JayB

Physical ideals have been around for a while - witness the physiques on display in hellenic/hellenistic statuary. Right. And that culture's sentiment on beauty is represented in those statues. This Hellennistic relief shows their notion of the idyllic female form with a few more pounds on the hips than our culture's most popular representations. A millenia and a half later we see this:It seems the plumpness of the idyllic female form is inverse to the availability of food to the general populace. In our "Super-Size" culture of plenty, we herald the shapes of Tyra Banks, Halle Berry, etc., as the pinnacles of form. Were the women depicted by Titian really representative of the ideals of his time? If the ideals depicted in his paintings were truly widespread it would seem as though you'd see them embodied in the works of more than a single painter, and you'd have dozens and dozens of paintings, frescoes, etc out there idealizing women that check in at two bills. Perhaps this is the case, but the fact that Titian is the one and only artist that comes up when people claim that at one time, a copious amount of adipose tissue was the sine qua non of the female form makes me suspicious.

Great photos Mike, Dylan, and Darrin.

I thought that book was dead-on as well, but then I guess that's no surprise. I think my favorite concept was "Status-Income Disequilibrium."

Though this quote is from a "conservative" writer, it seems to me to be a sentiment common to all political persuasions. It is more than plausible that men are genetically predisposed to find desirable for procreation those that are most able to bear the demands of childbirth physically. But, this is only a partial explanation for the above quote. Our culture nurtures popular definitions for what is "interesting to look at in the buff" Physical ideals have been around for a while - witness the physiques on display in hellenic/hellenistic statuary.

Excerpt: "But anyone wishing to understand the radical loser would be well advised to go a little further back. Progress has not put an end to human suffering, but it has changed it in no small way. Over the past two centuries, the more successful societies have fought for and established new rights, new expectations and new demands. They have done away with the notion of an inevitable fate. They have put concepts like human dignity and human rights on the agenda. The have democratized the struggle for recognition and awakened expectations of equality which they are unable to fulfil. And at the same time, they have made sure that inequality is constantly demonstrated to all of the planet's inhabitants round the clock on every television channel. As a result, with every stage of progress, people's capacity for disappointment has increased accordingly. "Where cultural progress is genuinely successful and ills are cured, this progress is seldom received with enthusiasm," remarks the philosopher Odo Marquard (book): "Instead, they are taken for granted and attention focuses on those ills that remain. And these remaining ills are subject to the law of increasing annoyance. The more negative elements disappear from reality, the more annoying the remaining negative elements become, precisely because of this decrease in numbers." This is an understatement. For what we are dealing with here is not annoyance, but murderous rage. What the loser is obsessed with is a comparison that never goes in his favour. Since the desire for recognition knows no limits, the pain threshold inevitably sinks and the affronts become more and more unbearable. The irritability of the loser increases with every improvement that he notices in the lot of others. The yardstick is never those who are worse off than himself. In his eyes, it is not they who are constantly being insulted, humbled and humiliated, but only ever him, the radical loser. The question as to why this should be so only adds to his torment. Because it certainly cannot be his own fault. That is inconceivable. Which is why he must find the guilty ones who are responsible for his plight. But who are these omnipotent, nameless aggressors? Thrown back entirely on his own resources, the answer to this nagging question is beyond the isolated individual. If no ideological program comes to his aid, then his search is unlikely to extend to the wider societal context, looking instead to his immediate surroundings and finding: the unjust superior, the unruly wife, the bad neighbour, the conniving co-worker, the inflexible public official, the doctor who refuses to give him a medical certificate. But might he not also be facing the machinations of some invisible, anonymous enemy? Then the loser would not need to rely on his own experience: he could fall back on things he heard somewhere. Few people have the gift of inventing themselves a delusion that fits their needs. Consequently, the loser will most often stick to material that floats freely within society. The threatening powers that are out to get him are not hard to locate. The usual suspects are foreigners, secret services, Communists, Americans, big corporations, politicians, unbelievers. And, almost always, the Jews."

Guess I didn't look down far enough on the list. Motivated scrolling on your part. Way to keep after it. Pretty funny. They have definitely been a refuge.

"The radical loser Hans Magnus Enzensberger looks at the kind of ideological trigger required to ignite the radical loser - whether amok killer, murderer or terrorist - and make him explode.." Seems like a repackaging of Hoffer's "The True Believer" but interesting nonetheless. http://www.signandsight.com/features/493.html

Old story... "End Of Road For 'GOTMILF?' License Plate" ULY 21--This is the story of GOTMILF. In May 2002, Michael Syravong filed the below "personalized license plate application" with Washington's Department of Licensing. GOTMILF was Syravong's first choice among the three possible personalized tags he listed on the state form (he would have settled for SUPL8EZ or RCKSTAR). Asked for the meaning of GOTMILF, Syravong wrote, "Manual Inline Lift Fluctuator," .....

