come see me bitch about stuff

how the word "cunt" helped me decide not to vote for mccain

2008-05-08T02:29:14Z

"At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt."

[brandt]HAH. hah. huh. that's marvelous.[/brandt]

now, i've long been a believer that sen. mccain didn't deserve his reputation. from the infantile temper-tantrum letter he sent to sen. obama after a falling out over lobbying reform (personally, i think sen. obama did the right thing), to his whole "maverick" bullshit which falls apart when you actually look at what counts: the votes. he's voted with his party 88% of the time in the current congress. right up there with trent lott. he's no 68% arlen specter, i'll tell ya that. as of september 2007, he voted with the party a full 6% more often than the republican average. yeah, real maverick, there, senator mcangrypants...

but aside from thinking the guy's a fake d00shbag, i'd vote for him if i thought he'd go for the policies i'd prefer. which... might be possible. sometimes.

but then it turns out he pulls this "c-word" crap. now, let me clarify something first: it's not the actual use of the word that is the issue with me. i actually use it. i got it from my feminist ladyfriend. i use it as a gender-neutral insult. it's a sort of "taking it back". like the swastik i have up on my wall that i picked up in india. i'm doing my part to help the hindus take it back.

although, of course, the swastik is the diametric opposite of an insult. but the idea is similar. it stems from one of the few things that's stuck with me that my mother tried to imprint on me in my childhood: why let them have that power over you? when i'd come home upset from getting picked on or fucked with in some manner, my mom would ask me why i let them get to me "like that". why i let them have that power over me. and i slowly started to simply not let them. it wasn't that i'd hear an insult and think, "oh swell!" it's that i'd hear the insult, and smirk, and think, "i've got you, you fucking jackass. you think you've got me... but i've got you."

eventually i started coupling that with retaliation. :)

but i digress...

no, what bothers me about this, as with most things political, is the thought process that must have been involved. the guy dropped a C-bomb in front of 5 people. three of which were not on his "crew". regardless of how you feel about the word, when you're a politician you have to always consider what the reaction will be. and either he did, and did it anyway... or didn't, and is a moron. and aside from how he dealt with the question by marty parrish about whether or not he really did it (answer: he didn't answer. wouldn't the first thing out of your mouth, for an accusation like this, be "i would NEVER" if you would never?)... mccain's actual excuse was that it had been a long day.

a long day? REALLY? well then! i guess it's completely acceptable to display questionable judgment! it was a long day!

i suppose it's not a big deal then. i mean, how stressful could the presidency be really??

stupid cunt.

Overheard at a coffee shop just outside of DC, as explained to me through IM...

2008-05-03T02:10:08Z

(6:41:45 PM) molly: OMG
(6:41:47 PM) molly: this girl
(6:41:48 PM) molly: just said
(6:41:59 PM) molly: "my friend lives across the street from where kennedy got shot"
(6:42:13 PM) Gme: in the grassy knoll?
(6:42:18 PM) molly: her friend is like "I thought kennedy got shot in tx"
(6:42:28 PM) molly: girl "no he got shot in a theater"
(6:42:33 PM) Gme: fklsq;jirqphglewrgbvjkavf
(6:42:38 PM) molly: friend: "I thought that was lincoln"
(6:42:44 PM) Gme: jkdfls;afjkdls;afjkdsla;fjdksa
(6:42:46 PM) molly: girl "yeah I don't know"
(6:42:49 PM) Gme: clearly
(6:42:53 PM) molly: I'm going to stab someone

twitterfeed.

2008-04-11T01:12:36Z

so i think a while back my sister got me into another online social media thing, called twitter. at first glance, it seems to be simply two things: arrogant and not worth the effort.

what you do is update your "Status", like in facebook, whenever you do something different. i mean, that's the idea but you update it whenever you feel like it.

and i thought, "holy hell, who cares THAT much about what ANYONE does?" and then.., "and who the hell has the time to stop and update something every time they take another sip of coffee"? ok that's a little hyperbolic...

but at least on a user end it was cool because i "follow" friends of mine who update on what's goin' on... and i don't have to go to the website. there's a gmail address that you add to your google chat that works as an intermediary. you IM to it to change your status, and receive IMs of new statuses. not bad, not bad. ease of use, getting better.

and then i see that NPR has a news blog with an account. sweet. so now i'm getting IMs of news! w00t. omg there's a "SenateFloor" account! how cool is that? well not if you don't care, i suppose...

but i was wondering how all these blogs and stuff get updates so often and easily and, let's face it, as computer technology improves... someone is finding a way to do it easier (juice*, i'm looking at you). so i see that these blogs are updated (it says on your website) "from twitterfeed". so i check it out...

now this is where it's at, if you're gonna use twitter. all you have to do is login with an OpenID, give an RSS feed, and tell it what twitter account to update with, et voila!

this post will show up in my twitter feed, as the title, with a "tinyurl" link.

the internet was not made for hard work, my friends. it was made for stalking, and pr0n. or more precisely, easy stalking... and easy pr0n.

