Mexico.) They even quietly performed a few in the USA. A second manifesto was issued in 1904 when the mormons got all kinds of heat during a congressional hearing.
Mormons still “seal” multiple women to men in circumstances of remarriage. Those men are expected to live polygamously in the Celestial Kingdom.
Utah’s past shows up in its present. The state has been reluctant to prosecute polygamists, even when evidence of child abuse was present. It was Texas that put Warren Jeffs in jail, not Utah.
Some mormons think it is not just okay, but a virtue, to tell outsiders what they want to hear. Anything to preserve the Church. Many mormons are naive enough to believe their leaders when they say they love gay members of the church, for example. The anti-polygamy thing in the mainstream mormon church has grown into such a broad, public stance that many mormons believe that God told them to stop (for whatever reason). Utah getting statehood, politics, threats from the U.S. Army, etc. — that had nothing to do with it.
LDS leaders say one thing publicly, but their actions demonstrate that they have mixed feelings.
This is not good news. Ted Cruz has snared a billionaire donor. That will keep him the presidential race for a long time.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/11/us/politics/hedge-fund-magnaterobert-mercer-emerges-as-a-generous-backer-of-ted-cruz.html
Trevor Potter, a campaign finance lawyer, said it well: “It just takes a random billionaire to change a race and maybe change the country.”
Yes, one guy who is ultra rich has a good chance to buy the White House.
A little detail from drought-stricken California:
Yes, the Nestlé permit expired 25 years ago. Nestlé pays 65 cents for each 470 gallons of water pumped from the ground. They bottle it and sell it for enormous profits.
And here’s some bottled water news from near Coachella, inside the Morongo Reservation:
http://www.mercurynews.com/drought/ci_27898570/us-forest-service-investigates-expired-permit-nestle-uses
http://www.businessinsider.com/nestle-is-bottling-water-from-california-2015-4
Spiders vs. the Sun
–
magistramarla:
*confetti&champagne*
Hurrah for insignificant amounts of pain!
–
Tony!, it makes me happy to know that you are meatspace-meeting people who are congenial company.
:)
–
Lynna:
I agree.
Ted Cruz is not good news.
;)
–
Is there anyone not following it?
And don’t forget Dawn, now in permanent orbit around Ceres.
blf
Check out Mary’s Monday Metazoan.
Thanks to Tony and everyone else for the encouragement.
Tony – That couple in the restaurant sound much like hubby and I. We’ve been married for 39 years and look like any other middle-aged couple around here. However, we do NOT think like the conservative Texas couples around us at all.
We don’t socialize much with other couples our age, since we find the expected conservative views to be offensive.
However, we have found a nice group of Texas Freethinkers and have found some good friends that way.
Lynna – When we were stationed in Oklahoma, I worked for my midwife. We often delivered a baby at a home with the mother’s sister-wife acting as labor coach. My midwife’s attitude was that she didn’t care at all about the parents’ religion or politics. What she cared about in doing her job was to have a healthy baby and a healthy mother. I found it very interesting to observe the level of trust between two or three women in a household.
Giliell – Warm hugs to you. We went through this with my mother and aunt with Alzheimer’s. My aunt was RC and her family allowed her to suffer to the bitter end. My mother had signed a DNR and gave me a power of attorney. At the end, she was transported to a RC hospital, and the doctor kept calling me to try to bully me into allowing a resuscitator and a feeding tube.
I stuck to what the directive said. Little did he know that his emotional ploy wasn’t working with me, since this was my childhood abuser, not a beloved mother. That being said, I feel that even for a beloved mother, it is more loving to let them go.
Best wishes to your family.
Crip Dyke:
<3 *hugs and squeezes!*
And to answer everyone about DarkToddler:
She is amazing. Two-and-a-half now and every bit a completely awesome and nerdy kid. Her favorite things right now are My Little Pony and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Because of course my kid is a total geek. ^_^
I’m just so in awe of her every day and it’s the usual toddler stuff, but man. It’s incredible watching a little person learn how to speak and push against rules and develop an imagination (right now, she’s in her crib talking to her Batman toy instead of sleeping). Being a parent is way more fun than I ever thought it would be.
Thank you cicely. Going back and reading that post, I’m rather surprised it was as coherent as it was. The *hugs* are appreciated and the *barf bucket* was (thankfully) not needed.
**
Thanks to you too, Giliell.
magistramarla
Believe me, neither my sister nor I would do that for our mother. But our gran, she’s our beloved. My sister tries to keep her comfortable and out of pain, while our mother argues with her that morphine is quite unnecessary. Our mother is lucky that we still would not be as cruel to her as she’d be to gran if we let her.
Pouring Tipp-Ex into your computer will annoy Tpyos so much the computer will probably stop working. Or start tipyng random gibberish (which does same thyme and effort, so it”s not all bad). No cilantro was harmed in the production of this comment.
Scrap fossil fuel subsidies now and bring in carbon tax, says World Bank chief: “Jim Yong Kim calls for five-point plan to deliver low-carbon growth, including removal of incentives to exploit oil, gas and coal”.
Günter Grass, Nobel-winning German novelist, dies aged 87.
For some faith in humanity.
magistramarla @48:
Very interesting. I’ll bet you had some memorable experiences.
I’m not one of those people who thinks that every polygamous household is bad for the women involved. It’s just that the situation is rife with opportunities to oppress women, and those opportunities expand when the family lives in a community like Short Creek (Hilldale/Colorado City on the Utah/Arizona border), or like the one in Bountiful, Canada.
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/12/17/should-plural-marriage-be-legal/polygamy-is-bad-for-women
http://www.livescience.com/13010-polygamy-good-men-bad-women.html
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/2008/03/30/a_disturbing_trip_to_bountiful__abuse_in_the_name_of_god.html
I’ve just got to say, that of all the patooties in existence, the brownian motion of my patootie places its mean atomic energy far in excess of my patootie’s peers.
that is all.
Eddie!
John Oliver talked about the IRS — nice blend of comedy, facts and tragedy.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/john-oliver-irs-dangerously-boring
Scroll down for video.
Normally I’d say that “don’t read the comments” is good advice for pretty much any Guardian article. As a lefty and a longtime Guardian reader, it pisses me off that comment threads there are infested with right-wingers and generally unpleasant people. But the comments on this article are fascinating. It’s a fun little maths puzzle (try to solve it before reading the answer!), and the comments are full of people not getting it and refusing to accept the correct answer. It’s really kind of amazing – unless you’re a teacher, I suppose.
@Chigau:
It was, in fact, that song that prompted me to be thinking along those lines…though I stand by my objective measurements of my patootie’s average kinetic energy.
Audley – sorry about the blog :( It was really good stuff though, if you ever are in a place to have the time/resourses/desire to do so again. Glad DarkToddler is doing well. :)
Yay magistramarla!
Hugs to all.
Verdict on my friend: definitely cervical cancer. They’re going to start radiation as soon as possible rather than other treatment options.
Unfortunately, she’s been confused/half-sedated when people have come in to see her and her father is a useless fool when it comes to gynecology, so information is spotty. I’ve written her a list of questions to ask and told her to get the answers in writing, because she needs to know this stuff and has a right to answers.
I really need a week without tragedy and heart-break.
TMM
All the *hugs*
Dang MM, your swill is at the ready, and the pillow fort awaits.
The Mellow Monkey *hugs*
TMM
*headbonks & purrs*
TMM, hugs, and the pillow fort is always open if you need to hide from the universe for awhile.
TMM, all the above comforts, plus a generous helping of very comforting soup. You need to keep your strength up.
TMM, I hope that she recovers quickly and completely, she’s lucky to have you as a friend.
And I hope that life pulls its foot off your neck soon. The beauty and joy are still out there, but seeing it while being pinned to the dirt is so very hard.
All my hugs.
@64 The Mellow Monkey
if your friend is interested in questioning or just venting with people who’ve been there. http://www.hystersisters.com
I don’t do facebork.
Would it be possible to use another method to inform me that an old friend is dead?
or the dying part
’cause I totally could have gone for a last hug
if someone had mentioned it
phone
post card
chigau,
I’m so sorry that technology is so fucked.
chris61 #72
I think MM’s friend is currently in danger of her life.
She might want to ‘vent’ later.
Mellow Monkey:
I’m sorry to about your friend having cervical cancer. I hope she’s able to get the treatment she needs as quickly as possible.
Hugs to you, bc I imagine you’re stressed out right now.
I hope you can get a week (or several even) without heartbreak or tragedy ASAP.
****
chigau:
Hugs to you as well. I’m sorry to hear about your friend.
****
In another example of lessons I’ve learned at Pharyngula carrying over into meatspace–we recently hired several new employees, one of whom is a young woman (C). We were chatting about something yesterday and I made a comment about women, but said girls. As soon as it escaped my mouth, I apologized and said women instead.
C’s reaction?
‘Thank you’.
I hate that infantilizing language like that is so embedded in our society.
Morgan!?
It’s not the “new” technology being fucked, it’s that the new technology users are too … something to make a phonecall.
oh well what the hell
Tony!
Thank you.
and good for you on the ‘girl’ thing.
We may have yet another generation before that goes away.
Oh, so ‘rupt but dammit, the last few days have had me laid out flat. I discovered that I have an allergy after sixty some years of only having reactions to poison ivy and stupidity. It’s the oak trees. They cover my car with yellow-green pollen and make my nose run and my throat sore and my eyes scratchy. On top of that, Oldest Mancub brought some kind of creeping crawling crud into the house and it laid me out for three days. Phfflaaaaa . . .
Good news is that I woke up feeling so much better this morning that I just hauled off and went grocery shopping then I gathered all the recyclables and took them to the place that takes them and then I changed V’gers oil and filter and topped off some other fluids.
heh . . . ‘topped off some other fluids’ . . .
So, I’m not current here but in meat space I’m catching up rapidly.
I’ve something very sweet to try to tell you Hoardlings and Loungelings but I’ll break it up into a few comments. Moar Soon!!
For now, those of you who have welcomed me back are given in return my deep thanks, appreciation and affection as well as this question:
Who among you have heard of B. Squat Woody? Anyone here from Wisconsin? Black River Falls, perhaps?
*goes dark to compose so as to light another light pretty soon*
Hello, magistramarla from up there at # 20.
I’ve been diagnosed with degenerative disk disease, two mushed disks cervical and two lumbar.
I want to ask you if your diagnosis is similar to mine and if so what kind of consultation did you get when you began seeking treatment. This because I am loath to take painkillers and am, frankly, afraid of scalpels near my notocord.
Opioids have a very bad reputation with me since they claimed my Dead Daughter and are currently threatening my Surviving Daughter. Also, they make me feel like my brain is wrapped in lukewarm felt infested with hungry, toothy worms. I refuse to take them. My fear of surgery, in contrast, is based on ignorance.
Would you care to share your need for surgery and perhaps offer some advice based on your experience?
Here or through email if you would like. I really need my life back. And I need my back to live. Anything you could offer would be useful.
As well, I admire you and your mister; your comments here and on other FTBs have always elevated me. Thanks and hugs. I do so hope that your new comfort becomes your new normal.
Just signed up to auto-pay my electricity bill from my bank account. In Japanese. My brain is a bit frazzled because I suck at financial stuff in English, much less a foreign language. I have no idea how the hell people do that without being able to read Japanese. Personal banking in Japan is rather different than personal banking in America.
Now I have to go figure out how to pay (other) bills at the convenience store or at the post office ATM. (The post office is my bank.)
So then, to something sweet. Nearly unexpected. I might have foreseen something like this had I been paying closer attention but then, how closely can one look without missing something else?
Younger Mancub got home from school about a half hour before yesterday’s planned launch of the launch of Falcon 9 and Dragon to resupply the International Space Station. I had NASA TV steaming on my ancient desktop and we watched the countdown reach T minus four minutes and then there was a scrub due to high level storm clouds. We were both bummed. Twenty four hour delay.
YM asked if he could kick back on my bunk and watch some vids on his fondleslab and I said, “Sure, make yourself comfortable”. Well he did. I returned to perusing the news as I usually do. After a half hour or so I realized that I needed to take the drained oil from V’ger to the recycle facility and I asked if he wanted to go along with me. No answer. I looked over at my bed and he was kicked back, turned slightly to the wall, his slab held close to his face. I got up and reached to nudge his arm, asking again, “Wanna go with?” He was sound asleep. So I went by myself.
I was back in twenty minutes. Went inside and the kid hadn’t moved. His phone still held up above the mattress, his eyes closed, his breathing even, soft. In a move that I thought surely must wake him I gently took his phone from his hand and turned it off. I placed it on his chest. He didn’t wake. I went back to news gathering.
Three hours later I found myself turning to look at him. He’s 13 whole years old and there he was, snoozing the snooze of the innocent on my bunk. I thought of a time long past when I surely snoozed on my father’s bunk, a long lost time when my father surely looked upon me and felt something between envy and wonder. I grinned as if I knew all about sleeping sons and wise fathers, or even more wisely, grand fathers. The longer I looked, the more I saw and the less what I had assumed.
I saw the arc of his relaxed eyebrow and something familiar was there. It took a moment but then memory came to the fore and it was the line of my mother’s eyebrows. I looked at the slope of his closed lids and there were my father’s eyes. My breath came into me and held for a long moment. My eyes roamed his face, his posture, his fingers relaxed, his whole form stretched upon my bed to my own full length. Something happened to time; it spread open and I saw through a veil, through generations past and not yet present.There lay his ancestors, there lay I and there lay children I will never know but for this brief glimpse.
I have never gazed upon another as I gazed so privileged upon this young fellow. I will never be the same. He is my grandson, the life of myself, his great grand parents, his great great grandparents, some of them I remember only dimly or who died before I could even form memories of them. Time didn’t stand still instead it seemed to rush past me like a squall, like an afternoon storm that suddenly stirs the leaves of my life and then, after freshening the air invigoratingly, lets the leaves go back to what they were doing, now moistened and blown clean. All in a rush, all in a moment, all in a life, all in the way of things.
I was looking at him as he awoke. I wanted to look away, thinking to not embarrass him but I could not. His return was all stretching and flexing and blinking and deep breath. In a simple kindness of life he opened his eyes as his head turned my way and he caught me looking. Improvising, I said, “welcome back” and he sat up and check his fondleslab. Seeing the time he apologized for taking up my bunk for so long. I told him that it was no bother. I told him that if he need a quiet and welcome place my bunk would always be for him. We stood up as he said he was going to look for food but I could not let him go without a warm hug and telling him that I thought he was a very cool young man and that I love him awesomely and that I hoped that amazing things would happen in his life. He hugged me hard and said the words that lift my life. “I love you, Grandpa. I really love you. Thanks. I’ll try to be here tomorrow for the rocket launch.”
I hope, I mean I hope with a desperation and stern conviction that is as old as the human race, a hope that has been more of a driving force than war, than wealth, than power, than acquisitiveness, than superstition or craft and deceit and deception or promise or failure and regret and dying vengeance, I dearly hope that someday he, my grandson, will gaze upon a child and feel time slip aside and to be moved to a greater knowledge of love, of connection, of belonging. And I hope, no, I trust, that he will be moved to speak as I have spoken. There will be ears in those days as eager to hear as mine today.
…you know, it’s funny. When I was around 15-20, I would have been squirmily excited over this. Now all I can think is “…I don’t wanna dust it…” (Also that there’s probably plenty of lovely leverage points for my Wretched Cat to send it flying).
I feel like I’ve lost something. >.>
Chigau, I’m sorry.
TMM I’m wishing you all the strength and spoons. Good thinking preparing that list of questions and telling friend to get the answers in writing; it’s hard to remember under even ordinary stress levels, let alone stress like this. I hope she was diagnosed in time and gets good treatment.
TMM, I’m sorry to hear about your friend.
I hope she gets good care and that it was detected in an early stage. The prognosis can be quite good in the earlier stages.
Oh Crudely, I have missed you so. That was lovely.
Crudely, that was a thing of beauty.
Yay, Crudely. Thank you for your #82.
Less lyrically, I introduced my youngest to Kipling yesterday. She’d never kipled before, and though many would contend kipling is pretty fucking racist and sexist well, I still want her to know what a “just so story” is before she encounters evolutionary psychology.
She no longer asks me to read to her every day – not even every week, lately, the last few weeks she’s been on a big independence kick, don’t need nothing from no momma. But I checked out Just So Stories from the library on Sunday, just in case. Then monday night she asks me to read to her.
yes!
The cat-obsessed little being of course chose The Cat Who Walked Alone first and How the Leopard Got Its Spots second. We didn’t have time for more last night, so I didn’t find out what would have attracted her attention after the feline-featuring stories were done (Elephants, maybe? Or the First Letter?), but I’m introducing her to some classics. (I’ve already read her the first Harry Potter, The Hobbit, or There And Back Again, a chapter of a novelization of the Iliad told from the point of view of Patroclus, and a good bit of the Epic of Gilgamesh) and having a grand time doing it.
She’s not yet (age X), though she’s gotten over the (age X-0.5) hump now. She’s going to have a solid liberal-arts education by the time she’s (age X+3) or my name isn’t Crip Dyke.
This is adorable and also slightly disturbing somehow.
Crudely
That was lovely.