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dank

I got some Schoeller WB-400 pants from Beyond Fleece that were The Dank for snowy conditions in the Cascades. I seemed to stay drier/more comfortable in them than hardshells as the increase in breathability seemed to more than compensate for any reduction in water-resistance that they had. The patagonia Dimension stuff also seemed like a good tradeoff.

Hypocrisy angle - got it. I personally find it galling when all of the free-love folks that eschewed marriage as a prison constructed by the patriarchical-industry complex tied the knot! The nerve of those people. But anyway - yeah - I suspect that there's definitely a Hawthornesque subtext running through the tirades of quite a few public moralists. With respect to the laws you mention - I fully support the laws that we have and am glad that they're there to protect minors from all sorts of creepy folks who might take advantage of them, but I also think that there's clearly a difference between someone who meets someone sporting a fake ID at a bar, and the furtive looking guy with the white, windowless Econoline crusing around the periphery of the local playground...

So you don't have a problem with pedophilia. Good to know. You may also want to look up female fertility vs. age. Derbyshire is missing at least 50% of the peak Not familiar with the Derbyshire reference, but I think I get the gist of your argument - but pedophillia refers specifically to a sexual attraction to those who haven't reached sexual maturity. A buddy of mine had a friend who was six feet tall, 180 pounds, and sporting five o'clock shadows and chest hair by the time he was fifteen, talked his way into a bar, and got hit on by office chicks who were well into their late 20s at least. Were they pedophiles? While I think that adults who knowingly gawk at highschoolers are creepy, and probably have some other issues going on, I don't think they necessarily qualify as pedophiles. I just think it's kind of funny when older women are shocked! shocked! that the average guy is going find the average 20 year old's body more attractive than the average 40 year old's. Are there any bald guys out there who really think that they look just as good 15 years into male-pattern baldness and resent those who suggest otherwise?

Anyone out there think it's an accident that people in their reproductive primes are generally considered more physically attractive than those that aren't? Might as well get angry about gravity, thermodynamics, etc. The thought that I will get less and less physically attractive to the average observer every year doesn't bother me in the least.

I am dead serious. If the US would just behave like Switzerland, it is quite clear that all conflicts involving Islamic millitants all over the world would end immediately, and "Celebrate Diversity," and "Visualize World Peace" would displace "Islam is the Answer," "Death to the USA," and "Allah Ak...BOOOM!" as the premier rallying cries for Islamists around the world. It's just that simple. It's also amazing how the mainstream media missed the clear link between the riots in France and the policies of the Bush administration.

That's certainly the case for the Jajaweed milita in Sudan, Islamic millitants in Kashmir, the Tamil Tigers - etc. No agenda beyond a simple reaction to US policy, no mention of Sharia, Caliphates, etc.

Any explanation of this phenomenon that does not attribute it to rising Muslim anger over our continued occupation of Belgium is simply not credible. The fact of the matter is that Islamists clearly do not have, nor have they ever had, an active agenda of their own that they are trying to further that exists outside of a reaction to American foreign policy.

Western white woman a suicide bomber By Anthony Browne, Brussels Correspondent MIREILLE, who was born in Belgium to a white, middle-class Christian family, blew herself to pieces last month in a suicide attack against American troops near Baghdad. In one of the most extraordinary tales of Islamic radicalisation, she is thought to be the first white Western woman to carry out a suicide bombing. Belgian investigators, who arrested 14 people associated with her, are keeping the 38-year-old woman’s true identity secret, but details have started to emerge. She was from the southern Belgian town of Charleroi, married to a Moroccan and converted to an extreme form of Islam. “This is how she came into contact with the organisation which allowed her to become a fighter for jihad,” said Glenn Audenaert, the federal police director. Her Belgian documents show that she travelled with her husband to Iraq. On November 9 she blew herself up in a car bomb attack on a US military convoy, killing — according to conflicting reports — either only herself, or six people. Her Belgian passport was near by. Her husband was killed by American troops in a separate incident. Security sources said that they knew of no other western European women suicide bombers. Al-Qaeda recently appealed for white converts to become suicide bombers, because it was easier for them to travel and evade detection before carrying out their attacks. Mireille’s story leaked out yesterday in the French media, prompting the series of raids across four Belgian cities, including Brussels, and separate raids in Paris. M Audernaert said that the authorities wanted “to dismantle this network, which we knew was on our territory and which aimed to send volunteers for the jihad to the battlefield”. The backgrounds of those arrested show that the problem of Islamic terrorism is no longer confined to immigrant communities — seven of those arrested were Muslim converts of native Belgian origin, two were Belgians of north African origin, two were Tunisians and three were Moroccans. One of the chief suspects held yesterday was a male Belgian convert to Islam, police said. “We know these groups are always planning attacks. All we can say is there were no attacks planned in Europe.” The group had been under surveillance for four months, but Mireille slipped out of the country. “It was through this organisation that the lady went to Iraq with her husband, but we only knew about her once she was already there,” said M Audernaert. Belgium, with its big Muslim community, has become notorious as an operational base for Islamic terrorists."

