Archive for the ‘Raised Eyebrows Dept.’ Category
How is A Same-Sex Marriage like Anesthesia?
The discovery and promotion of anesthesia [c. 1845], regardless of its true father, also demonstrated the difficulties of pursing medical research in mid-nineteenth-century America. An indifference to basic investigatory work permeated clinical practice. Most physicians, affected by poor education and training and their own financial shortcomings, sought in medicine only the immediate means to solve […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Getting a Job vs. Getting a Life
I was pleased to hear one of my senators, Barbara Mikulski, say nice things today about teachers: "This Teacher Appreciation Day, let’s thank the teachers preparing our students today for jobs tomorrow." But now I'm wondering about the attitude that seems so very prevalent today that the purpose of education, even the purpose of growing […]
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Splenetics
What the Principled Republican is Believing this Week
For how many decades have we been seeing conservatives crusading under the banner that says "State's Rights"? Now, I'm sure that somewhere there are a few who actually are anti-federalist, but for the most part it's a cynical scheme employed in an attempt to derail any federal attempt at doing something distasteful to the politicians […]
In: All, Current Events, Faaabulosity, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Breaking: Republicans Promise Conservatism
Wow. Republicans took off their ties and visited a hardware store in Virginia to make their "Pledge with America". I guess this is different from Newt Gingrich's infamous "Contract with America" from 1994 in that it's merely a "pledge", and not a "contract" with contracted deliverables. I haven't read it yet so I won't mock […]
In: All, Current Events, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Who's To Judge "Pastor" Long?
Our story thus far : notedly homophobic mega-christian "pastor" Eddie Long has been accused by three young men of being a sexual predator. Nothing new there, of course. Photographs of "pastor" Eddie, appearing in very tight muscle t-shirts and taken with the iPhone he holds in his hands, have surfaced. (For instance, see here.) These […]
In: All, Current Events, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Mmmm: Lemony
Sometimes I am stupefied by the breathtaking depth of philosophical / ethical thinking on exhibit in the political discourse of modern politicians. Sharron Angle, I'm told, is a Republican candidate for US Senate in Nevada. Here is part of her response in answer to a question about abortion in the context of a father raping […]
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Will Rogers Moments
Miss Analyst Regrets
Call me perverse if you like, but when some link someplace showed me this headline Sony Tumbles After Forecasts Miss Analyst Estimates [from Bloomberg Business Week, 13 May 2010] I read it with the sense that would be implied by punctuating it thus: "Sony Tumbles After Forecasts, Miss Analyst Estimates". I found myself wondering who […]
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Such Language!
Metaphorical Inaccuracy
Some people hold a boning knife like a conductor's baton during a particularly slow part of Pachelbel's Canon. [Tom Mylan, a Brooklyn butcher, quoted by Kevin Purdy, "A Butcher's Tips for Avoiding Cuts in the Kitchen", Lifehacker, 10 February 2010.] Unfortunately, Pachelbel's famous "Canon" has only one tempo, one speed. Sections of the work have […]
In: All, Feeling Peevish, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
"Entirely under Priesthood Direction"
I took a few minutes today to glance through yesterday's trial transcript from Perry v. Schwarzenegger (transcript of the proceedings for Wednesday, 20 January 2010, of Perry v. Schwarzenegger (Volume 7, pages 1480–1741), and found a few things that caught my attention. You may recall that during the campaign last fall, accusations were made that […]
In: Faaabulosity, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
D'you Remember Joseph?
What happens when biblical literalism become biblical forgetfulness? Odd things certainly. Herewith a brief, heart-rending excerpt from an opinion piece by Chuck Norris (via Tinyfrog because I hate to link to the original): What would have happened if Mother Mary had been covered by Obamacare? What if that young, poor and uninsured teenage woman had […]
In: All, Laughing Matters, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Possible or Impossible?
Love her or loathe her, Lady Gaga is impossible to ignore. [Napoleon Perdis, "Going Gaga for Lady Gaga: Makeup Lessons of a Pop Diva", Huffington Post, 17 December 2009.] Um, not true, actually.
In: All, Briefly Noted, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Christmas Oddities
Isaac was obsessed today with finding another 15 feet of the silver garland he was using on the blue tree this year. We finally found some, I'm happy to say, so he's bearable to be around tonight. Anyway, our travels took us to Lowe's hardware store where two items in the seasonal shop caught my […]
In: All, Laughing Matters, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
When I awoke this morning I thought I was hearing unusual sounds coming from outside the house, sounds I couldn't quite identify. Now I realize it must have been the sounds of conservatives' heads exploding. I have to admit that I didn't really expect this news this morning. It does make me try to remember […]
In: All, Current Events, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Who Are the People's Lobbyists?
Here's another gloss on the corrupting power of money from large corporations, in this instance health-care insurance companies — not to mention the silly, antidemocratic notion of "corporate personhood" that recognizes campaign "contributions" from such corporations as political "speech" protected by the First Amendment. First, note the observation the the health insurance and HMO corporations […]
In: All, Current Events, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Faster or slower?
A few days ago I ordered prescription refills. They will be delivered to our house from some remote location. The medications on my list come in two types: 1) plain old pills, requiring no special handling; and 2) temperature-sensitive insulin, which is usually sent in special packaging containing cold packs via expedited delivery. I got […]
In: All, Curious Stuff, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Like a Laser Beam
A few days ago I read a piece by one Ellen Sterling;* I don't know who she is but I know a bit more about her after reading what she wrote. Her subject was someone else unknown to me named Lior Suchard. Of Suchard she says At 27, Suchard is the heir apparent to Uri […]
In: All, It's Only Rocket Science, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Hate your Job Much?
[Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, speaking of a "public option" in health-care reform, said,] "every time the government gets involved in something it doesn't work." [Dave Zirin: Michael Steele: Meet Amanda Duzak, Huffington Post, 2 September 2009.] Which is worse, Politicians who want positions in government while protesting that government is an awful idea; […]
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Snake Oil--Cheap!
Stephen Hawking Erroneously Found Dead in "Death Panel" Marketing
How interesting. I learned from Avedon Carol (who learned from Wonkette….) of an editorial in the Investor's Business Daily that, in explaining how government-run-healthcare "death panels" wold imperil your grandmother's life, used as the centerpiece of it argument that famed physicist Stephen Hawking, whose life is challenged with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as […]
In: All, Current Events, Laughing Matters, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Will Rogers Moments
For Dummies Only
Yesterday in the check-out line at the supermarket I saw a small-format book with the title Numerology for Dummies. It promised to explain the important and mysterious effects that numbers have in one's daily life. "How singularly appropriate!" I thought. How likely is it that Numerology for Really Smart People who Know what a Crock […]
In: All, Laughing Matters, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Yumm! Peppermint!
This weekend Isaac and I did a bit of after-Christmas shopping. We didn't find much but we did see a few things. One of the more extraordinary was on the mark-down shelf at Target. Now, while I understood what the product was and what it was used for, I was caught off guard by the […]
In: All, Faaabulosity, Food Stuff, Raised Eyebrows Dept.