Jay Lake: Writer

[links] Link salad goes right to the moon

Sympathy for the Devil, ed. by Tim Pratt – Ray Gun Reviews — With a passing favorable mention of my story “The Goat Cutter”.

Steampunk Ebooks for $2.99 — Getcher Mainspring ebook on the cheap from tor.com.

Murakami on Fiction, Truth, and Lies

How translation software helped crack ‘unbreakable’ code in 1866 secret society manuscript

‘Android Dreams’: Time-lapse video of Tokyo set to ‘Blade Runner’ soundtrack — In case you needed some cool in your morning.

Why Names Matter — SCIENCE! It works, bitches. And a serious discussion of the same issue.

Time – and brain chemistry – heal all wounds

Panel recommends that 11- and 12-year-old boys get the HPV vaccine; now given to girls — I have a question for all you folks who oppose the HPV vaccine because “oh noes, kidz and teh sex!” We’re talking about lifelong protection here. Do you seriously want your children to grow up and never have sex? Stunted lives and no grandchildren is the logical result of your objections.

US dismantles most powerful nuclear bomb

NASA Is Considering Fuel Depots in the Skies

In, Through, and Beyond Saturn’s Rings — Another awesome APOD photo.

Hardiness Zone Changes — More liberally biased facts about climate change. Which is ridiculous. Climate change wouldn’t be a partisan issue if right wing ideologues hadn’t made it one. I can even understand why evolution denial, as fundamentally moronic as it is, has become an issue. But climate change denial? It doesn’t even make as much sense as Christianist tripe, which at least comforts some wilfully ignorant people who are scared of the future.

Rand retracts report on pot clinics and crime — Think tank says researchers failed to realize that data used in the study did not include LAPD statistics. It plans to recalculate its analysis. WHo’d a thunk it? Distortion and hysteria over pot use. I don’t do 420 myself, but I’ve never seen the point of criminalization of pot.

Chart comparing Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party — Heck, yeah.

Goldman Sachs Global Rage Fund — Some seriously funny snark.

Islamic Law not a problem in Bush’s Afghanistan & Iraq, but a Problem in Libya? — If secular, communist Afghanistan was made fundamentalist by Reagan and Bush, or if the relatively secular Baath Party of Iraq was overthrown by W. in favor of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the Islamic Call Party and the Bloc of Ayatollah Sadr II, that is unobjectionable and not even reported on. But if there’s a Democratic president in the White House, all of a sudden it is a scandal if Muslims practice Muslim law. Not a Democratic president, a Kenyan Muslim socialist president. Just ask our friends in the GOP and Your Liberal Media.

Televangelist Pat Robertson Calls GOP Field Too Extreme to Win General Election — You know you’ve hit rock bottom when one of the most radical, hate-spewing figures in America calls you “extreme.”

Michele Bachmann’s misstatements may be catching up to her — The Republican presidential candidate’s supporters seem to like her mastery of what she presents as facts — but they often aren’t. Hey. Someone finally noticed.

?otD: Ralph or Norton?

10/26/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 7.0 hours (solid)
Weight: 217.4
Currently (re)reading: Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett

Tags: Books, Christianism, climate, Cool, Culture, drugs, ebooks, healthcare, Iraq, Japan, Links, Mainspring, Occupy Wall Street, Personal, Photos, Politics, Publishing, Religion, reviews, Science, sex, stories, Tech, Videos

Posted: 5:39 am Wed October 26 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad is where the falling angel meets the rising ape

Where’s My Niche? The Unique Challenges of the Writer Blogger — Catherine Shaffer on blogging for the writer.

Some thoughts on death (my own) and cancer (my own), for those who were sensibly away from their keyboards over the weekend: Here [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ] and here [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]

Notes while watching “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” for the xxth time since childhood — Mark Bourne is funny and thoughtful.

