PZ Myers. 2004 Oct 19. Brief blurts. <http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/brief_blurts/>. Accessed 2008 Dec 01.

Posted on M00o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr on Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Brief blurts

Oy, I must be addicted—a long four-day weekend with little internet access, and I was itching to blurt out inanities. My poor relatives had to suffer with it, but it wasn't the same. It's been bottled up for days, so now I have to discharge my stored-up babble in one blast.

First, many thanks to DarkSyde for filling the vacuum with humor, liberal politics, and jibes at creationists. It was a radical change from the usual fare around here, so I hope you weren't excessively discomfited. A little variety is good for you, OK?

Boy, does it ever rain in Seattle.

What's this? I go away for a while, and George Gilder hisself pops up in my comments? Here's a hint, George: if you're going to complain about people accusing you of sanctimonious bombast, don't try to reply using sanctimonious bombast. It just makes the other guy's point for him. And, sweet mercy, saying things like "the genetic alphabet, what I termed the adguacyth," just shows you to be a pompous, pretentious idiot.

I am more open-minded than Belle Waring, since I am perfectly willing to allow my kids to marry robots. As long as they are kind and loving robots, that is.

I made the mistake of taking a flight with stops in Chicago, and I have long despised the Chicago airport. I have compacted my hatred into a hard, bitter nodule focused on the mindless morons who decreed that every concourse should be filled with the repetitive sound of a perky woman announcing, "Caution! The moving walkway…is ending." Every ten seconds. They must die. I hope it was a committee decision, because one victim is insufficient to slake my bloodlust.

One advantage to long flights, long layovers, and long delays is that I was finally able to finish Stephenson's The System of the World. It was very, very good, and it even had an ending! I did wonder if the dangerous choices proffered by the Technologickal Arts at the end included evilly obnoxious messages about moving walkways, 'cause I was about willing to accept a reversion to 16th century technology if it would shut her up.

I missed Jon Stewart's dismemberment of Tucker Carlson! Thanks to Feministe, though, I got to see it through the magic of the Intarweb. He incinerated him, right down to the silly bowtie. And Carlson is probably still completely clueless about what went down; if I were him, I'd be ashamed to show up at work afterwards.

I did catch Russert briefly sprouting a small testicle and confronting that South Carolina homophobe, DeMint. I watched it with my mother, who happens to be a feisty liberal. I miss my father—if he were still with us, there would have been some real snarling at the TV.

My days were spent in Auburn and Raymond. It was like living in the third world: almost no internet connectivity at all. I have a suspicion that information technology takes a back seat to the purchase of Big Vehicles; the roads are clogged with an amazing number of single-occupant SUVs. With Bush/Cheney bumper stickers.

A weird thing: I went out everyday for walks around south Auburn, and drivers would honk at me, and a few even yelled out their windows at me. At first I thought my sister must have taped a "Honk if you love Jesus" sign on my back (that's the sort of thing she would do), but no…apparently, it's just that they take the sight of a pedestrian as an insult to their mobile steely cocoons. Hey, Auburn, self-proclaimed "Little Detroit of the West", your residents need to get off their suety asses and do a little walking. Not only might it reduce the unspeakable congestion. but if they could clear up all the fat globules bubbling through their brains, they might actually wise up to the rank of half-wit.

When did living in a "reality-based community" become a bad thing? Maybe it's time to stop calling this stuff American proto-fascism, and recognize that what we've got instead is Caligula reincarnated.

Cosma Shalizi is almost shrill enough. Why aren't we all out in the streets, marching on DC, and throwing these clowns out on their ears?

I did get one pile of grading done while I was in Seattle, but I'm still behind. And I've got to go give a talk at St. John's University on Thursday, And I just learned that this afternoon is going to get gobbled up with a committee meeting. And jet-lag is a vicious bitch. I'm glad to be back, but it looks like it's going to be an utterly horrid week.