The Rachel Boyfriend has returned. Go say "hi."

He looked smokinÂ’ hot in his uniform. Oh lord. I was tempted to test social boundaries and fellow travelersÂ’ patriotism by jumping him right there at baggage claim - I mean, are people really going to say anything to a guy in uniform? - but I controlled myself.

The uniform did come in handy at one point, which is when while boarding that flight, the agent stopped him and said, “Would you like to sit in First Class, sir?” Well of course he would, thank you very much. So that was nice for him.

Yeah. A the H reports that flight attendants were always nice to him when he flew in uniform. I like the Glenn Reynolds approach (though at present I can't afford it): when you see a group of people in uniform, send them a round of drinks.

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. . . seems more interested in the Obama gay sex murder scandal than she was in Hillary's alleged lesbian affair. Probably because of the "murder" part.

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Hm. To me, she looks like my best Celtic friend (the guy we call "Count Linguist"), in drag.

In all seriousness, she really looks quite beautiful to me.

Thank you, Irene. And goodbye.

(And thanks to AoS's Krakatoa as well. It's nice to hear good news every now and then.)

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Joy:

I try to accept the woman-haters for what they are: guys who haven't been laid since high school, when they were embarrassed by the fact that one of their dates had to get out a magnifying glass to find their itty bitty
dicks.

Oopsie. Did I say that out loud?

Anonymous Cotillionite A:

LOL. Don't hold back, Joy. Tell us how you REALLY feel.

Anonymous Cotillionite B:

Yes, you did, Joy—and I find it so nice that you can restrain yourself and describe those guys so kindly. *snicker*

Little Miss Attila: a source of understanding, sweetness and light for misogynists since 2003 . . .

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. . . there's a right-wing equivalent to this movement.

And I'll bet they produce even less trash. And live better.

Of course, part of this has to do with the fact that everything is better with guns, including lifestyle choices. Firearms are to daily life what sprigs of cilantro are to a Thai or Mexican meal: necessary. Seductive. Worth, for a few irrational moments, trading one's soul for.

(Usually, one's conscience interferes before one does anything foolish. Usually.)

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Jeffrey Goldberg is ready to ally himself with those crazy Muslims over the issue of eatin' ham and bacon. I think I might be able to give up bacon, but smoked ham is the ultimate meat-as-condiment. Life without navy bean and ham soup sounds dire. Not to mention ham and cheese, prepared every possible way and using every different kind of ham. And cheese.

This is without getting into the issue of pizza, and how it ideally is topped with pineapple and Canadian bacon . . . i.e., ham.

What I want to know, however, is whether Islam permits one to mix dairy products and meat at the same meal. Because I'm starting to think that I wouldn't be a much better Jew than I'd be as a Muslim.

And being vegan would be great most days, until I ran out of peanut butter and lentils—at which point I'd start Jonesing hard on milk, eggs, cheese, and . . . ham.

Thank you, thank you, Sam I am.

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Okay.

If the modern conservative position is that the U.S. is, indeed, a "Christian" nation, why exactly is it that the term "neocon" is, in some circles, a synonym for "Jew"?

Just askin'. You stay special.

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1 Yaknow, I never liked the term 'neocon' anyway. Always sounded to me like the new guy in the slammer.

Posted by: Mister Prickly at May 09, 2008 04:26 PM (/9Waz)

2 Jonah Goldberg contends that it was probably an attempt to echo the term "neo-Nazi." I hope not; that would be pretty low. I just always see it as a way of emphasizing that the person isn't a "Rockefeller Republican"--that it's truly a philosophical leaning rather than some sort of icky class affiliation thing. Oh, and--yeah: we gots more Jews than the Paleocons ever had

Posted by: Attila Girl at May 09, 2008 04:56 PM (Hgnbj)

3 ^5 joy

Posted by: zoey at May 09, 2008 07:40 PM (KU4Si)

4 Thanks, Z!

Posted by: Attila Girl at May 09, 2008 09:51 PM (Hgnbj)

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(That is to say, the 1980s version of ripping a music CD.)

"It's like free-association. Or shitting."

Much the same with blogging; hadja noticed?

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Ace snarks about the hypothesis that conservatives "rationalize" more than liberals, and how those who study these things sometimes can't see the forest for the state-mandated-redistributionist trees.

Hm. The study appears to be as condescending and silly as most of these things are, but of course it got me thinking about how few people I know are really happy—conservative or liberal.

