We're Number 3!

Turns out that carnaby fudge is #3 (out of 4) on google searches for "bad breath during sex." This internet thing really makes life worth living.

Always Nice When...

...your opponent holds their nuts out in front of you so you can give them (the nuts) a good solid kicking. Case in point: LGF siding with the ADL on Ben Stein's new movie Expelled. I normally like LGF, and this doesn't change my mind, but when Charles supports writing like this:

Hitler did not need Darwin to devise his heinous plan to exterminate the Jewish people and Darwin and evolutionary theory cannot explain Hitler’s genocidal madness.

Like, that's interesting. According to Darwin and evolutionary theory, we are the way we are because that's the way we evolved, no? Now, that doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with evolutionary theory, nor that the theory caused the H-man to go crazy, but that's not what the quote up there says. It says that "evolutionary theory cannot explain Hitler's genocidal madness."

Well, which is it? Is evolutionary theory any good for anything, or isn't it? What use is theory that says we are the way we are because that's the way we evolved, except when it can't say that we are the way we are because that's the way we evolved?

The problem with Hitler, supposedly, was that he used evolutionary theory to justify his actions. He claimed without proof that the Aryan race was superior and so should go on while the inferior races could morally be exterminated.

While to any normal person this would be seen as an abomination... but if evolution is correct AND there is no God/absolute moral code, then there really wouldn't be anything wrong with people from one race destroying those from another. It's all just part of the evolutionary process you know... survival of the fittest and all.

Miscellany

We're both busy, busy, busy. I defend in about 3 weeks, and am nowhere near ready. UGH. Carnaby defends a few weeks after that. I'm older than my brother, but he's beaten me to nearly everything: first to get a bachelor's degree, first to get a master's, first to get married, first to have kids. But I'll be first to face the firing squad defend, so HA!

Meanwhile, here are a couple of my favorite Basic Instructions strips from the archives: How to Fake a Smile and How to Express Condolences ("ROFG" had me ROFL). There's a blog associated with the strip, and if you're curious enough you can read through it and discover something about the genesis of a comic strip. Turns out the creator, Scott Meyer, is a stand-up comic from Seattle who is now living in Florida and working at DisneyWorld. The strip, which still runs in a Seattle weekly, got the attention of Scott Adams of Dilbert fame, and is getting so popular that Meyer has a book coming out in the summer. I'm definitely buying it.

See you in a few weeks.

OK, one more strip: How to Negotiate with the U.N.

Another Gun-Free Zone Success

We had a late-night armed robbery (at gunpoint) in my building this week. The same scumbag apparently hit another building on campus two weeks ago. As one commenter at the campus newspaper put it, "So much for weapon bans making us safe... "

R.I.P.

Since we've been talking black holes here recently, it's worth noting the passing of John A. Wheeler, a giant in physics and the man who coined the term 'black hole.' He was 96.

Wealthy and Urban = More Evolved

Liberal elites like to portray themselves as advocates for the average person, but every now and then, one of them lets it slip what he really thinks

PS: Following “The Passion” release pattern, “Expelled” will open wide on the 18th, but mostly in rural and poor neighborhoods. It’s got just one theater in all of New York City, in Times Square, none in places like Beverly Hills or wealthier, better-educated urban neighborhoods where more “evolved” people might live.

That was Roger Friedman at FOXNews.com who admitted, unless you're wealthy, urban, and educated, he thinks you're a lower form of life. Remember that the next time one of these elitist chuckleheads tries to convince you he's for the average person.

Since I'm educated, but middle-class and suburban, maybe he thinks I'm a transitional form.

Created by OnePlusYou

Euphemisms

[Update: I've modified the post slightly in response to a comment by Uncle and a brief interview with my husband to clarify his position on the topic.]

Psychology test: I'm going to give you a phrase, and you tell me what immediately comes to mind. Ready?

Gentlemen's club.

OK, did you immediately think of port and cigars ... or boobs and beer? (Be honest.) More on this in a moment.

First, I'll register my confusion over why married men enjoy places that feature hot babes serving beer and wings or cutting your hair or whatever. My husband doesn't understand it either. Modesty prevents me from telling you the name he has for the more extreme "gentlemen's" places, but he in essence expresses confusion as to why a man would want to get sexually aroused without any hope of fulfillment. To paraphrase C. S. Lewis, who also finds the concept perplexing, it's like a hungry person finding pleasure in being shown food and having it taken away. I understand the difference between places like Hooter's and strip clubs, but to me they're in the same spectrum. I don't see the point of ogling. For a married man, it's expressing an intention which can never be fulfilled (if he has any integrity, that is).

Now to the point, which is to elaborate on my immediate reaction to reading this over at Uncle's, which wasn't moral indignation, but irritation over the hijacking and corruption of yet another perfectly good word: gentleman. Nevermind that in the last century or so its usage has come to mean something other than its original definition, it has always implied a certain kind of behavior in a man that is civilized and well-mannered. Ironically, it's now associated with something rather the opposite, thus we are conditioned upon hearing "gentlemen's [whatever]" to think, not of men in sport coats enjoying each other's company, but of something involving scantily clad (or not clad at all) women. To be fair, "ladies' night" at the local club can likewise invoke images of women acting in a way not at all congruent with that of a refined, well-bred female; but it's just as often associated with innocuous occurences, like the waiving of a cover charge at the local pub or shooting range. The word "gentleman" is much more corrupted, and if my little psych-test at the beginning didn't convince you, just Google "gentleman's club" and see what you get.

Words have meaning, and when those are corrupted it diminishes our ability to discern and -- to invoke the original meaning of another unfairly corrupted word -- discriminate. Moreover, it's dishonesty. Someone might make the case that "gentlemen's [whatever]" was meant to be jovially ironic, but I think it's an attempt to put a dignified face on something that's not dignified. Hence, my general dislike for euphemisms. If you like to indulge in something, own it. Call it what it is. In that spirit, I offer the following to any entrepreneur who wants to open his own barber shop that appeals to a certain kind of man: Titty McGee's Good-Time Haircuttin' Shop. (Carnaby suggests "Shoppe" for that old-timey sense of licentiousness.)

Basic Instructions

I was looking up a "how to" for something on Google today, and this came up as the first hit. Follow the link, but if you don't get anything done for the rest of the day, I'm not to blame.


Click for larger version

Top Five Reasons I'm Glad I'm Not a Woman

I was just reading this article, and yet another reason I'm thankful God made me a man got added to the pile. Here's my top five:

1. I'll never have a legitimate reason to use a sperm donor.

2. I don't have to endure a monthly psycho freak-out. Well at least I don't have to be the one freaking out. To receive is far better than to give in this case.

3. I prefer The Unit to Desperate Housewives. There's a pun or gay joke in there somewhere.

4. I was able to get along with my mother.

5. I can't relate to "The Vagina Monologues."

I did get in trouble once for starting a conversation at the poker table with "So I was watching Oprah..." I stopped right there, but it was too late. Never mind that my wife was watching Oprah and I just popped in to sit with her for a while, oh no. I will never live that down.