In Montana, an old arcade game worth a fortune

Steve Jobs refused on/off switch for iPhone because he hoped there was an afterlife — Umm…

Annual Halloween rituals — Slacktivist Fred Clark on Christianist loon opposition to Halloween. He makes a good point about comparing Halloween hysteria to hysteria about the so-called ‘War on Christmas’. Also, this: I suppose the best way to get knee-jerk social conservatives to stop whining about Halloween would be to point out to them that all this free candy undermines Michelle Obama’s campaign against childhood obesity. Hahahahah.

GOP Candidates Wax Stupid on Religion — I quote the same Constitution the strict constructionists in the GOP all fetishize so much: no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States. Hey, GOP, picking and choosing what’s convenient to your prejudices from your every-word-is-sacred Founders? Kind of like how your Christianist core treats the every-word-is-literally-true Bible, huh? Wonder if there’s a connection…

Climate Change Deniers Abandon ‘Befuddled Warmist’ Physicist Who Came Around On Global Warming — This is classic Republican thinking. When one of their own takes a careful, objective look at the facts on the ground and concludes that a cherished conservative talking point is wrong, instead of looking at the evidence, they attack the messenger.

W. enters my wife’s schoolboard race — Our family gets a close-up look of how big money has taken over politics — even at the local level. (Via shsilver.)

?otD: What did you read this weekend?

10/24/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 7.25 hours (fitful)
Weight: 216.4
Currently (re)reading: Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett

Tags: Cancer, Christianism, climate, Culture, health, Links, Personal, Politics, Process, Religion, Science, Tech, tv

Posted: 5:32 am Mon October 24 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad thinks about postage

Don’t forget to drop me a question in my interview thread. [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]

Prose to Poetry and an Interesting Technique to Evaluate Your Own Writing — jimvanpelt with an interesting proposition.

Book Jackets Defaced by Playwright Joe Orton in 1962 on Display in London — This is interesting at several levels.

No Cause to Fear an Attack — A hilariously strange 1952 magazine cover for Weird Tales from the Future.

“Am Bodensee. Großflugzeug “Do X” und Luftschiff “Graf Zeppelin” — Aw, man. Two of my favorite pieces of technology in one rather curious photo. This is so awesome.

Three years on Mars … in 3 minutes — A wow video.

Saturn: Shadows of a Seasonal Sundial — A pretty nifty photo of Saturn’s rings from APOD.

Mississippi Personhood Amendment — fledgist on a particularly disgusting piece of legislation from the forced pregnancy enthusiasts in conservative America. Putting aside the contentious issue of abortion, this would effectively outlaw birth control and criminalize women who have miscarriages.

We Need a New System — As someone recently observed to me, conditions in the United States today have some striking parallels to conditions at the start of the French Revolution.

Why Occupy Wall Street isn’t about a list of demands — The tone of at least some media coverage seems to be improving. Still, compare with the effusive fawning the Tea Party, which was only ever (and literally) a production of FOX News at its beginnings.

Occupy Wall Street shifts from protest to policy phase — Protesters face the difficult and interesting task of leveraging their influence to achieve concrete policy changes addressing their concerns.

Is an Iranian Drug Cartel Behind the Assassination Plot against the Saudi Ambassador? — Juan Cole on the unlikely ins and outs of the alleged plot.

A GOP assault on environmental regulations — Republicans, though correct that environmental regulations cost money, are oblivious to the public health consequences of pollution and the economic costs of inaction.

Dead Letter Office — The case that has even Antonin Scalia wondering what to do about incompetent lawyers in death penalty cases. When even that lunatic archconservative ideologue Justice Scalia thinks a capital defendant has been mistreated, you know something is seriously wrong.

Wagner’s Insane Demonology — Just read this, and reflect that people who think like this are important players in the conservative movement, their blatant insanity privileged by religious belief rather than on court-ordered medication.

Cain and “Gotcha” Questions — [Cain] has already been asked, and completely failed to answer, “gotcha” questions on such obscure topics as the war in Afghanistan and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ah, the “gotcha” question. Claiming that is the refuge of the incompetent candidate.

