Sometimes when I used to prune the hair in my nose, I called it “nose hair plucking.”
Now I call it, “deforestation.”
Ah, the fun of growing older.
Day: November 7, 2011
Same-sex penguin pair forced to divorce
Science-loving and liberal-minded people already know that homosexuality in nature is more common and understandable than any conservative will have you believe.
The original headline on this video was, “Same-sex penguin pair fascinates zookeepers.” That surprised me a little.
Were they really fascinated by this phenomenon. Or was this how the media decided to encapsulate the story into a headline?
I mean, did you read the story of the OWS guy who assaulted the kids at McDonald’s for not hooking him up with free food. He was obviously OWS, because he was “seen with the protesters.” It’s not unlike me to be seen with children, but that doesn’t make me a child. Every day I walk with a dog, but that doesn’t make me a dog.
Peeing while sitting makes me no more a girl than a woman peeing standing up makes her a man.
I am riding this tangent as far as it will go
My point is: it’s not uncommon for penguins to attract to same sex partners. Here’s a story of two male penguins adopting an orphan penguin.
And everyone knows that worship led by a penguin is much better than worship led by a orphan, gay penguin.
Or something like that.
I get confused on that metaphor.
Tea Bag Ted Meme: Fuck Intellectualism
I had to post this one.
It reads:
Fuck Intellectualism. All those losers do are study, think and not own guns.
I think it’s supposed to be Tea Party Ted, but it doesn’t look right to me.
There are a whole lot more at Buzzfeed.
Like this one:
Reagan raised taxes 11 times. Obama is a dictator for trying to tax rich
George hw bush raised debt ceiling 9 times, obama once. Obama is a dictator.
Cynical C reblog: Daily dose of Ingersoll
The instant we admit that a book is too sacred to be doubted, or even reasoned about, we are mental serfs.
I thought this one was worth reposting.
Screw the loaves and fishes, if you don’t work, you don’t eat … Michele Bachmann rules
If god’s grace is Word that feeds you so you won’t go hungry, then I say you shouldn’t eat either.
Sustain off your magical bread, bitch.
Finally, a proper explanation for the fuckshites Bankers working on Wall Street
Wondering why #OWS exists? Well, take a few minutes and listen to this Irishman explain it.
NSFW, but worth every … single … minute.
Orphans vs. non-orphans
This update on Facebook got me.
It reads, “There’s a difference between worship led by the son and worship led by an orphan.”
Jesus is the son of god.
Muslim was an orphan.
There’s a silly heritage of us vs them within the evangelical Christians and Islam. There is a common sentiment that Jesus is a living god that you can have a personal relationship with. Muhammad is dead.
Within the Christian circle, that’s a big hairy deal.
Based on doctrine and tradition, Christianity beats Islam. And within the church, Christian religionists can say that and feel better about themselves. That’s like being poor, and making your poorness feel better by saying, “People in poverty are happier than rich people.”
But rich people are far more successful, usually more educated and there’s no proof that rich people are sadder than poor. It’s just something said to soothe the pain of poverty.
It has no weight on anyone else, but the insider.
Orphans vs Sons is a childish idea.
The fact remains, believers are practically incapable of criticizing their own faith. I get it. Yes, atheism is criticized for being like religions, because the things its adherents “believe” are just as impossible as Christian or Islamic myth.
But I’m yet to hear a Christian say, “The whole story of Jesus is just as crazy as any other faith or lack of faith, we just choose to accept it.”
From an outside perspective, all of these systems of thought are wacky.
And there’s no difference between worship led by an orphan or a son. It’s just that the son worshipers didn’t grow up in orphan worship and vice versa.
Otherwise, they might not be so catty about the whole thing.
Reconnecting with Maui
Yesterday, Tina and I drove out to the suburbs to visit the family whom we stayed with in Maui earlier this year.
Many of you remember our trip. Perhaps you didn’t know that our hosts were only there temporarily. Tina’s friend Kim loves Hawaii, and Maui in particular. Last winter during a transition period from moving out of a home to buying a short sale house in the suburbs, she packed up her three kids and lived in a rental house in Maui.
Her husband runs a couple businesses here in Chicago, so he stayed behind.
You know, this is what people do. Move to Maui while they wait for the paperwork to go through on a short sale.
If you’re unaware of short sales, I’m not sure what they are either. It’s a real estate term for buying a house that is about to be foreclosed. It’s owned by the bank. But it’s basically a stupid term for when a house is in limbo and they don’t want to call it foreclosed. The word “short” has nothing to do with it, because it took Kim and her husband six or more months to finally close on the house.
Back in July, We visited Kim, because her time in Maui was coming to an end. She moved back to Chicago the week after Tina and I left.
They bought a beautiful home forty five minutes from our place. The living space is on three floors. There’s an indoor pool in the basement with a sauna underneath the staircase. There’s a huge kitchen and living space on the first floor.
And the bedrooms on the second floor are well distributed and have some of the biggest closets you’ve ever seen.
We had a great time. We went for a walk to a nearby lake. We swam in the pool. We had an afternoon snack of oxtail soup and, later, a steak dinner. We sat around the dinner table, and the boys played guitar for us. I had a lot of fun.
Apparently I have a lot more in common with Kim’s husband than I thought. I knew were both atheists, but he has a similar business mind as I do. They don’t raise their kids with any particular spiritual direction, but I can tell the kids have had some religious influence that he isn’t going to negate or reward. He wants them to make up their own minds.
Kim is more like Tina. She’s spiritual, but isn’t convinced by any one religion. That’s how lots of people are around here. And maybe it’s our age. Organized religion is disregarded. It might be something people do out of tradition, but it’s nothing more.
Maybe it’ll phase out in a few more generations
All three kids hung out with the adults all day. That was how it was in Hawaii too. Lots of times our friends’ kids run off to do their own things, but at 11, 8 and 3, these three hang out and chat with the adults … and we were there for over seven hours.
It was magical.
Kim’s husband loves the photos that I took in Maui, and he wants to blow a few up to decorate their home. I felt very honored. While I sat with him, he shuffled through them almost twice on his laptop.
Oddly enough, he likes a few esoteric ones that I keep telling Tina are my favorites.
City life
Kim and her family love the city, too. They lived in the city for a long time, and love the accessibility and diversity of things to do. But with their family, they wanted more space and a yard for their dog Nutmeg.
Since they would like to get an occasional city fix, we talked about doing house swaps. Tina and I could go stay at their place for a weekend, and they could stay at our place.
At dinner, I wanted to bring up the topic again, and I said, “So do you guys think you’re serious about doing the wife swaps?”
As the words exited my mouth, I turned three shades of bright red with polkadots. The kids didn’t really get it, but the adults were all a chatter about the prospect.
So Tina and I are swingers now.
Who would have ever known.
Honk.
Hipstamatic 7UP fall colors
I took this photo this morning when I took Talulah out. It’s the tree directly in front of our place.
It reminded me of a lemon lime drink. Now I’m thirsty.
Le Café Wittypoots 