Monthly Archives: May 2012
Rachel Maddow Preview: Jane Lynch inre Obama on Same Sex Marriage
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The earliest known example of Godwining a converation
The conversation was about car pooling during World War II:
Continue reading The earliest known example of Godwining a converation
Chuck Brown RIP
Walker’s Divide And Conquer Framed
Walker has something like 30 million dollars in his campaign war chest. If you are going to donate to any race outside your state, this would be the one and this would be the time. The election is SOON, on June 5th.
Teaching After The Test: An argument for a national school schedule
First, a word about Nazis and Free Speech, and other matters: Catch up on the latest news about Repression of Nazis, and join the conversation about Free Speech and how sometimes it is better to shut up, over at the X Blog.
Today I am preparing a presentation and discussion for a course in AP Biology. Amanda and her colleague have been teaching AP Bio all year, and the test was just given, so there is nothing to live for any more as it were. I asked Amanda yesterday why the students even show up now that the test is over, and she looked at me funny and said “well, they’re required to.” … Oh right, high school.
Continue reading Teaching After The Test: An argument for a national school schedule
Freedom of speech means sometimes you shut up
There have been a lot of discussions lately about freedom of speech. Some of this has centered around the question: Are we hurting the Nazis (Golden Dawn) in Greece by signing and circulating a petition to ask WordPress to take down their web site? (More on this below, there have been interesting developments.) What about (intentionally) offensive comedians, hired to perform at conventions and conferences? Are we right to get mad at the organizers for organizing that, or do we just assume that somebody out there finds it funny, so we should just back off and maybe go sit by the pool for a while or something? (You need to know what satire is to really understand.)
Often, people jump into any discussion where it looks like speech is being questioned, silenced, affected in any way, dare I say ‘repressed,’ with strong admonitions that at all costs one must not interfere with anyone’s freedom of expression. Those who jump in first and hardest are often lost causes. No amount of discussion, no slew of examples, no pile of evidence, no plethora of historical facts will talk them down from the position that all speech must be protected at all times no matter what the speech is, who is saying it, the context in which it is said, its consequences, how it is being “said,” or anything. Not only that, but that which damages or represses speech is generally over-defined to include any call for putting a lid of any kind on any thing.
Those people, with their blind rage against repression, need to do one thing: Shut up. Continue reading Freedom of speech means sometimes you shut up
Greek Nazis, Feeling Repressed, Start Change.org Petition
It looks like this:
This is a response to earlier petitions. See these posts:
Take Action against the Greek Nazi Party
More Greek Nazi Related Action
The Nazis have been Repressed!
Romney, Mitt: The Demon Barber of Wall Street …
Perhaps one of Zimmerman’s greatest productions:
If a comedian is offensive, just don’t listen to that comedian and stop complaining
Right?
This has come up recently in relation to a comedian hired at a major atheist conference who was so offensive people left and got mad and even blogged about it. The argument has been made that you can say whatever you want and it isn’t really offensive if you are a comedian … people just have to decide if they think you are funny or not, and the possibility that somewhere out there in the world there just might be one person who does think you are funny makes it OK.
But that, it turns out, isn’t at all how it works.
Missouri Honors Misogynist who Equates Contraceptive Using Women to “Sluts”
And here is the honoree being about as gracious as he is capable of being:
From the Maddow Blog:
Mark Twain, Harry Truman, Walt Disney, and a misogynist who thinks Democrats are “deranged” and advocates for access to contraception are “sluts.” Congratulations, Missouri.
Incidentally, Republican leaders of the Missouri House kept yesterday’s event secret until 25 minutes beforehand, hoping to keep protestor away from the unveiling of Limbaugh’s bronze bust.
Gay-couple friendly civil union bill dead in Colorado
The Republicans in Colorado’s state house killed a bill that would have made gay marriage a lot like straight marriage. This was expected, and it will become a campaign issue as Democrats attempt to take the Colorado State House in November.
Republican Rep. Don Coram, whose son is gay, cited his reasons for voting against the measure while his wife, Dianna Coram, wiped away tears in the audience. Coram said civil unions are too similar to same-sex marriage, which Colorado voters banned in 2006. He blasted Democrats, accusing them of bringing up the issue to try to gain votes.
“The gay community is being used as a political pawn,” he said.
Perhaps. Or, perhaps they are not pawns. Perhaps they are rooks and nights and bishops and kings and queens!1!!!
Checkmate in November.
Freedom
People have been throwing around the ‘Freedom’ word a lot lately, i.e. in relation to letting Nazis have their speech, etc. etc.
Now let’s talk about some Freedom that actually matters:
Ron Paul to Stop Campaign But Still Fully Expects To Be Elected President
From the Washington Post:
Texas Rep. Ron Paul (R) announced today that he is scaling back his presidential campaign operation.
He said in a statement that he will continue to fight former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for delegates at state conventions around the country, but he will no longer spend any money on upcoming primary contests.
He actually probably can do that to some extent. His people are more than willing to break convention and disregard rules and stuff. Paul will be going into the convention with more delegates than primary winner Santorum from Minnesota becuase they did something like cheating here.
It would be funny if he won the nomination!
Nonsensical Icons: Why is there a "V" on top of my television!?!?
Scott Hanselman has a post on “old people icons” that don’t make sense any more. This is one of those posts I’ve always wanted two write but never got to (or have I? … can’t remember).
The most obvious one is of course the floppy disk for “Save” long abandoned by Gnome and replaced with a down arrow (which makes zero sense, but whatever). One I had not thought of is the radio button, which of course matches those old radios with the buttons… The radio button as a convention in a dialog box makes total sense in and of itself. Calling it a radio button is of course atavistic.
He includes clipboards for cut and paste. This is out of place a bit, because a clipboard still makes sense as a thing (we still use them) but they NEVER made sense as “cut and paste.” There were at one time icons used that did sort of make more sense … a paste jar with a brush … anybody remember what products use that?
Scott has many more, go take a look. I especially like some of the absurdities he points out such as “At some time in the past the magnifying glass became the “search everywhere” icon, but for some reason binoculars are for searching within a document.”