Glenn Reynolds, still bitter that in his first year at Hogwarts the Sorting Hat put him into Waffle House, points and laughs at what he believes is the "BEST ELIZABETH WARREN PARODY/RESPONSE YET."
Get ready to chuckle!
Reynolds explains that this "goes to the core problem. Are you the state’s property, or not?"
Which makes sense if you consider women and their bodies commodities to be exchanged, I guess. Or else if you're just some sort of garden-variety dipshit misogynist douche.
Goblinish twerp Rick Lazio got stomped by Hillary Clinton back in the day in part because he pulled shit like this and it backfired badly. Bets on whether Scott Brown's campaign is going to be able to resist going there? Or even if they do, that Greater Wingnuttia will be self-aware enough to stop indulging themselves in this fashion?
Seriously, bets? Anyone?
Women, and non-fuckfaces generally, and not only in Massachussetts, are likely to discern a totally different "core problem" here than the one Reynolds identifies. What a colossal douche he is. But, you know, let's not discourage him. I don't like to prognosticate, usually, but every attack on Warren in this vein is probably going to be worth at least a percentage point to her on election day, which means (doing rapid rough calculations) that she is likely to win by a 347% margin, give or take.
I've been working on a mushroom post that might appear soon. I've taken a lot of pictures of different mushrooms in the last week or so, but I'm afraid I don't know what they are. The more I learn about them, the less certain I am of the identification of the few I was sure of.
Said one Hallmark store owner, "The cards are flying off the shelves." They say things like, "Don't think of it as losing your job, think of it as time between stupid bosses," "When life gives you a lemon, go ahead and make a martini with it," and "Losing your job does not define you. What you do about it does."
Meaning, unemployment is now as inevitable an occasion as birthdays or death, and requires commemoration.
Been meaning to recommend Roll 'Bama Roll's "It's Meltdown Time!" roundup for a while now. Every Saturday in the universe of college football fandom, there is a team that coughs up a hairball of a game against competition at least perceived to be of inferior quality. The column highlights comments from the message boards of the fans of the team that choked.
JOE COX IS BETTER THAN FUCKING MURRAY. NO EXCUSE THIS GAME. HE LOST IT AND HE SHOULD BE BENCHED FOR SUCH A SHITTY FUCKING GAME. Oh... but... he scored 42 points. Cry me a fuck river pussies! He gave USCe more points than their shitty ass football team scored the entire game on offense! Fuck Murray, Richt, (Bo Bo had a good game once Richt turned it over to him in the 2nd half, can't help Murray is such a pussy!), and the rest of you DISNEY FUCKS! I can't believe we just lost to that miserable football team.
One of the most wonderful moments in the history of journalism occured in the 1880s, when the decidedly backwater, absurdly imperialist Skibbereen Eagle informed almost nobody that it was "keeping an eye on the Czar of Russia" in regards to the Czar's designs on invading China.
I had a point here about Charles Pierce, but now I forget what it was. Probably it was something like "ha ha you have to pay attention to Mitt Romney and all I have to do is say 'fuck' recreationally on the Internet." Or else huzzah!
I took a blurry pic of one of these butterflies earlier this month. Saturday, I hiked up the hill opposite the mountain our house is on, and chased two Tawny Emperors up and down a gravel road for a half hour or so.
The Tawny Emperor is not nearly as willing to sit and pose for a picture as a Monarch or Tiger Swallowtail.
Maybe I'll get pictures of a Zebra Swallowtail someday? Or a Luna Moth...I saw one here, one night many years ago. This side of Cold Run Valley Road features the main buildings of the Coolfont Resort.
Coolfont's Treetop House officially closed last June. Since then, the resort has operated on a limited basis. The Carl M. Freeman Companies purchased Coolfont in November, 2005. All present buildings except for the historic Coolfont Manor House will be removed next year as work begins on a planned resort community featuring 1,100 homes. General plans for a 1,100 home resort consisting of mostly vacation homes and condos were announced in September after a week of meetings and workshops involving Freeman company officials, architects, planners, public service officials and community members. The new Coolfont homes will be built in clusters to preserve green space and will be constructed over the course of 10-12 years.
Or whenever a gigantic real estate bubble comes back. Anyways, here's a few pics I took on the way to the butterflies.
This is apparently Banned Books Week. My position on censorship is that we need a lot more of it. How are you ever supposed to know whether anything is good or not if nobody ever tells you you're not supposed to have it?
Which is glib, though as a rule, it works more often than not. If you want to get more sophisticated, though, you can look at actual cases of censorship and start grasping why the glib answer is, well, glib, and leads to libertarians confusing "making masturbatory noises" with "taking a meanigngful stand as regards freedom."
"Censorship" is not in and of itself anything more than a specific technique employed by certain authorities against certain forms of speech or cultural production. It is not always "bad," like it's some sort of Sith shit. Shouldn't the state censor child pornography?
