It amazes me how the first run of (almost) spring is both the best and worst run of my life. Every year.
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Running, Thought of the day | 1 Comment »
Happy St. Patrick’s Day
Posted on March 17, 2011 by Michael
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Dropkick Murphys, I'm Shipping Up To Boston, St. Patrick's Day | 2 Comments »
Thought of the day
Posted on March 16, 2011 by Michael
I heard Sean Hannity talking about trickle-down economics today.
lol
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Sean Hannity, Thought of the day | 2 Comments »
Thought of the day
Posted on March 14, 2011 by Michael
If a road is horribly muddy and its trenches are only getting deeper, one might imagine people would at least attempt to drive on the high points of mud. But no.
And that’s from a few days ago. It has only gotten worse since.
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Go to hell spring, Thought of the day | 1 Comment »
Thought of the day
Posted on March 12, 2011 by Michael
I have yet to come across a laptop with a remotely respectable built-in mouse.
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Laptops, Thought of the day | 4 Comments »
Rock-Paper-Scissors
Posted on March 12, 2011 by Michael
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Rock-Paper-Scissors | 2 Comments »
Detecting rhetoric
Posted on March 11, 2011 by Michael
I’ve talked about my appreciation of rhetoric on here a few times. Ed Brayton of Scienceblogs picks out some of Newt Gingrich’s quite nicely:
Here’s an incredible statement from an interview Newt Gingrich did with the 700 Club that shows exactly how not to show remorse for having done something wrong. When asked about his multiple infidelities and hypocrisies, this is the very first thing he said:
There’s no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate.
See, he wasn’t driven by passions of the flesh, he was driven by passion for his country. And that’s why “things happened” — not the passive voice. He didn’t do something wrong, something wrong merely happened as a result of having too much patriotism. How utterly pathetic.
This is a tactic that gets used all the time. It removes responsibility from actual people and shifts it to some nebulous floating whatever. Slimey, sure. But good rhetoric? You betcha.
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Dispatches from the Culture Wars, Ed Brayton, Newt Gingrich | 2 Comments »
Thought of the day
Posted on March 10, 2011 by Michael
I’m tired of hearing America is the best at this or the best at that all the frickin’ time. It’s a fat country with bad health care, bad politics, bad education, bad infrastructure, bad religion, a horrific income gap, a load of violent crime, moronic drug laws, rampant racism, people who deny the rampant racism, sexism, people who deny the rampant sexism, an active and overt hostility to higher education, and a population that consists of large blocs devoted to ideology over real-world pragmatic answers.
And to top things off, it’s filled with the sort of people who give idiotic responses to all these facts by saying, “Well, if you don’t like, why don’t you leave?” Morons.
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: America is not the best, Thought of the day | 15 Comments »
Thought of the day
Posted on March 8, 2011 by Michael
The best way, in my experience, to stump or trap or trip up a Christian is to just ask questions. Every time I’ve pounded on a point and demanded answer after answer from Christians they always change the subject, refuse to answer for some BS reason, or otherwise attempt to divert attention from their beliefs. It makes people uncomfortable to be put on the defensive, and it especially puts people not used to being challenged in a very difficult situation. That makes for the perfect set-up. Give it a try.
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Christians, Thought of the day | 3 Comments »
Thought of the day
Posted on March 7, 2011 by Michael
One of the most fundamental differences between Democrats and Republicans is cohesion. The Democrats don’t always stick together, thus weakening their clout. I think this generally reflects the more nuanced stances they take; that’s what happens when people invest a little thought into reality. The Republicans, on the other hand, tend to be more mindless. They don’t deviate from The Plan. This greatly reflects how ideological they are. Really, just take a look at the reactions the party had after it was killed in ’06 and ’08: it wanted to get rid of all the RINOs and people willing to compromise. It looks like that worked, at least in the short term, so kudos to them for having a successful, even if abhorrent, political strategy.
So I don’t think we’re going to see another John McCain sort of candidate in 2012, one that emphasizes being a maverick. Granted, McCain was (and is) pretty slimey in his overt moves to the far right, contradicting much of his career, but he just couldn’t appeal to the pale white, suburban base of the Republican party enough. A Huckabee has a better chance because of his pretty generic anti-all-things-good Republican positions. Though I’m not making any sort of specific prediction right now, it is clear that anyone with nuance is unlikely to be successful in the GOP any time soon. (Think about it: How many Democrats cross the aisle all the time, voting for generally conservative positions? How many Republicans do the inverse? I can name two, and they’re both from my state.)
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Nuance, Thought of the day | 1 Comment »
For the Sake of Science 