I do think it's more of a challenge for people who are overbrained. Though please note that I don't see neurotic hand-wringing as a sign of high intelligence. I just think that like everything else, happiness tends to be hard work. And, as with everything else, some people have more of a talent for it than others do.

But not to try seems like a tragedy at best, and a slap in the face of God at worst. I suppose that I ultimately agree with Dennis Prager: if one has the choice, it is more merciful to those around us—and more respectful to our better selves—if we do our best to be happy.

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. . . off of my cold, dead torso.

Oriana Fallaci once interviewed the Ayatollah Khomeini during his rise to power. Of course, she had to agree to wear a burka during the session, and one of her first questions was "how do you swim in this thing?"

I wonder if Barbie has also been wondering that lately.

The way I heard the story, Fallaci ended up taking the hood and robe off during the interview, which I understand: they say it's hot over there in the Middle East.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 08:45 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 Oh, Joy! I would much prefer to peel your tanktop off your warm, living torso... Gosh, did I just say that?

Posted by: Gregory at May 07, 2008 05:47 PM (cjwF0)

2 Heh. I was gonna say... Necrophilia is just not my thing. I too prefer the warm and jiggly.

Posted by: Desert Cat at May 07, 2008 07:00 PM (DIr0W)

3 I believe that's AtH's job, not mine. He signed up for the tour of duty, he can complete it...

Posted by: I R A Darth Aggie at May 08, 2008 08:36 PM (ueMTj)

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Virginia Postrel is one of the victims.

What surprises me is that people think they can get by with it in this day and age—even if the community of libertarian and pop-culture writers didn't catch Professor Twitchell, the electronic tools we all use every day was bound to.

I just don't get why James Twitchell thought he could get by with this. Did he want to get caught? It's whacked.

MORE: Postrel adds:

It's unfortunate that newspaper accounts of such scandals rely so much on "objective" parallel passages rather than getting at the true disservice to the reader. When James Twitchell fails to cite sources for his statistics, leading readers to assume he is the source, he deprives those readers of further information on the subject, including when the stats were gathered and how. He also slights readers when he offers an unsourced summary of another scholar's idea without telling readers where to find the original, and far more thorough, development of that idea. Then there's changing facts to make them inaccurate [as he did with some of the work he lifted from Postrel] ...

As an offense against other scholars and writers, plagiarism is a sign of bad character. But, more important for the public sphere, it's a sign that you don't care about your readers.

That's it in a nutshell, and how odd it is that I didn't read these posts until today, after I'd blogged about using Postrel's own citations as a resource for further reading when I was done reading her books.

AND: More from one of Twitchell's other eminent victims.

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1 When I catch a student plagiarizing, I have one of two extremely visceral reactions: I cry or throw up. Then I turn the little f**ker in to the Student Conduct committee. Sometimes, they don't even take out the blue hyperlinks in what they paste in from the frikkin' internet! And a friend of mine got a paper that was cribbed word for word FROM THE BOOK THEY WERE USING IN CLASS. I swear to the gods. I mean, homage, imitation, flattery, cultural zeitgeist, subconscious influence, collective unconscious, whatever. But dammit, if you hit select copy paste, you know what you did!!! And you should be punched in the face.

Posted by: Rin at May 07, 2008 10:11 AM (f8xXa)

2 Well, there is the fact that Word makes hyperlinks all over the place, unless you tell it not to. But what these kids don't understand is that people like you and me are going to recognize any passage that made any impression on us at all, if we've ever encountered it before: we notice turns of phrase. If it's worth stealing, it's memorable enough that someone will . . . remember it. I try to remind myself that there are people who cut corners in certain areas of life who would never do so in any other. For instance, I've never been tempted to plagiarize, because . . . well, I can always do better than the original. Though I do seem to remember pushing my deadlines, and paraphrasing in rather a hurry at 3:00 a.m. the morning before an assignment was due. But I know I'm tempted sometimes to invade other people's privacy--read their email or whatever. I don't do it, because that is one thing you cannot undo. If you read someone's private correspondence, or their journal, it might alter the way you think about that person forever. To me, it's even lower than plagiarism, and even more destructive. But not everyone I know sees it that way. Yet I've been "cheating" in my checkbook since the beginning of time: there is always that $8 or $15 or whatever that I can't account for, and I've always just added or subtracted (usually the latter) to make it balance. This is probably shocking to some people, but I'm not good at arithmetic, and I don't have the time to invest in making things balance perfectly. And I have no inclination, either. I like the "sloppy research" people. Yeah: "I accidentally lifted that passage ". . . gimme a break. Though, to be fair, I do know a husband-wife composing team who regularly run their work by each other to make sure they didn't unconsciously grab something out of classical music somewhere. Maybe if one is operating far enough from the right brain, it could happen. Remember, though, Rin: this is a professor and a writing professional. Not someone trying to get through a breadth requirement. This guy has some bad freakin' karma coming to him, which is why I used his real name.