I have angered Dr. KL Mittal

2008-04-10T22:15:14Z

man.

so the bossman submitted our manuscripts to the journal before he went to the left coast to serve as the expert witness in this patent law case we've both been doing the analysis work on... and that was a very bad idea.

he has no attention to detail. which is good for me, when we write papers... because i have practically all attention to detail. meaning, as he once put it i'm "just looking at one tree. back up to the whole forest." i'll spend a whole week on formatting alone.

which dr. mittal would have appreciated, apparently. he was pissed. boss had to talk to him on the phone. i asked if he was old. he said yes. how did i know? the letter he sent with our manuscript was typed. oh yeah. with a typrwriter. boss asked our intermediary who invited us to write a paper for the journal what his email was and dude replied "oh. he doesn't do email."

but there were many structural problems with the papers... one of which was apprently because EndNote™ is an asshole. i specifically chose the "reference style" to be that of the specific paper we were specifically submitting too.... however, dr mittal has, and i quote, "SERIOUS PROBLEM WITH REFERENCES" because they were "cited in a very strange manner". sorry, guy.

well. at least he didn't call me a bullshitter.

dinesh d'souza... should die of gonorrhea, and rot in hell

2008-04-04T06:50:02Z

Are Atheists Now Scared to Debate? - News Bloggers:

One of my former professors now calls me Joe Louis, in reference to the boxer who knocked out so many "bums of the month" that he eventually had trouble finding worthy opponents.

christ.

this guy's pretty impressed with himself, eh? "i'm frickin' the joe louis of debating, guys!" no. jackass. and here's why you're not:

this article is entitled, "are atheists now scared to debate?" and it includes the lines:

A few days ago I debated Michael Shermer at the National Religious Broadcasters convention in Nashville
On July 12, a few months from now, I have a rematch with atheist Christopher Hitchens
April 25 I'll be debating the notorious Peter Singer at Biola University near Los Angeles
Also in April: I'll be debating philosopher Walter Sinnott-Armstrong April 21 at Dartmouth, where he teaches and where I attended.
Some atheists have emailed me asking me if I've accepted Sam Harris' offer to a written debate. A few months ago Harris proposed such a debate, and I agreed,

yeah, gee. really sounds like that's a valid title to this article, doesn't it?? this is like the ol' Fox technique "Next on news at ten: guess what CAN KILL YOU!" you're a fucking shyster.

but you have to wait until the veeeeeeerry end to find out what in the fuck he's blathering about:
Having himself proposed the written debate, Harris hasn't responded to my counteroffer.

Given that Richard Dawkins has already wimped out, proving himself an intellectual invertebrate, I'm beginning to wonder whether some of the world's best-known atheists are losing the courage of their convictions.

oh. wow. one guy outta five said no, now all of a sudden it's valid to imply all atheists are scared of you. here's more insight... guess why dawkins told you to fuck off? THIS IS WHY:

agreeing to debate d'souza is like agreeing to play a game of football wherein you have to play by the rules and he doesn't. you can't hold. you can't be offsides. but he? well he isn't confined by any sort of rules whatsoever, apparently. how does this sounds like something anyone would want to do??

intellectual fraud. shyster. abomination.

hack.

pwnt by a 16 year old

2008-04-01T19:51:39Z

or however old high school juniors are these days.

NPR: The Awkward Moment at McCain's High School Speech:

"I think judging by the amount of press representatives here and also by the integration of your previous political endorsements in your earlier personal narrative, we can see that this isn't completely absent - er, political motivation isn't completely absent yet we were told that this isn't a political event. So what exactly is your purpose in being here, not that I don't appreciate the opportunity but I'd just like some clarification."

snap!

i'd like to see this continue, though. for the luvva pete, please. mccain is a politician. pure and simple. anytime some guy that's been in the game this long gets a reputation for being outside the game... that's just his game piece. pure and simple. his bullshit needs cutting. this is how bush got elected. twice. "oh hai i am regular joe would you like to have a beer with me? i'm outside the beltway i'm outside the normal i'm not politics as usual i'm a uniter not a divider!" ha. fuuuuuuck that. most of us saw it comin', and we get to say 'i toldja so' but he was most certainly part of the regular game. he had the top political insider runnin' his show the whole time, tellin' you all how to think about him. he's from a political dynasty family. he was, and is, and ever shall be, the same ol' same ol'. omg but he goes to church! yeah. they all do. just another gimmick.

unfortunately, this is going to happen to obama eventually. the nice thing is, right now, he is "something different". when he gets to mccain's age? he'll be the same ol' same ol'.

but hey. that's a long way off, eh?

man, mccain's old...

for the first time ever, i am thankful for that huge SUV

2008-03-22T07:56:58Z

because it may have saved my life. certainly it saved my car.

tonight, the lady and i met one of our brown pals down in fairfax for some merrifield hookah. the lady is at the tail end of her recovery from jaw surgery and needed to gtfo of the house for a bit. and i needed some smoke. we had a great time. played some arab version of spades which was like a spades/euchre hybrid. or more correctly, i suppose, the arab version of "whist".

since merrifield has a hard time serving you the food you order late at night on the weekends, we decided to take off and hit plato's back in college park. i finally got my plate of fries. so i was happy.

since we live on rhode island ave nw, it's just a straightforward drive down rt. 1 to get home. on the way, i started to remark to the lady about how these two main roads that go by downtown buffalo, oak and elm, each one ways in opposite directions, have timed lights. so if you drive from one end to the other at a solid 30 mi/hr, you'll hit green the whole way down. and at least half of rhode island is like that on the way in to DC... but as soon as you get close to the rhode island ave metro station, it gets messed up. but still you have these unobservant jackasses that speed from light to light and have to stop at the red.