Misrepresentations, Regulations and Jobs — [Republicans] assert that Barack Obama has unleashed a tidal wave of new regulations, which has created uncertainty among businesses and prevents them from investing and hiring. No hard evidence is offered for this claim; it is simply asserted as self-evident and repeated endlessly. Which is of course true of most Republican assertions, equally baselessly and endlessly propagated to the angry low information voters so zealously nurtured by their media strategy.

?otD: When’s the last time you licked a stamp?

10/12/2011
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hours (2,100 words of outline)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 6.25 hours (solid)
Weight: 222.2
Currently reading: The Sky Road by Ken MacLeod

Tags: Art, Books, Christianism, Cool, gender, interviews, Iran, Links, Occupy Wall Street, Personal, Photos, Politics, Process, Publishing, Religion, reproductive rights, Science, sex, Videos, Writing

Posted: 5:47 am Wed October 12 2011 | Comments(4) |

[links] Link salad wonders who needs a house out in Hackensack?

Interview with Jay Lake — Since the vampire wasn’t available, writer and blogger Anthony Cardno talks to me instead.

The Encyclodpedia of Science Fiction beta is live online — Weird but cool to be reading about myself there.

How to Finish What You Start: A Five-Step Plan for Writers — For them what needs it. My mind just doesn’t work this way. (Via @Ruth_Nestvold.)

How to Spot Circulating Tumor Cells — Cancer cells that have broken away from the main tumor can spread the disease. Now scientists are developing better ways to find them. My problem, in a nutshell.

“Kraken” sea monster emerges from mythological mists

Ancient Lake in Antarctic May Reveal Clues About Earth’s Future

‘Last Chance’ skywritten messages over NYC not warning but an art project — People are idiots. What terrorist organization would announce itself by skywriting?

#OccupyWallStreet is a lesson on listening

Occupied Wall Street, Seen From Abroad — In the past month, it has been odd to read Twitter and blog posts from the Middle East taking the Wall Street protests far more seriously than anyone here has.

This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things — Ta-Nehisi Coates on the sterling ethics of conservative journalism. In this case, a disruption of the Occupy Washington demonstration.

Panic of the Plutocrats — I love the word “plutocracy”. It should mean “rule by cartoon dogs”.

David Barton is more influential than Jim Wallis — Slacktivist Fred Clark on the Religious Right. Yes, they’re real. Yes, they’re out there. And yes, they want to run your life. The true sin of the Republican Party is giving these people so much political and social power in their trolling for votes.

Liberal bloggers did not stage the Values Voter Summit — Nope, that would be Christianism on parade, proudly showing its worst side. Not that it has a best side.

Elizabeth Warren: Refuting Straw Liberals — What Warren has done is to make a proper case for liberalism, which does not happen often enough (Via David Goldman.)

The Myth of Voter Fraud — The New York Times on the GOP’s wholesale efforts at voter suppression. When you can’t win on ideas, block the votes. It worked in 2000 with the Brooks Brothers Riot and Bush v. Gore. Now they’re taking the act pro, nationwide. Nice to see Your Liberal Media acknowledging this blatant tactic instead of nodding wisely along to the latest Frank Luntz talking point as usual.

Glenn Beck Warns of the Coming of the ‘Violent Left’ — Projection much, Beckster? Someone needs to up his meds and spend some time in his quiet corner. This is the same conservative mindset that believes that that secular Western liberals are conspiring for the implementation of Shariate law. Guys, when you say things this blatantly crazy, it tars everything else you say as crazy, even when you are actually making sense. Sometimes I think the whole body of right wing conservative rhetoric with respect to moderates and liberals boils down to projection.

?otD: Is that all you get for your money?