To be precise about the arguments as for why certain forms of speech should not be subject to censorship, it's key to recognize that these typically are rooted in arguments that specific groups of people should always enjoy protection from censorship. In terms of the censorship of literature, this has always been the defense, from Flaubert (who mostly invented this idea, though he was savvy enough to not actually make it to a judge) through Joyce, to Nabokov. Artists have the right to talk openly about dirty sexy stuff, because they are artists, just as priests and doctors enjoy dirty sexy talking rights in furtherance of their professional duties.
Which is why in the modern western era the only definition of an "artist" that is at all coherent is "someone who can say or do whatever as long as it conforms to specifically artistic criteria, which are always made up shit but always somehow oppositional."
I'm not at all being unkind to novelists when I put it this way, either. Novelists fought for and won the right for writers to have their work protected as worthy of being judged according to strictly artistic criteria, as opposed to the criteria of the dominant morality, or the dominant political regime, or even to a remarkable extent the dominant economy. Joyce didn't get rich off Ulysses, you know. But he succeeded with it. And get snotty about how you're too cool to read Ulysses all you like -- but the Woolsey decision made Americans freer.
But all this backstory is simply a way of stressing that it's deeply stupid to yawp about "censorship" RIGHT OR WRONG without examining the politcal (in every sense of the term) issues involved in a specific episode of "censorship."
A professor has been censored twice, reported to the "threat assessment team," and threatened with criminal charges because of satirical postings on his office door. Campus police at the University of Wisconsin–Stout (UWS) censored theater professor James Miller's poster depicting a quotation from actor Nathan Fillion's character in the television series Firefly, and the police chief threatened Miller with criminal charges for disorderly conduct. After UWS censored his second poster, which stated, "Warning: Fascism," Miller came to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for help.
"Colleges and universities are supposed to foster brave and bold environments of freewheeling intellectual inquiry and expression. If a quote from a network science fiction show is a bridge too far, something has gone seriously wrong," FIRE President Greg Lukianoff said. "As both president of FIRE and a huge Firefly fan, I call on the chancellor of UW–Stout to rein in his overreaching administration and to restore both free speech and basic common sense."
UWS security overreacted. Though if Miller was just being totally random as to choosing fanboy shit, and not trying to be "edgy," well...
On September 12, 2011, Professor Miller posted on his office door an image of Nathan Fillion in Firefly and a line from an episode: "You don't know me, son, so let me explain this to you once: If I ever kill you, you'll be awake. You'll be facing me. And you'll be armed."
As totally random shit to put on a poster outside your office door, WTF? I'm pretty damn grouchy, but this isn't how I say to my students, "hello! Come on in!"
(Since this is a quote pulled without context and put on a poster, context from the show is irrelevant; I know it, BTW. You don't need to tell me. I mean you, potential commenter!)
But, whatever.
My point is, whenever you hear about something about CENSORSHIP that gets yammered about, the immediate issue is not OMIGOD CENSORSHIP=BAD, but "what immediate political interests are involved?" and "does this really have broader implications for questions of freedom, or is this just some local bullshit a national organization is braying about so its leaders don't need to get jobs"?
To make this more concrete, here. The FREEDOM that should matter should be the freedom of journalists to produce work free of the strictures of the dominant morality, the dominant political regime, or even of the dominant economy. Journalists should be free to be judged solely by the standards set by journalists jealous of their freedom as journalists.
Novelists won. Journalists -- failed.
The Fox model of the utter submission of the field of journalism to the worlds of politics and money is an absolute betrayal of the democratic vision of James Madison and is the death knell of our nation.
In his seminal work, After Virtue, philosopher Alisdair MacIntyre argues
Townhall also publishes Chuck Norris. Skip ahead.
Nowhere is the truth of MacIntyre's observation more readily apparent, perhaps, than in the precipitous decline of marriage. What was once venerated as a holy, sacramental institution is now considered an optional, if slightly outmoded social convention, a stultifying but necessary financial convenience.
That's precisely why gays want to get married. Steve says to Bill, "before all our loved ones, please let's together forever participate in what was once venerated as a holy, sacramental institution that is now considered an optional, if slightly outmoded social convention, a stultifying but necessary financial convenience, you sweet bitch you."
Anyway, I'm straight, and not religious, and I'm pretty sure I got married because of the love thing, and also because I was pretty sure I would like being married and having kids. And thanks to the magic combination of Pedialyte and vodka, I was ultimately proved insensible!
Anyhoo, I wasn't much concerned with providing the Bedrock Cornerstones of Western Civilization, and I'm mostly sure MollyI wasn't either. This sort of bullshit isn't anything I recall getting on board with, definitely:
Traditional marriage (specifically, Christian marriage) has through the centuries served as a critical civilizing force in society. It has been, quite literally, the glue that holds communities and peoples together. As traditionally understood, the bonds of marriage are forged not by man, but by God. They are not merely legal, physical, or emotional, they are spiritual and sacred.
