“You can’t believe everything you read, especially when it’s a memoir. They’re not the most reliable narrators, the people who pen their life stories based on recollections. Sometimes they have an agenda and the whole, unvarnished truth just doesn’t fit in as neatly as a writer would like.” It’s a sign of a severely deficient education system that adult people need to be reminded of this but, sadly, they do. First-person narrators are unreliable by default. So yelling, “This autobiography is based on lies” is kind of childish.
I don’t know if anybody here is following the great “It’s Probably PhD Me” blog but I highly recommend if you don’t. The author is a really admirable person and a talented writer. The posts form a very Austenesque narrative and should be read as novel chapters rather than stand-alone pieces. I hope the author considers publishing them as a novel one day.
The invention we have all been waiting for: in-bed computer desks.
[Spanish.] A very interesting article on the Muslim community of the French city of Marseilles. Read this instead of the endless discussions on the “no-go zones.”
“Marriage, at its core, is about recognition. Recognition is why we put on the fancy tuxes and beautiful gowns. It’s why we publish marriage announcements in newspapers. It’s why we invite friends and family to witness—to recognize—the relationship. Recognition is why we wear engagement rings and wedding bands.” Seriously? Neurotypicals are too bizarre. It would have never occur to me that this is why they do all of it. But yay for same-sex marriage right, of course.
You’ve totally got to know that the weird people who believe Sarah Palin’s youngest child is not really hers are still going on with their investigation. I’ve been following their travails for years and they are a very funny bunch.
“An Alabama middle-school principal has asked students to bring in cans of food they could use as projectiles against school shooters.” Well, we should all be happy the kids weren’t asked to bring in hand grenades. This is progress already.
It’s seriously insane but check it out: “With these GIFs, Boehner aims to explain to Millennials and sub-Millennials why President Obama’s tuition-free community college proposal is a very bad idea.” If I were a “sub-Millenial”, I’d be very offended.
“The rise of the right-wing echo chamber is not simply a sign that our education system has failed — though it is also that — but for those who have ears to hear, it represents people crying out for the real satisfactions of the intellectual life. The fact that they’ve had to make do with a cheap substitute is not an indictment of them personally so much as of the forces that prey on their intellectual curiosity and the society that rendered them so vulnerable to that predation in the first place.” I don’t agree with anything in this post but it’s very well-written and engaging. Highly recommended.
“John Ellis “Jeb” Bush? Mitt “Mitt” Romney? Uh-uh. It’s Fred Thompson’s nomination for the taking. .” I agree that this is very bizarre. With all his massive faults, Putin, at least, is not introducing himself as “Vova.”
“Pretty soon your mom might not be the only one nagging you to quit smoking or lose weight—and it won’t stop at nagging.” This is a very powerful and concise explanation of why people overeat and smoke. The rest of the article is a lot less interesting.
“I also think it’s interesting that so many people seem to be reacting with the kind of hysteria we saw after 9/11 to the Charlie Hebdo killings but managed to keep their wits about them after the Boston bombing.” Because it’s cartoonists, you fool. Quiet, nerdy people with a geeky sense of humor. How much easier it is to identify with them than with the weirdos who ran marathons, seriously?
How to ruin a date with an academic.
Does Putin have a future in the Balkans? “The Balkans are weak states, have considerable sympathy for Putin’s agenda, and in several cases already have pro-Russian groups just waiting for an extra push to turn into rebel movements.”
A great explanation of why evolutionary ethics is stupid.
Gun owners participate in a simulation of the Paris massacre.
A small excerpt from a rant of a person who confuses having mental disease with having a political opinion: “Given the growing swaths of destruction, brutality and murder that are the product of State power in recent years, and of Western State power in particular, one might have thought that moral approval and encouragement is the last thing one would choose to gift to the monsters who lead those States, at least if one seeks a better world that is significantly more compassionate and caring than the world in which we now live. And note how cheaply the States in question purchased this gift.”