10/11/2011
Writing time yesterday: 1.25 hours (2,000 words of outline)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 7.25 hours (fitful)
Weight: 219.4
Currently reading: The Sky Road by Ken MacLeod

Tags: Cancer, Christianism, Cool, Funny, healthcare, interviews, Language, Links, media, Occupy Wall Street, Personal, Politics, Process, Publishing, Religion, Science, Writing

Posted: 5:41 am Tue October 11 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad wishes for improbable food

selfavowedgeek with a review of my short novel Death of a Starship

Deciding to fish or cut bait. Jonesing for MMORPGs. — Urban Fantasy author J.A. Pitts on why he used to game obsessively, and why he doesn’t any more. I could have written this same post, except that I quit RPGs before MMORPGs came along. As I’ve said before, if Everquest or World of Warcraft had existed in my teens or twenties, I wouldn’t have a writing career today. I’d be an umpteenth level wizard-thief or whatever instead of an author. And I continue to wonder how many voices never came to being in SF/F because they chose the rewards of a collaborative, immersive gaming environment over hours, days and years alone at the keyboard. Who knows what stories we’ll never read?

Fantasy: High, Low and…? Part Two: Saving the World Six Times before Breakfast (Or Not) — Author A.J. Luxton continues their ruminations on fantasy.

B&N and DC: Exclusivity Rears Its Ugly Head Once Again — Crap. I’ve been boycotting Amazon for the past year and a half for doing eaxctly what Barnes & Noble just did. That is, abuse its market power to punish print authors for an only tangentially related dispute in a different product line. B&N’s actions don’t affect me directly, as I’m not a DC comics author nor a reader, but god damn it, I don’t want to run out of big bookstores. (And yes, I buy independent when I can, but sometimes big is useful.)

World’s oldest running car fetches $4.6 million at auction — Now this is just awesome. (Snurched from jimvanpelt.)

Electric TRON Lightcycle Outed by Parker Brothers — (Via David Goldman.)

Will the Large Hadron Collider Explain Everything?

Octopi Wall Street! — (Thanks to danjite.)

Herman Cain: pizza boss, radio host, ballistics expert, minister. President? — Once the butt of late-night comedians, the Tennessee-born politician has emerged as the unlikely darling of the right.

Palin pulls a Palin — Sarah-watchers were not surprised when she announced she wouldn’t run for president. It was never her goal. A con’s a con. Thank you John McCain for visiting this woman upon America. She will be your political legacy.

Will Romney-Perry race be Christian vs. Christian? — I will point out that claiming the Mormon church is not Christian isn’t equivalent to saying it’s a cult. Whether something is a cult is a matter of perspective. As an atheist, to my view Mormons are no more or less a cult than Southern Baptists. As for Christian, I’m not in charge of those labels, but that would seem to be a definable matter. What I do know is that conservative party is infested with Christianists, that is, people who use the trappings of Christianity as clubs to wage political and cultural war for their personal bigotry and wilful ignorance. Mormon, Southern Baptist, I could not care less; it’s the Christianists I fear and despise. It’s the Christianists who’ve been busily destroying the social fabric of our nation my entire political lifetime.

Why Not Question Romney’s Religion? — Back in 2008, the only moment when the Obama campaign looked to be in some difficulty was when the GOP attacked his church and firebrand pastor Jeremiah Wright. The attack itself was dishonest in that the McCain campaign took the words of the sermon out of context. On the one hand, I’m perfectly happy to see the Republican party eating their own young for a change instead of pissing in the national pot as usual. On the other hand, even as atheist, I don’t think this is a legitimate line of attack. My own belief in freedom of religion is absolute, but I likewise believe it absolutely stops at the edge of the public square. In other words, Romney or Perry or whoever can believe what they will with my full support, but they can’t impose those beliefs on me on or anybody else. It’s in the second part of that belief that I find my lifelong quarrel with American conservatism, not the first.

?otD: Melon balls or mountain oysters?

10/9/2011
Writing time yesterday: 3.5 hours (revisions and WRPA)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 8.0 hours (solid)
Weight: 218.0
Currently reading: The Cassini Division by Ken MacLeod

Tags: amazonfail, Books, cars, Christianism, Cool, Funny, Links, Occupy Wall Street, Personal, Politics, Process, Publishing, Religion, reviews, Science, Starship, Writing

Posted: 6:45 am Sun October 09 2011 | Comments(2) |

[links] Link salad dreams of pizza

Simpleminded Writing for Terminal Smartypantses — cathshaffer is rather wise.