+++
TMM
*hugs*
I’m glad your friend has you.
+++
chigau
*hugs*
+++
Ohmygodohmygodohmygod
I just received a letter from my BFF. After skimming the first half page I have a pretty good idea where it’s going, so I’m not going to read the next 5 a half pages before I have to go to work, but could you please all be here for some hand holding in about 4 hours?
Rescued Cats Transform Inmates’ Lives With Love At Pendleton Correctional Facility http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/13/pendleton-correctional-facility-shelter-cats-inmates_n_7055384.html
.
“Cats admit perverse love of heat”. Cats are incredibly keen on high temperatures despite having thick pelts, it has emerged. http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/environment/cats-admit-perverse-love-of-heat-2015041397303
Cat: “My love of extreme heat freaks everyone out, especially when they see dogs who generally have lighter coats but look completely fucked when it’s even moderately warm.”
Also, “Cameron realising Britain just really hated Gordon Brown”
Snowball Earth: New study shows Antarctic climate even gripped the tropics http://phys.org/news/2015-04-snowball-earth-antarctic-climate-thetropics.html
At the time, there were already cyanobacteria that did photosynthesis. How the hell would they have survived a snowball event? There must be a mechanism to preserve substantial open-water refugia.
“But if the land where the rocks originated was so cold because it was several kilometres above sea level, the possibility that the planet was more of a Slushball Earth, with open seawater near the equator, cannot entirely be ruled out.”
-But since Rodinia, lacking a plant cover, would suffer intense erosion (prior to the snowball event), only narrow mountain ranges in active mountain-building regions would provide such environments.
Algorithm able to identify online trolls http://phys.org/news/2015-04-algorithm-online-trolls.html
Quantum Criticality in life’s proteins http://phys.org/news/2015-04-quantum-criticality-life-proteins.html
.
‘Venus zone’ narrows search for habitable planets http://phys.org/news/2015-04-venus-zone-narrows-habitable-planets.html
.
Cheese incident http://www.gocomics.com/richards-poor-almanac/2015/03/15
Additional *hugs* for TMM.
–
chigau, I’m so sorry.
*hugs*
–
Crudely Wrott, oak trees are evil, the way they go promiscuously forcing their nasty pollen on the sinuses of the unwilling.
As for your 82, all I can say is *sniffle*—and that ain’t just the sinuses talkin’.
–
TMM,
*hugs*
and extra *hugs* for TMM’s friend
chigau,
Yeah, people suck. I don’t have anything else. Seriously .Just because it’s more convenient to use Facebook doesn’t mean they can’t invest that tiny little bit more effort to phone you. Gad.
My condolences and I’m sorry you didn’t get the chance to say goodbye.
@Giliell –
I calculate that as about 45 minutes from now.
I’ll probably be AFK for about an hour starting right then, but I’ll be checking the lounge just before and just after.
@birgerjohansson
I very often appreciate you link dumps, and your second article is good and interesting*1, but damn if I didn’t groan when I read that second link, thinking, “Now we’re going to have to listen to the new-age-loons go off on quantum criticality. Ugh.”
*1: as is your 3rd…the 1st and 4th are fine, but less interesting to me.
…I have no idea why I’m saying this. I meant to thank/compliment you and now it sounds like I’m criticizing. Sigh.
Thanks, all, for the hugs.
You want a lesson from the mildly deranged penguin on what is and isn’t cheese?!
Velveeta (YUCK!! I’d managed to forget that stuff exists…) certainly is not, and Cheez Whiz is an abomination unto well, just about everything, including horses, peas, and itself.
A possible link to autism. Not vaccines, but gestational diabetes.
Oh god, I should have read the letter to the end. It is NOT what I thought.
You can all relax and so can I. My friend’s looking for artificial insemination and I thought she might be looking for a sperm donor. She’s not. She’s asking us to become guardians should she have a child and should something happen to her. I’m totally honoured by her trust in us. I’m not sure what I would have said to the other wish*, I’m glad I don’t have to think about it.
*It’s all your fault. All you people with your non-traditional families make me get ideas.
CD
Thank you
*hugs*
*relaxing per Giliell‘s instructions*
Feels…odd.
Wrong, somehow.
*tensing back up*
Normality has been restored.
:D
–
Giliell
Oh, that is so sweet. ❤
One of my oldest friends in the world is also a cis man who is about to get married. He and his wife-to-be have agreed that he can be my donor when I’m ready for one, should I not end up with someone who will provide sperm somehow in the meantime. Funny thing, considering how uncertain I was about having kids with my ex-partner: now that he’s out of the picture, I’m actually sure about all the things I do want.
And fortune be praised for that, because this whole thing would have been so much harder if we’d had kids together.
Hello all I’m older mancub. I hope crudely has spoken highly of me.
Welcome in oldermancub.
No, no, yer doing it all wrong. Wretched Cat should have the flying lessons. The mildly deranged penguin offers a kitty launching service, normally using a trebuchet (there’s a large selection), but for a reasonable fee and a few mountains of cheese, other launchers are available.
She also has a housecleaning service. Well, a house incineration service. Very hygienic. Any germs, virus, walruses, dust bunnies, and horses are guaranteed to become small piles of ash. So is the neighborhood, so you don’t have to worry about recontamination. Peas and British industrial cheddar extra. There have been no complaints from any of her previous clients, all of whom could provide references, once you reassemble their respective Universes. Payment in advance.
The “Flush Rush” campaign has racked up another success.
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/04/13/rush-limbaugh-dropped-by-longtime-indianapolis/203265
Borscht by tube? Space menu served up to mark Soviet achievements:
The mildly deranged penguin is confused. Well, more confused than usual. On the one hand, there’s no cheese. That’s bad. And good — it means the Russians have more sense than to consider Cheez Whiz or Velveeta cheese.
Yay for Giliell!
Welcome for oldermancub!
Oldermancub, has anyone explained to you how your login need not be how your name is displayed? I mention this because your ‘nym as presented by wordpress has no spaces, but in the text you use “older mancub”. Of course that could be autocorrect, but if you’d prefer spaces, you can make that happen.
I know how important just the right ‘nym can be.
Like the Grinch, or maybe much moar than the Grinch, my heart has suddenly grown by several sizes. Perhaps by even an order of magnitude.
I give you Older Mancub.
You may do with him what you will but you will do it kindly.
He just turned sixteen a week ago and has not yet rotated above the fires of purgatory long enough to be considered edible. With a bit more time and with tender basting I am certain that he will please even the most discriminating palate.
I am obviously (well, I should hope it shows!) delighted that he has stuck his nose under the tent of the Lounge. He is bright, he learns quickly and has a most admirable curiosity. Those factors bode well in terms of future possibilities.
Next school year he will be shuttling between his high school and the local community college for courses.
Obvious Proud Grampa is obvious.
I’d tell you more but it would be not only polite of me and more entertaining for you to let him tell you himself.
Hey, Tony! Got something tasty but not too invigorating for this sprout?
@Crudely & oldermancub:
and proud.
I recommend poached water, with a delicate camellia sinensis infusion.
@Crip Dike #109
Thanks for welcoming the sprout. Your mention of displayed nym is well received and in fact, at this very moment it is being addressed.
@CD
Perhaps with a bit of cream? For the cat, that is.
*smirks runs and hides*
A big welcome for Older Mancub. Because there is no “Junior Division” in the lounge, you will be expected to complete the standard questionnaire. I imagine rq, our official paper shuffler, will be here shortly to administer it. You will find, I hope, that we value truth, hilarity, irony, inquisitiveness, silliness, forthrightness, kindness, and respect, all flavored with a sprinkling of wisdom. And the oxford comma.
Giliell, that’s good news – glad to hear it.
Pleased to make your acquaintance, oldermancub. Somebody will probably administer The Questionnaire at some point – you might like to consider your opinions of Peas, Horses, and dammit what was the other one … oh, yes, cheese, sorry, Cheese. And the bonus question: Miracle Whip (clue: it’s an abomination unto all sentient beings but shh, you didn’t hear me say that).
Pretty ‘rupt; *hugs* and condolences to chigau, happy birthday to somebody, I misrecall who, welcome to Older Mancub.
My allergies are back with a vengeance, and have taken my sleep with them; I am also trying my hand again at (tabletop) game writing, which is occupying much of such faculties as I’ve got. Also, one of my teeth seems to be going further south on me, which is a joy, since we’re broke and afaict uninsured; I went to apply for the Oregon Health Plan, but I never heard back, and can’t get through on the phone due to exceedingly long hold times and random disconnections. sigh.
Welcome to the Lounge, oldermancub!
Feel free to belly up to the bar for a drink.
morgan @114:
QFT!
Hmmm, perhaps we should make a tweak to the questionnaire- ‘what is your position on the Oxford comma?’
Hey Tony!! I’ve been lurking since winter and your stories have been part of what has sustained me. Really nice to be back in the Lounge with you and all the Hoardlings.
Say, got anything that is invigorating for me? Perhaps something with bourbon in it?
Welcome oldermancub!
Speaking of old, you are indeed too old to begin the training to become a Jedi–
Wait, this isn’t the jedi council…nevermind, my mistake.
Thanks for all the Welcome’s. This is pretty difficult to do on my phone but I’ll try my best.
Dalillama I feel for you my allergies are horrible this time of year. Especially with my asthma.
Crudely @119:
How about some Jim Beam Black?
Or perhaps Crown Special Reserve?
There was a bottle of Woodford Reserve, but it went missing a few weeks ago. I did find the culprit after dusting for prints. Turns out it was PZ!
Mister Jack, Tony!, if you please. He’s an old friend and I’ve been missing him lately.
The only position for the Oxford comma in the movement is prone.
Damn, uppity Oxford commas!
Upon reflection, the Crown Special Reserve sounds enticing. Perhaps with something lemony in it.
Pulls up fluffy chair , knitting needles and some lovely handspun sock yarn.
Ok, now I’m ready to try and keep up.
Welcome back Crudely Wrott! Hello Older Mancub!
There’s the pillows and blankets, and over there is the food and grog. Help yourself.
I have, on occasion, inserted an Oxford quote while standing. I think those times were when a short pause was needed for clarity and easier reading.
*or catching or breath*
Hello Rawnaeris. Ooh. I’ll take the blue one.
And my phone is doing strange things to punctuation and spaces.
And, mostly thanks to my job, you’ll have to pry Oxford commas out of my hands if you ever catch me asleep. ‘Cause they aren’t going anywhere while I’m awake.
Hello, Older Mancub! The pillow fort is over here, and we have cookies . Just watch out for Hobbes, he pounces.
erm, “catching of breath”
When I die Tylpos will claim my soul.
Well I’m much too old for pillow forts but i love cookies! Who is Hobbes?
Ah, Crudely, have you no shame? Such intellectual and social deprivation you have inflicted!
Why, Older Mancub might end up depraved on account’a he’s deprived!
Fortunately there are Hordelings that exist to fulfill the needs of the soul.
Heh . . .
“too old for pillow forts . . .”
That’s exactly what he said when he read my comment himself. He reminded me of what that was. I haven’t read many but I know what that is for the most part.
You have found the chink in my armor. Comes the revolution I shall surely pay. Deeply and dearly.
On the other hand, I am grooming a champion for my dotage.
I am, then, a shameless gold digger. To be fair, it is all in the family.
Hey Lynna, have you heard about Stripling Warrior, the world’s first gay mormon superhero?
Sketches and preview pages available at the link. The art is nice, but the writing is…not good.
Older Mancub @135:
I’ve found that pillow forts are nice when you want to temporarily retreat from the horrors of the world.
I would contend, Older Mancub, that you may be both too old and too young for pillow forts. Dignity is (understandably and reasonably) a very important consideration in your chronological region – I say that as observation, not criticism – and pillow forts and the need therefor are rarely dignified.
As a cranky old Nana of 48 1/2, though, I can say that I occasionally make pillow forts in my apartment, because I can, and because sometimes it just feels like the right thing to do. The world is large and scary sometimes, and a fort made of pillows absorbs a lot of ills. But my dignity stopped being important when I dyed my hair blue a few years ago, so I’m good with being undignified.
Welcome to you, and welcome back Crudely, and Audley, and OMG you’re all back at once it’s kinda cool! :)
-=-=-
I’ve spent the evening doing the AMAZINGLY BORING part of game design: the making of multiple things of repetitive design. In the case of my pro bending game, currently 420 cards for the entire two-player game, each of which consists of a set of five icons (chosen from three; 243 possibles, of which I’m using 210), plus another symbol and a small diagram of required movement. Each card is very slightly different, and because I’m obsessive, they also need to be aligned perfectly and distributed evenly and visually bifold (shape plus colour, helping to make sure that icons are discernible to people with various low-viz situations) and the characters used have to be right and and and…
So it’s utterly boring stuff, but requires close attention to detail to satisfy me. Deadly combination. I’ve set myself a goal of two pages a day – 30 cards per sheet, taking about 90 minutes per sheet. It’s just hard to maintain the level of concentration needed to keep at it, another sly little component of depression.
Definitely DEFINITELY doing better on that front, btw; the Black Dog is sleeping in the living room, now, at least, and not on my bed. Exhibit A is the game; by this point when I’m properly depressed, I’d be giving up despite good intentions, as I have with so many games before. But I’ve got enough optimism back to think that this is a bloody good design, and that I really think there’s a good chance that they’ll want to publish it. It’s simple enough for probably bright six-year-olds – definitely the average eight-year-old could handle it, if they’ve seen the show Legend of Korra – but in the same sense that chess is simple rules with complex outcomes, the interaction of the cards and strategies therewith, with the three-per-side nature of the game, with the dice rolls (enough to smooth out the probabilities, and single-die success/failure rolls), gives a pretty wide range of possibilities for approaching the game. The rules are currently two pages, total, and I’m aiming for a final of four or less.
Way more detail than you needed, I expect, but hey, the point is, I know all this stuff because I’ve got it all worked out, it’s all in notes and files and diagrams, and this card-making is the final step in hand-making the prototype. And I’m applying myself to actually getting the notes transcribed into an actual game that I can send out to actual not-me playtesters, and then actually try to get published.
And y’know, maybe as a wee side note, possibly getting to meet Bryan and Mike. Cause, OMG SKA-WHEEEEEE! that would be (ahem) pleasant.
Welcome, Older Mancub! You are most welcome here. Although some of us are old enough to be your parents (I have a 16 year old at home myself), there are also younger people who pop in on the Lounge thread from time to time. Thunk is one who comes in and out as his studies allow; hopefully you will cross paths at some point, and there are a lot of people here in their low-to-midd-ish 20s, not too far off.
The pillow fort is for anyone who has had a bad day/week/month/year who needs extra kindness and internet love. It’s a good place to rest and recoup when needed. :)
carlie @140:
IIRC, Thunk prefers not to be referred to by gendered pronouns (I made the mistake a while back and they mentioned it).
Oh for fucks sake!!!!!!!!!!!
My in laws are considering going to Oklahoma and getting the so-called “Jesus shot” which the doctor “Dr Mike” claims can cure you of pain forever for the low low price of $300. But don’t fucking ask what’s in it! And they don’t care that he’s spent time in a federal prison for fraud. Or that his medical license was revoked in Ohio befor he ran away to Oklahoma. And no! Second opinions aren’t an option because all of the other doctors out there are covering this miracle cure up so that they can force you to get more expensive pain control options–like aspirin for arthritis that one has or the knee replacement for the bone on bone knee that the other does.
And they are believing this shit! And aren’t listening to me or their son while we’re going “wait what? Are you sure you want to blindly trust someone like that? Really?”
Gaaaaahhhhhharaeblargle
Man shoots at armadillo, bullet ricochets and hits his mother-in-law.
She did not suffer any serious injuries thankfully.
Hi, carlie!! I meant to give you a shout out before, so, how ’bout now?!
Also warm regards, hugs, grog, comfy chairs and fair winds to you and also to:
Anne, doing yeoman’s work keeping my hug pile stocked the last few months.
Crip Dyke for all around wonderfulness and cutting insight into law and related stuff.
Cicely for sniffling with me. Fortunately the pollen blizzard is waning but your loveliness shines on!
Giliell who almost needed emergency hugs; will a calm and infinitely redeemable hug coupon be welcome instead? Good. It’s yours.
I’ve no doubt missed some but you are not neglected. My bad but keeping up with every comment here and keeping up with RL and et cetera tasks even my Herculean abilities. (probably should have used lowercase there, or invoked a lesser god like Barney Fife who would, if lowercased, simply vanish.)
I extend thanks and nods of appreciation for those of you who have, and those of you who will, welcome my grandson into the Lounge. I know that the kindness that you have graced me with over the years of following this blog will be his as well. Too, the gentle corrections and advice that are signal of the bright spirits who dwell here in this place between places.
Hello! Welcome to the lounge, Older Mancub! It is nice to see aspiring young minds on here. I’m freshly into college, as carlie has pointed out. (And as Tony! says, my gender is not very clearly defined either. Especially to myself. I don’t really mind anything but “he”, though).
