Religious fanaticism is defeated in Quebec. Note that the Libertarians, once again, stand on the side of barbarity and religious indoctrination. Because for them, as we well know, it’s all about defending the people’s complete and utter liberty to be bamboozled by fundamentalist brainwashing.
Are you sure you don’t have defiant hair? Because it’s supposed to be a huge danger to your marriage.
Racism hasn’t disappeared and racist terminology still hurts people. And more on the same subject based on the slur that was directed at Jeremy Lin. Two very good posts from different bloggers.
A talented writer and a popular blogger points out the Libertarian hypocrisy on the subject of “rape by the government” legislation. You’d think that Libertarians would rise up in protest when presented with such an egregious violation of individual liberty by the government, right? Well, not really. This is why I insist that North American Libertarians are just religious fundamentalists in a quasi-rational disguise.
The sad reality of women in Japan.
Brilliant insights into writing: “The number of days that you go without actually writing something on your project equals the number of hours (one hour for each skipped day) that it will take you to actually write something once you sit down to do it. Five days = five hours at the desk before my brain really engages.” There is more, so do visit the link.
I missed this post when it first came out on February 10, but I’m very glad I have found it since then. This post on the egregiously stupid attitude of both the Republican and the Democratic governments towards the mortgage market is definitely the post of the week: “In 2004, President George W. Bush led the way with a bid to move four million additional US households into home ownership that they could not remotely afford. In 2012, President Barack Obama leads the way to try to limit the return of some or all of those households back into the US rental market where they truly belong.”
This is the kind of student every prof lives for.
New York Times pretends that fathers do not exist.
The official Spanish-language definition of autism is finally getting changed from its old and egregiously offensive definition to a better one. And who do you think gets all the credit? (Hint: it isn’t autistics.) The post is in English, so click away.
Why creative writing classes are useless.
This post is short but it makes a brilliant observation on what the problem is with the debate on the value of the Humanities education: “It’s missing the distinction between “intellectual pursuits” and “easy majors.” Highly recommended.
“There are people who complain instead about the low quality of the food people buy with their EBT cards, like using it at gas stations to buy Doritos and frozen pizzas. How dare they? people say. I don’t give my hard-earned money to them so that they can live off junk food! People have such an attachment to their tax dollars when they see individuals using them in ways that they don’t specifically approve of, but a significantly smaller number seem anywhere near as angry with the way that governmental institutions use their tax dollars.” How very very true. It’s easier for many people to dump on food stamp recipients than to question the real black holes in the federal budget.
If you are (or are planning to be) on the academic job market, do read this detailed and extremely enlightening post on how to prepare a job talk. I only wish I knew all this when I was on the market. After reading the post, I realized how badly I have messed up some of my job talks.
A Dutchman’s observations on the differences between saying good-bye in his culture and in the US.
If you adore turtles as much as I do, make sure you check out this beautiful post with photos of newborn turtles. They are beyond cute. They have belly buttons!
A great strategy for jump-staring your writing.
A beautiful post on when one becomes on adult.
Research is important but taking care of yourself is even more important. I couldn’t agree more with this great post. Physical and mental health comes first, people.
When your husband can’t put a fire in your belly, maybe his career can. A funny interview with Santorum’s wife who “defended her husband’s performance” while loving a talk show host more than her husband. And I really understand her. With a husband like that, even Glen Beck seems like a sex symbol.
When you start following a blog, do you read its entire archive?
Finally, an intelligent analysis of a situation in Russia. Most Western sources have no idea about what is going on in FSU countries. Instead of researching and analyzing, they just make stuff up by the bucketful. The recent celebration of a musical group that was simply trying to make a quick buck as “feminist” is an example of such shoddy reporting. When it comes to more serious issues, Western media comes up with even more egregious stuff. This is why I’m glad to find a post that addresses the current situation in Russia insightfully and correctly.
Some people have such an unhealthy relationship with food, that even slicing a cucumber is too much work for them. So they dream of, get this, prefabricated salads and sliced cucumbers.
And, last, an observation: my blogroll has been populated by very long, gushy, poorly written and excruciatingly boring posts by male, formerly progressive bloggers who are trying to come up with extremely convoluted scenarios of how “pregnancies should not generally be permitted” or should generally be permitted, or whatever. Which is hilarious, given how pregnancies are not something they are ever likely to experience. So if you think that this unhealthy obsession with female reproductive system is limited to Conservatives, you are wrong. The desire to rummage (or verbally masturbate on the subject of rummaging) in women’s uteri is not about politics. It’s about profound psychological issues of folks who like to mask their problems behind pseudo-political and philosophical concerns.
Clarissa's Blog 
Thanks for the share! More pictures to come later this week.
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RE Libertarians here is a cartoon “When has the government ever helped me?”
http://leftycartoons.com/see-sue-run/
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This cartoon is so egregiously wrong that I have no words for it. We don’t need any stupid child credits. We need maternity and paternity leave. The stupid mortgages enslave people, they don’t help anybody but bankers who exploit us for decades. This is not “help” we get from the government. Everything listed on the cartoon is enslavement. Real issues do not get resolved, while we are being given minuscule handouts that are supposed to make us conform to the situation.
