The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Ambar:

A chagrined banana is much cuter than a chagrined sable German Shepherd (white, black and brown, so she can contrast with everything), who gets really outraged when we fail to control the weather to her liking. Apparently it's in her contract, just after her right to chase thrown balls without ever being required to return them.

The crumpled cross and other pieces do seem to fit the narrative of battlefield looting.

j h woodyatt@71:
I think my first almost coherent [you decide] question is, "How do I say anything with respect to one of these topics without jamming both of my feet up to the ankles into my stupid piehole in the context of the other?"

Heh. I don't have an answer for that one; I may be about to engage in some foot-munching myself. That said ...

In each of these cases, we see women on both sides of the debate claiming that the other is voluntarily submitting to oppression by the Evil Patriarchy. Women in BDSM, I suspect, get this all the damned time from outsiders, just like Muslim women who take comfort from wearing the veil are constantly getting it from dumb-ass Westerners.

Well, I can conveniently describe two community subsets (out of my experience). Participants in one subset might self-identify as genderqueer, leathersex, radical sex activists or just plain queer. This group are actively practicing critics of the overculture, in various ways. Another subset uses phrases like "in the lifestyle", or "into BDSM", are largely practicing heterosexuals, and tend not to critique the overculture except insomuch as it condemns their enjoyment of [insert paraphilia here]. I've been to large formal parties largely peopled by this subset, and it feels a whole lot like a high school prom, only everyone's wearing leather.

At this point it's probably no secret which group I identify with.

The problem for me is that I suspect there's a significant fraction of people who don't see this the way I do, and I'm not sure how to talk to them. Are there people who think the veil is always a tool of oppression but that the collar can be empowering? Are there people who think vice-versa? How do they manage to pull off that trick?

I don't know as I'd feel a great need to talk to them. Is the intent to persuade them to your way of thinking, or to figure out why they think the way they do? Evangelism of any flavor makes me itch, and while I'm in favor of intellectual curiosity in all its forms, this one would be fairly low on my list.

j h woodyatt @ 58,

This is a community I participate in, and have for years (now I think of it, I'm working on decade #2.) If you can manage to formulate a question, I can try to answer.

LDR@324 asks: is a bully the same as a troll?

I say they are not. A bully operates within their community, where a troll is (nearly by definition) dropping into a community they do *not* consider themselves to be a part of, and poking the zoo animals with sticks.

The entire notion makes steam come out of my ears.

I'll steal 11, 13, 16, and 21, and add:

I got to sing backup on a friend's studio recording. I adored the experience and am trying to figure out how to get to do more of it.

Stefan @ 353: if you can arrange for video of the alpaca incident, I will happily switch my vote.

I really wasn't sure which thread to note this on. Almost used Patrick's flu thread (a sure cure?) :-)

Conyers Subpoenas Karl Rove

After "Former President George Bush", the four sweetest words in the language.

Serge @ 95: Plan9 from the late great Bell Labs.

P J Evans @ 19:

The Morning Wood Labs site (which sold a kit which allowed casting a silicone replica of one's favorite penis) is now gone. This is an interesting documentation of a whole-body cast, however.

I'm surprised no one yet has mentioned Tanith Lee's The Silver Metal Lover. Her robots make love and art with equally super-human facility; hijinks ensue.

Clifton@113: I live in Calaveras County, CA which is as rural and small-town as it gets, and we have a significant Hispanic population. I expect you'll find that to be true in any farming community in the state.

(That said, I checked the Census Bureau which tells me our 2006 population was 84.5% non-Hispanic white. So not as significant as I thought.)

Mez@246, Elise@248: I'm not sure if this vision of an inaugural ball has already been posted here, but it's worthy.

Lee@173: I don't actually know; I live on the other side of the country.

Peter@161: New Hampshire.

Among the many brilliant wins, another small one: oratory as an art is not dead. (Has anyone read anything of Obama's speechwriter(s)? I'm impressed.)

California: I mailed my ballot in last week (permanent absentee; my polling place is 100 miles from my workplace) and called the election clerk yesterday to verify it had been received.

So today I got myself to San Jose's Obama field office at 6:07am to do GOTV calls to Ohio.

Now I'm in my own office. And I have to work. Or try to, anyway.

Starbucks sells Coke?

(Actually, bravo! I needed the laugh.)

Xopher@76: I am fond of Victor Anderson's remark on the subject: "White magic is poetry. Black magic is anything that works."

Dawno@42: I also want to see California Prop 4 go down in well-deserved flames. I voted yes for 1A, but don't have high hopes for a bond measure in this economy.

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