…time to celebrate human achievement. Get those lights on at 8:30!
Category Archives: Social Commentary
Simon Jester Lives
A new web site, apparently by Liberty Girl and others.
We’ll see where this goes.
You know, since they’re doing a movie of Atlas Shrugged, it might be a good time for The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress as well. I wonder if anyone’s optioned it?
Bigotry
Lileks has some thoughts on clueless anti-Christian bigots in entertainment. And the fact that they’d never bravely slander Muslims in the same manner.
Also, a question about movie stars past. I left a heretical comment that Marilyn Monroe was highly overrated. And I think that Hedy Lamar was hot for her brains (she invented frequency hopping).
Why Life Is Unfair (Reason #2,968,754)
Why bad jokes are easier to remember than good ones.
Downsizing?
There may be a new trend in the Midwest:
Temporary Mayor Michael Brown made the off-the-cuff suggestion Friday in response to a question at a Rotary Club of Flint luncheon about the thousands of empty houses in Flint.
Brown said that as more people abandon homes, eating away at the city’s tax base and creating more blight, the city might need to examine “shutting down quadrants of the city where we (wouldn’t) provide services.”
He did not define what that could mean — bulldozing abandoned areas, simply leaving the vacant homes to rot or some other idea entirely.
Presumably, those areas would go back under the jurisdiction of the county, like other unincorporated areas, including policing by the Sheriff rather than city police.
The Really Big O
I am not qualified to render an opinion on this subject:
The idea that birth can be orgasmic isn’t new. The British birth guru Sheila Kitzinger says that she has met “hundreds” of women during the course of her career who report experiencing orgasm during labour – some were hoping for it, others were taken completely by surprise. She herself has experienced it during three of her four labours (she has five daughters: one birth was twins). “It is difficult for a man to understand,” she says “hard, too, for any woman who has had an average hospital birth. But it can be one of the most profound psychosexual experiences in a woman’s life. Each contraction may bring a rush of joy so overwhelming that the pain recedes into the background.” She puts this partly down to simple biology. “The pressure of the baby’s head against the walls of the vagina and the fanning out of the tissues as the head descends bring for some women an unexpected sensation of sexual arousal, even of ecstasy.” But is this really an orgasm? Or just a very unusual sensation? “It can be orgasmic. People recognise it as an orgasm. And it can be a multiple orgasm, one with each push.”
Well, there can be a fine line between pain and pleasure, particularly when it comes to this sort of pain and pleasure.
A Bridge Too Far
You know, William Shatner had a three-word phrase for these people a few years back (the third was “life”):
Mr. Veazie, a manager at Underwriters Laboratories, built the chair himself last year, and has been gratified to find, since installing it in the living room in May, that “when someone comes in, it’s the first thing they comment on.”
You don’t say.
But I thought they didn’t like the word “Trekkie.” Isn’t it supposed to be “Trekker”?
Eeeeeuuuuuu
You know, short of the Simpsons cat lady, I’m as big a cat person as they come, but I would not wipe my hands on this thing.
Cathedrals Of Science
Paul Spudis has some interesting ruminations (with a comment from Neil deGrasse Tyson).
When Waxing Is Outlawed
…only outlaws will wax:
Cherry Hill salon owner Linda Orsuto said that women would “go ballistic” if the proposal passed. She said that some women would resort to waxing themselves, visiting unlicensed salons or traveling to other states, including Pennsylvania, in a quest to remain bare down there.
“The clients are going to freak,” said Orsuto, who owns 800 West Salon & Spa, on Route 70. “It’s a hot issue, and we’re going to have to do something.”
Isn’t it wonderful to have a government so solicitous of our welfare that we (well, they) are driven to back-alley waxing?
And as Jonah notes, it is interesting how many people didn’t want to discuss it.