23 Nov 2006
Book Lovers Seek Lovers, Buttered or Plain

Man, The London Review of Books sounds like a publication that would be fun to read just for the "Personals" ... you can find the latest here. My favorite from this issue:

Young, charming, thoughtful, attractive, sporty, zesty, intelligent. None of these are me, but if you’d like to spend an afternoon or more considering alternative adjectives to be applied to 53-year old cantankerous dipshit, write now to box no 2202

Despite the articles assertion, it's not just the British who can appreciate this kind of reverse psychology. In fact, it really reminds me of the advertising strategy I spotted on a local bar's marquee: "Warm beer, lousy food, high prices - Come on in!". The parking lot was full.

Perhaps only someone from Britain could genuinely believe that a personal ad beginning, “Baste me in butter and call me Slappy,” might lead to romance with an actual, nonincarcerated person.

(link) [New York Times]

08:38 /Humor | 2 comments | permanent link

For Rare Few, Taste Is in the Ear of the Beholder

Nothing new here: I used to do this all the time, back in the 70's, when Tim Leary still had all the answers...

Julia Simner, a cognitive neuropsychologist, has identified 10 people who involuntarily “taste” words when they hear them.

(link) [New York Times]

07:56 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link

Some Curbs on Sex Offenders Called Ineffective, Inhumane

Apparently Georgia has gone beyond even Iowa when it comes to insane regulations on "sex offenders". Some gems:

Among those swept up under its definition of sex offender are a 26-year-old woman who was caught engaging in oral sex when she was in high school, and a mother of five who was convicted of being a party to a crime of statutory rape because, her indictment alleged, she did not do enough to stop her 15-year-old daughter's sexual activity.

The city of Indianapolis recently passed one of these laws, and we're a bit worried out here in the "doughnut counties" - we're afraid that they're literally exporting their child molesters, along with the harmless kinds of offenders mentioned above, to us! So there are local ordinances under consideration as well - pushing the offenders further out. Where I'm sure they'll soon get worried as well. Where does it stop - the border? The Yukon? Costa Rica?

This is nothing short of nuts: you can't put somebody in prison for a crime and then let them out after their term is up and tell them they can't live anywhere. If we're going to keep this kind of nonsense up, we'd better start building more prisons, because that's where most of these folks will end up again.

Scarier still are proposals to expand this kind of "Scarlet Letter" thinking to other crimes - such as "drug dealing". Which in most states is possession over a certain minimal amount, even when no sales activity actually takes place. Get caught with a few joints (or giving your boy/girl friend some fun) in high school and prepare to live the rest of your life in Greenland or Antarctica.

"Unjust" doesn't do this justice.

Under a new Georgia law, thousands of registered sex offenders, even the old and feeble, could be pushed from their homes and hospices.

(link) [Washington Post]

07:46 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Pass a Drumstick, and an Olive Branch

Americans as a whole may have lost touch with the ritual of shared homemade meals, but most heathens have not: because those of us lucky enough to be in a kindred or other group generally share one every month.

There is something about a communal meal, be it with extended family or a group of friends, that binds people together in a spiritual sense. Traditional and ethnic religions (like heathenry) are almost literally based around the idea of the feast, and even the major monotheist religions have "breaking bread together" as a major component of their ritual (think Communion and Ramadan).

Something to think about over the turkey and dressing today.

Americans, as a whole, have lost touch with the ritual of the shared homemade meal. No wonder we have no idea how to behave at Thanksgiving.

(link) [New York Times]

07:22 /Asatru | 1 comment | permanent link