Presuming that you’re an American reading this, the odds are fairly strong that you heard this juicy tidbit in the internet/sports rumor mill today. The story is about a woman who is adored for her ability to play pretend, who filed for divorce from her husband, who is adored for his ability to throw a sphere into a standardized hoop.
Unless you are a facebook friend of mine, or happen to follow CERN’s twitter stream, you almost certainly weren’t appraised of this story today. That one told of the most complicated device ever constructed by your species, spawned something that, until fairly recently, was thought to be a purely theoretical type of stuff and sustained it for longer than it had ever been sustained.
I would love to say it was a good day for the human race. I’m not so sure.
Teachers are used to working with less. Primary school teachers are used to buying basic classroom supplies out of their own salaries; secondary school teachers are used to teaching with classrooms at double or more capacity; post secondary teachers at all levels are used to ever increasing demands from multiple masters (publish now, do committee work now, teach now, advise now…everything now, or preferably yesterday). I’ve taught at all these levels, and most of the teachers I know accept their respective situations with a shrug and a sense of humor (there’s a reason the teachers’ lounge is the most important room in any school building for the people to whom it caters).
This is mindblowingly brilliant…and perhaps the best use of a Congressional hearing in decades. Proof that this hits home: the face of bigoted jackass Rep. Steve King, who understands the target of the joke. I’d ask the Republicans who don’t understand to read up on Voltaire, but I doubt they’d get the reference.
I anticipate a lack of consensus on this point amongst the Meppers, but I think Richard Dawkins gives us a worthy starting point here in responding to a hackneyed argument against Atheism, that it cannot truly uphold morality.
Here is the esteemed Governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, repeatedly failing to use the English language in her Gubernatorial Debate opening statement. Arizona seems to be well on its way to surpassing California in the stupefyingly incompetent elected official category.
On the other hand, I am somewhat mollified by her assurance that she has done the best possible job of any conceivable theoretical candidate.
Fantastic round table lead by Stephen Fry on the out of control incarceration rate in this country. We imprison more people, per capita, than any nation in the history of the world. Fortunately for the Prison Industrial Complex, the coming double-dip recession will surely provide ample opportunity to sweep thousands more into our penal/human chattel holding cells, that we may create more wards of the state and more productive slave labor. Huzzah for free societies.
The Greatest American Five Fingers, The Teabag Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree for Rand Paul, We Like Ice Cream Because It’s ICE CREAM!, What if We Just Lightly Sear Them?, Lakers Fail at Immigration, Invading Arizona for Fun, Profit, and Golf Courses, Greg Roots For the Insurance Company to Win the Bet, and the BuddhaFather.
In case you’re not as into sports as we here at The Mep Report are, you might have missed this little gem from last night: the worst call in the history of professional baseball. Not that we ever engage in hyperbole anyway, but just in case you’re tempted to think that’s what I’m engaging in here, I give you umpire Jim Joyce and one hard luck pitcher called Armando Galarraga.
If anyone’s wondering why I once compared New York City to Darfur, maybe a bit of it has to do with the fact that both are absurdly inhospitable to outsiders. And the “art installation” depicted above and discussed here provides good insight into said inhospitability.
Seldom do we ex-debaters at The Mep Report get the chance to watch our political leaders, who tend to be woeful both in constructing arguments and refuting them, lay the smackdown on people who desperately deserve it. So it’s a breath of fresh air on the rare occasions when it happens.