And aside from that, I’m doing various kinds of things meant to satisfy the nitpicky demands of my various professors, my side projects (when I’m bored– Must District (62% done, i think))
And to whoever asked about the quizbowl thing last lounge, I believe: We appreciate your presence here, but understand that this is more of a place for comfort, idle chitchat, and support. People usually only tend to donate money in cases when a trusted regular needs it for some emergency (paying rent and the like) — many of us don’t have much, if anything to spare. HSNCT and the like can be expensive; I’ve had to pay significant amounts out of pocket two years I went. I suggest going to the hsqb forums (http://hsquizbowl.org/forums/) and asking there. I do hope you can make it; academic competition can be fun (if a bit problematic).
*swears* I’m really sorry, thunk. I do know better, and should have remembered.
My day today:
4:30: Why am I awake?
5:30: Fuck it.
6: Get out of bed.
6:30: Leave for work.
6:45: Tea!
6:55: Crap, gotta hit the time clock.
7:15: Oh great, he just vomited.
8: Awesome, he just vomited again.
9:15: That’s blood. Crap.
12:00: Crapcrapcrapcrap runrunrunrun
12:30: Okay, crisis averted.
12:40: Did the doctor just address the patient as “sweetcheeks”?
13:15: Lunch!
13:45: Okay, back to work.
14: Great, he just wandered off. Did he sign the forms? Glad I’m leaving soon.
15: Hey, where’s the nurse coming in to relieve me?
15:30: Guess i’m not leaving soon.
16: SO. MUCH. PAPERWORK.
16:30: Why did I get both of the new admits?
17: Oh yay, we’ve got a spitter.
18:30: Awwww, we rang all the bells for that long-term patient as they left. And they bought us flowers. Cue a mass hug/weepfest in the med room.
18:45: Okay back to work.
19: Finish this fucking paperwork.
19:30: Okay, so after waiting for 10 hours for the provider to come by, the family left and the provider shows up 5 minutes later. Perfect. Whatever, I’m leaving that mess for the night shift.
19:40: Is the sun still up? Yes! I’m seeing the sun today!
The good news is that I’m off tomorrow, and that extra 4 hours got me overtime. :D
*splat*
Hello, Crudely Wrott! Excellent seeing you again! And welcome to the cub!
There might be some hope for Missouri! Well, maybe not, but at least there’s a bill.
http://www.boom.lgbt/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=533%3Amissouri-nondiscrimination-act-will-be-heard-by-house-committee-tomorrow&catid=98%3Alocal&Itemid=688
Tony- Armadillos are no joke. I had to change a tire in the rain because of one.
Hi, oldermancub (or, as may be, Older Mancub); Welcome In!
So. Down to Real Business:
1) Horses?
2) Peas?
3) Cheese?
4) Miracle Whip™?
(Ignore the opposablethumbsian propaganda re Miracle Whip™; though in all other ways a fine, nay, an excellent example of a sapient being, in this respect, there is evidence of considerable, and erroneous, bias.)
–
*hugs for Dalillama; I’m sorry to hear about the allergies and The Madness of the Tooth.
I know both these circumstances but too well.
–
5) The Oxford Coma?
I mean, Comma.
–
*pouncehug* for CaitieCat.
And may you punt the Black Dog back out through the doggie flap.
–
Rawnaeris:
Bad move.
Bad move.
O.o
o.O
So, munching His Flesh and slurping His Blood is no longer good enough; now he demands to be inserted subcutaneously as well?
…as can a baseball bat to the back of the head…
…and the baseball bat is much cheaper.
I’m so sorry.
–
Armadillos aren’t just cute like everybody supposes….
Also—News Flash!—they are not, repeat, not Naturally Housebroken.
Anyone who tells you different, is only going to avoid paying to have your upholstery cleaned, afterwards.
–
thunk!
*pouncehug*
Nastily active, if seasonally-appropriate, weather in OK, just here lately. I hope you’re riding it out okay.
–
*hugs* and *chocolate, coffee, and/or Something Stronger* for Esteleth.
O.o
o.O
Enjoy your day off; it certainly sounds like you’ve earned it!
–
Annie Bruce, formerly gworroll, I hope it goes better at the state level. The recent local display of mostly-religiously-fueled bigotry was both frustrating and depressing.
–
Trying a pain pill to see if I can sleep longer than just a few minutes before the bladder alarm goes off enough to wake me up. It had better work, or tomorrow is going to be a very, very long day.
Hi, thunk.
Just because I’ve still got the warmfuzzies over it, I want to expand on my “we rang all the bells” thing.
Back in the day, patients were given a little bell that they could use to get the attention of the staff (nowadays, their beds are equipped with a push button that sets of a “ding” at the nurses’ station). The old bells live in a box in the storeroom.
Someone who’d been with us awhile (and who came to us in a very bad situation) was discharged today. So we – the staff – lined the hallway, each of us carrying one of those old bells. And as our former-patient passed by on their way out, we rang those bells.
We rang those bells so damn hard.
Eyes got misty.
Esteleth #147 & #153
*wiping tears*
Please clone yourself and your co-workers and send them to the next ER I visit.
Oh. Percy Sledge. Seventy three. Voice is stilled. Memories of high school dances. Slow dancing.
Hello Esteleth! A note has been made of your job performance. I know it’s around here some where . . . riffles papers on desk, looks under desk, goes for call button . . . archivist, stat!
I think I missed sending a greeting to to chigau. Here, have some tea and some pillows, on me. I had all these extras and then here you come just wandering by. Just in time; I’m behind schedule turning these things over.
Good morning
I take all the hugs, I give all the hugs, crudely
Welcome, Older Mancub
Before you answer the questionaire, let me inform you that each question has a definitely right and a definitely wrong answer. The trouble is that few people can agree on which is which ;)
Esteleth
That sounds busy. Also criminal of your employer. Take care of yourself. I come from a family of healthcare workers and the conditions often break down good and dedicated staff
TMM
I’m glad you have somebody who’d do that for you and I’m glad things are looking clearer for you now. It’s not an easy decision and I’m glad we don’t have to make it. Best I can say is that I would really have thought about it Especially since German laws are completely fucked up patriarchal monsters. Women are not considered actual rational beings, therefore you have huge difficultuties getting treatment unless you’re married to a guy and gus cannot agree to donate sperm personally without the risk of being sued for child support. Allegedly in the name of the child’s wellbeing.
Did I also mention that we get to hear every other week how women aren’t popping out enough babies?
Men’s Health is holding the ‘Ultimate Guy’ contest and the current leader of the pack is a trans man.
The winner will appear on the November 2015 cover of Men’s Health.
(the link is to a post I just wrote)
My posts never seem to show up in the Stop Bragging-thread. Have I been marked as a spammer or is it just bugging out on me?
Condolences to chigau from me, too.
— — — — —
Creepy Medical Supplies Found Amid Wreckage Of Pirate Blackbeard’s Ship http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/31/blackbeard-pirate-ship-medical-supplies_n_6582112.html?cps=gravity_2440_1892953707780659463
Crip Dyke,
Oh shit, I did not spot that they link quantum criticality with consciousness. That definitely seems woo-ish.
BTW Swedish brothers launch first donut into near space with weather balloon http://www.thelocal.se/20150414/swedish-brothers-launch-first-donut-into-space
I shocked a pair of Japanese Jehova’s Witnesses half to death this evening. There aren’t very many foreigners living in this city, so my appearance at the door was rawther unexpected. I wish I could have watched when they got to my coworker’s apartment at the other end of the building. Because if I was shocking to them as an average-height white woman, well, he’s a black guy over 6 feet tall.
Also, that coworker and I are lucky we didn’t get kicked out of the convenience store near our apartment building earlier this evening. We ran into one another there after work, and as we were chatting, this adorable little kid with a two-toned mullet came up and made friends with us. Then he got totally wound up and ran around “killing” us like thirty times each with imaginary swords, guns, laser beams, magic powers, etc. There we were: two foreigners in business suits getting repeatedly and gorily “murdered” by an over-excited first grader all up and down the aisles of a convenience store during their evening rush. At least we made a good impression on the kid’s grandmother(?).
I think this is genius: Bluegrass version of GoT theme
I wish to apologise personnally to Jackie, social justice WIZZARD and since I don’t know when the best opportunity to do so could happen, I’ll leave it there on the Lounge so please tell her if she’s not seeing it.
Over the course of our previous (mid January) argument, I used a quite dumb non-argument unfairly in response to a “bet” (I had no idea what she was refering to, and admittedly, a bit upset about it). The nature of the non-argument was sexually implicit, and while it wasn’t hard pressed it was still fully inappropriate.
So I apologize to her.
Only a few days ago did I realise that I was mistaken on her person.
To my defence, I genuinely thought it was directed to “him” as a guy, and not to her as a woman, since the surname is masculine in my country. I don’t direct that kind of insensitive pseudoarg to women, though I sometimes happen to use it when the interlocutor is male, because it has the advantage of clearing off the ground of potential homophobes.
Please note that if anybody else in here feels like I owe xir apologies, I’ll genuinely consider the request. (I think potential exceptions have been banned already).
Not to derail the thread, but good news in Canada this morning. PZ might be interested.
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/supreme-court-rules-saguenay-mayor-cant-say-prayer-ahead-of-council-meetings
I read upthread that there may yet be hope for Missouri? Well…
Missouri Republicans are trying to ban food stamp recipients from buying steak and seafood
My fave part of the article:
He also wants to prevent them from buying cookies, chips, energy drinks, and soft drinks.
Maybe he thinks people on assistance should just eat dirt?
Also, forgive my poor manners…
Welcome to Older Mancub
and huz to all in need. With special thoughts to TMM and chigau.
Allergies! The generic version of Claritin I was taking has stopped working. I’m trying good old fashioned Benadryl now. It seems to be helping a bit more. Is it just me, or is there a real science-y reason that allergies seem really bad this year?
That appears to happen with Claritin. The Redhead complained about that, and I switched her over to a store version of Zyrtec. About the same price as the store version of Claritin. There are a couple of other OTC anti-allergy drugs you could try.
Chlorine, uses and abuses in Syria:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/may/07/syria-death-assads-chlorine/
Tony @137:
That is just awesome!
Here’s some mormon “art” that combines stripling warriors with modern day missionaries. They all seem to have had plastic surgery to create the square jaw look.
http://www.imagekind.com/Stripling-Warriors_art?IMID=1667598c-9001-4674-906d-5df7f0a08294
Nerd
Yeah, I read somewhere that Zyrtec tends to be more effective than Claritin. I did not know there was a store version of it, though. I’ll need to check the aisle more carefully next time.
Giliell, I’m not inclined to hold a surprise! stay-late against my employer. This is not at all a routine occurrence, and it’s not my manager’s fault they had a no-show. In any case, the decision to stay late was made by me. When it was realized we had the no-show, I was asked, “Would you be interested in staying until 7?” I said yes. I could have declined (in which case they would have approached the other people getting ready to clock out at 3, and had they all declined as well, gotten on the phones) without any penalty at all. The only reason I was asked first is because when the manager started looking for the out-at-3 people, I was the first person she saw. But yes, it was exhausting.
Oh, and Nerd, the active ingredient in Zyrtec is cetirizine, for the sake of your generic-hunting.
A tax-day article that puts taxes into perspective:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/04/tax-day-income-irs-charts
Gun violence costs have soared. In the USA, gun violence costs about $700 per American per year. We spend more as a result of gun violence than we do on obesity, and the gun-violence costs ($229 billion) are almost equal to Medicaid spending ($251 billion) per year.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/04/true-cost-of-gun-violence-in-america
<rant>I just spilled some boiling water on my hand. (Not very much, and, at the moment, I seem to be Ok.) It was supposed to go into the teapot, but I wasn’t paying attention…
…because I’m still fuming over pointy-haired at work. He’s been doing a number of dumb things lately, but the one which kidnapped the herd of goats was an e-mail to me, and CC-ed to several others, saying to “never use bork“, making it clear he thought it was a rude or impolite term.
I immediately sent back an easily-found definition from the ‘Net, which was, in essence, “an incorrectly configured computer”. Which is essentially what I meant (I was actually referring to a piece of software). Pointy-haired neither replied nor apologized.
What he is supposed to be doing is fixing the borked software so that we can send it to customers (he agreed to this is in a team meeting awhile ago). The customers are now screaming for it (quite legitimately, it’s not only overdue, but really is desperately needed — and pointy-haired has been saying for at least a month now it can be fixed in less than one day (and, if it wasn’t pointy-haired himself who is supposed to being it, he’s probably correct)).
The main reason we know it is borked is because I insisted on testing it before release, due to previous releases having a history of borkology and no-one noticing until either someone in my team (perhaps the internal users who use and are most likely to put the borked software under stress), or a customer, starts to complain. So this time I put my foot down and refused to release the software I work on, which needs pointy-haired’s borked software, until we were satisfied it wasn’t borked.
The e-mail conversation was an attempt by pointy-haired to shift the blame for the inordinate delay to my team.
(At the moment, after my reply, pointy-haired has shut up, but I won’t be too surprised if the Orwellian tactics resume in the future…)
</rant>The tea, b.t.w., is a nice organic Earl Grey, with some organic honey and a shot of Kraken Black Spiced Rum. A rather hefty shot. There is more water than rum (even after spilling some of it on my hand), but there could be more rum (by volume) than tea leaves…
Personal anecdote only: I’ve been taking Zyrtec for years, ever since I first started going to an allergist and it was prescription. Once last year I had an allergy shot and couldn’t find any Zyrtec, so I took a Claritin that my husband had bought instead. I ended up having an anaphylactic reaction to the shot. Luckily the symptoms didn’t involve throat closure, but it was still quite unpleasant (especially, but not limited to, the side effects of the emergency dose of epinephrine). So for me, Zyrtec definitely works and Claritin definitely doesn’t.
Borked the blockquotes #178 [facepalm]. Been that type of week so far.
A woman in Georgia was denied a prescription because the asshat pharmacist refused to fill it:
The woman mentioned above is not the only one who was refused prescription medication by a pharmacist.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/04/pharmacists-refused-woman-drugs-miscarriage-walmart
Lynna, #180
That’s disgraceful.
Walmart’s excuse about the prescription not following FDA guidelines is bullshit. Shame on them. There is no principle on which a pharmacist would realistically refuse to fill a misoprostol prescription from an OBGYN. Unless it was an obvious issue (like bizarre quantity or weird instructions), the pharmacist wouldn’t scrutinize a prescription for something like that.
So was just reminded obliquely of this special experience today.
(It’s been like four years. She forgot about it the next day. I’m still bitter.)
That shit shouldn’t be legal.
+++
*hrmpf*
You may remember that my uncle died a few weeks ago. As he had debts, his wife and daughters declined the inheritance. Which means that now the rest of the family needs to do so as well: his siblings, his mother, his nieces and nephews, even my kids.
Not only do we have to take half a day off to go to the courthouse, we also have to pay 30 bucks each for the privilege. That’s 90 bucks for us to get out of an inheritance we don’t want.
Giliell, I take it that anyone accepting this inheritance also takes on responsibility for settling up said debts? Even if the inheritance doesn’t cover them?
–
Cartoonist stands by controversial drawing depicting young shooting victim:
Image of the cartoon available at the link.
cicely
Yep, inheriting means all or nothing, so if the debts are bigger than the assets, you have to pay them off. I don’t know how that is if somebody leaves you a specific item, but that’s not what we’re talking about.
I just got off the phone with my little nephew. He just today learned to say my name and repeated it gleefully to me many times. :D
This is cross posted from the thread, “A weird, strange, sad argument against gay marriage.” Moments of Mormon Madness have run into a snag.
Whoa, wait a minute here! One of the mormon couples included in the U.S. Supreme Court case filing have objected to being included. Looks like some mormon lawyers included the couple without their permission or knowledge.
Josh and Lolly Weed want their names removed from the “friend of the court” brief.
The mormon attorney who filed the brief is Darrin Johns from American Fork, Utah. It’s mostly mormons all the way. Furthermore, it is mormons connected to North Star, one of the heinous reparative therapy organizations run by mormons.
The one non-mormon in the group is a catholic, Doug Mainwaring. He is also a founding member of the National Capital Tea Party Patriot group.
http://www.sltrib.com/home/2400859-155/mormon-couple-object-to-inclusion-in
Cross post from the “sad argument against gay marriage thread.” More Moments of Mormon Madness being exposed.
A few excerpts from the readers’ comments associated with the Salt Lake Tribune article (link in #50):
Well Cicely, I just give my opinion on these things right?
Older Mancub @190:
Yup.
It’s just a lighthearted exercise.
Personally, I like horses and cheese, but I hate peas with a passion and Miracle Whip is an abomination before Hades.
Older Mancub,
I know I’m not supposed to be coaching or lobbying for correct answers to The Questionnaire (of which there are several (answers not questionnaires)) but may I just opine that if Crudely is a concerned Grandpa, he will not have allowed exposure to the vile Miracle Whip. Just sayin’. :-}
Blech!
Why, oh why, did I buy a bottle of cheap rum (bc I had limited funds on me when I went to the liquor store)? You’d think a bartender would know better. Maybe I’ll cook with it.
Tony! Rum balls? Toffee with rum? Bread pudding with rum? I’m sure you can find something to do with the cheap stuff – if all else fails you could always pour it over something and set it alight.