How [Steve] Jobs Put Passion Into Products

Against Nostalgia — The New York Times with a contrarian view on Steve Jobs. (Thanks to danjite.)

The Power of Taking the Big Chance — More on Steve Jobs and Apple.

Why Apple’s Amazing Siri May Herald the End of the iPhone — Technology Review with more on this.

Replacement for Soyuz rocket canned by Russia — Hmmm.

Menstruation is just blood and tissue you ended up not using — A curious and interesting essay on biases in science in medicine, using “menotoxins” as an example. This might be a bit triggery depending on your gender experience. (Via Science Sushi.)

The Nephilim fossil of upstate New York — Slacktivist Fred Clark on the Evangelical mindset when it comes to evidence based science, and, you know, actual scientific evidence.

Who Knew that Armageddon Actually Matters in American Politics? Matthew Sutton Explains. — Apocalyptic thinking on the Right.

Repeating the same mistake, expecting new results — The president has pleaded with congressional Republicans, more times than the White House would like to admit, to work with him on good faith — not just on economic issues, but on anything. It’s proven to be pointless. It’s hard to compromise with a party whose stated primary goal is to hound you out of office.

Romney vows to reverse Obama’s ‘massive defense cuts’ … that never happened — Ah, conservativeland, where facts never get in the way of a good outrage.

?otD: What food group is hardest on you?

10/8/2011
Writing time yesterday: 1.25 hours (revisions and WRPA)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 8.25 hours (interrupted)
Weight: 218.6
Currently reading: The Stone Canal by Ken MacLeod

Tags: Christianism, Culture, gender, Links, Personal, Politics, Process, Religion, Science, Tech, Writing

Posted: 7:10 am Sat October 08 2011 | Comments(1) |

[links] Link salad misses Steve

Steve Jobs’s Death: The World Reacts — Cancer claims a very prominent life. The first computer I ever used was an Apple IIc (I think), and I’ve been a Mac user since 1985. Every one of my books was written on a Mac, as were the vast majority of my short stories. Every phone call I’ve made for years has been on an iPhone. Jobs’ vision of technology and usability have influenced my life in profound ways. Juan Cole with more, a fascinating perspective on Jobs.

Essay: Publishing Favors the West — Charles A. Tan on the issues of being a writer outside the US/UK orbit.

The Writer Beware/The Write Agenda discussion — deborahjross on the idiocy around the so-called “Write Agenda”.

The Future of the Book — Bestselling author Sam Harris explains his current solution to the strange new media world—and why he’s publishing short ebooks. (Via AH.)

Comets created Earth’s oceans, study concludes — Mmm, volatiles.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry for dogged work on ‘impossible’ quasicrystals — Daniel Shechtman, who has won the chemistry Nobel for discovering quasicrystals, was initially lambasted for ‘bringing disgrace’ on his research group.

Long Cold Spell Leads to First Arctic Ozone Hole — There goes reality with that darned liberal bias again. If only things fit people’s preconceived notions, life would be so much simpler!

A Moral Gene? — Hmmm…

Ruminations on scientific expertise and the ethics of persuasion

Evangelicals vs. science — Slacktivist Fred Clark delves into the roots of Christian and Christianist idiocy on evolution, global warming and so forth.

What They’ve Come to Find at Occupy Wall Street Is America — Charles Pierce on the Occupy Wall Street protests. Well worth the read.

Crowdsource action: List of Facebook pages for Occupy solidarity events

Sarah Palin’s Die Hard Supporters ‘Stunned,’ ‘Disappointed’ — The Dunning-Kruger presidential ticket certainly has taken a big hit here.

When I Needed Help, I Got Propaganda — While Republicans have made their concern for the unborn clear, the fact that many of them proposed cutting nutrition programs for infants by about 10 percent earlier this year suggests that their concern for babies may end once they’re born. That’s been true of the forced pregnancy enthusiasts on the Right since the beginning. Conservative pro-life concerns end at birth. Years of rhetoric and legislation assaulting women and children’s programs and promoting the death penalty make that unassailably clear.