we crest the hill around 2nd NE and i just miss the light at lincoln and rhode island NE. and right in mid sentence i look in the rear view mirror as i hear this LOUD screech.

and see this crazy mess of flying sparks and white smoke from tires and red and blue light. along with the huge crashing sound. the caddy SUV behind me shudders and rolls my way. i take a quick look ahead of me, the light's green and no ones comin'. so i gun it. just for a few feet. then stop again so i can figure out what in the fuck just happened.

it's a little fuzzy, onna counta, ya know, i wasn't paying direct attention to the details before it happened, but i'm pretty sure there were four of us at that light. two cars lined up on my left, and me in front with the caddy behind me. there are two cop cars. and one seriously wrecked car. and it's still smoky. so i pull through the light and park to the side after lincoln. i didn't see a damn thing moving so the lady and i jump out of the car, i grab my cell expecting to need to use it, and we run back up the street. there were two cop cars. i couldn't see too well through the mess but they didn't look too damaged. the lady said it looked like one of their windshields was smashed. this other red car was just. completely. fucked. smashed on all sides. looks like this guy was makin' a run for it and didn't expect to see us all stopped at the light after the hill. rhode island ave is still a separated boulevard at that point, so there was no goin' around us. and he just freakin' plowed into the group.

but we start to see movement before i call 911. the lady makes a remark about 911 kinda already being there. i was afraid no one survived that craziness, or at least were still conscious. but we saw some figures in cop uniforms moving, finally, and in fact haulin' a body out of the trashed car. maybe 30 seconds later all these cars come flyin' in. and then the cop chopper overhead. maybe the fifth or so car that shows up just slammed on the brakes, turned around, and flew the other way down lincoln. perhaps someone else made it through that mess and took off.

and then i hit me. holy fuck we almost just died. i mean. if that caddy wasn't there to take half of that impact (i think they mostly smashed in to the two back cars)... i mean, we're in a cooper. holy shit. nerves kicked in and all of a sudden i gotta sit down. wtf. that was weird. everything was over and done with and now i'm freakin'.

we'll probably give a call to the station tomorrow morning. just in case. i don't see what i can add, but just in case. at that point i just needed to go sit down. we climbed back in to the car and drove the two blocks to home. also, holy crap i had to pee.

but that was actually the second thing like that to happen to me...

holy sweet stupid fucking christ.

2008-03-22T01:42:44Z

as he said, The stupid, it burns.:

i'm just fascinated by the fact that she just disproved existence!

if E = m * c^2
and m = 0
then E = 0 * c^2
and since anything times 0 = 0
E = 0

huh. guess it's time to go looting then.

damn.

2008-03-22T01:33:29Z

sweet.

Call/SMS/Voicemail Me

2008-02-23T18:49:29Z

also...

2008-02-21T00:12:45Z

i'd like to add that after being inundated with commercials for this goddam thing every hour whilst in india...

omg i srsly want one.

'course... i can't. :(

4am in Hyderabad.

2008-02-20T22:51:20Z

i've been in hyderabad, the largest city in india's state of andhra pradesh, for about two weeks now. the lady and i came out for one of my good desi friend's wedding. well, one good friend and one pretty good friend.

i almost didn't come. it's substantially in to the beginning of the semester. and whilst i'm done taking classes, it's still in the middle of everything. plus the lady still takes classes. i usually (heh) come to india over the xmas/new years break so it's no big deal for work. but i've been here for two desi friends' weddings so far, and i really couldn't skip this one. she's a labmate and confidant. a fellow in the trenches.

this time, we've stayed in hyderabad every night. as opposed to my other two trips to india, which were a little over 3 weeks long and i hopped around. between the two of those, i've been to various cities in rajasthan (jaipur, jodhpur, jaisalmer, ajmer, pushkar, rohit, udaipur), a few places in gujarat (ahmadabad, dasada and the little rann of kutch/wild ass sanctuary), bombay, goa (palolem beach), pune, varanasi, fatehpur sikri, agra, delhi, and now hyderabad. and... welllllll... i'm sorry to say that i think hyderabad is my least favorite city.

i dunno, maybe it's because i've spent SOO much time here. but the traffic is actually worse than bombay! i believe it has a lot to do with the new hi-tech corridor that's emerging just outside of town. more and more "MNCs" go up every month. and with them, come people that can afford cars. and drivers to drive them. i really think tata's nano is going to be, in a way, seriously bad news for hyderabad.

and subsequent to, or because of, the traffic being so bad, the drivers are more vindictive. in bombay, traffic was the definition of organized chaos. triffic laws were mere suggestions, vehicles fit in where they could and went where they could... and it was what it was. if a guy nosed in front of you, well, that's that. such is bombay traffic. here? it seems the auto rickshaw drivers and personal drivers get more offended by the cutoffs and the "not letting you go"s. you can even hear it in their "beeps". the car horn, in india, is more of a submarine's "ping". it says "i'm over here. take note." most of the time. but here you get the elongated beep that says "get the fuck out of the way you asshole!" or "you're a prick for doing that!"

