Quote of the Century
Causing the back of a boy’s head to be placed against the clothed chest of a 23-year-old counselor is qualitatively different from causing a 12-year-old boy to place his tongue or his penis in the family dog’s anus.
The backstory is, unfortunately, tragic (note: it does not involve zooporn)
2 months between posts… I almost threw in the towel. Thanks to 1 and 1, who automatically renewed my domain registration! Hope this post is worth $5.99!
Quote of the day
“She’s leaving shampoo here now?”
-The first thing I said after I got out of bed this morning
I mean seriously, what’s next, a fucking toothbrush? Dirty socks I can understand, I mean that might be an accident, but this strikes me as a major unilateral escalation.
Cognitive Dissonance
I never do this, post from work, but this couldn’t wait. I saw a job posting today that I am very interesting in responding to. What follows is a snippet from the announcement. I have not altered this in any way:
“To be considered for either of the current vacancies, in addition to your cover letter and résumé, you must also respond to the following corresponding selective certification question(s). Selective certification responses are optional. Failure to respond to one or more of these questions will not affect your placement on the eligible list.”
[Insert hackneyed joke about government employees here] So what’s my next move?
In Honor of Fat Tuesday
Here is another quote from Mr. Franklin, about his first trip to London in his mid 20s:
At my first Admission into this Printing House, I took to working at Press, imagining I felt a Want of the Bodily Exercise I had been us’d to in America, where Presswork is mix’d with Composing. I drank only Water; the other Workmen near 50 in Number, were great Guzzlers of Beer. On occasion I carried up & down Stairs a large Form of Types in each hand, when others carried but one in both Hands. They wonder’d to see from this & several Instances that the water-American as they call’d me was stronger than themselves who drank strong Beer. We had an Alehouse Boy who attended always in the House to supply the Workmen. My Companion at the Press, drank every day a Pint before Breakfast, a Pint at Breakfast with his Bread and Cheese, a Pint between Breakfast and Dinner; a Pint at Dinner; a Pint in the Afternoon about Six O’Clock, and another when he had done his Day’s-work. I thought it a detestable Custom. But is was necessary, he suppos’d, to drink strong Beer that he might be strong to labor. I endeavor’d to convince him that the Bodily Strength afforded by Beer could only be in proportion to the Grain or Flour of the Barley dissolved in the Water of which it was made; that there was more Flour in a Penny-worth of Bread, and therefore if he would eat that with a Pint of Water, it would give him more Strength than a Quart of Beer. He drank on however, & had 4 or 5 Shillings to pay out of his Wages every Saturday Night for that muddling Liquor; an Expense I was free from. And thus these poor Devils keep themselves always under.
Benjamin Franklin on Vegetarianism
I am in the middle of reading what is probably my favorite book, Ben Franklin’s Autobiography. I’m not sure why I like it so much, if it is the fact that he did everything a person could possibly do in that era, if it is the 18th century writing style; probably both. Here is a snippet:
I believe I have omitted mentioning that in my first Voyage from Boston, being becalm’d off Block Island, our people set about catching Cod & haul’d up a great many. Hitherto I had stuck to my Resolution of not eating animal Food; and on this Occasion, I consider’d with my Master Tryon, the taking every Fish as a kind of unprovok’d Murder, since none of them had or ever could do us any Injury that might justify the Slaughter. All this seem’d very reasonable. But I had formerly been a great Lover of Fish, & when this came hot out of the Frying Pan, it smelled admirably well. I balanc’d some time between Principle & Inclination: till I recollected, that when the Fish were opened, I saw smaller Fish taken out of their Stomachs: Then thought I, if you eat one another, I don’t see why we mayn’t eat you. So I din’d upon Cod very heartily and continu’d to eat with other People, returning only now & then to a vegetable Diet. So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for every thing one has a mind to do.
Take that, vegans.
Fix Measure 37
That brings me to today’s quote of the day:
“I can barely sleep at night knowing that the same people who made “Dancing With The Stars” the top rated television program for 2006 are the people who also make our land use laws and elect our local and national political leaders.”
Quote of the day
I’m not going to pretend to be a close follower of the Court, but doesn’t a statement like that make you really mad? I don’t care where you sit politically…what we have here is a Justice of the Supreme Court acting as a rubber stamp. He doesn’t even pretend to be engaged in the debate. If I recall something I read a while back, he rarely writes his own opinions either.
Why bother asking questions when you already know the answer? Why bother writing down your answer when it is simply “whatever the partisan conservative position is”?
I’ll go ahead and say it. Couldn’t the Republican president who appointed Mr. Thomas have at least found a competent black man to replace Thurgood Marshall? If Bush hadn’t been so hell-bent on using this appointment as a campaign issue in 1992, we might actually have 9 justices, instead of 8 justices and a freon-filled plastic bird.
Quote of the Day
“I’m like, ‘Ok, whatever.'”
–Ashlee Simpson, responding to criticism that she may be obsessed with plastic surgery
Yes, somehow we have a copy of In Touch Weekly lying around the house. I started to post my thoughts on the abortion-related ballot measure that Oregonians will vote on this fall, but decided that was too much controversy for a Sunday. Instead I decided to read up on Matthew’s Wild Beach Party! Stay tuned.
Quote of the day
“If we resort to violence, it’s very, very difficult to have any sort of dialogue.”
–Laura Bush, on this week’s reason for Muslim rioting
Wonder where she got a crazy idea like that?
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Quote of the day
From our old friends at newsandsentinel.com.
Do you support the proposed troop withdrawal from Iraq?
“12/23/2005 10:03:50 AM from IP# 66.190.139.3
THE HELL WITH IRAC LET THEM MAKE IT ON THERE OWN WE HAVE LOST TO MANY TROOPS AND SPENT ENOUGH MONEY LET ARE SO CALLED GOVERMENT WOORY ABOUT OUR COUNTRY FOR ONCE.”
Jalalablog 