?otD: Got Apple?

10/6/2011
Writing time yesterday: 1.25 hours (2,500 words on a short story)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 6.75 hours (interrupted)
Weight: 220.0
Currently reading: Among Others by Jo Walton

Tags: Cancer, Christianism, climate, Culture, ebooks, forced pregnancy, Language, Links, Occupy Wall Street, Personal, Politics, Publishing, Religion, Science, Tech

Posted: 5:32 am Thu October 06 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad asks earnest questions

Analyzing the Leaves and Missing the Forest — Richard Parks on what I would call the difference between being a writer’s writer and a reader’s writer. He, of course, takes a different and rather illuminating tack.

Fantasy: High, Low and…? Part One: Fate, Prophecy and Destiny — Writer A.J. Luxton with some analysis of fantasy.

Interview with my bully: The courage to remember — Author Janni Lee Simner in Salon‘s series. I was mercilessly victimized through about 7th grade myself, and have some very bitter memories of childhood. It was the late 1970′s, and even in middle school the budding jocks were privileged and protected from the reality of their actions because “boys will be boys”, and the culture of geek cred wasn’t even smoke on the horizon in those days. The most common response I got from adults, both in school and at home, was “Well, what did you do to antagonize him.” I existed, that was enough for me to have my bike stolen, to be stuffed in a trash barrel, to be forced to drink urine. So this hits a hard spot for me. (Again via shsilver.)

Niagara Mills: 1908 — I love this photo of the mills above the gorge.

The Physics Nobel: Why Einstein Was Wrong About Being Wrong

Can Answers to Evolution Be Found in Slime? — A pretty cool article on slime molds. (Thanks to my Dad.)

NASA asks students to name moon gravity probes

New York Times Shifts Its Framing of the Arrests at Occupy Wall Street — Your Liberal Media, supporting the conservative narrative as usual.

Third of US vets say wars not ‘worth it’ — I had a difficult conversation on a plane a few years ago with an active duty soldier flying on leave who was convinced we couldn’t leave til we’d won, because otherwise his buddies would have died for nothing, but he couldn’t tell me what winning was.

When Politics Trumps Theology — Conservative commentator Daniel Larison speaks. If only this could possibly be true. American politics could only be vastly improved by an ebbing of religious fervor on the Right. When you define compromise as sin, you break the system.

Talking Texan — The linguistics of Rick Perry.

Mitt Romney: The Jury’s Still Out On Why Those Guys Were Booing After The Gay Soldier Spoke — Another Republican profile in courage. Nice to see the Right standing up for what’s right. Or maybe not so much.

Cooperation in Evil — Maureen Dowd on Justice Scalia.

GOP senior officials quietly trying to restore science to their agenda — A step in the right direction, though note this is an effort by Republicans who are no longer running for office. Convenient, that. Good luck cleaning up the horrible mess you’ve made, boys.

?otD: How long could it last, how bad could it be?

10/5/2011
Writing time yesterday: 1.75 hours (2,000 words on a short story, plus some WRPA)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 7.5 hours (interrupted)
Weight: 219.2
Currently reading: The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson

Tags: Afghanistan, Christianism, Culture, gay, Iraq, Language, Links, Personal, Photos, Politics, Process, Religion, Science, Tech, Writing

Posted: 5:36 am Wed October 05 2011 | Comments(1) |

[links] Link salad is like a very small hurricane

Cancer Discrimination in the Hospital — cathshaffer on her mother’s cancer course. Sigh.

Fish known as wrasses are found to use tools — Cool.

Fermi Bubbles Are Burps From A Star-Eating Black Hole… — That wins my award for headline of the day.

Lost in Time and Lost in Space — Centauri Dreams with an analysis of the Fermi paradox.

Church insurer stops cover for acts of God — Très amusant. (Thanks to danjite.)

Jurors in faith-healing trial say evidence overpowered a weak defense — This makes me proud of Oregon, though the whole story is very sad.

