Logical Fallacies

This must be one of my favorite websites. The author's explanations are rational and concise.

If you have a question about flaws in reasoning, this is the place to go for an answer.

Logical Fallacies

AWOL

Yes, I have been notably absent from the blogosphere for some time. My apologies to all.

I hope to do better from now on.

Glenn Miller!

St. Louis Blues March

This is, unfortunately, not the original and hasn't the "oomph" of the original but until I can find tht one to put here... this one will have to do.

The WHAT principles???

"But I'm equally committed to building a lasting majority on the reform principles that define us and inspire our citizens. For this reason, I'm writing today to announce my candidacy for Republican Leader in the 111th Congress."


OK, great, the Rethuglicrats have "reform principles." Sure, they'll reform the Constitution, reform our civil rights and protections, reform the power structure, reform pretty much anything and everything as long as it keeps them in power and keeps feeding funds to the guys that feed those funds right to the Rpugs....

I can't decide if I'm incensed by or sickened about that bunch.

An article I want to keep

From OCA:

The End of a Subprime Administration

An excellent analysis of the last 8 long, long years.

Saturday blahs

I'd work on the post I started yesterday but am too pooped.

Would haul wood up to the deck but am too pooped.

Would go take some more photos but am too pooped.

Would finish sorting old paperwork but am too pooped.

So, if everyone will pardon me, I won't do any of that and not much of anything else.

Random thoughts on stuff WIP

Been watching a little bit of the Idiot Lantern and, much to my surprise, my brain keeps rejecting things that are stated as fact in commercials. We all know commercials aren't primarily a source of reliable information. The only reason they exist is so networks get income and advertisers make money and ad agency people don't end up out on the street, OK? Clear 'nuff.

At the same time, there are hordes of people out there who do seem to take commercials as being the broadcast equivalent of Veritas. It's a bit hard to get the mind around that fact, but there it is. If misleading or downright dishonest commercials keeping airing, you know somebody is buying their products. Or having their opinions altered in some way.

For instance:

"When their worlds are cleaner, their lives are healthier." (from Clorox, the White Knight of consumer disinfection products)

This particular statement is open for numerous interpretations. I venture to guess that the most obvious one to mommies is they must keep everything in their children's worlds absolutely, spotlessly clean. Not only clean, but Clorox clean. With the implication that, if they fail in this basic duty, their kids will be sick and it's mommy's fault.

Too bad science doesn't back Clorox's statements...

from Doctor's Guide comes Antibacterial Products May Worsen Problem of Resistant Bacteria
from JMP Current Question: How to Fight Germs

try doing an internet search for antibacterial and see how many hits you get. Then look through those and see how many of them deal with the harmful effects of triclosan and the range of products in general.

I'm not advocating filth, dirt, crud, garbage or anything like that, OK? I am saying that this type of advertising (and Clorox isn't alone) is aimed purposely and directly at Moms, most of whom are already under siege from outside and inside the home. Assaulted by advertisers, battered by advice columnists and parenting magazines and their own families, what is a besieged Mommy to do but everything?

Do the kids have a runny nose? "Repent, foul parent-in-name-only! You have allowed, nay, encouraged this illness and you are a bad, bad, irresponsible, heartless, uncaring lout. Repent, redeem your ways! Spray! Wipe! Boil! Soak! Firehose! Powerwash! It may already be too late to save them from the horrible fate awaiting them!" bray the advertisers. (ok, so they don't say that right out loud. Isn't the message clear, anyway?)

If measles, mumps, chicken pox, scarlet fever, influenza, trots, anything other than absolute perfect, glowing health should surface? It's Mommy's fault because "kids don't know how to keep themselves healthy." Isn't that just sorta a dumb thing to say? Really, what goofball ever thought that up? What kid ever gave more than no attention at all to the matter of germs, disinfection or anything of that sort? (Other than the ones made psycho by even more psycho parents.) Kids get sick, kids get over it. Sometimes with medical intervention, most of the time not.

Unless, and here's the rub, UNLESS Mommy falls for all this blather and keeps dousing the household and the kids in antibacterial stuff. This has two effects, at the very least.

The first is to kill the mild to moderately dangerous germs. This allows the more dangerous ones to multiply. They then develop resistance to antibacterial and antibiotic agents of various kinds. When this happens and that kid gets an ear infection there is a good chance the medications prescribed by the physician simply will not suffice to kill the bad guys. The bad guys are immune. So doc has to prescribe ever-stronger meds. The bacteria then develop immunity to those. So, now what do you do?

The second is the chemical agents used as antibacterials are dangerous, in and of themselves. Imagine the buildup of triclosan residue after months or years of spraying and wiping? (Or don't, if you're like me and visualize such things as green slime dripping from every surface in the house. Ugh.) These chemicals also escape into the environment and are causing harm to aquatic life and fauna in general.

