JayB

Using the funeral-pulpit as a political platform - classy indeed.

Way to deploy the top-shelf simile, kemosabe. Awesome.

Huge negative score in the "Reflexive Western Self-Loathing Sweepstakes" to whoever's been printing these things and posting them on Capitol Hill. [imag]http://www.thestranger.com/blog/archives/freespeech.jpg[/img] Looks like someone out there's rubbing their eyes and realizing that not everyone who despises GW is an ideal ally. "Hey, maybe they're *not* actually fighting for anything like freedom after all....[scratching head]...wait a second...now that I think about it..." Maybe there's hope after all.

Daily Kos. If I were to disclose such things, the VRWC visit a swift vengeance upon me. After slipping up and making the indiscreet disclosure of the fake Hamas-Suicide Baby that they'd been assisting the CIA with, I've gotta watch my step.

I'm saddened that my subscription to WSJ ran out, but the high endorsement will send me to the nearest news-stand, since it's actually a rag I enjoy reading from time to time. And I'm sure that by using what's your bro's name Occam's(!) razor to decide which factors are more important: Something that happened a couple of generations ago at most and is still actively in violation of law and Resolution, or centuries ago and rather abstruse for most, one will not need to refer to the ol' Absurdio Reductum, but thanks for putting it into play! (did you see El Randle throw that TD pass to what's-his-name? Unexpected!) That's one of the interesting things about all of the reading that I did on the Middle East/Islam is that both Western and non-western authors suggested that the these events still plays a significant role in their collective memory. Maybe that's why hamas or some other such outfit has exhumed the reconquest of Andelusia as a theme in their elementary-school offerings. Related article below: http://www.slate.com/id/1008411/

I realize that you like the feel of newsprint gently baked by the butler so the ink doesn't soil your hands, but there is this thingy called the intraweb and the WSJ is on it! PS - isn't it about time you post the Americans & leisure time article from the Economist? That was a good one. Maybe you can share the good news yourself. I think part of the answer to the conundrum raised by the article is the fact that most people take a great deal of pride in the extent of their overwork, and overburdening, and tend to inflate their own numbers when reporting them. Protestantism, salvation by works, look what ye have wrought...

Yet they are true to their creed and require users to pay for access to most of their content. Perhaps a blogger has cut-and-pasted it somewhere for distribution to the teeming masses.

The most bizzare aspect of the encounter may have been her mastery of the adolescent male fight-lingo and etiquette. The "Yeah - I thought so - PUNK!" as I was walking away shaking my head was sheer artistry.

Yes comrade, 'tis with a weary hand and a heavy heart that I labor onwards... P.S. I can scan that WSJ article and e-mail it to you if you can't bear the thought of granting your patronage to the capitalist overlords.

One of those old-school Men's social clubs with the green desk lamps, leather-chairs, scotch - and complimentary copies of the WSJ on the table. Maybe after we buy a home my wife will let me build a small replica in a garage someday....

You have just joined Dave_Shuldt as the only poster to achieve a negative score in my "Reflexive Western Self Loathing Sweepstakes." Very dissapointing so far, as Sexual_Chocolate and others who had potential scored goose-eggs with their entries. There are two clear frontrunners at the moment, but seeing as how Jim has yet to submit his entry, any final judgement would be premature. Seems simple. If you don't like the cartoon, don't read it or send a letter to the editor, or protest peacefully. Unfortunately I think this is another case of political oportunitism by a minority. Though I'm not sure of the orginal point of the contest: draw cartoons of Mohammed to test boundaries - I didn't think they were so provacative, but I'm not Muslim. Bottom line - protest, boycott, but threatening life and property is quite out of line. Negative score for Jimbo, too. How the mighty have fallen... Edit: upon closer review allocating the bulk of the responsibilty for the incident to the Danish newspaper in question overrides the sentiments that Jim closed this statement with, so I will have to reconsider and grant this entry a positive score. Not a contender for first place, but a solid effort nonetheless.

If understanding is your goal, there's a great front-page article in today's WSJ concerning the precise context in which this situation occured. It doesn't stretch back to Hulagu's decimation of Babylonia, or the implosion of trading routes after the Euros found a sea-route to the far-East, the Moors'ejection from Spain courtesy of the battle of Grenada, the Ottoman's the battle of Vienna, and other key-milestones o' stagnation and decline that paved the way for colonization by some of their former subjects - so it may not be complete enough for your tastes, but it does quite a bit to explain the time lag between the cartoon's original publication and the Islamist pep-rallies that we're witnessing now.

Can you outdo Luna? Let's see what you've got.

You have just joined Dave_Shuldt as the only poster to achieve a negative score in my "Reflexive Western Self Loathing Sweepstakes." Very dissapointing so far, as Sexual_Chocolate and others who had potential scored goose-eggs with their entries. There are two clear frontrunners at the moment, but seeing as how Jim has yet to submit his entry, any final judgement would be premature.

Check the "Muslim Anger at Danish Cartoons," thread. I'm already on my second block of Havarti.

Ouch!!! I actually think the funniest thing about this is that someone has been following along and meticulously cataloging material, waiting for just_the_right_moment... Maybe when I move back to the PNW for good in 2.5 years maybe the anonymous lurker-rage will have been channelled into satirical screenplay and a full-sized effigy ready for burning in someone's backyard. Too funny.

