Hematoma

Oh, sure, I rant and shout about all the ranting and shouting. But lemme tellya, some people are getting the shorter end of the stick for their ranting and shouting. Like the random protestor who caught a a rubber bullet in the face this past weekend. (Via Yahoo News.)

Rubber bullets sound harmless, and they’re certainly less damaging than steel. But they’re not what you’d call safe either. Other info: Doctors urge rubber bullet ban (BBC UK) Beyond the Rubber Bullet (Time on nonlethal weapons), Future Nonlethal Weapons Arsenal (apc.org)

Correction

Ettore has convinced me that I was incorrect of me to state that “the average anti-war protestor is retarded.” I was actually quoting someone else at the time, and have edited the entry to make that clearer. However, it’s still an insult to people such as Ettore, who are really very intelligent anti-war protestors. Heck, it’s an insult to the developmentally challenged. What I meant, and what I assume i5 meant, was:

A very loud, highly visible minority of protestors are wicked queer, By which I mean they dress like soccer players.

A Price Above Oil

Fray Luis De Leon’s sixteenth-century pedagogical work La Perfecta Casada (The perfect wife) is a manual for household management in all aspects. Of course, it demands pretty severe submission and subjugation of women.

The group Ladies Against Feminism would love to bring it all back. They’re not alone– plenty of people out there are all about the modest swimwear and head coverings. Oh, sure, there’s plenty of Christians showing skin and even hip religious-themed clothing (Christians for Cannabis, anyone?), which is all well and good– none of this is mandatory.

Still, the religious right, via Ashcroft and his crew, are running the show in a lot of ways, and I’m wondering how much freedom I’ve already lost. I want to know how close we’re getting to The Handmaid’s Tale here. Even Margaret Atwood wants to know. It’s not just religious extremism I fear, although I know that non-Christians are more targeted by the current rash of extrajudicial detentions in the US. The jingoist hounds are baying that I’m a traitor because I think this is an unjust war, that Bush has the wrong motives at heart, that we’re bathing in blood and pumping it at the Shell station.

Everyone who’s studied World War II and the holocaust remembers this:

They came for the Communists, and I didn’t object – For I wasn’t a Communist;
They came for the Socialists, and I didn’t object – For I wasn’t a Socialist;
They came for the labor leaders, and I didn’t object – For I wasn’t a labor leader;
They came for the Jews, and I didn’t object – For I wasn’t a Jew;
Then they came for me – And there was no one left to object.
– Martin Niemoller, German Protestant Pastor, 1892-1984

Well, they have come to detain and register Arab men. They have come for the homosexuals in the middle of the night.

I mean, how much is too much to take? How late is too late to get out?

Sick?

You know how when you were sick as a child, you got to eat ice cream or whatever? I’ve been stuck in bed with a back injury for days and my diet today has consisted of m&m’s, bourbon, and french fries. It makes the pain go away.

6 4 7 Don’t Eat

I’m pointed to Robert’s Random Thoughts by Semi-Daily Journal. There’s a long post today about psychology, economics, and short term memory:

One of the great bits of evidence from the psych literature is that overweight people can resist nibbling if they are remembering a 3 digit number but not if they are remembering a 7 digit number (see the magic number 7). They had to remember for 5 minutes or so. They weren’t warned that they would be tempted with food.
The guess is in the heads of the 3 digit non-nibblers is “6, 4, 7, don’t eat, 6, 4, 7, don’t eat, 6, 4, 7, don’t eat, 6, 4, 7, don’t eat, 6, 4, 7, don’t eat” while in the heads of the the 7 digit nibblers was “6, 4, 7, 3, 5, 2, 4 ; 6, 4, 7, 3, 5, 2, 4; 6, 4, 7, 3, 5, 2, 4 , hey why is my stomach full!?”

I don’t know if that’s true, but it’s quite funny.

It’s a Lovely Dog

People are tittering about a dog accused of plastic surgery. NYT coverage notes that “Dog shows, not unlike Miss Universe contests or episodes of ‘Are You Hot?,’ are little more than genetic trade fairs.” Their point is that surgically altering an animal to disguise its genetic value is unethical, and that’s true. The article touches on the ethical issues brought up by ultra-typing and the risks of genetic defects. Is it ethical to manipulate the genes this way? And, are these ultra-typed animals healthy? What if you alter the genes directly rather than by breeding?