Friday, August 19, 2005

Advice for the young businesswoman

Don't do this. Or if you do, don't try to explain it.

It's a video, for you poor benighted dialup users.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Thither with Yon

Bless Michael Yon for his Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Jungle Law dispatch:
...Iraqis joke among themselves that they would pay 5,000 dinar per night to stay at Abu Ghraib prison. It's air-conditioned, the showers are good, the food is good, and the water is good.
There's so much more to read at his site in this item and many others - it should be a regular read.

Lay English

Russian born Eugene Volokh interprets "lay English" for us here. That's a particularly apt term because it's about getting laid (or not), and someone is putting a lot of English on it.

For instance, we have people tell us with a straight face that abstinence fails to prevent pregnancy. Sheesh, I hope they're wrong. Could it be that sex has nothing to do with conception? Is any woman subject to becoming pregnant at any time? Wow, it sounds almost as if they believe that *DIVINE INTERVENTION* is involved.

Yet somehow I suspect that people who spread this nonsense would argue energetically against the idea of a virgin birth. And if you really wanted to spin them up, tell them that by their definition, George Bush abstains from war.

(Condoms, OTOH, are beyond the reach of product liability even though they fail regularly even with perfect application by the users.)

How could someone reach a conclusion as stupid as what we're hearing about abstinence? Maybe it's something like this - 1) I abstained from sex with Julia Roberts, 2) she popped anyway, ergo 3) abstinence does not prevent pregnancy. This doesn't account for the women, but then an older relative who had had many kids used to tell me that she'd had 6 before she knew what caused it. (She was kidding)

No, the anti-abstention crowd isn't this stupid. They're just dishonest.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Cindy Gump

There's more than one way to wave a bloody shirt. One would hope that the one doing it would do so consistently with its owner's implicit wishes. And in this case Cindy Sheehan's son Casey, who was lost from our all-volunteer Marines last year, presumably would be mortified to have his memory abused so.

I have no idea how I might react to a loss such as hers. And being 48, maybe she's dealing with menopause too. But we can say that many others (well over 1000 for this war) have suffered similarly without such effects - whether her behavior is understandable or not, it certainly isn't "normal" in any statistical sense.

No doubt the rest of her family feels the loss too. But they're mortified by her behavior, to the point where they've contacted the press. And her husband is divorcing her.

She made reference to the "man responsible for Casey's death". Apparently she believes that this man is President Bush and not those who made, planted and activated the device that killed him. It would be interesting to see if she also blames President Bush for the deaths on 9/11.

The whole thing reminds me of "Forrest Gump". A bunch of filthy antiwar nuts grabbed and put him in front of a mike to say something against the war while he's in uniform.

Fortunately for him, someone managed to cut off the PA systems so he couldn't embarrass himself. Too bad someone couldn't have done the same for Cindy Sheehan.