Posted by: Attila Girl at May 07, 2008 12:06 PM (Hgnbj)

3 I've always thought that plagiarism is a foolish enterprise, because people like you and me are going to recognize any passage that made an impression on us: we notice turns of phrase, and if it's worth stealing, it's memorable enough that someone will remember it. And besides, one can usually do better than the original.

Posted by: Rin at May 07, 2008 01:07 PM (bSHZa)

4 Oh. You are bad.

Posted by: Attila Girl at May 07, 2008 01:12 PM (Hgnbj)

5 You, on the other hand, are good. ;-)

Posted by: Rin at May 07, 2008 01:30 PM (bSHZa)

6 Then I turn the little f**ker in to the Student Conduct committee. And then what happens? do they get punished, or do they get a slap on the wrist and get off? I'm vaguely aware of an incident that happened in my own department - someone reading a faculty member's email surreptiously - that got swept under the rug because the chairman at the time wasn't into confrontation. Some determined that I shouldn't be notified, even if I where the network admin. If left up to me, I would have dropped the hammer on the perp, and at least cut him/her off from their account for a good, long while. But that would be confrontational...

Posted by: I R A Darth Aggie at May 08, 2008 08:45 PM (ueMTj)

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Glad you asked. Looks like she doesn't. At least, not much beyond the bikini line.

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how Coco the Pit Bull would react to the allegations of a lesbian affair between Senator Clinton and her advisor. Eric suggests that she's in denial, and possibly a bit jealous:

I'll try to get Mandy's reaction this week: it's true that Clinton has a major following among female pit bulls, but Mandy is black, and I've always suspected her of having a soft spot for Obama. When I complain that Obama's policy proposals aren't very specific, Mandy merely requests that I throw a tennis ball for her—her way of changing the subject.

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Yeah. "Public relations nightmare," indeed. (I'm quoted in California Lawyer as suggesting those letters tend to get posted, which one would think attorneys were starting to figure out. Actually, I think the tide may have turned: for instance, Hymers hasn't sent me one, with the exception of that anonymous threat about how a Florida woman got slapped with an expensive settlement for online libel—after she didn't show up for court. What a joke.)

h/t: longtime friend Henry Reynolds, Esq.

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I'll have more on this tonight, but of course I think Ben Stein mis-spoke the other day. I'm sure not willing to pile on, however, with John "All Women Over 20 Are Over the Hill" Derbyshire.

Ed seems to get it right, here: the enemy is not science, and when we begin to imply that it is, we become what we've set out to conquer: opponents of free inquiry. The enemy is the perversion of science; this is the critical distinction to keep in mind.

That's why I felt that Expelled dwelt just a bit too long on "Darwinism," a word that has many different meanings to many different people. If we acknowledge that Darwin's writings were "necessary, though not sufficient" for the development of Naziism, we have not really said too much about evolution itself, except to note that it can be abused, like all good ideas.

That said, I'm still looking for the whole transcript, since I suspect Stein's quote was taken a bit out of context.

Not that I want to interfere with The Derb's righteous indignation.

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But the having-a-penis thing didn't work for me.

Oh, well.

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Nuance.

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It's not so much "what did Glenn know, and when did he know it?"

It's more like, "why the plaid flannel, at the White House?"

Just because one is cooking, doesn't mean one's standards can go all to heck . . . unless Glenn suspected people would take pictures of him there, and he was attempting "plausible deniability." The plot thickens . . .

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In point of fact, my grandfather left some barbiturates to my mother when he died. Not on purpose, but because no one in my fucking family ever throws any goddamned thing away. Not even pills. (Or, especially not pills.)

Neither the reds nor the shotgun turned out to be Good Things,* but you know—I'm over it.

* Fair use, Martha-Baby. Fair use.

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Now go say hello to him. And tell him you love him, and send him chocolates and booze, so he won't stop.

I mean, what do the Mixed Martial Arts have that the Blogosphere doesn't? (Um. Don't answer that.)

Seriously: That PW post contains the Best. Thread. Ever.

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