and, i think consequently, there are more near misses. and i just want to point out to all those people that like to whine about that phrase, near is an adjective that describes the noun of "miss". as in, we didn't miss by a mile... we missed and we were near them. i'd be interested to see the official data on this, because experientially it seems there are more accidents per capita in hyderabad than in bombay. car to car or car to pedestrian or car to motorcycle.

also, i'm sick.

but it's funny, because it's not the "delhi belly". that wiki link goes directly to only one symptom of that illness, and it really shouldn't. but that's wikipedia for you. as useful as it is for a lot of things, those officious little bastards think they know a lot more than they do...

but i digress.

no, i have a freaking cold. and i took some over-the-counter zyrtec (yeah, that's right) which is supposed to be "non drowsy" but it should really say "is like a pot of coffee". i ain't getting to sleep any time soon.

the pharmacies are great here. you go in to a "medical hall" or what have you, and they've got a whole mess of stuff you can only get by perscription in the states, that they'll sell you. for cheap. and by the dose. i got the ten zyrtecs, excuse me, cetzines, and ten pacimols, for 52 INR... or a buck thirty.

this may explain why i'm just rambling. but then again, i usually write like this.

another thing i noticed whilst here, but is most certianly not limited to here, is the magnification of the gap between classes. and by this i mean the little things. like, say i need a "matchbox" as they call it here. i ask the guy at the desk, he just gives me one. mean while, some guy on the street needs one, he's gotta buy it from the cigarette vendor. i need a bottle of water ("mineral water", as you are not advised to drink the tap) i call down to the front desk and a guy brings up a few bottles. but anyone else has to shell out between 10 and 25 rupees.

makes me think of barbara ehrenreich's book. although of course i haven't read it yet. it's on the shelf with all those others, waiting in line for me to finish my damn thesis...

then there's the bartering. i've taken a different aproach this trip. i used to get all "into it". like those pasty white brits that where the kurta and pyjamas with a freaking fanny pack on the outside of the kurta. insert eyeroll. like it's a game. but it's not a game. quibbling over 100 rupees may be a game to me... but it can be a whole day's meals to someone else. so why was i beaing such an asshole about it? i came to this conclusion after a discussion with the bride's brother. he said "i'm no good at bargaining. my mom used to always do it. but now? a few rupees is nothign to me. but it's a lot to them. so whatever." amen to that, brother.

although, there's that one rickshaw driver that literally took us for "a ride" today. no that pissed me off. we needed to go from the IICT in tarnaka to liberty. and the guy takes us way up north through patny and then down necklace road for a nice long trip. trust me. it was a ride. at first i didn't wanna pay the guy the full amount. my sense of immediate justice was overriding my global sense of justice. instead i paid the fare with no tip. somethin i hadn't done at all this trip. still not so sure how i feel about that...

but i've been to two restaurants with trains in them. for serious. "sahib sindh sultan" and the "metro diner" or some such. the first was a few old diner cars of yore, whilst the latter was a few subway cars of now. ah, i see now it was the "silver metro". we also visited the "aromas of china" an inconspicuously frighteningly named restaurant just two doors down from "SSS" and by the same company. here we discovered the sula vineyard wines. well, one in particular, their "satori merlot". i have to say, it was rather impressive. i mean, not in a "this bottle should cost a million dollars!" way, but in a "i didn't know a merlot could taste like that!" way. i thought it was quite good. and later we went out and bought four bottles. :)

anyway. seems my best bud from bombay is back in town (college park) until sunday. he's a bigshot engineer at apple now, out in cupertino. i think i'm going to make him buy me drinks when we get home.

so, on the subject of john scalvi...

2008-01-19T09:32:23Z

i've met john scalvi. and has the remnants of a vestigial tail.

that's right. at the base of the spine. tailbone area. oh, it's been reported to happen, here and there. and "scalvi" has one.

oh yes. he has one.

i have a new totally favoritest intarweb page.

2008-01-17T06:52:02Z

fundies say the darndest things!:

Everyone knows scientists insist on using complex terminology to make it harder for True Christians to refute their claims.

Deoxyribonucleic Acid, for example... sounds impressive, right? But have you ever seen what happens if you put something in acid? It dissolves! If we had all this acid in our cells, we'd all dissolve! So much for the Theory of Evolution, Check MATE!

EnemyPartyII, Christianforums.com [Comments (97)] [2007-Dec-02]

oh, also!

How can anyone beleive we evolved from monkeys heres a few questions for people who beleive that

1.If we did evolve from monkeys then how come babies arent born monkeys

2.Even Darwin said his theories were wrong before he died so why do you still believe them

3.do you really not believe the bible it says we were created in seven days not millions of years

4.how come we cant speak monkey

Just for a fact ape like creatures are monkeys Just in case certain people get on this thread
coolstylinstud, Christian Forums [Comments (148)] [2005-Jul-03]

yeah, you jackasses. HOWCOME YOU CANT SPEAK MONKEY?? oh man. this is good stuff.

last... but... most certainly not least:

I am a bit troubled. I believe my son has a girlfriend, because she left a dirty magazine with men in it under his bed. My son is only 16 and I really don't think he's ready to date yet. What's worse is that he's sneaking some girl to his room behind my back. I need help, God! I want my son to stop being so secretive! Linda, Good news prayer room [Comments (2877)] [2006-Oct-28]

happy birthday to me!!