Clarissa's Blog 
Thanks for the link. The right is always fucking right, just as the left is a bit gauche.
memoir writing: I eventually introduced my father’s inimical point of view as the counterpoint to my own. I was in fact always bothered by centralising myself, but as it was I had nobody else to bounce my thoughts off, as I was in a different country and out of historical time and place. So I resorted to bouncing my lifelong enemy’s viewpoints of my own and vice-versa. I think this was reasonably as close as I could get to objectivity.
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I’ll put this in the right place: http://pando.com/2015/01/19/the-war-nerd-getting-women-warriors-wrong/
On an entirely different note, the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time. The blogger is a lawyer who writes about first amendment/defamation cases. He’s reporting on a case where a bigfoot hunter (yes, that’s a thing) is suing another bigfoot hunter for defamation, because the guy called him crazy.
https://www.popehat.com/2012/06/21/if-a-bigfoot-hunter-doesnt-have-his-reputation-what-does-he-have/
“America is an increasingly crass nation, true. But there are still some places where decorum and good breeding are expected and even demanded. For instance, anyone acquainted with cryptid enthusiasts knows that a gentleman seeking introduction to their society must first build a solid repute for probity. In turn, those admitted to the drawing-rooms and salons of the cryptidologists know that only the most polished among them can aspire to the rarefied circle of Bigfoot hunters, the royalty of the cryptid-seeking community. And yet even Bigfoot hunters — elite as they are — can encounter self-doubt when they ask themselves, “yes, my poise and quality have made me a Bigfoot hunter, but do I possess the savoir-faire necessary to achieve a position amongst the Bigfoot hunters of Florida?”
Oh my god, I’m dying here.
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The Bigfoot story is absolutely the best. I almost hurt myself laughing. Thank you!!!
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And the Brecher piece is the best ever. I love this guy.
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In relation to liberals and their joyful embrace of oppressed sectors, I have been reading a book recently and here is a section.
Of course, I welcome any response to it or commentary that is not based on infantile splitting and projection.
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“Neurotypicals are too bizarre. It would have never occur to me that this is why they do all of it. But yay for same-sex marriage right, of course”
Well traditionally marriage is not a private affair between two people but the business of the community and/or an alliance between two families/clans or factions thereof.
The idea that this is a strong motivating factor for people in post industrial atomized societies is not the craziest thing I’ve heard. Not the most sane either. Modern urban life is full of holdovers from pre-industrial rural life including the school schedule giving children the summer off, originally so they could help their parents during the busiest farming time of the year.
Same sex marriage advocates are also mostly about wanting recognition from the state for a variety of valid purposes which I support.
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It’s the word “recognition” that throws me off. Why not just go straight to the even scarier “validation”, you know?
Whenever I hear those strange people on Dr Phil say “You are not validating my feelings! ” I get very scared. The idea that such people exist is disturbing.
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Recognition as a more official version of “acceptance” doesn’t bother me. I don’t have the first idea what it means to “validate someone’s feelings” and I’m very thankful I’ve never had anyone make that very bizarre request of me.
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I’d say it probably means “don’t do the old gas lighting on me.” I’d have to say that none of these American oriented conversations make any sense to me.
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Honestly I have no idea! It was just a guess! Really. No hurt feelings?
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A new poll shows that Americans have a worse view of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R), than they did in 2014. Both men have signaled plans to run for president in in 2016.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/poll-jeb-bush-mitt-romney-popular-2015-2014
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What I found among the many emails and comments from America’s public school teachers: every minute in a teacher’s day is preciously used and planned out, even down to when a teacher can afford a bathroom break. While many think of a teacher’s job as an “easy” 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. babysitting shift, what our submissions revealed is a rationing of time so exact that you have to wonder if teachers ever breathe or sleep. Their endless meetings, heaped-on responsibilities from administrators, and interactions with students leave it so every single minute is valued.
http://gawker.com/why-teachers-obsessively-schedule-every-part-of-the-wor-1674208618
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