Nobody needs a Ferrari to drive to the grocery store! We have to do something about these killer assault cars! Two deaths this week! And that’s just in California!
Archive for the ‘Sarcasm’ Category
We must stop the killer Italian cars!
Friday, January 4th, 2013Gratuitous snark.
Tuesday, December 11th, 2012<sarcasm>
If only we outlawed fireplaces, natural gas, razor blades, and speaker wire, Dr. Cecilia Chang would be alive today.
</sarcasm>
Setting aside the point (that people who want to kill themselves are going to do it, with or without guns), this NYT story is interesting reading.
Dr. Chang was basically a rainmaker for the university: she brought in millions of dollars in donations. Many of those donations were from what we might call “questionable” people. (One person who was awarded a honorary degree from St. John’s is currently a fugitive from justice.)
Dr. Chang took the stand at her trial. It did not go well for her, according to the NYT account, and she killed herself shortly thereafter.
TMQ watch: November 6, 2012.
Tuesday, November 6th, 2012TMQ Watch: September 4, 2012.
Tuesday, September 4th, 2012Once again, TMQ’s all-haiku predictions roll around. Let’s jump in and listen for the splash of water…
Thugs. Pimps. Nazis. Ceridian Benefit Services.
Saturday, August 25th, 2012Edited to add 8/26: Lawrence has pointed out to me that this is somewhat unfair. There are, more than likely, many pimps who are kind to their women, do not beat them unnecessarily, and in general do not deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Ceridian Benefit Services. So noted, and my apologies to the pimps.
I am disgusted.
Thursday, August 2nd, 2012It is 3:00 PM local time on Ice Cream Sandwich Day, and nobody has brought me my Android 4.0 tablet yet.
What the frack is wrong with you people?
Wednesday, July 18th, 2012Not “you people” as in my regular readers. I’m sure you’re all tall, strong, above average in IQ, and every one of your bodily functions smells like a vanilla Glade plug-in.
No, I’m talking about the rest of the Internet who doesn’t read my blog and seems to be overrun with a massive sense of entitlement.
Item 1: The existence of the GR Bullies site. “GR Bullies” is apparently a website devoted to combating “bullying” on the GoodReads website (for values of “bullying” that seem to include posting negative reviews) by…acting like misogynistic bullies themselves. Good plan, guys; I’m sure Big Fred Nietzsche would approve. Or maybe not. I commend to your attention the take of John Scalzi, an actual professional writer who gets bad reviews from time to time, on this subject. (I also recommend reading the other three writers Scalzi links.)
Item 2: The existence of ChickLitGirls, a site that takes money for reviews, only posts positive reviews, and, when it is politely suggested that their pay-for-review policy may not be 100% clear, issues bumptious lawsuit threats.
(“bumptious”. Such a great word. I need to work that into my vocabulary, along with “gargantuan“.)
Item 3: “How dare you think Dark Knight Rises isn’t the greatest thing since the invention of fire?”
Item 4: “…those like my son who have disabilities have the right to live life with access to everything people who aren’t handicapped do.” So, therefore, Netflix is obligated to closed-caption streaming video. And, no, providing closed-captioned DVDs isn’t good enough. I am so sick and tired of hearing people like Ellen Seidman talk about “rights” without making a distinction between liberty rights and claim rights.
There are some things that should require accommodation; for example, access to governmental services. And it may be good business for Netflix to make this kind of accommodation. Right now, Netflix feels that it isn’t. (As other people have pointed out, Netflix gets the material it uses for streaming from studios, that material probably does not have closed captions, and the studios would be rightfully upset if Netflix started altering their property.) If you want to prove to Netflix that they’re wrong, don’t use the service, or start your own competing service with closed captions. If Netflix looses enough business, they’ll change their mind. But you don’t have a right to closed captioned streaming video, or, for that matter, to “access to everything people who aren’t handicapped do”. Down this path lies madness: should we build a wheelchair ramp to the top of Half Dome?