2008-01-08T15:58:23Z

Bad Astronomy Blog » Asteroid to miss Earth January 29:

This is interesting: an asteroid named 2007 TU24 will pass roughly 560,000 kilometers (330,000 miles) from the Earth on January 29, 2008. That’s close enough to be interesting, but far enough not to worry about it.

although... armageddon on my 31st birthday would be kinda neat...

at this point i've been in a near-constant state of nausea...

2007-12-29T07:53:03Z

...for five straight days.

this is ridiculous.

but i'm getting ahead of myself. lemme roll it back a bit first.

about a week before xmas, the lady was taking dog out for a walk, when a rather brazen squirrel decided to scoot across murphy's path. naturally, being the squirrel-hunter that he is, he shot after it. 'cept, of course, he was attached to the lady. and she went for a spill. she thought she had just pulled a muscle in her back. so after much brow beating, and reminding that we had an eight our drive to buffalo ahead of us, i finally got her to visit the doc.

turns out she cracked a coupla ribs. woo!

it's funny, though. the doc was convinced that, given her injury and the xray, she should have been in more pain than she was. my lady's a tough chick.

so fast forward to friday 21 december. the day after the lady, the dog, and i arrived in buffalo to stay at my aunt and uncle's place, with my two track-star cousins and their dog.

it seems my aunt has an off-the-boat thai friend that recently received a crapload of restaurant surplus from a relative that closed up his place. and when she found out that i loooooove thai, she wanted to cook us all dinner on friday night. which is pretty great.

and it was pretty great. she made a pad thai that i actually enjoyed (i generally find it too boring), and a really great coconut milk curry shrimp dish, served over rice. it was excellent. i took great pains not to overeat. which would have been quite easy.

a little later, after dinner, the lady mentioned to me that she wasn't feeling too hot. her pain meds sometimes make her queasy, so we didn't think too much of it at first. but then it got worse. and it got worse fast. and soon after everyone went to bed (the kids had a meet the next morning) her head was in the toilet getting rid of the fine thai cuisine.

and then again, fifteen minutes later.

and again.

and again.

with two cracked ribs. my god if i could have taken that pain away i'd have done anything.

i think she literally vomited every 15-30 minutes, for about 4 or 5 hours. i've never seen anything like it... except the last time she had food poisoning. but wait. i wasn't sick. no one else was sick. wtf was going on? she had actually hit the bottom of the barrel that was her stomach and was bringing up the bright yellow stuff. i kept trying to shove liquids down her throat even though they were just going to come back anyway because, holy hell, yarfing something is better than yarfing nothing.

and it came with the bonus, superdiarrhea. like, mostly water, sounds like you're peeing, diarrhea.

*oh yeah, by the way, this story isn't for the faint of heart. suppose i coulda mentioned that earlier. but i didn't.*

the last time she got food poisoning, i had found a recipe for a homemade rehydration mix. it tasted like ass, but it kept her out of the hospital. we didn't need that this time because we were in a house full of sports drinks. which was good.

she eventually calmed down and got some sleep. and seemed to be getting better the next morning. david took first in his 55m event, and jills and her relay team set a new record for the buff state track. and we continued on trying to socialize the dogs, as we had been. we had expected murph to be the trouble maker, but surprisingly it was my aunt's roxy that wouldn't get along. all murph wanted to do was play with her, but she barked and nipped at him if he got too close. even in his obvious playful posture. they started to get used to each other, though. and soon we had them in the same room together, as long as we kept their minds off of each other. then they were walking around the same room. they'd occasionally stop and sniff, and my aunt didn't really help with her loud "NICE. PLAY NICE!" constantly around them. but we were getting somewhere.

but then, saturday night, we all found ourselves in the basement. and the dogs. and it's not a big basement. it's half finished off, and we were in that half. there's a lot of furniture and not a lot of room. this was a bad idea. and rox let murph know it. as soon as she found herself in the corner and he was bounding around trying to play, she went for him. and there was yelling. and no room. and the dogs just escalated until you could tell this was pretty frickin' serious.

my uncle and i tried pulling at the dogs' hind legs to pull them apart but murph had found his way to latching on to roxy's face. i couldn't think of another option so... i went for his collar. but before i got there, rox wrenched around and got me. two deep puncture wounds, one in the meat of the thumb and one in the center of the palm.

didn't seem like much at the time. after we had them separated, my aunt did a status check to see if anyone was bleeding. i said "yeah".

"one of the dogs?"