Demons and devils and spooks OH MY!

If these people aren't totally crazy, they aren't anything...

Demons and devils and spooks, oh my!

Queen of Heaven? Axis of Evil? Prophecy chants? Demon strongholds? Generational curses?

What are these people, spiritualists, animists or something? The whole belief system reminds me of the superstition common to primitive cultures or those held in thrall by a paternalistic religious structure...

Oh, wait. That's it.

My bad.

This is what happens

when unbridled greed meets hereditary power. Allow me to introduce the reigning heads of the lovely country of Thailand, King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit:



From the Guardian:

Not content with lese-majeste laws to protect the revered monarchy that are among the world's most draconian, Thailand is to build a wall around the kingdom to keep out detractors.

But the barrier will be virtual, a national internet firewall to block websites deemed insulting to the throne of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who at 80 is the world's longest serving monarch.

For the princely sum of almost £9m the Thai information ministry will shield the king and his adoring subjects from the sleights – real or perceived – of those who mock online.

Thailand's government, locked in a bitter struggle with staunchly royalist demonstrators who have been on the streets for months, has been accused of harbouring republican tendencies and being hostile to the monarchy.

It refutes the charge, but the move to construct the firewall appears to be the result of pressure from the powerful military and its demand that criticism of the monarchy be stamped out.

The firewall will also give Thailand's bureaucrats the power to block other websites it labels inappropriate, like those run by perceived terrorist groups or showing pornography. But the first target will up to 1,000 websites suspected of carrying material regarded as offensive to the king.

Last year the government, which was appointed by the military after a coup in 2006, blocked the YouTube website for weeks after its parent company, Google, refused to take down a posting.

The 44-second clip showed a picture of the Thai king with a pair of women's feet suspended above his head. In Thai culture feet are regarded as dirty and the lowest part of the body.

Thailand's lese-majeste laws are harsh by any standard, promising 15 years imprisonment for anyone who "insults, defames or threatens" the royal family.

But the law allows anyone to make an accusation against anyone else, with the result that it is often abused to ensnare rivals.

The Thai prime minister, Somchai Wongsawat, has ordered police to be especially vigilant and special branch are monitoring community radio stations suspected of airing lese majeste content.

Thailand is a mess. Making sense of the political and social scene has become almost impossible. Who's doing what to whom and why? Who knows? There is some kind of hooha going on between the Thai military and the Cambodian military on their mutual border but what the aim of this battle for an ancient temple might be? Nobody, including the Cambodian forces, can figure it out. The Thais aren't telling, either.*

IMO, those two royals are scary looking. Maybe they reflect an internal rot spreading through their country?

* Background information: Preah Vihear Temple

Swedish Chef, the chicken and Pigs in Space

ROFL

This next one gets me laughing so hard I always have tears running down my cheeks!




Then there's the frog legs...



The loobstur:



Another fish course:



Meatballs!



Spaghetti!



A soup course:



Fowl:



Breakfast selection for your perusal:



How about some dessert?



Some speecy-spicy chili juice?



Salad shooters...

I just love how Brits handle annyances

From the Guardian:

Public loos go down the pan

Why don't we see that kind of editorial here? Darn...

Yeah, another "WTF???"

Doing battle against the Queen of Heaven. Ok, suuuuuuuuure:

Ana Mendez and her "task force"

and what in the world kind of rational bitch could they have with the Amish?

You Just Can't Make This Shit UP!!!!!

Wackaloons? Crazed and delusional? Insane? Lala Land? White cots and padded cell territory?

Oh, yeah, these people just keep getting stupider and stupider and stupider. This from NPR:

"Holy Highway"

This isn't even funny. There is no way something this completely delusional could be funny. It's not even pathetic. It's just plain, old damned stupid.

They seem to be living in the middle ages, superstition rampant, paralyzed by fear of the unknown or unknowable? What possesses them to give themselves over to such foolishness?

This just make no sense at all. Absolutely none. It is so far beyond the pale of rational, responsible adult thought processes that I have no vocabulary to describe it. I mean, really! How can people be that stupid and live?

ahhhhhhh, the sound of relief

For those of you who don't already know, SS has moved out. His decision entirely. He will be 18 in 3 weeks and we are more relieved that you would believe possible.

The last months have been one charlie foxtrot after another. The situation got so intolerable that his father sat him down Sunday morning and told him that "minimum expectations are not negotiable."

To make a long story short... the kid went into a rage, packed up and left. He will not be coming back, regardless.

We did what we could. No guilt here, folks.

Just relief.

This just cracks me up

From a blog I read regularly, One Good Thing:

Christopher: Daddy?

Steve: Hm?

Christopher: At school, some people call me C-C-C-C-C-Chris, and I don't like that.

Steve: Some people call me the Space Cowboy.

Christopher: Cowboy?

Steve: Space Cowboy.

