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Jeffrey Miller
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2 months ago
in i am the fat manatee. on the fat manatee
Does this count as a double face plain: http://deadspin.com/5234761/todd-mcshay-address...
1 reply
fatmanatee
Perturbed face_plain
5 months ago
in Seriously, who is capable of being fully pregnant (yes, not partially), and only realize you 'don't feel well' a mere hour before going into labor? Then give birth to a healthy kid? on Sweetness and Light
I once rented the second and third floors of a house. One day I came home and found the guy who lived on the first floor vomiting over the front porch rail. Later, he explained that his girlfriend and just plopped out a child in their bathroom. Neither had known she was pregnant until the baby was born. This was not a good thing, as there had been much smoking and drinking in the previous nine months.
1 reply
natface
is this Jeff flipping Parker? get a Tumblr will you?
Also, yes, much fanwanking has been done on the part of Peggy to claim it was realistic. But I'm sorry. As a woman, I cannot believe a person would have something growing inside them, a live something, and not know it. Babies kick. They eat half your food. 5 months, 6 months, pushing it, but okayy. 9 months and out plops a baby? On TV, it's unrealistic. In real life, it means the woman has got to have actual mental health issues.
Also, yes, much fanwanking has been done on the part of Peggy to claim it was realistic. But I'm sorry. As a woman, I cannot believe a person would have something growing inside them, a live something, and not know it. Babies kick. They eat half your food. 5 months, 6 months, pushing it, but okayy. 9 months and out plops a baby? On TV, it's unrealistic. In real life, it means the woman has got to have actual mental health issues.
5 months ago
in mills baker on mills.tumblr.com comments forum
I feel compelled to rise to defend assertions, perhaps because I've been making so many of them. It would be a rather boring place, and perhaps a less advanced one, if we held back this way. I think that, rather than stifle self-expression, we ought to encourage it. I say: Give me more brashness on the speaking side, and apply the discretion on the listening end.
1 reply
mills
[See below; Disqus doesn't allow me to reply to both of you].
5 months ago
in An Early Observation About Obama on Deuce Loosely
With stem cells, I think Bush actually thought he had come to a compromise solution that would please everyone--no government money for certain stem cell research, but no prohibition on private industry. Now, maybe this wasn't much of a compromise--it certainly wasn't perceived as one--but I don't think it was intended to be some great partisan salvo. (My problem with the stem cell decision announcement was mostly that it was a show intended to prove that Bush was capable of thinking about complicated issues--it was designed to try to make the president look smart--not necessarily conservative--but smart. It was not convincing on this point.)
1 reply
Deuce Loosely
While i disagreed with the policy, i had a bigger problem with the way he chose to enact it: grandstanding by surrounding himself with "snowflake" babies, saying that those children weren't "spare parts", which implied that others felt they were. His veto was going to get enough attention, seeing that it was his first, so his little show was completely unnecessary. In fact, if he had framed it more like you did ("In ethically uncertain areas such as this, we believe the government should take a back seat to private funding") instead of as some hypocritical "culture of life" decision (hypocritical since he never made any moves to restrict fertility clinics) it might have been easier to deal with. But that's not how that administration did things.
5 months ago
in mills baker on mills.tumblr.com comments forum
Mills,
Slightly off point, Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers has a very interesting chapter on the leading cause of plane crashes, and I suspect you'd enjoy it.
-Jeff
Slightly off point, Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers has a very interesting chapter on the leading cause of plane crashes, and I suspect you'd enjoy it.
-Jeff
1 reply
mills
Well, now I have to read it! (Even more off-topic: I have enjoyed the spirited defense you've mounted for B. Joel, and you've persuaded me to forgive him for the only thing I ever held against him: the song "I Don't Know Why I Go to Extremes," which is a rather bad disquisition on bipolar disorder that kind of embarrasses me! But as I said: you've inspired me to consider it a lapse; we all have them, after all).
5 months ago
in the original joe fisher. on The Original Joe Fisher
I would argue that Byrd endorsed Obama because he thought Obama would ultimately win the nomination, and Byrd simply was courting power. He courts power because he likes to bring pork back to his state for projects that he names after himself: http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ne...
1 reply
theoriginaljoefisher
That is an amazing list of pork I see when I click that link. My favorite
is that there is going to be a Sen. Byrd Freeway AND Highway, which will be
murder on any West Viginian's GPS.
Let me reiterate that Byrd is certainly not number one on my list of great
statesmen. And you're right, maybe he was endorsing Obama because he knew
he was going to be the nominee. I guess I'm just being an old softy.
Then again, if I'm ninety years old and I'm about to have everything in West
Virginia named after me, how much power do I have to court? What do I
need? And what does Byrd have to lose by NOT endorsing someone who is
unpopular in his state? Isn't the risk to endorse someone who isn't popular
with your constituents?
is that there is going to be a Sen. Byrd Freeway AND Highway, which will be
murder on any West Viginian's GPS.
Let me reiterate that Byrd is certainly not number one on my list of great
statesmen. And you're right, maybe he was endorsing Obama because he knew
he was going to be the nominee. I guess I'm just being an old softy.
Then again, if I'm ninety years old and I'm about to have everything in West
Virginia named after me, how much power do I have to court? What do I
need? And what does Byrd have to lose by NOT endorsing someone who is
unpopular in his state? Isn't the risk to endorse someone who isn't popular
with your constituents?