"nope. me."

blood started streaming on to the carpet. crap. we got some paper towels and i headed up stairs to clean it out. my uncle headed to the store to pick up some hydrogen peroxide. in the meantime i ran cold water over it and everyone took a look. a quick call to the emergency number on the back of my kaiser card (they really are a pretty great health insurance company, actually) had us heading to the ambulatory center.

i don't know where that whole "a dog's mouth is the cleanest place in the world!" thing came from, but it's total bullshit. all mouths, from all animals are just teeming with bacteria. the doc at the ambulatory center said a dog bite is practically an automatic infection.

so they put me on augmentin (dogmentin!). ten days. gave me some low grade pain pills that worked pretty well too. no stitches though. which makes sense. i had a biomaterials class a while back in which i learned just a fraction of the amazing shit your body has figured out how to do to keep you alive. one of these is how it ejects foreign objects. including bacteria. you want to give it an escape route. so you don't really want to stitch up a deep puncture wound that can have shit deep in it that needs to come out. so i got those steri-strips. they work pretty well.

fast forward to sunday night. i took my second and final antibiotic pill of the day without food. they say this is a bad idea. it'll make you queasy. and for a while, i thought it had. but i toughed it out and fell asleep.

and then awoke. a few minutes later. with a most pressing need to get to the bathroom.

and i vomited. and again. and again. and again.

not as much as the lady did. but holy crap, that was not fun. quite possibly thee sickest i have ever been. i don't know that i have ever involuntarily moaned aloud whilst retching with nothing in my stomach left to heave. that was insane.

but i got better. eventually. but not all the way. wtf?

later i realized that the antibiotics might actually be killing all the good guy bacteria that were needed to kick out the virus. which is why it's still here. five days later. it's such an odd combination. i'm walking around like i'm fine. i can't really eat. i get full after maybe an english muffin. and then i instantly get intensely queasy. i'm shitting water every half hour. but aside from that... i really feel fine. no aches or pains. no fever. i'm on a steady diet of pepto liquid and tabs to keep the acid in my stomach down and the queasiness.

we found out it was officially an "intestinal virus" after jills got it. well, david got it first. he came out of the bathroom and looked at me and said, "well that wasn't fun." i don't think he vomited that much. he got a lot of sleep and bounced back pretty quickly. jills got hit hard, though. she's a little thing. she was laying on her parents' floor, unable to move she had retched so hard. she couldn't get liquids in to her so she dehydrated and cramped up. my uncle got her to the hospital where they pronounced it an intestinal virus and loaded her up with intravenous liquids and pain meds.

but me? i'm still queasy. here we are five days later. i'm back in DC. and i've got five more goddam days of meds to go through before i can get this shit out of me so i can shit proper again.

merry fucking christmas. tomorrow i'm off to delaware.

:-|

Vick. the new OJ?

2007-12-13T18:02:07Z

it's a shame.

it's a shame you can't see this kid's face. it's a shame i'll never be able to find out who he is and send him boxes full of dog body parts from fight losers. bloody stumps. chunks of scarred skin. charred skin from the electrocutions used to kill the dog.

hell. maybe just a fe pictures.

ignorant prick.

i hope you die.

my new favorite website

2007-12-05T21:51:30Z

for the next few hours, at least.

External Delivery the Future

norman podhoretz... is... well, he's frickin' nutty is what he is.

2007-11-08T22:13:45Z

Reason Magazine - Hit & Run > The Homosexual Roots of Antiwar Sentiment: Podhoretz Schools the Ignorant:

Nice piece in the American Prospect from Justin Logan on the silliness of pro-warriors' endless Hitler analogies and all, worth a read, but I really wanted to just single out this one somewhat extraordinary bit, news to me though perhaps not to longterm careful Norman Podhoretz watchers:

Podhoretz penned a meandering essay in Harper's in 1977 titled "The Culture of Appeasement" which likened antiwar sentiment in post-Vietnam America to the wariness of war in Britain after World War I, and then linked the latter to a homosexual yearning for relations with all the young men who perished in the Great War. In Podhoretz's view, "the best people looked to other men for sex and romance," and as a result, didn't much like them being killed by the score on the Continent. "Anyone familiar with homosexual apologetics today will recognize these attitudes."

Tying things back into the 1970s, Podhoretz pointed to the "parallels with England in 1937" and warned that "this revival of the culture of appeasement ought to be troubling our sleep." (A correspondent in a subsequent issue of Harper's would admit that he "had not previously realized that Winston Churchill fought the Battle of Britain almost singlehandedly while England's ubiquitous faggotry sneered and jeered from below.")

the fuck?

or, as doherty puts it:

I haven't felt more like backing out of a room saying, "Uh, yeah, interesting, gotta go" while reading anything in a long time.

srsly.

so i guess people against war are, well, just against war because they want to have sex with all those mens and all that dyin' means less humpin'.

if you ever get shot...

2007-10-31T17:59:05Z

...on the run from the cops, and go to a vet and tell him to take the bullet out because you can't go to the hospital or the cops will find you?

tell him to grab the jalapeños.

instead of jack daniels:

"Bite a hot pepper, and after the burn your tongue goes numb. The Baltimore Sun reports that Capsaicin, the chemical that gives chili peppers their fire, is being dripped directly into open wounds during highly painful operations, bathing surgically exposed nerves in a high enough dose to numb them for weeks. As a result patients suffer less pain and require fewer narcotic painkillers as they heal. 'We wanted to exploit this numbness,' says Dr. Eske Aasvang, a pain specialist who is testing the substance. Capsaicin works by binding to C fibers called TRPV1, the nerve endings responsible for long-lasting aching and throbbing pain. Experiments are under way involving several hundred patients undergoing various surgeries, including knee and hip replacements using an ultra-purified version of Capsaicin to avoid infection. Volunteers are under anesthesia so they don't feel the initial burn."

reasons why wikipedia can suck, part n

2007-10-31T17:22:21Z

Wikipedia:Notability - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Within Wikipedia, Notability is an article inclusion criterion based on encyclopedic suitability. The topic of an article should be notable, or "worthy of notice". This concept is distinct from "fame", "importance", or "popularity". A subject is presumed to be sufficiently notable if it meets the general notability guideline below, or if it meets an accepted subject specific standard listed in the table to the right.

i don't see how this could NOT be a highly subjective concept.

