Disqus - Friends of mikeyancey

Re: Class and Gov 2.0

TheRandomTexan — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:02:46 -0000

Digital divide, my sweet patootie. If the information and services are delivered via cellphone, I suspect the divide vanishes. Everybody at the bus stop has a cell phone, even if they don't have an internet connection.

Re: Wisconsin's Real Doctors and their Fake Notes - Ford Vox - Politics - The Atlantic

TheRandomTexan — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 09:54:19 -0000

"Personally I think suspension or revocation of medical licenses would be quite a disproportionate response to the actual harm involved in this high-profile infraction of professional ethics."

I personally think that any one of those "sick" teachers would have no compunction about having one of their students arrested and expelled from school for showing up with unauthorized aspirin or a plastic butter knife.

Life's a bitch, and people whose first recourse to difficulty is angry confrontation have helped make it that way.

Re: “Show Her It’s a Man’s World”

TheRandomTexan — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:59:03 -0000

I don't know which is more unlikely, my wife getting dolled up and bringing me breakfast in bed, or me wearing a white shirt and tie with my pajamas in anticipation of said breakfast. I suspect any wife who saw that ad required a good stiff drink to get her laughter under control.

I do know that if anyone buys me one of those ties for Christmas, I'm buying a shotgun on Boxing Day so I can take the tie outside and put it out of its misery.

Re: Talking Back - Taki's Magazine

TheRandomTexan — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 11:52:57 -0000

"Would I like to offer some kind of sniveling apology for the piece? In your dreams, pal. I haven’t sniveled since about 1952, and I’m too old to reacquire the habit."

This paragraph perfectly exemplifies Derb's graciousness in writing. I, being rather ruder. would have added "...and the horse you rode in on."

Re: Hilary Rosen provides a valuable lesson in how not to apologize

TheRandomTexan — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 23:31:26 -0000

HR: "Here is my more fulsome view of the issues."

fulsome: offensive to good taste, especially as being excessive; overdone or gross: fulsome praise that embarrassed her deeply; fulsome décor. disgusting; sickening; repulsive: a table heaped with fulsome mounds of greasy foods.excessively or insincerely lavish: fulsome admiration.

It just gets better and better, doesn't it?

Re: Bones of Turkana: Meave and Richard Leakey on human ancestors and the Leakey legacy

TheRandomTexan — Tue, 15 May 2012 08:53:57 -0000

"The Leakey family is like the Kennedys, but for paleoanthropology instead of politics."

Is this a hint of an upcoming expose of Leakey scandals comparable to those of the Kennedy clan?

Re: Growing Pell-Mell

TheRandomTexan — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 08:11:36 -0000

An obvious symptom of problems with Pell Grants is that college faculty and administrators, at least here in Texas, regularly use the term "Pell Grant runners" to describe those students who get the grants but fail to even show up for the classes.

Re: Unemployment in Red and Blue

TheRandomTexan — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 16:50:51 -0000

Could you ask Mr Whitmer to show his work, possibly as a link to a spreadsheet with references? I'd like to show my undergrads (and any number of lackadasical journalists) how the Big Boys do a spot of research.

Re: Eastwood's Unexpected Gift

TheRandomTexan — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 13:20:12 -0000

No one expected Clint Eastwood to simultaneously tap his inner Jimmy Stewart AND do comedy improv with an empty chair for the RNC. Pure gold.

Re: Put a Dress On

TheRandomTexan — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 11:52:51 -0000

Actually the priceless moment was Alicia Keyes sitting at the piano singing the Star Spangled Banner in that gorgeous red dress. Runner up was Jennifer Hudson, just before her.

Re: Windows 8 Blue update may let you skip Start screen tiles at boot

TheRandomTexan — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 13:26:18 -0000

Yeah, W8 really needs that, BECAUSE PRESSING ONE KEY TO SWITCH TO THE DESKTOP IS JUST TOO HARD TO DO.

Re: Gore’s D-word, &c.

TheRandomTexan — Sun, 01 Sep 2013 20:16:25 -0000

I think that Large Portion whine comes from some pretty parochial folks. The wife and I just spent a week in Montreal, and it appears the Quebecois are just as hearty eaters as Texans. There certainly are no small portions of viande fume on the menu....