6 months ago
in Some Numbers on Kyle Bingman
Kyle, prying into many of these may be too personal, but who is the historical figure that makes you jealous, if you're willing to say?
1 reply
kylebingman
Alexander the Great. He is one of the historical figures I have studied rather extensively and I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with him. He is fascinating, but it is difficult to not compare one's own life to his. Even Julius Caesar did this, as is recorded by Plutarch:
"It is said that another time, when free from business in Spain, after reading some part of the history of Alexander, he sat a great while very thoughtful, and at last burst out into tears. His friends were surprised, and asked him the reason of it. 'Do you think,' said he, 'I have not just cause to weep, when I consider that Alexander at my age had conquered so many nations, and I have all this time done nothing that is memorable.'"
Of course, Alexander died likely as a result of the cumulative effects of his conquests and traditional songs remark that he "won the whole world but lost his soul." Even so, he is still remembered today and has achieved what I never will. I am jealous.
"It is said that another time, when free from business in Spain, after reading some part of the history of Alexander, he sat a great while very thoughtful, and at last burst out into tears. His friends were surprised, and asked him the reason of it. 'Do you think,' said he, 'I have not just cause to weep, when I consider that Alexander at my age had conquered so many nations, and I have all this time done nothing that is memorable.'"
Of course, Alexander died likely as a result of the cumulative effects of his conquests and traditional songs remark that he "won the whole world but lost his soul." Even so, he is still remembered today and has achieved what I never will. I am jealous.
6 months ago
in The End of the End of Wars on The Trunk
I hope it's okay that I elevated part of your comment to a blog post. I want people to read what you wrote because it is good and interesting.
For what it's worth, I think it's okay to post things without a conclusion . . . I've been posting on Gaza mostly in an effort to try to discover and explore what I feel about it. Considering the complexity of the issues (political and moral), that's about the best we can do . . . just explore and confront and defend and then hope things start to make a little more sense, even though it feels unlikely that they will.
For what it's worth, I think it's okay to post things without a conclusion . . . I've been posting on Gaza mostly in an effort to try to discover and explore what I feel about it. Considering the complexity of the issues (political and moral), that's about the best we can do . . . just explore and confront and defend and then hope things start to make a little more sense, even though it feels unlikely that they will.
2 replies
Leo J
Get used to it. War is not a new phenomenon. We will always have wars on our planet (both complete and incomplete) because our planet is populated with humans who are inhumane.
I know I'm an old curmudgeon but I know my history and the history of mankind shows that we are incapable of learning from the mistakes of the past and are doomed to repeat them.
I know I'm an old curmudgeon but I know my history and the history of mankind shows that we are incapable of learning from the mistakes of the past and are doomed to repeat them.
mills
I appreciate it, and agree; I'll keep at it. I think I cannot write it because I do not know what to think of it all; I support some wars, not others, and am probably just "thinking" emotionally like everyone else... We'll see!
6 months ago
in I don't have time for this.... - Peyton Manning is like the Justin Timberlake of... on Afghanistan Banana Stand
No, no, no. It's not about being attractive . . . it's about being funny. (Is Timerberlake really that attractive?) And Tom Brady isn't funny.
1 reply
afbanstand
Well first of all I was joking. But yes, Timberlake is that
attractive. And I don't think Peyton is funny at all, actually. His
SNL episode was god awful. He read from cue cards all night. He's
such a big dumb oaf, which adds to his unattractiveness. Brady's was
not great but better. And funny or not, Tom Brady is GORGEOUS.
attractive. And I don't think Peyton is funny at all, actually. His
SNL episode was god awful. He read from cue cards all night. He's
such a big dumb oaf, which adds to his unattractiveness. Brady's was
not great but better. And funny or not, Tom Brady is GORGEOUS.
6 months ago
in The Case for Pardons on a marmoset's life
Very interesting--I hadn't heard of the case. Ten to twelve years seems excessive if there was no malice involved. Prison sentences in American have gotten out of control during the last couple of decades. We're packing people into prisons without regard to the impact this has on families and society more generally. I would very much like to see some kind of prison/sentencing reform, but I don't the the prospects for it are good.
1 reply
ms_marmoset
The US Government says that he damaged systems, which he denys... my personal, pretty under educated, opininon is that he is a victim of timing. That the British Government has been unwilling to make a stand against the US in this case because of other issues going on- which pretty much sums up what I think about the final years of Blair's term of office.
7 months ago
in Barbie, Laughter, Happiness on mills.tumblr.com comments forum
Having posted the original reference to Althouse's words, I feel compelled to comment. As a libertarian, I certainly don't interpret Althouse to represent anything even close to libertarianism, and in fact, she's posted some rather outrageous and indefensible criticisms of libertarians in the past. She doesn't seem to have a clear political ideology, but hawkish-liberal might come close to describing her views. On occasion, however, she provides a different and interesting take on items of pop culture, and this makes her blog interesting to me. Althouse on politics may be terrible, but Althouse on Barbie is interesting. There is no reason to break up the band.
1 reply
mills
This is a relief. I am banking on fame, and am presently practicing my open-mouthed paparazzi pose.
