Churches isolate and shame introverts. I suggest we, the introverts, isolate and shame churches.
A brilliant response to the fetus-worshippers. Although it won’t do any good because they are incapable of listening to reason.
Gay marriage is like communism (in the mind of the weird folks in Vatican.)
Live blogging a final exam. What a brilliant idea! I wish I’d thought about it during my final exams.
Last Psychiatrist’s brilliant post on our reaction to Newtown shootings: “Frantic hyperactivity to mask impotence, frantic hyperactivity to signal to some omnipotent entity that you are trying to make things right– it’s the description for what’s happening now and the definition of obsessional neurosis.”
The Good Men Project implodes. I’m not surprised. I declared the project dead and gone a year ago.
The Body Positive Declaration contained in this post might help some people get over the temptation to torture themselves over their weight which is something that tends to happen around holidays.
A great visual demonstration of how zygote-freaks erase women.
A disgusting attack on an academic blogger by NRA freaks. He should have known better than mentioning a phallic symbol in a discussion concerning folks who are wriggling in the grip of a severe phallic fixation.
“Wealthy donors to Ivy League universities can “buy a place” for their offspring, and admissions policies at elite U.S. universities are far less meritocratic than anything that would be accepted in Britain, the universities and science minister has argued.” Don’t I know how true this is. Oh, the stories I have to tell about the congenitally stupid at Yale. . . See? I even created a little poem.
Spain is about to see its historically weak science and research compromised even further.
Congress should end tax breaks to wealthy universities. Hear, hear!
Tragic events don’t justify the writing of poetry as bad as this. As the linked blogger says, “For the clichés, we have the media, with all their stupid-ass conventional narratives. Why should poetry be the secondary victim of an event like this?” So if a desire to say something trivial overpowers you, just go write a tweet or something. Leave poetry alone.
Bacon-wrapped lamb meatloaf stuffed with feta cheese, thyme and red onions. Take a way the red onions, and this sounds like something I need to be making as soon as possible.
How to Play Academic Politics as a Graduate Student. Very good advice that I wish I’d discovered sooner. It is very very sad to be part of a department where faculty members turn grad students into hostages of their conflicts and resentments.
“Stanford University is moving toward a 5-year PhD model. Specifically, they have requested that all humanities departments come up with proposals for ways to cut down the time it takes to complete the PhD, including providing year-round (instead of semester-only) funding for grad students and more preparation for careers inside AND outside of academia.” Yay!
From the same article as linked above: “MLA president Russell A. Berman has said that changes could also include restructuring the qualifying exam–in particular, tightening the relationship between PhD coursework and quals preparation, so that the majority of quals prep doesn’t take place “off the books.”” Whenever Berman opens his mouth, something idiotic falls out. Preparation for qualifiying exams should absolutely take place outside of the classroom. If a future scholar can’t bring herself to read anything that is not assigned as coursework, she is not going to be a scholar. We are not talking about Freshmen who ask “Will this be on the test?” whenever they are assigned something to read. A PhD student in literature is supposed to live for reading. If reading is such a burden to you, get out of the grad program in literature as soon as you can.
Clarissa's Blog 
Two posts of my own (from after the last LE):
What are your top Christmas songs?
The irony of anti-vaxxers.
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Warning: fruity language in the second one.
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From other peopke:
Authoritarian reactionary Robert Bork died a few days. Separate articles by Jeffrey Toobin and Paul Campos provide plenty of reasons to be glad he never got on SCOTUS.
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Oh, let me see… what have I written (except, of course, comments and more comments on exams)?
The night my uncle set our Christmas pizza on fire.
And how some people are prone to expressing disagreement by name calling rather than actually engaging the argument with which they disagree.
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I wrote about a ballad in which a bride is murdered on her wedding day because the groom forgot to ask her brother for her hand:
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That is a very curious ballad. And disturbing, too.
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http://danledmunds.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/autism-trauma-extreme-states-of-mind.html
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another unrelated tidbit:http://sarahkendzior.com/2012/12/16/want-the-truth-behind-i-am-adam-lanzas-mother-read-her-blog/
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It was obvious from the start that she was abusing those children and that she was a miserable, spoiled, infantilized housewife. I only hope that maybe now the impotent child protective services will finally remove these poor children from the freakazoid’s care.
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I’m too removed from the culture to be able to judge. It really does seem like everyone is hysterical over there, although my impressions are largely from the media amplifications of various issues.
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” It really does seem like everyone is hysterical over there”
– That’s what I like the most about this country. 🙂
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So long as one doesn’t feel the need to rescue them from their insanity, it could be like a spectacular train crash.
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Well, it isn’t like living among calm, sleepy folks would be much better. 🙂
Canadian news, for instance, would put me to sleep even when I was standing. The biggest drama of the day would be that an old shade in the middle of a field burned down. And the weather, of course.
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That sounds like Perth news. “Some dog lost its bone today and had to try to remember where it had buried it. The neighbors were alarmed, but the pup eventually retrieved its moldy old lunch, and now it is happy.”
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Exactly. 🙂
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I was impressed by
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2012/12/on-the-pro-life-movement-and-the-rape-exemption.html
“It’s worth pointing out that in the last electoral cycle, we saw the rape exemption under attack more than in the past. Why? I can’t say for sure, but I have a suspicion. I think that while early opposition to abortion was rooted in the idea that sex must have consequences and that women shouldn’t be having sex if they don’t want children, younger generations of anti-abortion activists have come to believe the rhetoric about abortion being the murder of babies, rhetoric that was originally little more than a smokescreen. As more and more opponents of abortion really believe that abortion involves murdering babies, and as they become more consistent about the implications of this, the rape exemption will likely become less popular.”
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