Re: University of Nebraska Bans 'Offensive Speech'

TheRandomTexan — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 11:48:23 -0000

I suppose someone will be offended when they're told their policy is friggin' stupid.

Re: Faculty object to plan to replace humanities requirement with self-help course

TheRandomTexan — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 16:59:24 -0000

And in TOTALLY UNRELATED news, NWVC President Jackie Claunch has announced her "surprise" retirement. Allowing her to spend more time with her family, no doubt. http://www.mysanantonio.com...

Re: Nebraska Journal, Part II

TheRandomTexan — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 13:12:06 -0000

We San Antonians call those inflatable trampoline gizmos "jumpy houses."

Re: Andrew Klavan: International Men's Day

TheRandomTexan — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 12:28:18 -0000

Glaring exception on that science thing: Madame Curie, polonium, and radium, which eventually killed her. Which was VERY manly. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, which was named after a man.

Re: MATLAB Stem-and-leaf plot | MegaSnippets.com

TheRandomTexan — Thu, 29 May 2014 05:29:37 -0000

Almost the ticket. Add your own comments at line 2 to get some interactive documentation, and change all printf() function calls to fprintf() and you're good to go. Too bad that no author is credited.

Re: Cold, Hard Facts About Freezers

TheRandomTexan — Mon, 02 Jun 2014 18:25:30 -0000

" After you’ve rummaged around in a chest freezer for five minutes trying to find the deer steaks..."

Holy Jesus on a skateboard! Don't you folks ever see those reusable shopping bags that every Save-the-Planet dimwit wants to give or sell you? They're great for organizing the steaks, chops, roasts, chickens, and whatnot, and with a little care, stack neatly in CHEST freezer. AND, they have handles, so they're easy to lift out; even my 95-lb weakling wife can swing it. Said wife cleverly uses leftover Xmas gift tags as labels for said handles.

Why fill that chest? When the price of chicken breast or pork loin varies by over 100% in the local supermarkets, I'm buying low and eating high. Oh, ice cream occasionally goes on sale, too.

Freezer tip. Put that newly purchased bag of flour in the freezer for a few days as soon as you get home from the market. Kills weevils dead, dodging a big problem in warmer climes.

Re: CNN Columnist: 'Illegal' is Today's N-Word

TheRandomTexan — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 16:30:49 -0000

We already had a word that sidestepped the legal issues, but we threw it out: wetback. Good luck reviving that one!

Re: What the Malaysia Air Tragedy Means

TheRandomTexan — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 10:16:01 -0000

I'm eager to read the update to this polemic when the next Malaysian airliner is destroyed.

Re: Questioning Lethal Injection

TheRandomTexan — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 12:13:06 -0000

Too bad we can't find a cheap, reliable source of heroin. An overdose would be the opposite of painful.

Re: An Alternative that Might Rapidly Deflate the College Bubble

TheRandomTexan — Sat, 16 Aug 2014 18:22:20 -0000

Learn to program, so you can be laid off by Microsoft, and compete with tens of thousands of Asian programmers with H1B visas. Better to learn HVAC or plumbing.

Re: Down Austin Way

TheRandomTexan — Mon, 18 Aug 2014 17:06:05 -0000

There's a reason we un-capitolized Texans (texans?) spell the word "austintatious."

Re: Norway Shows Corrupt Olympic Committee the Door

TheRandomTexan — Sun, 05 Oct 2014 11:20:10 -0000

Son of a gun! Just like time-serving bureaucrats everywhere, we discover the IOC folks were "only in it for the breakfast tacos." Hat's off to the Norwegians for blowing the whistle on these jet-setting grifters. Up next, owners of major-league sports teams demanding stadiums financed by taxpayers.

Re: The Alcohol Industry Needs Alcoholism to Thrive

TheRandomTexan — Sun, 05 Oct 2014 15:39:20 -0000

“If the top decile somehow could be induced to curb their consumption
level to that of the next lower group (the ninth decile), then total
ethanol sales would fall by 60 percent.”

How about if the whiny teetotalling bottom 60% got off their couches and started picking up the slack? The country doesn't need another PhD thumbsucker cooking up more taxes that he somehow avoids paying. Dr Cook needs to chill out with a double martini after work, and back off on the utopian ideas. Never trust a man you can't get drunk with.