I’ve found that sometimes, the seemingly smallest of things can brighten my day. Earlier today, I read an article at Raw Story about a pastor who condemned a fellow clergyman for not supporting death by stoning for gays.
Someone in the comment section left this comment:
My response:
I figured my response would fall on deaf ears. I was pleased as punch to be proven wrong. The commenter later responded with this
After I thanked hir, xe actually thanked me for making a good point-one that xe felt made hir a better person.
So refreshing.
Well, I love horses,peas and cheese. Miracle whip is horrible whipped cream is where its at. No Oxford commas here.
Weird. I’m pretty sure the US at least has reformed laws such that if debts exceed estate at death, that just means your heirs get nothing.
Quiz time: you have had a tough week. There are three items on the table in front of you. Which do you eat?
a) cheesecake
b) nachos
c) beer
carlie @198:
You must have hit ‘submit’ accidentally as I don’t see d) all of the above.
carlie @198
EAT ALL THE THINGS!!!!
If you can *eat* your beer you’re making it wrong. O.o
Azkyroth — A good stout is pretty much dinner in a pint glass.
carlie @198,
All of them, of course. But always eat dessert first.
Ohio principal blacks out 13-year-old’s ‘feminist’ t-shirt in school photo. She said that some people might find it offensive.
::rolls eyes::
“Some people” are ignorant about the nature of feminism. That includes the principal.
Had a decent day, today.
Got the grocery shopping done. Sure, that’s a normal Wednesday for me, but the trip was drama-free, and I had a pleasant chat with the most adorable little old lady.
I had to, uh, see a friend about a plant (if you know what I mean), and since the weather was nice, I decided I’d take a wander on the trails. Had a nice wander.
It felt so good to get outside again!
As long as I’m doing memes…
How can anyone believe that a universe that contains these people was in any way influenced by a benevolent god?
x.x
Got more/longer sleep with the pain pill last night, so I’m repeating the experiment. I really need to sleep in a couple of hours past normal wake-up time. But not until the weekend. Ugh.
Cicely- yeah, the SOGI repeal pissed me off. At myself, too, because I neglected to get my voter registration changed over from Dallas County in time. Thankfully at work, our corporate policies(which have been enforced even in Texas) pretty much cover all of that, and the one coworker I’ve discussed it with was also anti-repeal. And it was close enough that even if things don’t happen in Jefferson City, we’ve got a decent chance of the next attempt in Springfield actually working.
I especially hated the “we don’t need to be a leader” objection, because, well, it’s true. In fact, the bathroom panic objection is better, because at least that’s technically possible. We don’t have to be a leader, because we *can’t* be in this area. Other cities, entire states, have comparable laws and nothing has broken. It’s not as offensive as the bathroom panic arguments, but it’s just SO STUPID.
awakeinmo- Yeah. These people have so little clue. It’s getting to the point with some of the restrictions I hear about that it would probably be cheaper, and better for public health, to just issue the food directly. At least that way it wouldn’t require recipients to know calculus in order to work out how to keep their families properly fed on their ludicrously small budget.
‘morning
Tony
There was this one bottle I bought in Cuba that couldn’t be made drinkable no matter how much lime, sugar and hierba buena you added. Finally I used it as alcohol to desinfect my mosquito bites…
+++
Azkyroth
Sorry for not having been clear: You don’t have to inherit debts here. If the debts exceed the assets you just turn the whole thing down and say “no thanks”. We’re only in this position because my aunt and cousins sensibly did that. I only find it pretty unfair that we have to pay 90 bucks for not being burdened with some debt we didn’t make.
++
Speaking of money, car repairs are 600 €. *sigh*
I guess I should be glad the kids like cheap meals…
+++
esteleth
I’m glad to hear that it’s an exception at your workplace. I simply know too many healthcare workers who got burned out because their employers simply blackmailed them with the fact that they’re good people.
I don’t know if a term needs to be coined for this (Inverted Dear Muslima?), but listening to right-wing Christians like Ben Carson bemoan the “lack of rights” of Christians in America when there’s actual oppression of Christians going on in some Muslim countries and places like ISIL controlled territory is pretty funny.
“If you’re a brown Christian in Iraq, the worst they can do is behead you. In the U.S. they’d expect you to sell cake if you’re in the business of selling cakes!”
Anita Sarkeesian on the TIME 100 list
Get ready for your afternoon bath in male tears!
And Laverne Cox. Male tears spieced with TERF tears, how delightful!
Another part of the explanation for the Fermi paradox?
The proto-Earth needed to engulf a Mercury-like proto-planet to get the radionucleids needed to heat the core and get a magnetic field and plate tectonics going.
“Earth ate a Mercury-like body early in its history, study finds” http://phys.org/news/2015-04-earth-ate-mercury-like-body-early.html
.
— — — — —
After the recent failure to save and reuse the first stage of a Falcon rocket, this is reassuring:
“Space open for business, says Electron launch system CEO” http://phys.org/news/2015-04-space-business-electron-ceo.html “…the first oxygen/hydrocarbon engine to use 3D printing for components”
.
— — — — —
Zoologger: “Hollow marine monsters as big as whales” http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27213-zoologger-hollow-marine-monsters-as-big-as-whales.html
meh. If they cannot eat humans, who cares about them?
Living in denial: The mechanisms http://www.newscientist.com/special/living-in-denial
.
— — —
Breakup lines with exactly one letter changed. http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=3705
I peed my own space?
.
— — — —
Take this with a grain of salt:
“14 Extinct Animals We Could Clone Right Now” http://www.lolwot.com/14-extinct-animals-we-could-clone-right-now/?utm_source=ob.a1&utm_medium=referral
Giliell, #211
That’s pretty cool!
And yeah, looking forward to all those hurt fee fees.
Saad, BTW, thanks for recommending Dicte; it was excellent. :)
Tony! The Queer Shoop #193
If you plan for a cook bottle, there’s one thing that usually works well: put vanilla sticks in it. If the rum is white, it’ll turn an amazing brown and flavour almost never fail to bring the best for cooking (especially flambé bananas). (That said, I don’t know if this is somewhat dependant on the rum brand: it may happen that bad rum to drink makes bad rum to cook).
If you think nothing can save it, I’d suggest to put hot peppers and let it go. It works well when you have friends in need of something special that they would’nt dry up themselves (but would like to give a try). Then you have such a specialty bottle that may last or not but will have success whatever the initial quality. Pepper flavour is good at masking bad rum flavtastosity and is a precious add-on…
birgerjohansson #214 (bottom link):
A Haast’s Eagle in full flight (esp. trying to take down a Moa) would be a remarkable sight.
CaitieCat, #216
You’re welcome. It was a great show. Looking forward to season 2!
Most wonderful denizens, can I pick your combined awesome brains again?
You may not have been able to forget about that thesis of mine.
Now, one of the things I’m really critical about in Pierce’s series is the heteronormativity. While some tropes are attacked in the Lioness books, it’s 100% heteronormativity. I don’t think that anything else ever features, not even as an insult. In the Protector books there are some passages.
1. The heroine’s friend defends her “honour” by suggesting that the male villain is in bed with his male croonies. The heroine informs him that where she grew up (as an ex pat), that was not considered an insult, but just something some people did.
2. Again, her knight master defends himself against the accusation that everybody will think that he fucks her with the reply that for ages everybody thought he was fucking his male soldier. He marries a woman in the end.
3. An actually gay person! Unfortunately he’s dead and we only get to know now as part of the “individualising the dead” part. He was much fancied by all the young women but secretly met his male lover in the evenings. Our heroine did not disapprove of this.
I would not put those instances down as a challenge to heteronormativity. There are no LGBTQ characters, we don’t get to know them as people. It’s straight people talking about homosexuality. While the intent is clearly good, as in Keladry’s little speech, I’d rather characterise it as a challenge to homophobia.
Feedback? *puppyeyes*
Chris Christie epitomizes cluelessness about low and middle income households in the US.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/despite-1-status-christie-says-hes-not-wealthy
carlie@198, The mildly deranged penguin suggests throughly searching the planet, starship, or whatever with the table for cheese, and eating that. And the table, and items on it, just in case any cheese happens to be hiding. And in any case, since properly made nachos are mostly cheese and chilies with a few chips and cilantro and stuff as decoration (similarly for the cheesecake, but with more chilies), it’s all probably just a diversion. Search throughly for the stashes of cheese.
Ok, so the bottle gets cooked. What will you do with the rum?
WMDKitty:
Hurrah!
I’m sure that you and your catnip will be very happy together.
;)
–
Nerd: Hurrah for more/longer sleep!
–
Annie Bruce: I was so disappoint. I’m out in the county, so I couldn’t vote on it.
I take some comfort in the knowledge that all of my friends living in the city—even the one who’s a Republican—were on the correct side of the question, and voted.
–
Earth says, “*burp*”.
–
Han. Solo.
‘Nuff said.
awakeinmo,
Day. Made.
Giliell, having met and talked with Pierce on this topic, I’d suggest looking at the representation of LGBT people longitudinally – i.e. how the representation fares as a function of the publication date of the book/story. Pierce has been pretty open about how she agrees that her early depictions of LGBT people rather sucked. That said, I do agree that she’s still got some limitations.
Christians in America are being persecuted!
Saad @228:
Yup. They sure are. Just ask this conservative Michigan business owner.
Tony, #229
These people who will turn away customers for being gay keep using the term “immoral behavior”. I do not think they know what it means.
Dear Christiana would actually be an accurate response to their “plight”.
Saad @230:
No, they really don’t.
(minor rant ahead)
For many people, morality is all about following the rules of their book of myths. Morality is not following rules though. From what I understand, morality is more about discerning the best (or right) course of action to take in interactions between people.
I think I’m going to avoid the ‘Living forever’ and ‘Searching for love’ threads. Some of the comments in those threads make me want to facepalm.
Welllllll, more in the “good news” dept. I just got my homeowner’s insurance policy canceled because….. (drum roll please)…….. I have a dog. Two in fact. This was not unknown to them. Could it really be because I live in drought stricken California on a mountain in a forest that is very prone to forest fires? And this seems to be the early beginning of the fire season?
I am not generally paranoid. I am not a conspiracy theorist. But, something seems amiss here.
Morgan @233:
Ugh. That’s awful.
****
Stop me if you’ve heard this one-
Man claims he’s seen Bigfoot multiple times
Tony!
It’s starting to feel like the entire PNW is one big weirdness magnet.
This person does not like Netflix’s Daredevil.
longtime no stop by. Have found a quagmire if anyone else wants to get stuck in. http://www.newsherald.com/news/crime-public-safety/men-charged-with-sexual-battery-in-videotaped-pcb-incident-1.463108?comment_id=843661909015278&fb_comment_id=842772025770933_843661909015278#fa591fa92435aa
broboxley OT @237:
Long time no see.
Thanks for the link. I popped over and left a few comments.
WMDKitty @235:
Is there a Hellmouth in that region?
thanks Tony, need to keep extremely low profile due to work Read but don’t post. That thread was an exception
Tony! @239
Yeah, it’s called Whatcom County.
Why am I still awake?
Oh. Sorry about that :P
broboxley!
Good to see you!
Esteleth
Yeah, I know, especially the circle books (which I haven’t read yet) are supposed to be much less heteronormative, and there’s a trans woman in the Beka Cooper books, but I got to stick to the Lioness and Protector books. My prof was even sceptical about me analyzing 8 novels for the thesis, and it’s not exclusive about the heteronormativity, which is just one aspect.
Actually, the core of my thesis is that the Protector books are a kind of an improved revision of the lioness books, with a more nuanced, more informed, more intersectional feminism at their core. Re-reading them, the Lioness books are a typical strong-(het white cis)-woman-empowerment narrative. Also pretty racist. In the Protector books Pierce herself shows how this falls flat and that horrible things don’t happen because of one or half a dozen villains, but that the issues are within the system.
I think the passages about gay people in the Protector are part of this, but I also think that they fall short, probably because she was/is not fully clear on what heteronormativity is.
So this is the place I think to come with a query on science! A few years ago now, I remember reading a press release that said coffee could help a bit with hayfever. I’m pretty certain it was more recently than this story http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/781053.stm based on where I was working/living at the time but I can’t find the actual link (there’s a good chance it was in the Metro paper – if I had to guess, I’d say between 2008 and 2012). So I filed this away as worth bearing in mind, and periodically get an extra shot of caffeine when my hayfever kicks off in the spring before I have chance to buy that year’s drug supply. Did that today, and then thought to wonder if it was actually true or not. On a quick google, I’m finding a bunch of sites saying it helps, and a bunch saying it makes it worse. Does anyone actually know if those studies have been born out? I’ve got a couple of hours to ponder the subject til I can get to the pharmacy for drugs!
For coffee, it’s the caffeine that is the active ingredient. Adrenaline causes constriction of blood vessels, which is how an epi-pen works. If you have an anaphylactic reaction, your blood vessels dilate and that causes rashes, blood pressure drop, your lung musculature/bronchi contracts, and your heart rate can slow down. An epi-pen gives you a huge shot of adrenaline and that causes the vessels to constrict, heart rate to go up, and lung muscles to relax and bronchi to open. Caffeine also induces an adrenaline rush, which then can have similar effects (although at a much lower amount).
So, it can be useful for short-term relief if you are having an episode, but I wouldn’t trust it alone and the effects wouldn’t last longer than an hour or so max. As for long-term effects as an antihistamine, I haven’t seen much that says it can work that way, other than the article you posted.
Disclaimer: i’m not an allergy doc, so this is all just from a) teaching it at a freshman college level and b) dealing with it personally. I have on several occasions popped a soda open during “oh crap, am I having a reaction?” moments, but it’s always been just to be on the safe side in conjunction with antihistamines and probably a large dose of the placebo effect.
Thanks Carlie – looking to go and get antihistamines fairly soon, but today’s the first day this year I’ve been set off and I didn’t have any with me. Good to know there’s something behind it – it’ll help the placebo effect out a bit!
Totally threadrupt
I passed the driving test!
*drinks for everyone*
Beatrice, congratulations!
You’re now the designated driver.
Well done, Beatrice!
Congrats!
Congratulations, Beatrice!
Hi people first time poster long long long time reader. I have a question. I just received an Email from Some outfit called Openly Secular ( http://www.openlysecular.org/) inviting me to come out to people as secular on openly secular day (4/23) . On the face of it it seems reasonable and they have the regular affiliations (Secular Student Alliance Richard Dawkins, etc…) but I have never heard of this and am naturally suspicious. It is also unimpressive that “Over 850 people” have taken the pledge to share being secular on that day. 850 ?? With an internet blast I cannot imagine there is anything I could not get 1,000 people to do.
So have any of y’all heard of this effort or know anything about it?
Morgan!?, that does seem odd to me. Our policy would give us a price-break if we had a dog—something about crime deterrence.
My paranoia suggests that yours might be on to something, there.
:(
–
Hi, broboxley! It has been a bit.
:)
–
Beatrice:
Hurrah!
*champagne&confetti*
–
Hi, Wendell; Welcome In!
Hi haven’t heard of this—but then, I live in a cave at the bottom of a well which is under a barrel, so that means nothing.
:)
–
The Governor of Florida is suing President Obama. Well, really, who isn’t? Rightwingers love to sue Obama. But Rick Scott’s lawsuit is just so stupid that he is a laughing stock.
Link
The state senate is Florida is controlled by Republicans. Even the rightwing president of the state senate said that Governor Scott’s lawsuit is senseless.
Governor Bobby Jindal, and his rightwing cohorts in the Louisiana legislature, are hurtling headlong down the path of sanctioned discrimination against gay individuals. Of course, they are doing this in the name of “religious freedom.”
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/proposed-law-protects-those-who-oppose-gay-marriage
YAY! beatrice
I knew you’d make it.
Dinner on the loose! Escaped zebras chased through Brussels by police: “Five police cars were hot on the tails of the three equids after they went missing from a ranch in the Belgian capital”. Also, Buffalo [American bison] duo on the lam after Arkansas police fail to round up escaped herd: “… The whereabouts of the … two are unknown.” BUURRRPPPP!!!1!
Tim McGraw performed at a fundraising event for Sandy Hook. The country music world (underworld? underbelly?) berated him mercilessly.
It’s all about guns.
There were rays of hope. McGraw received messages of support as well.
You hid the cheeseboard, so the mildly deranged penguin overturned the bed with you it, and is now jumping up-and-down on it?
…with you in it…
Speaking of cheese … Taleggio. Soooo delicious. blf and other cheese-appreciating-type-people, am I right or am I right? And it is the ultimate cheese bits of which one may dot among the mozzarella for the ultimate home-made pizza. Into which I hope to be sinking my teeth in about 40-50 minutes’ time.
Respects and greetings to the Horde.
Anyone want to sip on the tears of angry GamerGaters?
GamerGate
hashad a booth at Calgary ExpoMaggie Gallagher spouted some anti-gay stuff with a new twist on her oft-exposed bigotry:
Right Wing Watch link.
Ah, you’ve just sent up a penguin signal. The mildly deranged penguin should be visiting you shortly, making pleading eyes, or jumping up and down on you, or both — whichever gets her moar cheese faster — which is perhaps good news for chigau, who can now crawl out from under the overturned and dented bed, and get some sleep.