Honey, God wants us to fuck! But not for fun, only babies. Honey? Sweetums?
The Elmer's...? Pass it over...
Dear? My sweet? God quite literally wants us to stick together with glue?
This may make going wee a bit awkward henceforth, but Jesus says -- OW! HOLY SHIT! THAT'S MY TAINT HAIR! AND YOURS! Love... please... if we move together delicately, we can locate the cell phone and contact 911... NOT THAT WAY! AIEEEEEEE! STICKY NIPPLES! [Ripping noises, screams. Soft, gentle sobbing.]
Shazam.
There's no mystery as to why God-botherers want us all to hold to 14th century social norms: it's good to be the priest.
But as for me -- stop bugging me. I'm a straight married guy. Whatever. Stop trying to call what I have some sort of Spiritual and Sacred hot-shit win for Mankind. It's not. It's just what I am.
It is a symptom of the malady of this modern age that influential figures within our popular culture have fallen subject to this degraded notion of marriage. Only recently, Rock singer Jack White and his wife announced that they will celebrate their sixth anniversary of marriage . . . by getting divorced. The soon-to-be separated couple is hosting party in Nashville, Tenn., to mark the auspicious occasion.
Yeah. Dude. Newt Gingrich wrote a tune about it.
Trying to force everyone by means of guilt into this one mode of being has produced appallingly depressing results. That it has also produced "Irish Literature" is its only excuse.
I recommend instead that "feed the poor" shit. How's that going?
MAS. This:
However, when you view marriage as nothing more than the mutual stirring of emotion accompanied by a few lines of poetry, or as the mere "making it official" formality that comes after years of cohabitation, or even as an excuse to have a good party with great friends, you are depriving it of it's full force and power as a foundational social and cultural institution. Try as you might to spin this shortchanging as an "enlightened" understanding of human relationships, you are tearing at the fabric of God's design.
I guess MollyI&I aren't tearing that fabric. But maybe we left a wet spot. Send the dry cleaning bill to Ba'al?
Besides, it's as it happens misused apostrophes that truly make me say, O! Western Civilization! We're assfucked!
Based on its size, long neck, and long tail, I'm guessing this is a snapping turtle. No wonder I never see duckling families in Lake Siri.
I've been wandering the woods, high points, meadows, creeks, and lakes of the Cacapon Mountain area for over a decade. Yesterday, I was pondering the fact that I couldn't remember seeing a snake in all this time. And just like that, I saw this Northern Water Snake fishing for minnows in the shallow water at the end of Lake Siri (I saw he/she/snake strike at a minnow...missed it by that much).
Anand Giridharadas tells an awful story about Amazon, and draws from this story a ridiculous conclusion.
The awful story:
Thanks to a methodical and haunting piece of journalism in The Morning Call, a newspaper published in Allentown, Pennsylvania, I now know why the boxes reach me so fast and the prices are so low. And what the story revealed about Amazon could be said of the country, too: that on the road to high and glorious things, it somehow let go of decency.
The newspaper interviewed 20 people who worked in an Amazon warehouse in the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania. They described, and the newspaper verified, temperatures of more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit, or 37 degrees Celsius, in the warehouse, causing several employees to faint and fall ill and the company to maintain ambulances outside. Employees were hounded to “make rate,” meaning to pick or pack 120, 125, 150 pieces an hour, the rates rising with tenure. Tenure, though, wasn’t long, because the work force was largely temps from an agency. Permanent jobs were a mirage that seldom came. And so workers toiled even when injured to avoid being fired. A woman who left to have breast cancer surgery returned a week later to find that her job had been “terminated.”
The ridiculous conclusion:
The prevailing American story line right now is seething anger at politicians: that they’re corrupt, or heartless, or socialist, or dumb. But the Amazon story, and many other recent developments, suggest that the problem is significantly deeper.
Far beyond official Washington, we would seem to be witnessing a fraying of the bonds of empathy, decency, common purpose. It is becoming a country in which people more than disagree. They fail to see each other. They think in types about others, and assume the worst of types not their own....
People who run companies like Amazon operate as though it never occurred to them that it could have been them crawling through the aisles. And the people who run labor unions possess little empathy for how difficult and risky and remarkable it is to build something like Amazon.
Mistreating workers has a long history in America. Slavery, indentured servitude, children in coal mines, sweatshops, migrant farmworkers, and so forth.
You'd kind of have to be an idiot to believe that it would be a good idea to rely upon the "decency" of large corporations to prevent them from exploiting their worst-paid and most vulnerable employees. This is why working people fought for "labor laws" and "unions."
So, I guess gold star for Giridharadas for feeling bad for exploited workers after finding out exactly how he was able to get so much cheap crap from Amazon. But that this was apparently a light-bulb moment for him makes him rather a dope, and the false-equivalence union-bashing is precisely the sort of banal, pompous dickishness masquerading as "insight " or "bravery" that makes our nation's elite newspaper op-ed sections such an empty wasteland of smug howling stupid.
