Linkee-poo's future looks quite bright to me

Not exactly balanced, but this is getting too long. So time to push the publish button. This is finals week. Plus the day thing has decided to go crazy. It'll be a fun slide into the weekend. You know, for certain values of "fun".

Why parents should leave their kids alone. You know, when they're ready for it. Fortunately I haven't encountered major helicopter parents at the hospital, yet. Although some have been close.

To counter the argument of "you can find everything online, instantly", the ten classic TV shows you still can't watch online. And, before you ask, they were all in heavy syndication at one time or other. (Grokked from Dan)

For some markets, ordering groceries and having them delivered is a greener solution than everyone driving to the store. I think that might work well for canned and boxed staples, but I would still want to select my own fruits and veggies. Plus, sometimes I buy muffins. Some of them the sprinkle extra sugar on the top (partially melted chunks), others they leave bare. Same flavors, no different on the label. So things like that would also be tricky. But then, I guess I could use fewer muffins.

The story of Harvard Professor Niall Ferguson's intellectual dishonesty and complete bigotry just shows how low the bar has been set for people to be "respected" and given a microphone. But Juan Cole pretty well calls it. "Ferguson’s outrageous polemic is an example of the ad hominem fallacy. Instead of demonstrating that Keynes’s theory is faulty (which no one has yet done), Ferguson attempted to smear Keynes and deprive him of standing in intellectual debate by calling him a deviant." When you can argue with facts, go for the cheap shot. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

I guess F*&ckface Von Clownstick hasn't heard advice about how to respond to these things. Well I guess when one is a narcissistic blowhard with a glass ego it's hard not to respond to "defend your good name." Oh, hey, so when are we ever going to hear that "amazing things" his crack team of investigators found in Hawaii?

What to do when you're a conservative and you see your signature legislation to reduce renewable energy go down to defeat? Why, you just don't count the votes when you reintroduce the bill. 'Cause conservatives are the party of "count the votes" and "every vote should count." (Grokked from the Jay Lake)

The Slactivist would like to remind you, "In 1952, Congress passed a law establishing the National Day of Prayer as an annual religious observance. Quick: give me another sentence that uses the words 'Congress,' 'law,' 'establish' and 'religion.'" Yea, that. Saw the Newtster on the talking head shows being incredulous that anyone could believe that there should be laws against imposing anyone's religion on anyone else (couched in the "religious freedom means we don't have to sell or provide service to 'teh gayz', or give our secular employees contraceptive coverage" argument). The same Newtster that's pushing anti-Sharia laws. Try and get your head around that one. The only way I can is to add the expander, "the Newtster and his ilk are asshats". Then it works.

Nobody likes drum circles. Helen Mirren, dressed as the Queen, tells a drum circle that stopped behind a bunch of theaters to "shut the f#$% up." Ah, Helen, if only you could have been at a few conventions I've been to. Look, the concept of drum circles, and the cause for which this drum circle was playing were all okay. But understand, when you parade around, it becomes a nuisance. Some of us want to relax and have conversations, or watch a play. (Grokked from Dave Klecha)

"Three in 10 registered American voters believe an armed rebellion might be necessary in the next few years, according to the results of a staggering poll released Wednesday by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind." That survey also includes 18% of Democrats who believe it might also be necessary. When absolutism becomes a guiding philosophy, sometime people will take those people at their word.

Not to mention things like this. Time for the aerial spraying of Prosac to begin. (Pointed to by Dan)

The flips side of the stories we tell ourselves, it's the stories we consciously ignore. Sometimes cancer kills. Actually, it happens more often than we like to talk about. "So if you’ve ever considered whipping out the talk about miracles or just keeping a positive attitude or some other unhelpful tack in a transparent attempt to keep your own terror of death at bay, that’s actually a pretty crappy thing to lay on a person with a serious disease. Please don’t do that." 'Cause here's the real deal, if you're over 25, I don't care how well you work out, or how well you eat, you're in the process of dying. Some people just have a better idea of how, that's all. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

And in this vein, I point to two posts from Jay Lake on his dreaming self. He also links to this account of someone else who died of terminal cancer. As well as a post about "Death Cafes." "'They’re a place to talk about the issues surrounding death while drinking tea and eating delicious cake.'" There's something about people who have seen death before, their own or someone close to them. They can talk with each other about things that cause other people to be nervous.

Yea, banks don't need no stinking regulation. Yep, they foreclosed on 4 million homes by "mistake", and then when they settled the complaints by paying each of those home owners (who are out their homes) $300 to $5000, they bounce the checks. I'm sure their executives' bonus checks were drawn off a different account.

I scored 15 of 15 on the Pew Forum's Religious Knowledge Quiz. How well can you do? (Grokked from Jay Lake)