Christopher: They do?

Steve: Some call me the Gangster of Love.

Christopher: What?

Steve: Some people call me Maurice.

Christopher: Why do they do that?

Steve: Because I speak of the pompitous of love.

Christopher: ...

Christopher: Well...You should stop doing that.*

* For all you folks who spent the early 80s under a rock or on the moon, that's from the Steve Miller Band, 1983, Steve Miller Band Live!, Gangster of Love.

Another YJCMTSU

from the Tuesday 10-14-2008 Des Moines Register:

Even in the most crime-plagued cities in America, you don't see crimes like the one that occurred in northern Iowa on Sunday.

Dominic Andrew Bjerke, 21, of LeRoy, Minn., is accused of stealing a combine and taking it on a joy ride across three properties near McIntire about 2:30 a.m.

The combine caused damage to numerous vehicles and a couple of garages, according to the Mitchell County Sheriff's Office.

Robert Starry estimates the combine missed his house by inches. "There are still tracks in the yard," he said Monday.

Several street signs and a bridge also were damaged during Bjerke's early-morning excursion.

Starry said he was more fortunate than some of his neighbors. However, the combine still removed a 30-foot fence and hit his garage.

Starry said he saw Bjerke before he was taken into custody. "He couldn't talk; like he was a zombie or something," Starry said.

The combine was reported stolen from Ernest Schofield, who lives near McIntire. He declined to comment on the incident.

The combine is considered a total loss.

Bjerke was being held in the Mitchell County jail on $26,000 bond. He was charged with drunken driving, theft, burglary and criminal mischief.

It's funny. As long as you were nowhere in the vicinity of the incident.

Filed under: Favorite Things

Eletelephony
~Laura Richards
Once there was an elephant, Who tried to use the telephant- No! No! I mean an elephone Who tried to use the telephone- (Dear me! I am not certain quite That even now I've got it right.) Howe'er it was, he got his trunk Entangled in the telephunk; The more he tried to get it free, The louder buzzed the telephee- (I fear I'd better drop the song Of elephop and telephong!)

The Pain Factor

I went to the chiropractor this morning. After getting whacked back in shape and having my hip shoved back in place, he said:

"I don't know how you walked in here with that hip so far out and your back all tensed up."

Huh? It's true, I was in some pain but not so much that I couldn't get around.

It did get me to wondering about something, yet again... Do women really have a much higher tolerance for physical pain than men? Or is it an individual thing?

After every major surgery, I was up and around within hours after getting home. I'm not saying it was fun or that I felt like competing in a marathon but I was up and doing.

Most women don't stay in bed when they have the flu or a bad cold. Most women of my acquaintance don't even bother to complain about how rotten they feel. Most men of my acquaintance snivel like they had come down with Pneumonic plaque or Ebola.

Taking an aspirin when you have a headache just seems like an intelligent thing to do, Why do some males act like they're dying from the headache but still refuse to take and aspirin?

Going to the doctor when you've sprained your ankle is also a good thing. Get that brace on and continue as usual. Don't hobble around like somebody just hit you in the knee with a sledge hammer emitting a high keening noise for days because you have a sprained ankle.

Being asked "Does it hurt bad" when in the midst of labor is a really dumb question and would result in numerous broken noses if it weren't for the intervention of nurses and a tangle of IV tubes.

Getting burned is part of cooking. Fat spatters, liquids slop, things splash. Get over it.

Hmmm

Things I noticed while out and about include:

A white car apparently driven by nobody turning directly in front of a another car. Turns out there was a tiny, little fuzzy-haired old lady driving the white car. She probably didn't see the other car because she was so little she was looking between the steering wheel and the dashboard.

There seem to be a lot of McCain supporters in town. Or, at least, there are a lot of signs in evidence.

Farmers are still not back in the fields. Too wet.

I'm not the only female who finds herself talking to air when trying to converse with the Male.

Some people can put 2 and 2 together and come up with 5. This is quite a feat but not so much as keeping a straight face as they are doing it.

It's a good idea to read the directions when using an unfamiliar device.

Age and grey hair don't always equate with wisdom.

Males, on average, prefer to do things the hard way even when there is a much easier way to do them.

FEMA sucks.

Radio Shack is still better than any Big Box Store.

There are always weird things along the side of the highway.

You can't be naughty out in public because someone who knows someone who knows you will see.

Young males who walk around in public with their boxers hanging out shouldn't be surprised when they get nasty comments from old ladies.

Women seem to have a lot more intestinal fortitude than men.

Some people are just born mean.

PJ O'Rourke is right a lot of the time. Sean Hannity is wrong all of the time.

Neighbors are all fine and good as long as they keep their noses out of one's business.

Getting frustrated in traffic is an exercise in futility.

Gas prices are going down while the price of everything else is going up.

High fructose corn syrup may be the bane of modern life.