[Edited to add: Hattip on item 4 to Walter Olson at Overlawyered.]
Random notes: May 3, 2012.
Thursday, May 3rd, 2012Obit watch: Junior Seau, former linebacker for the San Diego Chargers, Miami Dolphins, and New England Patriots.
And the Kennedy assassination conspiracy has claimed another victim: Earl Rose, the Dallas County medical examiner who wanted to autopsy Kennedy but was overruled. Dr. Rose also did the autopsies on J.D. Tippit (the police officer Oswald shot), on Oswald himself, and on Jack Ruby.
I am aware of the rumors that I was the winning bidder on Munch’s “The Scream”. At this time, I have no comment.
TMQ watch: February 7, 2012.
Tuesday, February 7th, 2012Good news, everyone!
I’ve come up with a way for you to hear these columns in Professor Farnsworth’s voice!
Also, it turns out that this is the last TMQ of the season! Yes, no bad predictions review this year: just the Super Bowl column and then silence until draft time.
After the jump…
Brain buckets.
Wednesday, December 28th, 2011I mentioned this in passing in this week’s TMQ thread, but for all of those who don’t read it: my sister has a new post up at the Park City Snowmamas site.
Of course, that’s just my paraphrase of what she’s actually saying. My sister never uses the word “f–k” in conversation. Except for maybe when one of her boys tries to sneak a box of Pop-Tarts or a case of Monster energy drink into the house….
Important medical news.
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011This is why I only use single-malt scotch in my Neti pot. (Mixing it with Mountain Dew is optional.)
TMQ watch update.
Tuesday, December 6th, 2011Mike the Musicologist pinged me while I was at dinner, and we had a pleasant conversation about a couple of items in this week’s TMQ watch.
Unfortunately, this conversation took place through text messages, which means that we had limited space to discuss our views. (MtM: “What?! There’s thoughts that can’t be contained in a tweet?! My world is shattered.”)
(There may have been some sarcasm there.)
(Also, I am starting to think that MtM is the Random Eddie to my TJIC. Except with fewer burritos, because he doesn’t come up here often enough.)
Anyway, point 1: MtM questions the “ever since” in “there’s no good New York style deli in Austin, ever since Katz’s closed”. I say: I never had a bad meal at Katz’s. MtM says: he did, where “bad” = “did not stay down”. I say: Yeah, I can understand your position. Meals that do not stay down generally put me off a restaurant for life. Also, it is probably fair to say “New York style”: Katz’s probably wasn’t a true NY deli, but more like a close approximation for Austin. (I say “probably” because I haven’t been to NYC in 20 years, and didn’t eat in any delis while I was there.)
Point the second: MtM argues that Easterbrook, in his “Golden Age of News” item, confuses “access” (or arguably “quantity”) with “quality”. Just because we have more access to news, is that a good thing, when “news” consists of “who won this year’s glorified karaoke competition”?
I think this is a fair point to bring up, but at the same time it raises some slippery questions. Was the New York Times of 1933 a higher quality newspaper than the NYT of 1958? Was the NYT of 1958 a better paper than the NYT of 2003? How do you judge the quality of a newspaper in an objective fashion?
I wouldn’t be so quick to say “Well, the people of 1933/1958 were much less obsessed with trivia like sports and entertainment than the people of today.” Are you sure of that? There was certainly a market for Confidential magazine, to take one example. How much difference do you think there is between the old Confidential and TMZ? Even if you want to go back to the 1930s, try reading Only Yesterday and Since Yesterday: one of the big things I took away from both books is that the people of the 1920s and 1930s were just as obsessed with the things we consider “trivial” today as we are now. The difference is, other than contemporary observers like Fredrick Lewis Allen who were writing things down as they happened, most folks have forgotten the trivia.
I’m rambling a bit here. I bring this up because I think it might provoke a worthwhile discussion, and MtM doesn’t really like posting in my comments section. So have at it, folks.