"worthy of notice"? really? do you think wiki admins represent all aspects of culture and society to be able to determine this? i mean, just because one of them hasn't heard of it, does that mean it's not "notable"?

wiki admins get on my nerves any time i delve in to that world, anyway. from the nearly psychotic assertion that seung-hui cho's entry be listed as "Cho Seung-Hui" because "that's how koreans do it!!!" ... completely ignoring the established fact that that is most certainly not how cho did it... to all the arguments on the "talk" pages and what does and does not deserve its own page. like the title character in the "macaca incident". he had one. it was removed. why? search me. i'm pretty sure internets pages aren't real pages, so it's not like trees were wasted.

although, it's like most things... when you are clearly away from the "grey areas" it works pretty well. it's those borderline things/people that always get screwed.

[inspired by actual events]

things are lookin' up!

2007-10-30T16:22:35Z

NPR : FEMA Sacks Man Behind Fake News Conference:

John Philbin, FEMA's former external affairs director, was to take over public affairs for the Director of National Intelligence on Monday. But after Philbin's involvement in staging a fake FEMA press conference, DNI Mike McConnell decided not to have him as his top public information officer.

impressive.

the thing that bothers me... and i can only assume, most people, is more that this pravda-esque move was actually attempted. i mean, yeah they were caught and the "system" worked, yadda yadda yadda. but jesus christ, this is america. we're not "supposed" to even try to pull that bullshit. wtf?

a very revealing point...

2007-10-30T00:05:14Z

and i'm sure, NOT the one they were trying to make:

But during his sentence something changed, and before his death, Dahmer went on MSNBC with his father. When asked what contributed to his new accountability, he told his father, "Thanks to you for sending that creation science material."

In the interview Dahmer acknowledges that he once believed in the evolution theory which "cheapens life". He went on to testify to the Lord Jesus Christ being the true Creator and accepting Him as his Savior.

i mean, if the mentally diseased such as dahmer are easily converted to your "team"? well then i wouldn't say you're standing on firm ground.

i also like that little dig, there. in the interview, he "acknowledges". it's subtle, but these people seem to use language that implies atheism or belief in evolution or whatever is against their beliefs... is something of which to be ashamed.

like, "hi, my name's dave... and i'm an evolutionist..."
"hi dave. acknowledging it is the first step."

the reason it's always subtle is, of course, so that it can be denied in public. the only evidence of their state of mind is in implication... such as... why would you even say that, if you weren't implying the need for shame? i mean, wasn't the previous statement about the delivery of "creation science material" enough of an implication? guess not.

this should be interesting...

2007-10-26T03:53:44Z

Travolta boards 'Pelham' remake - Entertainment News, Film News, Media - Variety:

John Travolta is boarding "The Taking of Pelham 123," negotiating to join Denzel Washington in the Tony Scott-directed remake at Columbia.

Travolta will play the leader of a quartet that hijacks a Gotham subway train and threatens to kill the passengers unless a ransom is paid. The role was originated in the 1974 film by Robert Shaw. Washington plays the chief detective of security for the subway, a role originated by Walter Matthau in the Joseph Sargent-directed drama.

because in the original, which i enjoyed, by the way, the "quartet" which hijacks the subway are all dressed in the same dark suit and white shirt (plus fedoras and glasses, if i remember correctly) and refer to each other as "Mr. <color>"

yes. that's where the hack tarantino got that from.

now i'm wondering if they'll keep that aspect... or fear that people will now think they are ripping off tarantino... which, by the way, is practically impossible. i mean, if you're ripping off tarantino, you're ripping off someone else, by the chain rule.

censorship by intimidation... and The Gentle Art of Homeopathic Killing, By The Quackometer

2007-10-25T15:36:58Z

Skeptico: Homeopaths Censor Blogger:

The Society of Homeopaths was successful in getting blogger The Quackometer to pull his post entitled The Gentle Art of Homeopathic Killing – an expose of how homeopaths falsely claim that homeopathy can prevent and cure malaria.

i'm pretty tired of scared little reactionary "providers", be they internet or video (youtube has done this too) that flinch at the first mention of a lawsuit. it seems they don't even check and see if the threat has any merit. that was certainly the case with shyster uri geller's full-on assault of youtube clips in which he merely appears, claiming he holds the copyright of, basically, his own image... which backfired. woopsie doodle.

so i reproduce the frightening material here, for your perusal:

The Gentle Art of Homeopathic Killing

By The Quackometer

The Society of Homeopaths (SoH) are a shambles and a bad joke. It is now over a year since Sense about Science, Simon Singh and the BBC Newsnight programme exposed how it is common practice for high street homeopaths to tell customers that their magic pills can prevent malaria. The Society of Homeopaths have done diddly-squat to stamp out this dangerous practice apart from issue a few ambiguously weasel-worded press statements.

