Described here. Though she’s not quite as creative. Generally, she sleeps on the desk by the monitor, and when she wants food, she walks over the keyboard, sits on the edge, and reaches out to tap me on the face with a paw. Also, I’ve noticed that she doesn’t want food so much as attention and service. She’ll complain, even when there’s still food in the bowl, and demand that I add more. I don’t have to add a lot more, but I have to go through the motions.
Category Archives: Social Commentary
Cultural Defenses Of Incest
Thoughts from Eugene Volokh. I found interesting the comment about the intrinsic incompatibility between Christian and Jewish law in this regard. But I agree with Glenn — if father/daughter relations are an intrinsic part of the culture at Columbia University, academia is in even bigger trouble than we thought.
The Weirdness Of The Human Mind
Often, when I mistype, unless I’m in a huge hurry and just sit on the backspace, I’ll be careful to not delete letters I’ve already typed, but move the cursor around them if they’ll be useful in the fix, because I don’t like to waste them.
Just so you know. I’m a child of parents who were children of the Depression. What can I say? I’m just frugal, if not always rational.
What I Would Never Do For A Party
Hire a bartender. I just don’t understand the mentality of that kind of mindless status seeking.
Not So Much
I’m surprised it’s that high, actually. It’s probably because I have a lot of friends, and I check several times a day. I almost never manually update my status, and the answers to most of the other questions were “no.”
By the way, vanilla friend requests from people I don’t know are generally ignored. If you want to be my Facebook friend, tell me who you are and why.
Just In Case You Still Took The Leftist Womens’ Movement Seriously
I give you this.
Headline Du Jour
Honoring Those Who Sacrificed For Us
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
[Note: this will be the top post all day, so scroll down for fresh posts]
Stuck On A Train
This is apparently a real, and true email to the boss, from Down Under. It’s pretty funny, as long as it doesn’t happen to you. But perhaps he’s laughing about it now, too.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Here’s the news story.
Culture Clash
An interesting article on the divide between pro- and anti-gun cultures in America. And it’s about a lot more than guns:
“The intensity of passion on this issue suggests to me that we are experiencing a sort of low-grade war going on between two alternative views of what America is and ought to be. On the one side are those who take bourgeois Europe as a model of a civilized society: a society just, equitable, and democratic; but well ordered, with the lines of authority clearly drawn, and with decisions made rationally and correctly by intelligent men for the entire nation. To such people, hunting is atavistic, personal violence is shameful, and uncontrolled gun ownership is a blot upon civilization.
“On the other side is a group people who do not tend to be especially articulate or literate, and whose world view is rarely expressed in print. Their model is that of the independent frontiersman who takes care of himself and his family with no interference from the state. They are conservative in the sense that they cling to America’s unique pre-modern tradition—a non-feudal society with a sort of medieval liberty at large for everyman. To these people, ‘sociological’ is an epithet. Life is tough and competitive. Manhood means responsibility and caring for your own.”
“That really kind of spells it out,” Reynolds says. “It is a division between two very different views not only of American society, but also life itself.”
It’s really a low-grade cultural civil war going back to colonial times. But one side is a lot better trained and armed so, fortunately for the other side, it hasn’t turned into a shooting war.