The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Marna Nightingale:

Fidelio @ 479: Please hold delivery of any Internets until Terry is back in the US as Internets sent to Canada may be subject to duty and are often delayed at the border.

1) Lions
2) & Tigers
3) & Bears

Terry @ 540: It faintly worries me that you missed the chance to make "Road to Mandalay" jokes. Are you quite well?

mjfgates@182:

2) A dead wolverine
3) whatever killed it

For a book of nursery rhymes:

1) A tisket[1]
2) A tasket[2]
3) anything whatsoever in a [hand]basket.

[1] Whatever that is
[2] See [1]

Albatross @ 96: I am creeped the f--k out by the idea of expanding the definition of terrorism to include publishing information that makes some people feel threatened and might increase the probability of violence.

You may instead wish to consider being creeped out by the ways in which the word terrorism is distorted and dishonestly used to justify evil things.

Publishing a list of names and addresses and personal number of children and for all love due dates - I don't care WHAT the people who did this SAY they meant to do. They are attempting to create terror in the people on the list and the people like them not on the list and incite harassment of and violence against same.

Or else they're dumb as rocks. One is not permitted not to intend the obvious and natural consequences of one's actions, and they can claim the reverse all they like. Evil or utterly incompetent, no third option.

Were someone to publish "the Abu Girab photos and data on atrocities committed by US soldiers"

and also along with that publish a list of names, addresses and family details of US soldiers alleged to have been hanging around Abu Ghraib at the time, I would call that terrorism too.

No expansion of the definition is needed.

If anything, calling this what it is is a useful corrective to the tendency of Western Governments these days to palm a card and silently append the phrase "when committed by people who Are Not Like Us" to the definition.

David @ 81: Well, yes. I was fairly certain that in THIS context it was being used in reasonable innocence, so "pernicious" seemed all that was necessary, but you're quite right.

I think it was in Linda McQuaig[1] that I came across a discussion of the limits of propaganda that basically came down to this:

It's very hard to directly *make someone accept a certain opinion*, or even strongly influence their actual opinions.

It's distressingly easy, on the other hand, to influence a) what questions people identify as important to think about and b) the terms we will use to think and talk about things.

So, yes. It is always worth resisting that sort of thing, even though it doesn't seem major, I think.

[1] So yes, at this point this is totally "Journal Of Stuff Talked About Down At The Pub", but I suspect if I went hunting about I could find the exact. I will, too, if anyone cares, though possibly not immediately. Anyone else got a copy of Shooting The Hippo handy?

Albatross @ 86: How is 'undocumented immigrant' a euphemism? It seems to me to sum up their situation very well.

They're not "illegals". They're people. They have names and faces and histories and families.

I realise it's handy shorthand, but it's still pernicious.

Joel: good catch. "If you've done nothing wrong you have nothing to hide" is, and always has been, crap. It assumes that nobody with any ability to make their account count thinks "being who you are" = "wrong".

Xopher @ 40: I did know that. FWIW, that's sort of why I drew it to your attention.

Xopher @ 35: fair enough. I hate that trope with a blinding passion and it's way too popular, you know? And I feel like people don't hear what they're saying.

Xopher @ 29:

As for this murdering thug, I hope they put him in general pop.

Without comment on the rest, Xopher, why are YOU supporting murder and what more or less constitutes counselling and provocation to commit same?

And, surely prisoners have *enough* problems, on average?

It.

Is.

POURING COOL RAIN THANK YOU GOD.

Mycroft@ 139: I suspect you were dressing for Calgary.

I mean, it can be fairly nasty here, but I've survived it for 30 winters now and I'm a wuss who spent the first decade of her life in Vancouver.

Wind and damp-proofing is vital: I tend to favour layers of wool with a windproof overtop.

Mycroft@ 110: Ontario is sort of big.

Waterloo is in the Great Lakes snowbelt and runs dampish, but Ottawa typically has winters so dry that we buy moisturiser by the litre and our noses bleed off and on from New Year's on. Terry likes it here in February, but That Boy Just Ain't Right. We shall see how he feels about it in August.

In the summer... Ottawa is on two rivers and can be pretty soggy. And is, presently; I just did a 9-midnight shift and while it wasn't the insanity of yesterday I seriously needed a shower when I got home, and not *just* because recycling is a stinky job (my socks smell of beer. Mixed with pop.)

Now I have a fan, and (because I am not going back into the heat) a rye-and-cola, and life is pretty pleasing. On shift... I went through a full Camelbak, 1.5 l size, plus a couple of soft drinks. Turns out that the smaller Liberty yoghurt containers make big blocky ice cubes JUST the right size for the Camelbak.

Also, as the sanitary arrangements at the festival are Porta-Potties, the usual check on hydration doesn't work: even were I willing to look, which I am frankly not, there would be no useful data to be gleaned.

I have, however, discovered another useful check: in this sort of heat, skip the antiperspirant (let's face it, it's a waste of time anyway) and drink until you have, however soaked with sweat you may be, no body odor whatsoever. This seems to work.

I and my family are volunteering for the Ottawa Bluesfest; we're mostly doing recycling. Pray for us; we're going to be walking around CARRYING things in this. I'm taking my Camelbak *every shift* and to every show I go to. With ice in it, to start.

Ayn, our Area Leader, is a smart smart cookie, though, and takes good care of her people. Shifts are three hours; she cut the day shift to two today before people started dropping.

Also, I have sent her this link. Thanks, Jim, as always.

Xopher@ 274: I TELL people that Terry is an infinitely kinder, gentler, and generally more decent human being than I shall ever be, and they never believe me. Even he doesn't, actually.

Joel@ 259: I do believe you have it.

Apparently John knows EVERYTHING about: gardening, poverty, moderation and psychology.

And yet, somehow, we STILL do not Respect His Authority. Truly we are a terrible bunch.

John: You are my brother-in-law the compulsive mansplainer, and I claim my five pounds.

I did not change the subject. It has been the same from my first post.

This is in fact your difficulty. "View All" is instructive in this regard. You just keep saying the same thing about Those People and How To Fix Their Problems, over and over and over and OVER, pausing only to glance over the posts of others so you can periodically rearrange the goalposts, persuaded that if you just keep talking we will eventually realise that you know everything about Poor People and Gardening and stop debating with you all the damn time and just Respect Your Authority.

There are three small problems, here:

1) Many of us are, or have been, or grew up surrounded by, Poor People, and we are therefore aware that you are talking out of your ... ear.

2) Many of us are, or have been, or grew up surrounded by, fruit and vegetable gardeners and livestock keepers, and we are therefore aware that you talking out of your ... other ear.

3) You rocked up from nowhere into a closely-knit community of many years' standing, and you haven't actually got any authority, nor are your present actions calculated to build you any.

Poor people do NOT know the cost of anything.

Ah-heh-heh-heh. John, you are talking to a large number of Poor People, and recovering Poor People, and Adult Children of Poor People.

The next time you want to lay down the law about a topic on which you possess only a moderate understanding, may I suggest you first ensure that you are not surrounded by experts in the field?

Comment statistics for Marna Nightingale on the Making Light blog

Total: 270 comments. View all these comments on a single page. (May take some time to load.)