Pickup artist and general asshat, Roosh V, thinks women who cut their hair short should be monitored by state authorities:
We Hunted the Mammoth link.
All right people, you know what’s up.
It’s DareDevil time, and I need answers without spoilers – for me post-episode6 but for everyone, regarding any episode.
Use rot13 if you feel you need to be more explicit than would otherwise be respectful of those who intend to but haven’t yet seen the series.
Here’s my question.
There 9 people in a tunnel/set of tunnels near the end of episode 6. Two of them are talking to each other and one has one of the black daredevil-before-daredevil masks.
It seems to me that of the two people talking, the one who doesn’t have the mask is the one that could really use it. But the first one holds onto it. It seems like it would change the plot somewhat, given what happens in the rest of episode 6, if person one had handed the mask over, but it also seems quite logical that it would happen and it wouldn’t change the plot in a bad way. [Personally I think it would change the plot in a good way.]
Is there a reason this DareDevil evidence wasn’t exchanged between the two characters?
Haven’t seen ep7 yet, but after lunch I will. Maybe it will be answered, maybe not. To me it seems like a missed opportunity.
Thanks, all.
A followup to comment 266, Roosh V had more to say:
@Lynna:
holy I am Groot!, that’s – as I’ve heard recently – too much projection to fit in one multi-plex. We are the ones who need to learn to love people as they are? Great Galloping Gigabits, any internet-based irony meters better have serious surge protection.
A bunch of reasonable doctors signed a letter urging that Dr. Oz be fired — fired, basically, for his quackitude.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/04/17/dr_oz_letter_columbia_ten_physicians_call_tv_doc_unacceptable.html
The mildly deranged penguin will search in vain for cheese on my table – I ate it all for lunch. Neener neener, MDP!
She is, however, welcome to forage for sunflower seeds under the feeder, with the ground-feeding birds and Squirrel Nemesis.
Well, cooties don’t normally inhabit hair, so someone with shorter hair is liable to have a lot more cooties. Yeah, he’s wrong. it’s not about hair or self-harm at all, it’s all about the cooties!
You can eat all the tables you want. She’ll have the cheese. Consuming the table, building, planet, and occasionally, a nearby horse, is just an accidental byproduct of enjoying cheese. Very much an accident in the case of the horse, unless it was à la mode flamethrower, with MUSHROOMS!, mustard, and moar cheese.
And in any case, that’s another reason she was jumping up-and-down on the overturned bed, you were being a meanie.
Of course I’m a big meanie, I’m a cranky old cat lady. And if she jumps on my bed, I will grab her by her scruff and toss her outside.
Cranky cranky cranky.
Science fiction fans – Mary Robinette Kowal is sponsoring supporting Worldcon memberships (meaning, you can vote for the Hugos) for fans who can’t otherwise afford to participate. She’ll draw randomly from everyone who applies before midnight (Central US) tonight at her blog: Talk with me about being a fan of science fiction and fantasy
The mdp will find the last bit of pizza in the fridge. I recommend warming it a bit before eating (the pizza, not the fridge (hopefully).
Damn, it was good.
Crip Dyke @259:
That made me laugh, as welcome relief after Maggie Gallagher broke my irony meter.
Cambozola and fresh bread.
I think Chris Christie is trying to make sure he beats Sam Brownback as “Worst Governor Ever,” especially in financial terms.
http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/04/nj_credit_rating_cut_record_ninth_time_as_moodys_c.html
Well, you do seem to be someone who can make the mildly deranged penguin laugh so long and hard (and, of course, LOUD) that she actually paused — for about a half a yoctosecond — before talking a bite of horse. She meant to take a bite of cheese but was either confused by the unusual act of pausing, or was wondering why there was bit of flamethrown horse to bite instead of moar cheese.
It is, of course, easier to just eat the entire fridge. Less time-consuming. The main drawback, besides sometimes containing pea, is there sometimes is, inexplicably, more fridge than cheese. And on rare occasions, there is actually celery. Or even zucchini.
I’m always glad to be useful.
No celery. Abomination unto – well, you know the drill.
Courgettes tend to get eaten the same day they are bought, but if not they stay in the vegetable rack – so there won’t be any in the fridge.
Sadly we’ve eaten all the raclette and the conté and I can’t remember the name of the other one that Friend brought from Paris when they came to visit, so the mdp will only find cheddar at the moment. It is Extra Mature, though.
Anne, #281
I first read that as “I’m almost glad to be useful” and felt so bad for you!
re: Roosh V.
Fuck that noise. I like my hair short, manageable, and quick-drying.
@WMDKitty:
And here I thought that you liked your hair the way I like mine:
short, manageable, and quick dyeing.
Saad,
That’s actually one of the things the Aged Ps did to me – I’m worth nothing if I’m not useful to others. This time, however, it was intended as snark aimed directly at the MDP.
Cranky cranky cranky old cat lady. Who made a shiny thing today. There will be a picture later, when I get around to posting to my online journal.
A question for the Hive mind – if I was going to read some of John Scalzi’s novels, which would be a good one to start with? I’m not a huge fan of hard sf anymore, with a few exceptions, but I’ve been following his blog and I enjoy his way of thinking.
Pizza is done!
Anyone want some?
Cranky Anne, so far I’ve only read Scalzi’s The Android’s Dream and Redshirts; they were okay, but I like his blog stuff better.
–
Anne – for what it’s worth I didn’t care for Old Man’s War (confusing and boring) but Fuzzy Nation is *excellent*. I have to re-read it any time I hear it mentioned, pardon…
Thanks for the recommendations ! I’ve requested a few books from the library, and I’ll see how I like them.
Here are my shiny things, just the link because I’m too tired to make it pretty:
http://anne-d.dreamwidth.org/213640.html#cutid1
This.
Is.
Rich.
That conservative Christian business owner I mentioned in #229?
He doesn’t have a business license.
For those who didn’t click the above link, here’s the relevant quote, straight from the
horsesasses mouth:Anne #292
very very pretty pretty
—
Tony!
you murrkins are so very strange
Anne
Very pretty!
+++
Hope you’re all having a nice weekend!
So, this happened.
A while ago, in response to a plea for advice about a job interview my Spawn#1 was going for, vereverum very kindly gave me some excellent advice about interviewing for jobs. Spawn was pipped at the post (apparently) by an internal candidate; I reminded xir about vereverum’s advice about asking for feedback. Xe asked for feedback. A couple of days later xe got an email saying they really liked xir, but there was this internal candidate … but they liked xir so much they were going to ask if they could create an extra post. And a week or two after that, xe got an email saying yay, we got the go-ahead to create another post, expect to hear from HR soon. And a couple of days after that xe heard from HR saying fill in the forms and send us a scan of your ID etc.
I am personally convinced that what made them decide to actually do this rather than just thinking oh well too bad and letting it go was the email Spawn sent asking for feedback. Vereverum, from however many thousand miles away and never having met xir I think you actually just tipped the scales and got Spawn xir first job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Xe graduates in a couple of months from now and is supposed to start after graduation. THANK YOU VEREVERUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now my Extremely Messed-Up brain immediately kicks in. Am I being ridiculous? Very likely.
On the one had xe is (and I am) over the moon; xe told me the people seem nice, it’s in the city xe wants to move to, it’s a nice facility, it’s lab work rather than admin and there’s no shift work – all of which are major factors for xir. Also, I note, they actually took the initiative to add xir to their team by adding another post, so they must have liked xir.
I am, however, an inveterate pessimist. After hoping and hoping xe would get this (because it means xe can move to Destination City, and all the other things) now that xe has got it I can’t stop myself thinking (because xe’s technically way overqualified for it and it’s low paid) that xe should have held out for something xe’s not overqualified for and better paid. I am always looking for the downside – I am essentially an idiot in many ways.
But. a) this means xe can concentrate solely on finals!!!! Phew!!!!! and relax about job-hunting, because xe’s got something now that xe could do for her first year or so (or more, if xe finds xe’s really happy there).
b) it’s the NHS, the biggest employer in the whole country, which means working there comes with annual reviews, a careers development structure, and apparently encouragement to go on courses in-house in order to up your grade. Also apparently a better pension scheme than most. And because xe’s overqualified going in, they told her xe’d only have to do a couple of modules to qualify for the next designation up.
So I’m daft, right? I’m just looking for something to be negative about, right? I’m just scared maybe I’ve advised xir badly. I’m always scared of that. Sure, some of her cohort will be going straight into much higher-paid jobs … but this means xe can relax and look around at xir leisure while working. And working with nice people in a nice place is important.
Why is my brain so messed up? It just is, and I can’t stop fretting about it. I’m thinking this is more something wrong with me than with the situation.
Please excuse the long-winded ramble. This idiot is leaving the computer for the day. I will “see” you all soon.
Please accept a barrel of hugs and my affectionate and respectful salutations.
carlie @ 246
coffee:
Can I pour it directly in my eyes? I’m about to scratch them out.
Beatrice
Congrats on the driver’s test!
Anne
Love the sparklies.
Tony! @293
*Nelson Muntz-style “Haaa haa” at the business owner
I almost feel sorry for him.
opposablethumbs
You’re a parent. As I understand it, it’s your job to worry about the Spawn. You’re not daft. And it’s clear you’re also able to enjoy the positives of the situation, so it all evens out.
Rightwing religious dunderheads in the USA never tire of finding ways to inject christianity into public education. Christian activists tried to distribute bibles to school children in Oklahoma, but they got some wait-a-minute feedback from the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
After this, Attorney General Scott Pruitt weighed in. Pruitt sent a letter to public school superintendents in Oklahoma:
Tulsa World link
Pruitt’s office told school officials that the law protects “distribution of religious literature in public schools.” That’s not quite right.
Christian activists try this kind of stuff all the time, especially in red states, but it is not common for the person tasked with upholding the law, the State Attorney General, to be that clueless.
US courts have never said that a religious group can distribute bibles or the Koran or satanic charms etc. to public school children. What schools can do is host an open display in which everyone is allowed to show their religious wares — not that most schools in Oklahoma would do that … but they could, legally.
Could be a good lesson for the kids. Your state’s attorney general is confused and wrong, but let’s talk about “religious liberty.” No religious faith has a constitutional, god-given right to exclusive distribution rights in public schools. That’s the opposite of religious freedom.
USArseholierthanthouastuoopidfiefdom completely goes down the drain, Texas lawmakers poised to allow the open carrying of handguns. Even the goons (so-called “police”) are opposed to this open invitation to mass murder, but that hasn’t stopped the elected representatives.
Oh, FFS. Idaho legislators win the Whackos of the Week award.
Wonkette link
None of the treaty signees operate under Sharia law (80 countries).
Sheryl Nuxoll is one of the Catholic wannabe-white-supremacists in the Idaho legislature. She is buddies with the mormon and christian fundamentalist wannabe-white-supremacists, and together they have bashed the Hindu religion (false gods and all that), claimed that Idaho can ignore federal EPA regulations, etc. Oh, yeah, and Obamacare is the Holocaust of our time. Their main worry, though, is that Muslims want to takeover Idaho.
Idaho’s Health and Welfare Department officials say the state will lose $16 million in funding (2/3 of their budget), plus $30 million in temporary assistance to needy families, if the Governor doesn’t call a special session to pass a non-whacko version of the law.
Idaho Statesman link
opposablethumbs, [hugs]. I think worrying about the Spawn is just one of those things we parental units do. Congratulations, sounds like Spawn did good!
Thanks everybody for the nice words about my shinies. I need to do more crafty stuff. It really helps beat back the depression, if I can get started in the first place.
Well, it seems I’ve been given a reprieve on the homeowner’s insurance. I called up the good folks at Huge Insurance Co. and they claimed “oops, oversight, mistake, yadda, yadda, yadda.” Although they admitted it was their foul-up, they are sending me more papers to sign and return promptly or my insurance will assuredly be canceled. And they couldn’t accommodate my request that we accomplish all this over the ‘net. Has to be snail mail. Something smells very fishy. But I am complying with their requests and we shall see what we shall see. I am fully expecting more crap from them. It is difficult to find coverage up here on the mountain because it is a high fire danger area. Two other Huge Insurance Cos have stopped writing policies and are using any excuse to cancel policies. Whatta world.
Yipiehhh for opposablespawn
Aaaaand for Morgan
It sounds to me like “let’s try it, we can say it was a mistake if somebody complains”
+++
Can you hear that? No?
Neither can I. The little one is in bed. I love that kid to death, but she keeps talking non stop all day, mostly to me. Seriously, I have a hard time finishing sentences in my head.
+++
missing rq in the Lounge, missing rq
Also, fotos. We went to the zoo today. Yes, I know. In our defense, it’s a 10 min walk through the woods. :)
*announcer over loudspeaker* “A call for rq, will rq please come to the white courtesy telephone.”
Is it okay if I use the blue one?
I’ve been on temporary repair from the Lounge. I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about.
D’you need a doctor’s note?
rq,
You can try to use the blue one, but it is just a decoy. Nope, no doctor’s note required. It is just that we worry warts get a tetch concerned when you go silent. Not to pry, but is everything okay? No need to reply. (well, I was prying a bit)
Fuck.
I was about to settle down for a much needed nap before going out this evening, and then Miri’s tumblr linked me to a blog piece that was probably insightful or something, but I didn’t read because it opened with another (really condescendingly, sneeringly phrased) repetition of the Big Lie that men who prefer/enjoy it when their female partners shave their pubic hair are all closed pedophiles.
Why do people feel like it’s okay to promulgate this shit?
Anne:
Prettyshinies!
I especially like the one on the left.
–
opposablethumbs, speaking as someone whose brain automatically defaults to Obsessing Over The Least Positive Outcome…I know how you feel.
*hugs*
I’ve been trying for ages to get a Panic Interrupt switch installed in my brainmeats, but it seems the parts are on Eternal Backorder.
–
They don’t even try to disguise the racism much anymore
Azkyroth @309:
Sorry you were robbed of a nap :(
Do you happen to have a link to the blog in question (not doubting you…I’m just curious if the post offers any insight into the reasoning behind the authors’ position)?
My 84 year old employer just left the premises in an ambulance. I am alarmed.
Yikes!
Do follow up for us, will you, Dalillama?
Another boat capsized near Lampedusa. Probably hundreds dead.
These people will keep trying and apparently no one cares that they will keep dying before reaching shore. Just relax the fucking borders already. People on this side? They won’t be lighting candles like for the passengers whose plane crashed in the Alps. No, they’ll say they feel sorry, but why do all these people have to try infesting our countries? *spits*
Well, that’s what you get a Nobel Prize for Peace these days for…
Need to buy kiddy toothbrushes and toothpaste on Monday and send a parcel to the refugee home. Sunblocker would probably be a good idea, too. I guess our authorities are working under the assumption that brown people cannot get sunburn at all and if they do it’s their problem.
Yes, we’Re such a rich country that we let people drown in the Mediterranean and then deny those who made it here even basic necessities.
+++
rq
Good to see you!
Thank you, awakeinmo, Anne, Gilliel, cicely! My brain persists in being an idiot; thank you for bearing with me :-)
The earth is singing, or rather, it is humming. American Geophysical Union link
The jet airplane that looks like R2-D2
http://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a15129/r2d2-jet-boeing-787/
Good photos at the link.
Ben Carson needs to pay attention to where Christians truly are being persecuted.
All this discussion of F&SF, classic and otherwise, got me thinking about a favorite author of my youth, Hal Clement, and wondering if his books would hold up after all these years.
I have a few of his novels in old ratty paperbacks, somewhere in a box, probably up where I can’t reach them. So I checked our library system and discovered that there are several collections which include stories I’ve never read plus the ones I remember.
I ended up ordering all three volumes of The Essential Hal Clement, used. Which means I’ll have to rearrange the bookshelves again. When are we getting the dimensionally transcendental bookcases we were promised, huh?
Yes, I know, ebooks. Which I don’t like to read while I’m eating, which require electricity to function, and which I can’t read for too long because of my bifocals. I’m just an old-fashioned girl…
Update on aged employer: apparently the problem was principally stress, employer is resting comfortably at home.
Good morning
I need a bit of a comfort place before I delve into the racism of the “Hopkins” thread.
Apart from that I have the little one home today because the preschool teachers are on strike and #1 wil come home at about 1 o’clock because the after school daycare teachers are on strike.
Fuck our government(s). We have money for everything. We have money to heavily subsudize two premier league football stadiums for two third league football clubs. But we have no money for refugees or for the people who do the important job of raising children.
Dalillama
Glad to hear.
Anne
I’m glad I can read ebooks easily, because urgh, space. We have an 83 square metres flat. Space is a very limited commodity here.
I keep meaning to have another go at that one, but not having the energy.
Dalillama
I don’t fault you. I need a break now. And probably a shower.
Jesse Kidder, Police Officer, Takes Down Murder Suspect Without Firing A Shot http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/19/jesse-kidder-police-officer_n_7097618.html?cps=gravity_2425_-8814571679357924391
-This is professionalism! The suspect tried to commit “suicide by cop”, but the rookie cop didn’t lose control of the siyuation.
Know your tourists: http://satwcomic.com/postcard
Germany has stoled a road sign, England and France are quarreling and Denmark, Sweden and Norway are thoroughly sampling the local beer.
