Also, Los Alamos?

Stop doing crap like losing computers. (How do you even lose a computer? I've owned three in my life and never managed to lose one, nor has anyone I know. Spent three bucks and get a lock for each laptop, and stop hiring idiots.)

And dumping plutonium in the water supply is another thing I'd prefer you stop doing.

More evidence

Giant, alienish, unspeakably freaky ocean beast. "Squid" and "elbow" are two words that have no right being used together.

And now I'm glad again to be up on a mountain in the middle of the desert.

Attack of the ignorant, hypocritical jackasses

SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP

Dr. White is a mentor at the seminary, charged with helping future pastors make the right decisions. But earlier this month, a repentant Dr. White addressed those students.

He confessed that he and his wife had employed birth control pill years earlier.

"The reason that we did it was my own selfishness," he said. "I wanted kids, but I wanted kids — not in God's timing, but in my timing."

Dr. White now condemns the use of birth control pills, saying, "It's murder of a life."

SERIOUSLY SHUT UP YOU WORTHLESS LUMP OF FLESH.

Okay. Now that the knee-jerk reaction is out of the way...How about you mind your own fucking business at least until you learn some basic biology?

For the millionth, billionth time, I would like to explain to all fundamentalist assholes that the pill does not prevent implantation. It is theoretical possibility, but there is exactly no evidence that any hormonal birth control prevents implantation of a fertilized egg. The pill prevents babies from happening because there is no egg. Ovulation does not occur. No egg is released from the ovaries. Get it? That means there is no implantation to prevent. No egg is being fertilized, because there is no egg.

If someone forgets to take their birth control and has otherwise-unprotected sex, then yes, a much higher than regular dose of hormonal birth control can prevent implantation. This is not the typical usage, because THAT IS NOT WHAT THE PILL DOES. THERE IS NO EGG TO DO ANYTHING TO. THE ABSENCE OF THE EGG IS THE POINT!

Unless you're a medical doctor doing cutting-edge research on the topic, this is not something that can be negotiable. You, Dr. White, have a Ph.D in divinity from a Baptist seminary. This gives you plenty of knowledge on divinity, but apparently is rather lacking in biological expertise. Or, for that matter, common sense, avoidance of blatant and stunning hypocrisy, minding your own damn business. And apparently, Dr. White never even bothered to take Not Being a Jackass 101.

Happy "Patriot's Day", you idiots!

Now to celebrate, let's invade Pakistan!

WASHINGTON — President Bush secretly approved orders in July that for the first time allow American Special Operations forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without the prior approval of the Pakistani government, according to senior American officials.

I'm no military nor political expert, but isn't sending troops into a country to do raids and stuff, without the permission of that country's government, generally referred to as an invasion? I mean, say Egyptian or Syrian forces decided to go into Jerusalem or one of the Israeli occupied territories and conduct some raids - both Israel and the US would be pretty pissed off, right? Is that just me who sees that?

American officials say that they will notify Pakistan when they conduct limited ground attacks like the Special Operations raid last Wednesday in a Pakistani village near the Afghanistan border, but that they will not ask for its permission.

Hey, remember a couple years ago when some people hijacked a couple planes and killed whole lot of people? And there was all sorts of wailing and hand-wringing and crying about "why do they hate us?"

Hmm.

Essay essay essay essay essay

I have about a hundred and fifty pages left in the Anti-Federalist papers I'm reading. Then there's six hundred pages of Madison's Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention. I also have decided I want to go back and re-read Locke's Second Treatise and at least some of the Supreme Court opinions from my precept last year. If I get the time*, I have two further non-primary books on the evolution of the Constitution, with plenty more where that came from. Plus, of course, repeatedly digging further into the Social Contract and the Constitution itself.

Plus Hegel, plus Einstein, plus various folks for lab (Milliken, right now, with this ridiculously involved practicum we're going to have to do). Oy.

*hahahahahahaha. hahaha. heh. funny.

Worst thing ever

I generally keep my little shower basket - with soap and body pouf and face wash and all that - in the bathroom on the floor. There's a little alcove with a bathtub that no one ever uses, so it's a good place to just stick something like that.

I hop in the shower today after biking back from the grocery store. Grabbed my pouf - and a goddamn cricket jumps out.

I hate crickets. They creep me the hell out and they're evil and nasty and vile and foul. And this one had that awful jabby appendage sticking off it's butt, which I know isn't a stinger but it looks like one and it's horrible.

Luckily, it did not jump on me. Also luckily I did not totally freak out and scream and slip and fall and crack my skull open on the tile wall. I did, however, stomp on it, repeatedly, far more than necessary, and with great glee. Stupid crickets, trying to ruin my shower.

Aaaaaah!

Octopuses have taken to using Rubik's cubes to soothe their stress.  Creepiest damn picture ever.

Modern science, being completely blind to the grave aquatic threat facing us, is supporting this.

Excuse me, I'm off to doubly-reinforce my windows against the sea-monster threat.  Some people may say it's redundant, what with living on the second story of a building, in the desert, at an altitude of 7,000 feet.  But they'll be the first to go when it happens.

A bad time for Asia, a good time to do something

The death toll from the earthquake in China is possibly over 50,000.  There's over 43,000 dead in Burma and 28,000 some missing.

From my (admittedly brief) searching, it looks like this might be one of the best ways to make a meaningful donation to aid efforts in Burma.  

Larger aid organizations are of course also trying to help - groups such as Doctors Without Borders, UNICEF, the American Friends Service Committee, Oxfam, the American Refugee Committee, of course the Red Cross, and the World Food Program would (as they always are) be worthwhile places to send a small donation.  There's also MercyCorps, which I've only recently become aware of, and seems like one of the better international charities out there: they'll direct your donation to relief in Burma, or aid in China, or a number of other causes you can pick.  

If none of those strike you as a worthy group, I'm sure a minute or two with Google can help you find someplace that will help.  

It takes five minutes to make a donation, and any tiny amount you can give helps.  There are millions who are now homeless, without food or clean water, without any basic sanitation - without anything.  We have the luxury of houses and unlimited clean water and more likely than not more food than you can eat, electricity and DEET insect repellent and nice warm beds.  Millions don't.  Please, do something to help.

Newark: Not *totally* worthless

Reading this made my blood run cold:

Philippe Quint is giving a private 30-minute performance on Tuesday in the cab waiting area at Newark Liberty International Airport.

He left his violin, a 1723 Kiesewetter Stradivarius, in a taxi on the way back from the airport last month.

Gah!  What?!  He left a Stradivarius in a cab?  Good god.  I A) am not a professional musician and B) have a decent-but-sure-as-hell-not-a-Stradivarius violin, and I can't stand to take my eyes off it when I travel.  If I know I'm going to be flying with it I will try to get a seat towards the back of the plane, so I'm sure I'll be able to put it in an overhead compartment I can see when we land.  Once while walking through an airport, the shoulder strap on my case spontaneously broke - the clip on one end just stopped clipping, and I nearly dropped it, which caused me to freak out.  

Kudos to Mr. Kahlil for returning the instrument.  I'm willing to bet that he didn't know what exactly it was that he was carrying in has cab, but even still, the honesty is refreshing.  

How in the hell do you get so distracted that you leave your four million dollar Stradivarius in a cab?  Or anywhere?