caliarch.net

Slate encourages us to start thinking of our relationships similarly to the way the green movement encourages us to think about our food — just as we can calculate “food miles” (how far did that food travel so that you could eat it?), it is clear that we should now also calculate “sex miles” (how far was that hottie shipped so you could hook up with him/her?).  By their rough estimates, going “locasexual” could be 10 times better for the planet than going vegetarian.  Haha.

Not sure he’s said it all, but he certainly covered a lot of ground.

“If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 30 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn’t want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher’s job.” ~ Donald D. Quinn

Thanks, DRich!

“John Stuart Mill wrote in 1848, ‘It’s hardly possible to overstate the value … of placing human beings in contact with other persons dissimilar to themselves, and with modes of thought and action unlike those with which they are familiar.’ It’s hardly possible to overstate the rarity with which this kind of exchange happens in America.” ~Bill Bishop on Slate, 10/20/08

I know that this kind of stuff happens, but it’s still really depressing when you hear about specific incidents.

Joe the Plumber is an honest, hard-working American whose taxes would go up under Obama.

Except the part about the taxes going up.  And being a plumber.  Oh, and also being named Joe.  In fact he owes $1200 in back taxes.

I am so sick of all of this.

That’s why.

(God forbid we leave this kind of bullshit behind & talk about actual issues…)

As a math teacher, gmail user, and person who has sent the (very) occasional regretted email, I find this super amusing.  (It’s kind of like those breathalyzers people sometimes have to get installed on their cars if they’ve had multiple DUIs, where the car won’t start unless the person blows under a certain blood alcohol level.  Only for email.)  Lol.

…Here’s an interesting mathematical take on how we got into this mess in the first place.  Extremely oversimplified, but maybe with some valid ideas nonetheless.

“Palin is the most prominent woman on the political stage at the moment. By taking unprepared hesitancy and lack of preparation to a sentence-stopping level, she’s yanking us back to the old assumption that women can’t hack it at these heights. We know that’s not true—we’ve just watched Hillary Clinton power through a campaign with a masterful grasp of policy and detail. Clinton lost in part because she was the girl grind. Complex sentences, the names of Supreme Court cases, and bizarre warnings about foreign heads of state invading our airspace weren’t her problem. The fear now is that Palin is the anti-Hillary and that her lack of competence threatens to undo what the Democratic primary did for women. Palin won’t bust through the ceiling that has Hillary’s 18 million cracks in it. She’ll give men an excuse to replace it with a new one.” ~Slate, 10/1/08