All they need to do is refinance with the no-doc hybrid-option ARM based on a wink-and-nod appraisal and they'll be just fine.

Oly - all you need in the Geoduck montage is Slothrop's cataract-glasses dude and annabelle bond for the cc.com Collage-of-Doom. Good stuff.

Interesting things happen when banks sell the mortgages that they originate to quasi-government entities with access to capital at sub-market rates, then sell them to investors who invest in them due to the assumption that no matter what happens to the underlying mortgages, the US government will step-in and take care of them. If I heard correctly, the US congress has just passed legislation authorizing GNMA and FNMA to buy mortgages that are both larger, and of lower quality - but the PRC and the petrostates don't seem to mind at the moment.....

Lots of other Iraqi bloggers out there. Of course, one has to remember that those who express opinions that vary from those that predominate on the moveon.org message board are all CIA plants - but they make for interesting reading nonetheless.

The Wall Street Journal reports on credit conditions and subprime borrowers. "Despite high debt levels, consumers have been making good on their loans for the past several years. Defaults and late payments at credit-card and mortgage companies remain low. But what seems clear is that credit indicators have bottomed and started to worsen." "Bill Ryan, an analyst for the independent financial research firm Portales Partners, has been on the lookout. Since the home has replaced the credit card as the consumer's ATM of choice in recent years, the proper place to look for early warnings signs is from delinquent mortgages, he reasons. And the likely area for those would be the subprime sector, which caters to high-risk folks." "The 2005 data through September reveal that these mortgages are faring worse than in comparable periods in each of the three previous years. This year, 6.23% of the loans are delinquent, on average, in their first nine months, a rate not surpassed until the 20th month for 2004 mortgages. By September 2004, that year's mortgages had a delinquency rate of only 3.72%." "The conclusion seems obvious: These folks were among the last to get mortgages during a great boom, and laggards tend to be worse credit risks. They flocked to short-term, floating-rate mortgages, interest-only loans and loans that require little documentation." "Home prices don't need to fall a great deal to wreak havoc. They simply need to stall, and a big source of extra spending green dries up. Keep in mind that most of these mortgages were two-year hybrids, which have a fixed rate for two years and then float for the remaining 28. If rates rise during the first two years of the mortgage, at the end of that period the monthly payments would shoot up and lead to payment shock. The only out is to refinance, but that's impossible if the home's value hasn't risen. This year, rates have risen and, predictably, home prices mostly have stalled or gone down." "At around 24 months into the 2003 mortgages mortgages, just when the popular two-year ARMs were resetting to higher rates, delinquencies shot up. At 24 months, the percentage of folks 30 days late on their payments was 10.2%. Six months later, the delinquencies had spiked to 16.6%." "What makes this so troubling is that the dollar amount of two-year ARM mortgages was much smaller in 2003 than in 2004 or this year. Mark Agah, another analyst at Portales, estimates that there were about $220 billion in two-year ARMs in 2003. That soared to about $400 billion last year and should be around $440 billion this year. That means at the two-year point for the 2004 mortgages, we are likely going to see a lot more mortgage problems."

Humor Alternate: Posted in a supermarket outside Zion. Scenic Alternate - Remote Nevada.

I've often felt something like "flow" when engaged in something as riskless as fly fishing, particularly when doing so with a dry-fly during a good hatch. I decided to synchronize my outdoor pursuits with my age a few years ago, after concluding that if all went well I'd still be able to fly fish as well as I could in my 20's when I was in my 80's - which is something that I wasn't as confident about when it came to climbing, skiing, etc. Anyhow - the joy I get from fly-fishing alone makes answering the question a no-brainer. If I knew I'd die climbing I'd quit with no regrets, and plenty of gratitude for the time I'd already managed to spend on the rope.

I've been in some houses where it looked like folks sealed their windows with a combination of Saran Wrap and duct-tape. Didn't seem like this would do much to increase the R-value to me, but who knows. Anyone done this? Did it seem to work?