The SoH has a code of practice, but my feeling is that this is just a smokescreen and is widely flouted and that the Society do not care about this. If this is true, then the code of practice is nothing more than a thin veneer used to give authority and credibility to its deluded members. It does nothing more than fool the public into thinking they are dealing with a regulated professional.

As a quick test, I picked a random homeopath with a web site from the SoH register to see if they flouted a couple of important rules:

48: • Advertising shall not contain claims of superiority. • No advertising may be used which expressly or implicitly claims to cure named diseases.

72: To avoid making claims (whether explicit or implied; orally or in writing) implying cure of any named disease.

The homeopath I picked on is called Julia Wilson and runs a practice from the Leicestershire town of Market Harborough. What I found rather shocked and angered me.

Straight away, we find that Julia M Wilson LCHE, RSHom specialises in asthma and works at a clinic that says,

Many illnesses and disease can be successfully treated using homeopathy, including arthritis, asthma, digestive disorders, emotional and behavioural difficulties, headaches, infertility, skin and sleep problems.

Well, there are a number of named diseases there to start off. She also gives a leaflet that advertises her asthma clinic. The advertising leaflet says,

Conventional medicine is at a loss when it comes to understanding the origin of allergies. ... The best that medical research can do is try to keep the symptoms under control. Homeopathy is different, it seeks to address the triggers for asthma and eczema. It is a safe, drug free approach that helps alleviate the flaring of skin and tightening of lungs...

Now, despite the usual homeopathic contradiction of claiming to treat causes not symptoms and then in the next breath saying it can alleviate symptoms, the advert is clearly in breach of the above rule 47 on advertising as it implicitly claims superiority over real medicine and names a disease.

Asthma is estimated to be responsible for 1,500 deaths and 74,000 emergency hospital admissions in the UK each year. It is not a trivial illness that sugar pills ought to be anywhere near. The Cochrane Review says the following about the evidence for asthma and homeopathy,

The review of trials found that the type of homeopathy varied between the studies, that the study designs used in the trials were varied and that no strong evidence existed that usual forms of homeopathy for asthma are effective.

This is not a surprise given that homeopathy is just a ritualised placebo. Hopefully, most parents attending this clinic will have the good sense to go to a real accident and emergency unit in the event of a severe attack and consult their GP about real management of the illness. I would hope that Julia does little harm here.

However, a little more research on her site reveals much more serious concerns. She says on her site that 'she worked in Kenya teaching homeopathy at a college in Nairobi and supporting graduates to set up their own clinics'. Now, we have seen what homeopaths do in Kenya before. It is not treating a little stress and the odd headache. Free from strong UK legislation, these missionary homeopaths make the boldest claims about the deadliest diseases.

A bit of web research shows where Julia was working (picture above). The Abha Light Foundation is a registered NGO in Kenya. It takes mobile homeopathy clinics through the slums of Nairobi and surrounding villages. Its stated aim is to,

introduce Homeopathy and natural medicines as a method of managing HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria in Kenya.

I must admit, I had to pause for breath after reading that. The clinic sells its own homeopathic remedies for 'treating' various lethal diseases. Its MalariaX potion,

is a homeopathic preparation for prevention of malaria and treatment of malaria. Suitable for children. For prevention. Only 1 pill each week before entering, during and after leaving malaria risk areas. For treatment. Take 1 pill every 1-3 hours during a malaria attack.

This is nothing short of being totally outrageous. It is a murderous delusion. David Colquhoun has been writing about this wicked scam recently and it is well worth following his blog on the issue.

Let's remind ourselves what one of the most senior and respected homeopaths in the UK, Dr Peter Fisher of the London Homeopathic Hospital, has to say on this matter.

there is absolutely no reason to think that homeopathy works to prevent malaria and you won't find that in any textbook or journal of homeopathy so people will get malaria, people may even die of malaria if they follow this advice.

Malaria is a huge killer in Kenya. It is the biggest killer of children under five. The problem is so huge that the reintroduction of DDT is considered as a proven way of reducing deaths. Magic sugar pills and water drops will do nothing. Many of the poorest in Kenya cannot afford real anti-malaria medicine, but offering them insane nonsense as a substitute will not help anyone.

Ironically, the WHO has issued a press release today on cheap ways of reducing child and adult mortality due to malaria. Their trials, conducted in Kenya, of using cheap mosquito nets soaked in insecticide have reduced child deaths by 44% over two years. It says that issuing these nets be the 'immediate priority' to governments with a malaria problem. No mention of homeopathy. These results were arrived at by careful trials and observation. Science. We now know that nets work. A lifesaving net costs $5. A bottle of useless homeopathic crap costs $4.50. Both are large amounts for a poor Kenyan, but is their life really worth the 50c saving?

I am sure we are going to hear the usual homeopath bleat that this is just a campaign by Big Pharma to discredit unpatentable homeopathic remedies. Are we to add to the conspiracy Big Net manufacturers too?

It amazes me that to add to all the list of ills and injustices that our rich nations impose on the poor of the world, we have to add the widespread export of our bourgeois and lethal healing fantasies. To make a strong point: if we can introduce laws that allow the arrest of sex tourists on their return to the UK, can we not charge people who travel to Africa to indulge their dangerous healing delusions?

At the very least, we could expect the Society of Homeopaths to try to stamp out this wicked practice? Could we?