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I left a similar comment on Saia Sikira’s blog, but I figured I’d ask you as well, since I imagine your command of Spanish is superior to mine.
The offensive definition, which I’m thinking must be this:
isn’t altogether clear to me in its meaning. Is it saying autism is a kind of extreme solipsism?
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The definition says that autism is a symptom of schizophrenia that makes a person incapable of recognizing the existence of anything but oneself. So autism is a mix between schizophrenia and sociopathy.
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(Also, I am very sad that I *don’t* have defiant hair, at least not as defined in Echidne’s post. In my experience, it’s very defiant: it’s so thick, it pushes hats off my head and has once disarmed a fencing opponent! (I had neglected to tie it back, and it fell onto my chest, and when the other person scored a touch, my hair wrapped itself around the tip of their blade, pulling it out of their hand as they tried to get back into en garde position! It was awesome!)
But because it is very long, mostly straight and almost always in a single plait down my back, I suspect my hairdo is actually quite similar to Michelle Duggar’s. Oh well.
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it seems our hair is the same!! such a shame it’s officially not-defiant!!
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I wrote Walk Myself Thin about an encounter with an entitled asshat in a bookstore.
I also reviewed Boost, a young adult novel about girls in sports, body image, and performance enhancing drugs.
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I updated The Keep with the newest chapter of my partner and I’s epic fantasy erotica, the Forgotten Thrones series. Every Monday is a new chapter posted!
Blog Topics:
Sexual Harassment and Online Trolling
Online Trolling
Barriers Indie Author’s Face
Weekly Blog Roundup
I’m also looking for more friends on Twitter and Goodreads
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thankyou for the share!! my normally tiny audience has been miraculously blowed: You’ve got a huge power! 🙂
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I’m glad that people are discovering good blogs through mine.
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The Japanese women I’ve spoken to are not so badly off. However, it is the case that once they are married, they are much less employable and can’t follow a career path. Part time work means there is no possibility for promotion.
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Part time work (or being relegated to the “contingent workforce”) is pretty much a dead end here.
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Yeah, but I am in that dead end and the nature of work seems to be changing.
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Ain’t that the truth. 🙂
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Thanks so much for the link! 😀
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Re the lady who doesn’t want to slice her own vegetables: they actually do sell pre-sliced cucumbers in some of the grocery stores here, as well as pre-mixed salads. I’ve grabbed some of the salads occasionally when I’m in a hurry but I’d rather slice my own cucumber. They dry out so fast if pre-sliced.
I tried to read that progressive guy’s post on “anti-natalism” but it just didn’t make sense. He’s trying to argue for being against pregnancy by using a non-existent, impossible situation? That’s called “you have no argument” in my book.
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“I tried to read that progressive guy’s post on “anti-natalism” but it just didn’t make sense. He’s trying to argue for being against pregnancy by using a non-existent, impossible situation? That’s called “you have no argument” in my book.”
– Exactly. An endless post about nothing. This is precisely what I call mental masturbation.
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Wow, thanks for the share! I’m honored 🙂
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I keep lately reading posts on Mormons “baptizing dead jewish people from the holocaust”
http://skeptifem.blogspot.com/2012/02/dunking-dead.html
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I heard they had stopped doing that. Are they at it again?
What I (non Jewish FWIW) ❤ about Judaism: They don't mix salescrittership and religion.
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Something really interesting on the probably soon to be possibility to erase memories (f.e. to treat PTSD):
http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/why-people-should-be-allowed-to-erase-memories
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Yes, lobotomy always solves all psychological issues. 🙂
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Andalucia is trending on twitter. Happy Andalucia day, folkx.
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I am un chien Andalusia.
Wanna grow up to be
Be a debaser.
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The critique of Cowan strikes me as bizarre. The dichotomy that Corey Robin tries to set up in ‘graf 3 (right after the quote) is blatantly false, and their is no evidence given for the beliefs that Robin projects on Cowan. The imagined protest of ‘graf 4 is quite apt. The counter in ‘graf 5 falls flat; their is almost no evidence that any such (wildly less invasive and and non-rape) regulation-mandated informative practices make much difference either, as those who favor free access to abortion (like myself) should know by now, given how often they have been used to obstruct access to abortion (including many, many regulations that amount to sexual assault if not rape proper). In that context, the accusation of ‘graf 6 can be dismissed as more projection (Mises’ misogyny aside).
Much more reasonable interpretation of the tweet: Tyler Cowan, having pointed out the dangers of “libertarian paternalism” in application many times in the past (https://www.google.com/search?q=%22libertarian+paternalism%22+site%3Amarginalrevolution.com) needs only 140 characters to remind us why it is a dangerous idea, and Corey Robin is quoting out of context from that ongoing dialog.
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