Tpyo. Stoled = stolen
— — — — — —
The overlooked third man http://phys.org/news/2015-04-overlooked.html
(Darwin + Wallace +Matthew)
“Patrick Matthew’s version captures a valuable aspect of the theory, namely, that natural selection is a deductive certainty more akin to a ‘law’ than a hypothesis or theory to be tested.”
.
“There is a law universal in nature, tending to render every reproductive being the best possibly suited to its condition that its kind, or that organized matter, is susceptible of, which appears intended to model the physical and mental or instinctive powers, to their highest perfection, and to continue them so. This law sustains the lion in his strength, the hare in her swiftness, and the fox in his wiles.” (Matthew, 1831: 364)
This gospel is a darn sight more interesting than his earlier one!
— — — — — —
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon unveils manifesto for undiscovered planets http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/politics-headlines/sturgeon-unveils-manifesto-for-undiscovered-planets-2015042097502
Mike Huckabee thinks that young people should not join the armed forces in the USA … not, that is, until after God is installed as the commander-in-chief. Sort of.
Right Wing Watch link
Publicly discouraging people from enlisting in the armed forces? I wonder how that is going to play on the far right.
Huckabee also said that christians are being persecuted in the military.
Sounds like an “onward christian soldiers” kind of thing is Huckabee’s dream. He wants to command christian soldiers as President of the USA.
Reporters for Der Spiegel unearthed documents that detail the birth of ISIS.
Reuters link
WHAT IS THIS NEW SIDE POP-UP AD ABOMINATION???
Or is it just me?
The streets are full of people biking and running. I don’t think I’m in Riga anymore.
Jon Stewart hasn’t retired yet. He ripped into Dick Cheney … again. Scroll down for excellent video.
Daily Kos link
Rightwing “bathroom police” in California haven’t given up.
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2015/04/20/3648783/california-transgender-bathroom/
Michele Bachmann is hoping that The Rapture will put an end to her increasing irrelevance and whacko nutjobishness. That’s my interpretation.
Right Wing Watch link
John Oliver on Patent Trolling:
Salon link. Scroll down for video.
An idea for the thugs to make them even more loathsome to the 99% (and thus beloved by some of the 1%, notably Faux & Kochroache Bros.), Backlash as Belarus imposes ‘social parasite’ law to fine unemployed:
(I omitted the Cyrillic hashtag because I have had problems in the past with including an unclear-subset of UCS/Unicode characters on FtB.)
Take it to the bridge: the Tehran architect striking the right chord in Iran and beyond:
Unfortunately, being from Iran, she has been banned from entering an architecture competition — in the UK, by the UK “government”.
Anybody seen my box with the jump rings?
I desperately need something pretty now.
Dalillama:
Good news!
–
Giliell, I can’t send you my jump rings, but here’s a video of something that kinda looks as if it’s made of jump rings—only prettier: Sea Gooseberry.
–
blf @336, sounds like a situation in a book by Dickens. All those fines will send the unemployed to the poor house.
Counterproductive in every sense.
Former Army lieutenant colonel and former member of the United States House of Representatives (Florida, Republican, Tea Party activist, African American), Allen West thinks he can prevent high school football injuries. His solution is prayer.
Allen West is currently a Fox News contributor.
Right Wing Watch link
History of Football Head Injuries
Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. Alex Jones had a few things to say, all of them wrong.
Link
UK comedian Frankie Boyle is an arsehole of the first water, imo (sexist, ableist), but I’m setting aside my dislike of him for just a moment because he wrote this sentence in a piece just published by the Guardian newspaper –
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/20/britain-criminally-stupid-race-immigration
We fear the arrival of immigrants that we have drawn here with the wealth we stole from them.
Puts it rather succinctly, really.
opposablethumbs @343, that is a succinct way of putting it. Well worth repeating.
In another tale of stolen wealth, Matt Taibbi recently covered the way(s) in which Private Equity firms steal from the companies they buy (take over), and from their limited partners. This is another insider look at the slimy world from which Mitt Romney and his ilk crawl. Rolling Stone link
PZ has blogged about David Brooks in the past. He’s one of those guys that right-wingers put on a pedestal as one of their very own “intellectuals.” Matt Taibbi recently took Brooks to task for some of his many intellectual failings.
For David Brooks, the Rich Are People, the Poor Are Numbers
Excerpt:
I snipped a bunch of examples of David Brooks’ cluelessness, fascinatingly horrifying though they are. In the next excerpt, we move on to the people on whom Brooks heaps praise.
I guess the offspring of the rich had time to volunteer because they weren’t working while attending high school. They probably weren’t working while they attended college either.
Brooks has the rightwing disease: empathy deficit.
Come on, people, I know the adult versions are tedious bores, but that’s no excuse for kidnapping baby sea lions.
…if the wages of sin are death…
….and Christians’ sins are canceled by accepting Christ as their savior…
…doesn’t that make Christians basically slave labor?
Will I ever get to write this thesis?
Yesterday I had the kids at home ’cause of the strike. Today #1 is sick and I can’t ask my MIL for help cause she has some minor surgery today…
I got some split rings here, will that work? I can’t do jump rings for crap. They always come apart. Maybe I need stronger ones.
opposeblethumbs, congrats on the Spawn getting that job! I hope it’s a great experience for him.
Real life Kermit?
Aw, thank you carlie! (It was DaughterSpawn who got the job; SonSpawn is a bit younger and just in first year). It’s not a great job in itself by any means, but it is in the city where she wants to go – and she says the people seem nice – and maybe, maybe there could be a chance of working her way up to more responsibilities and a bit more pay in a year or so if all goes well. My fingers are x’d, anyway :-)
Commencing infodump:
Re-Creating the Middle Ages as They Should Have Been http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2015/04/21/euan_forrester_photographs_the_society_for_creative_anachronism_in_his_series.html
.
— — —
A complex geographic mosaic: New study shatters racial stereotypes about voting http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/a-complex-geographic-mosaic-new-study-shatters-racial-stereotypes-about-voting/
Moments of Mormon Madness, PR spin and delusion categories.
Rather than admit that mormon history and mormon doctrine is problematic, mormon leaders have decided to spend more money on PR spin.
The “very progressive research and information division” is actually an exercise in obfuscation.
http://www.reasonablefaith.org/is-mormonism-in-decline
Anti-gay students in “Pennsyltucky”:
Philly Magazine link
via BB, a short film listening to North African refugees trying to cross the Mediterranean. Vimeo link, 8 minutes
From BB:
In the unsurprising category. No link between MMR and autism, major study concludes:
In the at-first-glance looks a bit surprising category, Bishop resigns years after conviction for shielding paedophile priest:
In other words, no notable change. The cult will continue to rape children and will only, reluctantly and quite a bit later, frown at those who are caught.
The SCA is an enormous bundle of potentially all-consuming hobbies; painting, archery, music, clothing, dancing, woodworking, cooking, smithing, glass working…oh, yes—and also fighting.
Somehow, the fighters always end up getting all the best press.
–
Waves at Lounge denizens.
****
CD:
I haven’t watched DD yet. Plan to today or tomorrow.
****
Will libertarians soon have their so-called paradise in Europe?
(h/t Addicting Info)
Tony! The Queer Shoop #359
Notice that they are liberals, not libertarians… ;)
I wonder how volunteers will pile up onto those 7 km2. But sending out there these one million may actually be a solution, don’t you think?
France to spend 100 million euros to combat racism
Okidemia @360:
?? I’m confused as to why you pointed this out.
****
‘Bookkeeper of Auschwitz’ goes on trial in Germany
He felt ‘nothing’. That’s horrifying.
Rightwing doofuses have been saying more stupid stuff about the drought in California:
Link
Well, well. According to rightwing dunderheads, President Obama is not just making sure that Iran gets nuclear weapons, he is also allowing nukes to be brought into the US from Mexico.
link
And this relates, in part to blf’s comment #355, in which a video about refugees dying by the thousands when they try to cross the sea to safety in Europe also highlights the millions of refugees that have been forced out of Syria. Horowitz, the rightwing dunderhead mentioned above, thinks that US program to resettle Syrian refugees is another way for Obama to import enemies of the US, along with chemical weapons, and, yes, more nukes.
Sorry, oppsablethumbs! Didn’t mean to mix children up.
Ahem. HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS I JUST PUT MY HAND ON MY NECK AND SOMETHING WAS THERE AND I PULLED IT OFF AND IT WAS STUCK AND I PULLED HARDER AND IT CAME OFF AND THEN I REALIZED IT WAS A TICK AND NOW THERE IS A TICK MOUTH STUCK IN MY NECK AND WHERE THE HELL DID IT COME FROM IT IS APRIL AND COLD AND I JUST CAME HOME FROM WORK AND OH MY GOD A TICK
For the record
Is this something you’re planning to deal with or am I going to have to adapt to some new procedure? This is an emergengy account and I’d much prefer to not have to use this, going forward.
Argh, carlie, nooooooooo ::shudders:: I’m so sorry about the tickattack – how do you get rid of them, do you just have to wait a bit until your white cells do their thing so you can, um, eliminate the whole shebang as if it were a pimple? Because of where I live I’ve never really had to deal with ticks. Sounds unpleasant to say the least.
(eh, I certainly wouldn’t expect people to keep remote invisible Spawn straight! – I’m notoriously bad at it myself! I can just about keep track of the fact that Giliell has two girls, rq three boys, Og one of each, you have – it’s two boys? Did I remember right? Hope you and yours are OK! )
carlie @366:
Ugh. I’m sorry. Ticks are every bit as groooooooooooooooooooss as fleas and mosquitoes.
So the tick ended up in the sink, and I had a discussion with my spouse whether I should bag and keep it, and he kept saying no, it couldn’t have been there long, so I washed it down the drain, and now I”m convinced that it was a 2 day sized tick and I must have somehow not noticed it since I was outside on Sunday and I must have Lyme disease by now.
Heh. I was creeped out enough that I went and took the sink drain apart to see if the tick was still there, AND IT WAS SO NOW I HAVE IT. I have a couple of those handy reference cards to the size of your tick, but I think they’re at work.
carlie
Do you have the whole tick?
Did you get the head out of your neck?
Daredevil is getting a second season.
carlie:
What are you going to do with the tick?
Look for a tock?
opposablethumbs @368:
Okay, DD is getting a second season. I’m pleased. I’ve seen a number of episodes, though I didn’t actually binge-watch the whole thing.
But why-oh-why did you bury the lede, Tony!
The last sentence of your link’s story tells us that AKA Jessica Jones is being released
Sweet Christmas! I get to see JJ in action (with cameos by LC) by december?
There is a bullet-proof Santa Claus.
Accursed weather. I’m in Sydney which has been hit by pretty big storms. We’re now into the second day without electricity at home (posting from work, yay) though thankfully we’ve still got gas, so there’s hot water and we can use the stovetop. We got off pretty lightly, though – on the way home the other night, we saw a car that had been hit by a falling tree, and in the immediate neighbourhood there’s houses that have had trees come through their roofs too, and there’s people who’ve lost their homes and lives to flooding elsewhere in the state.
Urgh. So much animal drama in my life. Abandoned box turtle finally ate on his own, hooray! … had to euthanise my old, blind snake, boo. Took my 5 year old dog to the vet to get an exam and put on an allergy medication and checked out to go under for a dental… and tada! heart murmur. Damnit! But Bramble is doing well and looking like she is going to defy our thoughts on an early demise by being a very small cat and not progressing any further with symptoms of the scoliosis. So yay! And I’m due for new bottle baby kittens by the end of the week. I’m petrified they’re going to have something *weird*. >_<
Nice to see you, Ogvorbis.
Big sigh.
My sister-in-law, the one who so blithely condemns any and all for any small infraction, attempted suicide this morning. She drove her car off a high embankment. Four broken ribs and a few other things, but not critical. The story is long and subtle and unfortunately most of the family members are not attuned to subtlety. I spoke with her daughter who lost her husband of one year to cancer not too long ago.
Suicide is NEVER a conscious, reasoned choice. The brain get hijacked. All we can do is be patient, love, try to remember than no matter how much we are upset it is NOT FUCKING ABOUT US. Listen to her. Listen hard.
Rowan
Good for you and all you do.
My cat had a heart murmur and she lived to 22.
*sigh*
I need a kitteh.
Morgan
*hugs*
LISTEN is very good advice.
Re: liberland
I am amused. But please don’t send all your libertarians there, they’ll just swarm my country instead.
Rowan @379:
Hugs. Hopefully you’ll get some relief from the animal drama soon.
****
Morgan @381:
Major hugs my friend.
And I agree with you about the importance of listening.
Wow Morgan, that’s really crappy to have to deal with. *hugs* if you want them.
chigau If you need kitteh, you must get kitteh!
Good luck finding time for your thesis, <b.Giliell. It can be a real challenge. Hope it’s better today.
Morgan
*hugs*
Rowan
*hugs* and also scritches for the beasties.
Morning
4 hours of sleep would have been nice, especially if 2 or so had been in one piece. Poor kid. She’s git a really nasty cold. But I guess she’s getting better cause she made it from being mostly asleep to beeing mostly awake and complaining about how her brain is mush.
Also, I have a cold sore, which is usually a sign that my immune system is about to give in as well.
Carlie
Oh no. Ticks are such useless beasts.
Ogvorbos
Good to see you!
re: Lieberland
I’m looking forward to them building all of it. Solar panels, really? Don’t get me wrong, they’re wonderful things, but did they remember that it gets dark at night? Or will they simply turn on the lights then to keep their energy production up?
I guess they’re simply trying to create another tax haven, with a population density of 100 people per square metre on the paper.
BTW, don’t get confused about European “liberals”. Most of them are libertarians with a bit of social conscience left. Or as I call them: libertarials.
morgan
I’m sorry about your SIL. And also about firgetting to say that in my first post
*hugs*
All the hugs are heartily appreciated my friends. Sleep is not possible tonight. Everyone is welcome to join me in the pillow fort. I’ll be hugging Hobbes.
rowan – you are a good person. I know I couldn’t care for animals with the stamina and reserves that you do.
morgan – that is a very kind and compassionate way to describe it. Hugs and I hope your family all rallies around for support.
chigau – I think so, Spouse checked with a flashlight and didn’t see any embedded tick parts. I’ll check the tick under a microscope at work today to see how much is missing.
Tony – only keeping it for the emotional safety blanket. I’ll check its size at work to make sure it doesn’t look like it could have been there long, and keep it a couple of weeks in case I start feeling tired and get paranoid and want to get Lyme checked.
opposablethumbs – yep, just wait for it to be expelled like a tiny splinter. If I had realized what it was, I could have pulled it out more properly and not had a problem. Since I wrenched it off, there might be a mandible or two still embedded. I do have two boys, both teenagers. Luckily neither often surly.
Oh, speaking of boys, I took my first ride in a car with Child 1 driving this weekend. Spouse has taken him out a few times already, so he was already broken in with the scariest of it. ;) I only had to quickly tell him he was TOO CLOSE TO THE CURB ON THE RIGHT MOVE LEFT MOVE LEFT several times.
Hugs and waves to Ogvorbis, pet-related hugs to rowan, waves to carlie.
Morgan I’m so sorry about your sil – bloody hell that must have been awful for her, and come as one hell of a shock to everyone. I hope you’re OK and able to cope. Wishing your sil well.
Ok, I will give our local cops kudos for this idea – they are now advertising that anyone who is doing transactions with people they don’t know, like from craigslist ad sales and such, can use their lobby to a) keep people from having to give out their home address and b) having a safe place to conduct said transaction that is under surveillance. That’s not a bad idea, actually, although I wonder if it might generate so much traffic that they rescind the offer.
Because frozen peaches and both sides or something
I’m sure the KKK appreciates being told they can put racist ads on NYC buses too.
Oh fun. Fifth Disease. Which means that by now she will have spread the virus near and far while no longer being contagious herself. I guess that means the little one will be sick in 2 weeks…
Morgan, all the hugs. I hope you can get some rest.
Gilliel, I’m glad that your offspring is on the mend. I hope you manage to dodge whatever plague is going around. Oops, just read farther. I don’t know what Fifth Disease is, by that name anyway, but I gather that “plague” is a good designation?
Rowan, yay for Bramble! Hugs for all the other stuff. Shadow (“my” cat, as opposed to Patches who is “Husband’s”*) also has a heart murmur. Both cats just turned fourteen this year.
Hugs for anyone else who needs/wants ’em. I’ll just leave the basket here.
I don’t know what’s up with my brain, but it won’t let me get to sleep o’nights. Then, of course, I can’t wake up the next morning. I’m going to try cutting back from my three cups of tea per morning, but not today. Today is another driving across county day, this time to get my annual thyroid ultrasound (yes, Tech dear, I know I only have half a thyroid. See that scar across my neck?). The traffic is horrible on the freeways, and all the routes that way via surface streets have construction going on. I’m leaving way too early and taking a book. Maybe two books.
*Yeah, I know, we belong to them. There’s a silly story in there about what sort of cats we wanted when we went looking. Suffice it to say that we got what we deserved.