Careful, Brian. You are crossing over to the dark-side here - at least if you were to judge by the response that I got when I said the same thing.

Hahaha. Way to go - keep after it. First the bullying by the AARP poster lady, now this. That's it, I've had it. I'm booking my Robert Bly retreat as we speak. I'm not sure how many people have heard this recording, but it reminds me of my own bashing. "While an operations manager employed by Jack in the Box restaurants is commuting to the job one morning, he calls his boss to leave a voicemail message announcing that due to the rainy conditions that morning he'll be late getting into the office. In the middle of the call he witnesses a minor traffic accident in which a lone male motorist runs a red light and clips an Impala occupied by four middle-aged women. Breaking off the explanation for his tardiness, the manager instead launches into a blow-by-blow description of the ensuing mayhem as the motorist gets out of his car and begins berating the four women (even though the accident was clearly his fault). Between bouts of hysterical laughter, the caller recounts the action as the four women assault, poke, and beat the hapless motorist with, variously, pepper spray, an umbrella, a large purse, and a Bible until he finally retreats back to the safety of his car. All of this, of course, is captured by his boss's voicemail account, creating an audio record of the event gleefully forwarded from mailbox to mailbox throughout the company." Click for Recording.

I definitely learned my lesson. I still get chills whenever I'm walking past the T-Wing at UW. By this time she's probably armed with a cane or a walker and won't hesitate to use it....

I thought you spent time working for the man and the union Jay. Misogny is already a field of study; it just doesn't grant degrees. Don't you get a certificate from Robert Bly when you complete one' of those Reclaim Your Inner Warrior/Manhood/Etc drumming-in-the-forest thingies, though?

I think I would have wasted several days trying to dig up the devastating put down that I should have come up with at the time. This story reminds me of my own little bizzaro interaction at UW involving a random angry woman. In highschool I'd noticed that the bigger I got, the less inclined random dickheads were to fuck with me, and even though it was no longer necessary to do so in college, I continued with the bulkification process. By the time I hit my humble apex, I think I weighed just shy of 180 and was benching about 100lbs over that. I was actually on the way to the gym on campus when I heard this stream of wild profanity coming from behind me. When I turned around this wild-eyed woman who must have been pushing 50 - at least - was throwing down her bike and coming at me full throttle. I looked behind me to see if she was screaming at someone else and I was just in the way, and when I turned around she was front and center, about 1/2 a second away from her first shove to my chest. "What's up now mothe%$#er!" "Wha..." "Yeah - what's up punk-ass! Cut me off, huh. Well we can settle this right ^%$ing here, mother^%$#" "What are you talking about, I didn't even..." "Didn't even &^$*ing look, did you you (*&^%ing punk." Shove.[Look behind me for a camera. Surely this is a joke.] "Hey - what's with the shov..." "What's with the cutting-me off, mother^%$er?" "Settle down. I..." "Are you gonna settle me down, you piece of shit. Huh?" Shove "Look lady, I don't know wha..." Shove "Listen - I...." This went on for at least a couple of minutes, and I was caught between confusion, and despair. All those years of lifting, all of the bulkification has clearly been for naught. This build I've been working on is not even sufficient deter violence from a rail-thin 50+ woman with waving skin beneath her arms and the beginnings of osteoporosis... I walked away listening to her strange, aggressive catcals. "Yeah - I thought so - PUNK." I walked away from the gym, back to my room, and pondered the sheer futility that had been the bulkification crusade. I kept going to the gym, but it just wasn't the same...

"I sure don't see this thread evincing progress in the spirit of "we are all equal human beings and deserve respect" Don't see much of that coming out of the more, er, enthusiastic Women's Studies classroom's either. I think that there are probably quite a few young men drifting around college campuses who feel like they've been wronged by their mothers, girlfriends, etc - but codifying their grievances into a field of study and granting it an institutional home wouldn't do much more than calcify-their hostility and severely circumscribe their ability to interact with 1/2 of humanity. I feel sorry for women who have been victimized by men, and there's certainly no shortage of them cruising around, but my hunch is that the angry-millitant ethos that seems to infuse a certain percentage of the students in the Women's Studies programs harms them quite a bit more than it does the objects of their anger, virtually all of whom will drift through the remainder of their lives sublimely unaware of and indifferent to it.

Be careful, man. Those Goalies and Catchers are real, and I'd hate to be on the wrong side of their anger. All the blind-fury of Medea in a 110 kilo frame....

I recall meeting this woman who had been writing a flurry columns in seething Gender-Speak in the UW daily. They're all kind of a blur but I think one of them was entitled "Mary Should Have Had an Abortion" or some other such bit of calculated vitriol, and I developed this image in my mind that was something roughly akin to semi-pro women's hockey-goalie/women's softball catcher physique/personae. It was a tremendous let-down when I actually ran into the genuine article, who happened to be a waitress at that little italian restaurant-bistro thingy by the movie theater on 45th. Smallish, petite, spoke in a whisper, and seemed to look at her shoes the entire time while taking orders. I felt like I'd just seen the Wizard behind the curtains. Definite bummer - but no loogey(sp?) unless it was served to me in my food.