Rights for me, but not for thee — Slacktivist Fred Clark on the AFA’s Bryan Fischer and conservative views of freedom of religion, for the right kind of Christian but no one else. Personally, I’ve long believed freedom of religion includes freedom from religion.

Mass. terror suspect was asked to leave mosque — This can’t be true! And any Real American™ about Muslims. Most Republicans can’t find Mecca on a map, but they know all about the alleged creeping horror of Islam. Now if they only understood the real life creeping horror of Christianism.

GOP activists walking — not running — to Romney

Why conservatives hate Warren Buffett — Many of the same people who think the rich should be free to spend unlimited sums influencing our politics without having to disclose anything are now asking Buffett to make his tax returns public. I guess if you’re indifferent to consistency, you have a lot of freedom of action. That’s the conservative movement in a nutshell.

?otD: Are you the dreamer or the dream?

9/30/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (took the day off)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 7.75 hours (solid)
Weight: 224.4
Currently reading: The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Tags: Cancer, Christianism, Cool, healthcare, Links, nature, New Zealand, Oregon, Personal, Politics, Religion, Science

Posted: 5:50 am Fri September 30 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad nervously eyes chemo Friday

Parenting: Harder Once You Actually Do It — Andrew Wheeler on parenting. I was amused by this.

Facing down my eighth-grade tormentor — Sigh. (Thanks to shsilver.)

Throwing Horses: 1900 — Shorpy with a photograph that I really don’t understand.

Modified ecstasy ‘attacks blood cancers’ — Wild and weird, this. (Thanks to danjite.)

Einstein was wrong: Wait, no he wasn’t… general theory of relativity proved by cosmic experiment — Centauri Dreams with more on this.

What should have been Headlines in the Corporate Media: Today’s Best of the Blogosphere — Juan Cole with an interesting, and sobering, roundup of things you probably didn’t hear on the morning news.

Rights Collide as Town Clerk Sidesteps Role in Gay Marriages — As a public employee, she has obligations that aren’t magically obliterated by her religiously endorsed personal bigotry.

Refusing to Kill Daughter, Pakistani Family Defies Tradition, Draws Anger — Another reason I am a staunch atheist is disgust at the behaviors which can be privileged by religion. Islamic ‘honor killings’ rank very, very high on the list of reasons I’ll have no truck with the Abrahamic God.

Erasing false balance: the right is more antiscience than the left — Which, fundamentally, is what comes of endorsing the idiocy of evolution denial while trolling for votes. (Yet another reason I’m an atheist, btw; the degree to which religious belief privileges wilful ignorance.) I am not saying that anyone who calls themself a Republican is antiscience. I am saying the leaders of the party and their mouthpieces are, and Chris does a good job of showing that this is now the mainstream thrust of the party. If you are a conservative person who is pro-science, it is up to you to talk to your leaders about this issue.

Michael Reagan: Dad might have lost 2012 primary — Funny stuff. Except the part where Mike smokes crack and says his dad was the greatest president of our lifetimes.

The 21st Century Another American Century? Don’t Bet on It — Note the key events cited in this post as undermining American power and credibility, and which gang of patriots presided over them.

Anti-Antichristianity influences politics — Slactivist Fred Clark on the widespread Christianist lunacy in Republican politics.

Charisma Isn’t Enough — Conservative commentator Daniel Larison on Chris Christie and Jon Hunstman. I especially liked his closer: I won’t discount the importance of a candidate’s visceral appeal, but I would point out that the things that conservatives may find viscerally appealing in politicians also tend to be the things that make them politically toxic to many others.

?otD: Ever had chemo?

9/29/2011
Writing time yesterday: 2.5 hours (WRPA)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 7.25 hours (solid)
Weight: 222.8
Currently reading: The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Tags: Cancer, Christianism, Culture, gay, healthcare, Links, media, parenting, Personal, Photos, Politics, Religion, Science, weird

Posted: 5:36 am Thu September 29 2011 | Comments(2) |