Anne
It’s also known as “slapped cheeks” diesease because the typical exanthema starts in the face and lets the cheels look like they’d been slapped. One of the “traditional” childhood diseases. In English it’s called “Fifth disease” because it was identified after measles, rubella, chickenpox and scarlet fever.
It’s generally relatively benign with only 25% of people even showing symptoms, but it’s also nasty because you simply cannot contain it. When the kids fall sick and develop the rash they are no longer contagious, but they’ve been spreading it around for the week or so before. 2 weeks ago there was a notice on the daycare door that a kid had it. So while I know the origin, it’s really nobody’s fault and we’ve probably spread it around as well.
Intelligent design, from the PoV of the virus…
Giliell, that sounds horrid. I hope you all get over it quickly.
Wow. Checked the tick, and all mouthparts are intact. Given how hard I yanked that thing right out, I’m kind of astounded. She must have just given up. Here’s a picture of her rotten little jaws, and here’s what they’re supposed to look like.
carlie, I’ll just take your word for that. I am glad you’re okay, but – eeeeewwwwww.
Giliell – ugh, fifth. Might as well hunker down and put a skull and crossbones on the door. At least it’s not foot and mouth?
Hope you get some sleep soon, Anne.
carlie
No need to do that now. Because now she’s no longer contagious, though the rest of us might be *sigh*
Commencing infodump:
.
The Lyrid Meteor Shower Of 2015 Peaks On April 22-23. Here’s How To See It http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/21/lyrid-meteor-shower-2015_n_7105916.html
.
Surgeon Finds ‘Embryonic Twin’ Inside Woman’s Brain: Report http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/22/embryonic-twin-brain-tumor-yamini-karanam_n_7114898.html meh. This kind of phenomena is well known. Stephen King’s novel “Stark” 25 years ago was based on the premise.
.
Genocide heritage:
Japan’s Prime Minister Abe Doesn’t Offer Customary Apology For WWII http://www.huffingtonpost.com////japan-wwii-apology-abe_n_7116258.html
.
‘It’s Impossible To Forget’: Descendants Of Armenian Genocide Want Legacy Of Those Killed To Live On http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/21/armenian-genocide-turkey-anniversary_n_7096362.html?ref=topbar
Murder Doesn’t Matter Under U.S. Trade Deals, AFL-CIO Reveals http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/22/fast-track-trade_n_7113412.html
.
Talk Progressive, Use Wall Street to Negotiate the Deal http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-lux/white-house-trade-strateg_b_7103998.html
The Dear Leader is firmly right-wing in regard to trade deals, which should not be a surprise to anyone with a full sensory apparatus and the ability to read.
Dr. Mehmet Oz says he “will not be silenced” by a group of 10 prominent doctors who are calling for him to resign from Columbia University.
Yup. He’s pulling the “free speech” card.
Okidemia @360:
Tony! The Queer Shoop @362
Oops, sorry, I forgot I lost the connection and was too lazzy to rewrite a past comment; plus it was on TD and not the lounge.
There’s a divide in Europe as to how people name political currents on the extreme sides of the right/left spectrum. In England (and North Europe, but I can’t say for sure where the divide occurs as one is shifting eastward, maybe people can comment as to where they know calls vary), the common use is identical to the USA, and libertarian are mostly RW while liberals identifies LW takes. But in Southern Europe, that is reversed: libertarian is synonymous for LW anarchism, while “libertarian” are call liberals.
That certainly stems from these sides being reversely characterised by their economic/social emphases:
Libertarian (as in the USA) are characterised by (ultra) liberal economics, and liberals (as in the USA) are emphasized by their social emphasis.
The common pattern is that RW is called after economic emphasis and LW after social concerns in both places.
This situation might be explained by original liberalism philosophy including both these social and economic perspectives (and may have been a progressive position at the time with regard to existing alternatives, but I’m not versed enough in the history of politics).
As a results, things are confusing. I think people should be aware of this peculiarity, so that encounter with people who are naturally using their own map is made easier. (The lost comment was not specific at you, I was just pinpointing that they refered themselves as liberals in the text you pasted).
I’ve long had a hard time identifying myself as liberal to English natives, because it had strongly negative connotations to me.
The funny thing is that I’m under the impression that the reversed scale occurs in Canada with Québecois, maybe someone can confirm.
Saad: Openly Feminist Gamer @394
Wow. Extremely confusing wording. I don’t know if things are made clear in the further ad context.
If I take it out of context, I’d assume it might aim to propose the jihad ‘exegesis’ interpretation whereby the word is wrongly assumed as synonymous to a war effort instead of the alternative self-improvement effort toward being a better muslim. Not exactly sure they intend this message though…
What do they expect you* to do with it? Chosing violence as the way to fight violence?
Most powerful space telescope ever to launch in 2018 — and it will look back 13.5 billion years http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/most-powerful-space-telescope-ever-to-launch-in-2018-and-it-will-look-back-13-5-billion-years/
.
The race is still on for a reusable rocket despite the SpaceX setback http://phys.org/news/2015-04-reusable-rocket-spacex-setback.html
.
Chemists create wavelength ‘comb’ that detects terahertz waves with extreme precision http://phys.org/news/2015-04-chemists-terahertz-extreme-precision.html That is important because the terahertz region of the spectrum is chock-full of information.
.
Perseverance paves way for wind laser (lidar) http://phys.org/news/2015-04-perseverance-paves-laser.html
Sweden passport ranked most powerful in world http://www.thelocal.se/20150421/sweden-passport-ranked-most-powerful-in-world I have one of those…but I still have no X-ray vision.
.
Final Top Gear to show Clarkson regenerating into Salman Rushdie http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/celebrity/final-top-gear-to-show-clarkson-regenerating-into-salman-rushdie-2015042297622
.
“Our Bad Friends, the Saudis” http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/our-bad-friends-the-saudis/
.
The Roots of Right Wing Paranoia https://proxy.freethought.online/dispatches/2015/04/20/the-roots-of-right-wing-paranoia/#more-34647
Okidemia, #407
I was thoroughly confused by the whole thing at first. Then I read the part that says the American Defense Freedom Initiative is listed as an anti-Muslim group by the SPLC. Also what confused me was the MTA’s suggestion that the ad is bad because it will incite terrorism. That’s not why it’s bad. It’s bad because it’s anti-Muslim.
It’s weird how things can have completely different meanings depending on who is saying it. If this was an ad being used in Pakistan by a group of reformist Muslims, it would be a good message to young Muslims (don’t follow the Islam of the terrorists). Used by bigots in the U.S., it’s a completely different meaning (you Muslims are terrorists).
Yes, Sam Brownback’s conservative experiment in Kansas has gotten even worse.
Shortfalls in tax revenues are larger than expected, and projected to be even worse through 2017. Brownback gave tax breaks to corporations and to the wealthy — now he’s in deep shit. As is his wont, he is trying to salvage the situation by redistributing even more wealth from the bottom to the top.
Kansas lawmakers want the poor to pay for tax cuts for the rich
Saad,
I like the way the show is shot. I think there may be more subtext going on than in most cheesy (which it is) action shows. The thing that makes the show watchable is that they gave the villain all the depth and vulnerability. He’s a foil to the good guy who actually outshines him. He’s played by a much better actor too.
I’ve noticed he isn’t in his white suit yet. I think as DD goes from black to red we might see KP go from black to white, literally shining just a little brighter. I’m sure there is lots of Jesus/devil crap, but i’m ignoring that because it’s boring. The fact that both have become (*spoiler*)
…entangled with women in white seems interesting. The hero is discouraged, fails to sell his love interest on his quest. The villain succeeds.
….or did he? dum, dum,dummmm.
It’s got layers. It’s not just a hot guy getting beat up and taking his shirt off.
Or is it? Dum, dum, dummmmm
Jackie, #412
Yeah, he’s definitely far better acting wise. When they were keeping him a mystery with the whole “we don’t say his name” thing, I was cringing thinking he’s going to be a “mwahahaha!” type cheesy villain or even worse: like Dr. Doom in the FF movie.
Thanks for the spoiler warning. I stopped reading there since I haven’t finished the show. I’m familiar with a bit of Daredevil stuff through the comics (well, through my brother’s interest in comics mostly) but better safe than sorry.
I liked it too. My flatmate Craig said he thought it was too dark – he’s a filmmaker – but I think it was so deliberately. Yes, there were spots where they tried to show us DD’s ability to “see”, but I think the overall very dark cinematography came from two roots.
One, it’s clearly the Frank Miller DD they’re bringing us, all blood and gore and sexy dames and ethnic gangsters (“The Russians”, “The Chinese”, “The Yakuza”, “The Italians”, et c.). Many of the scenes were shot in a two-colour style, such as when (mild spoiler ahead) Foggy knew something that Karen didn’t, and they sat in a bar talking about it. She’s lit in red, taking the side of the masked man, while Foggy’s mostly blue, showing his coldness toward that same person (because of the thing he knew that she didn’t). The old scenes are shown with that yellow tint that seventies picture prints took on, particularly Polaroids, as they aged. There’s a lot of very strong colour-coordinatedness about many of the mises-en-scene, with an almost colour-soaked chiaroscuro effect in a number of them: the screen is dark, and the few lit areas are both starkly lit and mono-coloured. These are all signature Frank Miller things, artistically.
Two, I think it’s so dark because the main hero is blind, and it’s as close as they can get in a visual medium to what he’s experiencing. It makes sense for DD to operate in the night; he’s got a day job, for one, and he’s operating where his disadvantages are minimised, while their advantage is too. His magically-enhanced other senses don’t need light, so in an effort to get us to identify with his character, we’re given as little as they can get away with. Viewed in that (ahem) light, I quite like the approach.
Too bad comics and superhero shows aren’t literary or artistic, huh? :)
Bill O’Reilly wants to rig the Supreme Court so that a decision against gay marriage is more likely.
Participation in a legal event/ceremony/institution is not grounds for recusal.
Aiyeee! Ticks!!!
*napalm! with Extreme Prejudice*
–
Ogvorbis!
*pouncehug*
–
Rowan, sorry about the animal-related drama (yay! no, boo! no, yay! no, boo!), for which I prescribe these *hugs*, and I hope there’ll be an unqualified yay! for the kittens.
–
*big hug* for Morgan!?.
–
Personal status: very frustrated.
I have worked about three hours on my thesis. The entire week. I don’t have a fucking office and I also cannot tell a sick kid to fuck off and leave me alone. I already told Mr. that he needs to make plans for the first and second of May because I have to catch up on my work and that’s frustrating me even more. First I don’t get my college work done because I have extra caregiver duty and then I miss out on the family fun time because I have to catch up with the rest of my work.
Second shift? Yes please. If it’s only a second shift and not a third and fourth as well.
Finally we have an answer and explanation for The Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything! http://goo.gl/IZkBeK
https://twitter.com/ZombieCheney/status/589854896893001728
carlie @393:
I like that idea, but I share your concern about the influx of traffic being a potential problem.
@399:
I’m totally going to take your word about the tick. I’m staying far away from those images. ::shudder::
___
What steps can we take to ensure that our Commune has no ticks, fleas, mosquitoes, or peas?
Tony!
Well trained spiders.
Morgan, and birds who eat bugs. Orioles are really pretty. They do eat spiders, though.
The mildly deranged penguin suggests stir-frying ticks, tacks, tocks, and tucks (but avoid any tecks, other than as the table) in some toasted sesame seed oil with tofu, chilies, and other vegetables of your choosing (she suggests duck), letting it cool, and making a salad by mixing with cheese, raw tomatoes and similar fruits, moar cheese, some cheese for flavoring, and a topping of cheese. Apparently goes quite good with grog.
@Jackie the social justice WIZZARD!!!, #412
Yet another reason I love you.
Morgan, Anne:
My brain is weird (newsflash). After reading both your comments, I got this image in my mind of a spider/oriole mashup. Head of the bird. Legs of the spider. Wings of the bird. Eyes of the spider.
Creeepy.
Spiderbird, spiderbird, does whatever a spiderbird can. Spins a web any size, catches worms just like flies, look out, here comes the spiderbird.
(forgive my loopiness; just woke up)
The oriole-spider hybrid sounds really cool, actually. I wonder if there’s a spiderbird Pokémon. I must remember to ask the Younger Daughter.
Crip Dyke:
Have you heard that a certain member of the original X-Men came out of the closet?
*hugs* for Morgan
New study shows that tax cuts for the rich do not create jobs.
Giliell, professional cynic -Ilk- #417
Feel doubly sorry for you.
Not sure if this can help, but there was a way that worked well for myself: slice time in 5 min chunks.
– Do full writing sequence for a 5 min sequence even if background is full screams (and don’t care).
– Do another sequence with total kid’s care and affect (totally forget about work).
– Do the next sequence as parenting care while thinking and concentrate about writing bouts.
– Go back to first sequence. Allows yourself for full stop at this point whenever needed, restart when convenient.
It can work with longer chunks depending on the situation, but try to respect 1/3 work and 2/3 kid bouts (with 1/3 hidden work).
We were lucky enough (we were both parenting and writing/preparing to defend at the same time, but we had only one): the day after the second defence, our daughter made four first teeth at once. She suffered a lot, but it all looked like she waited for her parents to be done with work…
Tony! @419
Do not get here. Three tick species, all vectors of bizarre cattle diseases with possible human transmission. I recognise 8 morpho-“species” of mosquitoes (though only four of them are really harassing humans, one is vector of both dengue and chikungunya diseases), well our cats have fleas sometimes but they don’t seem to care about humans. Numerous pea species, all harvested and sold at marketplaces (not to speak about the imported ones).
But most importantly, you did not mention centipedes. That is the real scare (venomous and growing up to twenty centimeters). Aim the head! Aim the head! (gravid females are seeking refuge in houses in May-June).
Okidemia @430:
Not a fan of centipedes, eh? :)
I don’t think we can nuke ’em from orbit without a lot of collateral damage.
___
That actually makes me wonder about something. What would be the impact on the environment if fleas or centipedes were suddenly and completely removed? Sounds like fertile ground for a SF/F story.
Tony! @432
:)
Where the flock is that notice for the venom pump?
That was my reaction at first bite… :)
Actually, centipedes are really beautifull. But way too fast. And hidding too consciensciously.
Species here eat roaches, so they might be usefull. But still. I’m no cockroach, when will they learn?
@Tony!, #426:
I’ve heard.
For some reason I thought Angel came out a long time ago. Am I wrong?
Changed offspringie diaper at work. Instead of using the trash in my office, I left it in the Lab’s one. How mean is that? Colleagues will hate me tomorrow…
Filed in Research Despair Silliness of the Late Hours folder.
My family did the google doodle quiz and we were all aggressive predators. I’m a giant squid, Spouse is a Komodo dragon, and Child 2 is a honey badger. We can’t convince Child 1 to play.
I’m a pangolin.
I’m coral.
Dammit.
I’m coral too.
::peeks into Lounge, sees chat about a Google Doodle something or other, wanders off to find out what that’s all about::
But…but…but…none of the options for ‘what are you up to on a Friday night’ apply to me. I *work* every Friday night. Sigh. Guess I’ll click ‘in my burrow’, since that’s what I do when I get off work.
Not liking the option for ‘what are you looking for in a partner’ and have no clue which one to pick. Went with ‘complex system of glands’.
Chose ‘none of the above’ for hobby.
Turns out I’m not a Queer Shoop. I’m a Queer Giant Squid.
A new restaurant is opening in Dallas, TX. It’s billed as the male counterpart to Hooters. I give you ‘Tallywackers’.
This morning I had my thyroid ultrasounded. This afternoon I got an email from my endocrinologist’s office to tell me that the nodules haven’t changed since last year. So no more thyroid appointments for a year. Yay. Western science is so wonderful.*
Also I went to the local art supply store and bought more Pitt pens on the way home, because I deserved a treat after that drive.
*I wonder where my old Cordwainer Smith books are.
Tony! @432
We compost a lot, so there are earthworm which attracts a lot of centipedes.
Then, it attracts chickens which are fond of both.
Then the vegetables are destroyed by chickens.
You* really have to choose between (vegetables + centipedes) or (cockroaches + chickens)… :)
Today in the GOP’s ongoing campaign of anti-LGBT bigotry-
OK state representative Todd Russ has filed House Bill 1125, which shifts the responsibility for issuing marriage licenses from the state to a religious official (rabbi, priest, minister).
*tentacle high-five Tony*
Also, 43 GOP Senators voted against the Leahy-Collins Amendment to the anti-trafficking bill (which finally passed in the Senate). The amendment would have added language protecting homeless LGBT youth. One of those Senators was Florida’s very own Marco Rubio. I just shot him a blistering email (but I didn’t use any naughty words). If anyone is interested in reading it, I’ve posted it on my blog.
Tony, #446
Very good email. Leave it to the Republicans to oppose bills that are simply good and nothing more. Next they’ll be voting against ice cream and puppies.
Saad @447:
Given that I wrote that email straight from the hip so to speak, I appreciate the compliment.
****
“DC Super Hero Girls” announced for marketing apparel, action figures, and tv for girls.
About damn time. Now let’s see them market to teenage girls. A diverse variety of teenage girls.
