…it seems to me that being pricked with a pin would be better than being pinned with a prick.
Just a thought from somewhere off the wall.
Yeh, yeh: I post these things so you won’t have to. Either that or it’s the voices in my head making me do it.
Academia Nut Fruitcakes Get a Kick in the… Nuts
Jonathan Haidt, confirmed Liberal and atheist takes his colleagues to task.
Sample:
I submit to you that the under-representation of conservatives in social psychology, by a factor of several hundred, is evidence that we are a tribal moral community that actively discourages conservatives from entering. … We should take our own rhetoric about the benefits of diversity seriously and apply it to ourselves. … Just imagine if we had a true diversity of perspectives in social psychology. Imagine if conservative students felt free enough to challenge our dominant ideas, and bold enough to pull us out of our deepest ideological ruts. That is my vision for our bright post-partisan future.
There’s more at the linked article, a demonstration of an exception proving (“proving” here meaning “testing” as most of my readers would know) the rule that contemporary “liberals” are anything but. Liberal, that is. Haidt apparently is one of the few genuine liberals left in the American Academia Nut Fruitcake Bakeries laughingly called “institutions of higher learning”.
Maaad Blogging Sklz
Started several posts over the past few days. Got distracted. On two, distracted before I typed the title.
Whatever’s going on… Oooo! Shiny!
Shame On Me
No, really. *heh* I hit a dry patch in my to-do list (well, the to-do list is still there, what dried up was my git-up-n-do-it ;-)) and was cruising through the WMC list of available Internet TV offerings. Ran across a snippet from Fox News (a “human interest” piece, I suppose) about an Arkansas family that called 911 because they were being held hostage in their own home… by their neighbor’s house cat.
Pussies.
Oh, here’s the video (mostly):
Held hostage by a house cat. *shakes head in amazement* I find that literally mind-bogglingly bumfuzzling. I don’t care how “scary” a house cat seems, these people ought to accept their Darwin Award before they reproduce.
(Now, I know some house cats can be pretty tough. We had one in our family, back in the day, that topped 25 pounds and edged upwards from there–and not fat. Big boy. We got complaints from folks down the street about him “beating up” their German Shepherds. But was he big enough, mean enough, fast enough, dangerous enough to be able to “hold hostage” any adult human being with more active brain cells than a head of cabbage? Not a chance. “People”–and I use the term loosely–nowadays can be such useless, stupid, cowardly bags of pus that it’s hard to believe that they are. People, that is.)
Defund NPR!
No Shiite! (Seriously: the Muslim Brotherhood which is the pretext for this investigative report, is Sunni, so “No Shiite!” is correct… in more senses than one*… )
*Recently, in “polite” conversation, I have taken to substituting “”Shiite!” for a word that means much the same thing but which has only one “i” and no “e”.
Why I Do Not Buy Girl Scout Cookies
I hate false advertising. So-called “Girl Scout Cookies” are NOT made from real Girl Scouts.
Why Didn’t They Think of This?
Or maybe they did.
NASCAR could just as easily have been named AASCAR, couldn’t it? I mean, who really cares how it would’ve sounded… 😉
(F)Makes Me Look “Smart”
Every time a family member drops a, “Have you heard of this? So-and-so recommended it to me,” on me and I remind them that I mentioned it to them (or sent them a link to info on it or demoed it to them) months (or longer) ago, it makes me look like I’m ahead of the(ir) curve.
Which I am. *heh*
Example, (person who shall go unnamed) asked me this week if I’d heard of DropBox. *sigh* I’ve been using it for quite a while now, since it left beta testing. I’ve sent them several links to public DropBox files, sent them links to sign up and FAQ pages, etc.
All I said was, “Sure have. It’s really useful. See?” turning my notebook to face ’em and opening its DropBox folder… *heh*
While I find it handier in many ways to set up my computers so I can access the actual machines remotely, DropBox is useful for simply having files I need to have accessible from anywhere handy. Sure, I have a SkyDrive account and other online file storage services. I even have certain kinds of files stored on my own hosting (testing the limits of “unlimited storage” *heh*). But DropBox is just dead simple to use. For Win/Mac/Linux. One’s DropBox folders are also accessible via the web.
Well, I took a rabbit trail, didn’t I? S’all right. I still get to look “smart” (to some ;-)).
Après-Snopocalypse 2011 Amusement
Methinks school attendance on the first school day of February 2011 here in America’s Third World County will be lower than desired by pubschool admins. Amused myself for a bit this a.m. listening to “the school bus channel” on scanner as one after another report went out to bus drivers to skip bus stops because parents and students still couldn’t get out to the bus stops. (Now, keep in mind that a lot of the “piney woods” folks live back 1 and sometimes 2 miles from the nearest roads, accessible only via air or–by now–deeply rutted and still snow and ice-packed private dirt roads, not something I’d necessarily send a young grade school child off trekking down to meet a bus that may or may not get through the still unplowed and ice/snow packed connecting county dirt road.)
At least it may mean fewer whines from kids about missing their “Valentines Day Party” that was scheduled for last Friday. *heh*
Snowmageddon 2011?
*heh*
Just when it was (relatively) safe to go outa the house: in the last 1-1.5 hours, nearly 2″ of powder over packed snow & ice on America’s Third World County streets and roads. Makes for more treacherous driving than if it were snow alone, of coure. OTOH, it is kinda fun to watch dumbasses trying to drive in the stuff (as long as one can stay out of their line of attack).
[audio: Paul_Simon-Art_Garfunkel_Slip-Slidin-Away-clip.mp3]This S&G hook is pretty much the theme song for today’s “Third World County Snowmageddon Demolition Derby”.