Camping ‘rupt. So sorry. (Camping on weekends. Lounge tends to reset late in week, just before I go camping. I don’t always find something to post about early in the new Lounge. Then, when it disappears off the first page, I lose it.) I will most likely be here and not here until the fall (in the NE USA), depending on when the Lounge starts resets.
So this is part of a letter that was sent home from my daughter’s school. (She’s 12.)
“Dear Parents/Guardians,
The time is drawing near and soon your child will be moving on from [My Daughter’s] Elementary School and heading into middle school. To commemorate this transition, we cordially invite you to join us for our annual 6th grade Moving Up Day Assembly… [extra stuff that doesn’t matter for my point]
Since this is a special day at [Daughter’s School], we are requesting that your child dress for the occasion. Boys should wear casual pants, such as khakis, and a polo-style shirt or button-down shirt with a collar and nice shoes. Girls should wear a skirt and top or a simple dress (please no strapless, spaghetti straps, halters, sequins, etc) and nice shoes (no high heels). All clothes and shoes should be comfortable since they will be worn the entire school day.”
[It goes on to describe the rest of the day.]
OK, so my daughter came home *knowing* this was sexist. My 12 year old daughter, complaining, because casual pants were (apparently) not allowed for girls. We have asked her repeatedly if she wants my wife and I to say anything, because we are quite willing to raise a stink about this. (I actually think they just take the same letter from 20 years ago and change the dates without giving any thought to what the thing still says — probably not much of a stink once raised I think.) She has said no, she’ll wear a dress or skirt for the day. And I really don’t think it’s that big a deal for her to do so.
Still, her initial complaint has stuck with me. And the more I think about how this could be reworded to leave gender out of it (“Proper dress is business casual” is the easiest), the more I want to send off an email or make a phone call.
Plus, “khaki” is a color not a style of pant, for crying out loud. It’s one of the best scenes in “Mad About You”, where they discuss the difference between Chinos and Khakis.
Saad 447
Isn’t that the “joke”? That if Obama came out in favor of [ice cream and puppies] the Republicans would immediately be against them? I’ve been reading about that concept for at least a couple years now.
Waves at ajb47.
That’s a good reworking of the dress code policy.
Speaking of dress codes, a Houston, TX father is not happy with the dress code that prohibited his daughter from wearing her rainbow sun dress:
Tony 451
I like his analysis of the “dress code addresses girls clothes more than boys clothes”. I never thought of it that way, but that seems to be because I think our local school district seems to handle it in a gender neutral way:
“A student’s dress, grooming and appearance, including hair style/color, jewelry, make-up, and nails, shall:
1.
Be safe, appropriate and not disrupt or interfere with the educational process.
2.
Recognize that extremely brief garments such as tube tops, net tops, halter tops, spaghetti straps, plunging necklines (front and/or back), and see-through garments are not acceptable. Neither are mini-skirts, muscle shirts, and midriff baring blouses or clothes intended for the bedroom, such as pajama bottoms or shorts, or any garment with writing on the derriere.
3.
Ensure that underwear is completely covered with outer clothing.
4.
Include footwear at all times. Due to steps and outdoor recesses, footwear that is a safety hazard will
not be allowed, such as sneakers with skates, slippers at all levels, and flip flops at the elementary and middle school level.
5.
Not include the wearing of hats, bandanas and other headwear in the classroom except for a medical
or religious purpose. Sweatbands are not acceptable on any part of the body.
6.
Exclude gloves being worn during school hours.
7.
Not include items that are vulgar, obscene, libelous, or denigrate others on account of race, color, religion, creed, national origin, gender, sexual orientation or disability; that promote alcohol or drug use or violence; or that are otherwise contrary to the school’s educational mission.
8.
Not promote and/or endorse the use of alcohol, tobacco or illegal drugs and/or encourage other illegal or violent activities.
9.
Exclude chains on wallets, spikes on clothing or collars”
Seems a better wording than what that other father has to deal with. Our local one at least includes no net shirts, muscle shirts, see-through tops, and midriff baring clothes which seem more (or equally) pointed to boys than girls.
I’m probably old-fashioned here, but I think public schools should require that business casual I mentioned earlier all the time.
Why oh why didn’t I blockquote? The world may never know.
One more thing before I head off to bed —
Amy Schumer did a skit parodying Friday Night Lights that she called “Football Town Nights”. Holy shit did she expose Rape Culture with this. Just search for “Football Town Nights” because I don’t want to accidentally embed the video.
A note as to content: New football coach arrives and declares the football team is no longer allowed to rape. Various scenes of shock and players trying to find exceptions. Team eventually does poorly in first half of important game, coach gives speech that is at odds with everything he has tried to teach.
The halftime speech is what really makes the bit. This is the closest I can come without giving the whole skit away.
I don’t understand what every single dress code has against spaghetti straps.
Is it because your bra straps can be seen? And bra straps are horrible sinful because they make people think of breasts? (I have a couple of those under my clothes all the time O.o)
I just don’t get dress codes. Clean body, clean clothes… I’d rather add something about avoiding too heavy smells (perfume, after shave) than measure the thickness of someone’s shirt straps or the length of their skirt.
But the point is that most of dress codes are either body/sexuality shaming – mostly for women and trans* folks or demarcations of class. I’m not fond of either.
This doesn’t go only for schools or casual workplace. I’d have no problem depositing money to a bank teller in jeans and a T-shirt. But of course that would require a much more radical change than just letting kids at school be.
Oh crap, I didn’t want to say women and trans* folks as if one wasn’t included in the other.
I’m sorry.
Maybe just “women (trans women especially)” instead
@ajb47, #449:
You know, there are times as a parent when you do things your kids would prefer you not do.
I certainly don’t recommend overriding your spawns’ autonomy (or spawn’s if you only have the one), but neither can they override yours.
It’s perfectly acceptable for you to talk to the school AS YOU – not representing the feelings of any of your children, just representing your own. Moreover, the fact that she doesn’t feel she can talk about it with the school is disturbing. The school itself should be worried if girls are scared to bring up issues of sexism, and certainly you as a parent have a right to be worried for the same reason.
Now, I’m sure that there are lots of reasons NOT to talk to the school. I won’t criticize you if you don’t raise the issue. But I want to make it clear as another parent that I don’t think that not speaking for your child means you can’t speak for yourself.
@Beatrice, #455/456:
“trans* folks” and “women” overlap, but neither fully contains the other. Your use was perfect.
It might be problematic if you had said, “women and trans* women” or “women and MtFs” or something – but you didn’t.
Your way not only highlighted trans* people, which is good in a world/community that doesn’t think about gender in such ways often enough, AND included people who wouldn’t fit in “women”.
Frankly, I think including trans* men – who are included in “trans* folks” – is a good thing: while it’s more acceptable in the US for female bodied people to wear masculine clothing than vice versa, there’s a line of persistence or of “special occasion clothing” (tuxes, for instance) that cross a line. The consequences for crossing that line can be quite severe. “No spaghetti straps” for 5th graders may not appear to target FtM trans* men, but it’s part of a culture of gender that entails extreme risks for those men. Saying that
for trans* men more than cis* men is perfectly reasonable. There IS more body/sexuality shaming for trans* men. Dress codes ARE part of how that happens.
Your first instincts were good. Your first phrasing was lovely, useful, and appropriate.
Crip Dyke,
Thanks for the explanation. Going back to the first comment as it was, then.
re: dress codes
My first term in high school (September to December) (1970):
as a girl, I was not allowed to wear trousers, I was required to wear a skirt or dress.
boys were not allowed to wear blue jeans that had brass studs (i.e. all of them).
by January, I (girl) could wear trousers, as long as it was not blue jeans.
later we (girls) could wear blue jeans, as long as they had been … modified.
(split a seam, add a bit of cloth to create bell-bottoms)
.
still later, the people who were trying to create and maintain these rules gave up.
We could wear what we wanted.
.
This predates people wanting to wear beach clothes in an air-conditioned space.
I went through Australia’s public school system, so this whole talk of dress codes for school kids is odd. We had a uniform, and if you weren’t in uniform, you were given a loaner or sent home (Some allowances were usually made for wet weather)…
Good morning
Yay, full night sleep!
I also decided that since we didn’t have to be in school at 8 I didn’t have to get up at 6.
On the downside the pay negotiations for the preschool and daycare teachers failed, which means more strike. Fuck the employers.
Okidemia
Thanks for the suggestions, but I don’t think they’ll work with me. I need quiet and concentration (yes, I’m easily distract- oh! look! squirrel!). Also the kid is 7. She’s hard to ignore because she’ll just get in my face.
dress codes
Nope, I don’t get them either. Occasionally they are discussions about how the teenage girls are flaunting their bodies, but they’re usually slapped down quickly. What I find most horrifying is the sexualisation of preschoolers. FFS, they don’t even know what sex is yet. How sick are the adults? Why do you let people care for preschoolers who think their bare shoulders evoke lust?
The kids’ preschool doesn’t have locker rooms. If they change for anything they do it in the hallway where the clothing racks are. It’s not uncommon that a kid will walk out of the toilet with their pants dangling around their feet because they need some assistance.
Yes, I do make the girls wear shorts under their dresses and skirts because, well, they’re little piggies and sand tends to get into places it’s not supposed to go. The alternative would be to restrict their behaviour, which I find worse.
+++
Something completely different:
comfort food
Is there a special food you want to have when you’re sick, or your kids want to have? Because dinner last night was “Starfish Soup” (does not contain actual starfish).
I had to go and find it (because too late) but I’m a mantis shrimp. All right.
opposablethumb
Me too!
+++
Ah, spring in my flat. When you can hear the blackbirds AND the African Fish Eagle. Yep, that’s the bird whose voice gets often used for any brird of prey.
Giliell @462:
Hmmm, I have a few comfort foods:
homemade cornbread
red beans and rice
chili (over rice)
potato soup
Those are the comfort foods that sprung immediately to mind. I think there are one or two more. Incidentally, out of that bunch, chili would be #1.
Book conservationist Nobuo Okano repairs tattered books to make them look brand new:
Images of his work are available at the link.
All the pepperoni that the U.S. eats a year could circle the Earth 50 times.
The NRA may be in trouble. They’ve been caught illegally funneling buckets of cash to GOP candidates:
Hi, I’ve been away from the lounge for a while for no particular reason. In the meantime I’ve bought a new car and today is my daughter’s third birthday. She’s just beginning to understand the concept of special days like this, so it makes it a bit more meaningful to us all.
She’s young enough that the idea of dress codes hasn’t manifested yet. I’m not looking forward to it though.
BTW I miss rq . That is all.
::Waves at bassmike::
****
Chinese scientists say they’ve genetically modified human embryos for the first time
:: waves back to Tony! ::
Care for a drink? Looks like the lounge bar is quiet?
*waves at whoever happens to see this post*
:: waves at saad ::
I’m at the bar. The drinks are on me.
Drinks should be in a glass.
or in my case a plastic cup
,
*offers towel*
To add to the discussion above about the supposed danger posed by the shoulders of a 5-year-old girl in a rainbow sundress, mormons have been fighting bare shoulders for a few decades.
http://janariess.religionnews.com/2014/06/05/mormon-shoulder-war-whats-stake/
Washington Post link
Mother Jones took a close look at the 1 percent of the 1 percenters who are now exerting way too much influence in politics.
Yesterday was Earth Day. After work I took some photos of flowering shrubs and trees and shared them with friends.
Scott Walker celebrated Earth Day by firing 57 employees from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. 25% of those fired were from the “science group.”
Walker has been consistent in carrying out his goal to defund, to hobble, the DNR. Walker really does not have good timing. His latest cuts got more negative coverage thanks to the fact that they coincided with Earth Day.
Link
Mitch McConnell and other Republicans are close, close friends of the coal industry. They abhor regulations. They have advised states not to comply with EPA regulations backed by President Obama.
This is what you get when you follow the rightwing anti-regulation policies:
Duke Energy is denying that the contamination has anything to do with their coal ash pond.
Link
The streets are alive with the sounds of screaming long pigs being eaten by the hungry sidewalk, Woman plunges down hole in London pavement:
I’ve been almost walked-over twice in recent days by eejits paying more attention to their mobile p0rn repositories then where the feck they are walking. If there was a hole in the footpath they’d probably fall into it. Whilst the article doesn’t say, it would not surprise me if this lady (who apparently was more surprised than hurt) was also glued to a tiny screen.
One woo-woo health nut exposed as a fraud when it comes to her claims about cancer, but she still manages to throw in some anti-vaxxer nonsense:
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2015/04/23/3650275/health-blogger-cancer-diet/
Mike Huckabee, presidential wannabe, says more stupid stuff:
Right Wing Watch link
Cross posted from the thread about sovereign citizens, where I plopped this down by mistake:
Donald Trump, a guy who recently rented space for his presidential campaign headquarters, said some more stupid stuff: While speaking yesterday with conservative talk show host John Fredericks, Donald Trump said that Central and South American countries are sending immigrants “they don’t want” to America while “keeping their good.”
“The ones we are getting are the drug lords, we’re getting the gang members, and we’re getting some people that are fine, but we’re not getting the best and finest from South America, believe me,” Trump said. Trump accused President Obama of deliberately keeping the border unprotected because he wants to “build up the Democrat [sic] Party.” […]
Link
Yeah, I’m sure President Obama is importing South American drug lords to bolster the ranks of the Democratic Party. /sarcasm
Mr. Trump may have forgotten Mitt Romney’s real ties to South American drug lords, to Salvadoran death squads, and to their money.
People’s World link
Huffington Post link
Politico link
Considering that what we have here may be another case of Republican projection of their own misdeeds/tactics onto the Democratic Party, maybe someone should investigate Trump’s connections to South American drug lords.
They *finally* confirmed Loretta Lynch. The United States has its first female African-American Attorney General.
Tony!,
About bloody time, she’s been in a holding pattern for longer than any other Atty Gen in US history.
Also, Yay!
Jesus. About time.
Anyone like science? Silly question I know, given that everyone around here rightfully knows that the way to universal truths and a proper understanding of the human condition can only be found through faith. But if you’re one of those people who insists on stuff like facts and evidence and logic and you like beer, you might like this-
Pint of Science:
A penetrating talk about sperm? Groan.
Runs off to find out what the heck a ‘tipple’ is.
Regarding Loretta Lynch’s confirmation: 43 Republican senators still voted against her, without having an actual reason do so. The vote was 56 to 43. Well, maybe the reason for the “no” vote was “we hate Obama.”
Although the confirmation went through, the vote was still “among the closest for any A.G. nominee in history – despite the fact that her detractors raised no substantive objections to Lynch, her background, her qualifications, her credentials, or her temperament.”
Link
Senator Ted Cruz skipped the confirmation vote for Lynch. He ranted incoherently against Lynch, and then he left.
From the whose-side-are-you-on analysis of Republican policies, we find them, surprise!, to be on the side of predatory businesses, and against consumers.
Regarding the Iceman-is-gay conversation, Franklin Graham doesn’t like it one bit.
Link
I thought that pineapple thing had been debunked O.o
Oh.
*That* pineapple thing. It took me a second to remember that.
****
I’m sure Republicans and other anti-Muslim bigots will be whining about this news report about the threat of domestic terrorism in the U.S.
(short video from an ABC affiliate in Texas)
Crip Dyke 457
Yeah, and I have gone back and forth about sending her teacher an email saying something like, “My daughter said she’ll wear a skirt or dress, but she mentioned that those rules are not really fair. Maybe that letter could be rewritten in the future to leave out different rules for boys and girls.”
It seems easy enough to me to say, ‘Students should wear nice casual slacks (no jeans, shorts, or sweatpants), an appropriate length skirt or dress, a short sleeve polo shirt or blouse and shoes that are nice but comfortable (no sandals, flip-flops, sneakers, etc).’ I haven’t seen, heard, or read of anything else like this in the 7 years she’s been in school, so my conclusion is that they are just recycling the letter without really reading it.
Right-wing nincompoop and all ’round bigot Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal recently penned an op-ed in the New York Times where he wrote about supporting a proposed religious freedom law in LA.
In response, the Human Rights Campaign took a red pen to his op-ed to make a few corrections:
You can read their markup at the above link.
Can I indulge in being disgustingly adorable for a minute?
Spouse just had to do a 30 year residence history for a background check. We had the last couple of addresses, but then of course it gets murky. Had a couple of old tax returns that cleared part of it up, but then it hit college where there was a lot of moving and such without much of a trace. Had an idea, and managed to reconstruct the entire thing. From the letters he sent me when we were dating. Which I had saved, along with all of the envelopes with the return addresses and date stamps. Chronologically arranged. In a Trapper Keeper. Heh. :)
carlie, that is pretty adorable!
Today was supposed to be a day off. Except that by the time I finished all the regular Thursday chores and a couple others that couldn’t wait, I was worn out. Pfui.
carlie @497:
That is really adorable!
****
Does anyone have a link to the Tweet where Ayaan Hirsi Ali dismissed homophobia in the U.S. bc gays have it worse in Islamic-run countries?
Augh, sometimes I think the Redhead can’t do simple math. Due to circumstances, I can go to sleep shortly. This will require a second call for me to change her. She’s so worried about the call, she can’t factor in an extra hour of sleep minus 20 minutes to change her, which is a 40 minute increase from normal. /rant.