Is the reason so much e-mail spam is misspelled that it discourages smart people who might see through the scams from responding? Or just that spammers are barely functionally literate?
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Archive for the 'Questions' Category
Sad
January 30th, 2009, 12:19 pm by fshermanFrom the AP: “Stressed by war and long overseas tours, U.S. soldiers killed themselves last year at the highest rate on record, the toll rising for a fourth straight year and even surpassing the suicide rate among comparable civilians. Army leaders said they were doing everything they could think of to curb the deaths and appealed for more mental health professionals to join and help out.
At least 128 soldiers committed suicide in 2008, the Army said Thursday. And the final count is likely to be even higher because 15 more suspicious deaths are still being investigated.”
As hilzoy at Obsidian Wings says, this must be truly horrible for the families and friends: Their loved one is home, safe and sound and then …
So what do we do about it? Any suggestions?
David Brin speaks
January 27th, 2009, 2:09 pm by fshermanSF author Brin discusses the potential (or lack of) the Internet on Salon . Two quotes:
“Can Shirky or Huffington point to even one stupidity that has been decisively disproved online? Ever?”
“Already we are in an era when no worthwhile skill is ever lost, if it can draw the eye of some small corps of amateurs. Today there are more expert flint-knappers than in the Paleolithic. More sword makers than during the Middle Ages. Vastly more surface area of hobbyist telescopes than instruments owned by all governments and universities, put together. Following the DIY banner of Make magazine, networks of neighbors have started setting up chemical sensors that will weave into hyper-environmental webs. Can you look at all this and see the same species of thoughtless, imitative monkeys that Mark Pesce does?”
Good grief
January 2nd, 2009, 11:26 am by fshermanFrom the Daily News letters this morning, a Niceville man explains his real worry about Obama concerns “Jim Jones, the charismatic leader of the People’s Temple, the man who led more than 900 of his followers to cheerfully commit mass suicide … Could there possibly be a replay here?”
Short answer: No.
Funny how being charismatic and popular has become such a huge issue for Republicans of late, isn’t it? If only they’d been as skeptical when everyone was gushing over Bush swaggering in his flight suit during the “Mission Accomplished” speech or various religious right members were describing how Bush was clearly chosen by God to lead this country.
Me, for all our flaws, I don’t think God could possibly hate us that much.
Thought for the day
November 13th, 2008, 2:09 pm by fshermanAccording to some gay marriage opponents there is no discrimination in marriage laws: Everyone is free to marry someone of the opposite sex.
So if the government passed a rule that everyone now single (or people who become so through divorce or the loss of a spouse) was free to marry anyone of the same sex that they chose, then by the same logic, that doesn’t violate anybody’s rights, correct?
This insight courtesy of slacktivist
Official state thingies
October 17th, 2008, 10:24 am by fshermanAs some of you may know, Florida has a lot of these: State bird, state mammal, state fish, state soil, state rock, state sand, state tree …
But here’s one we don’t have: A State Book. A Massachusetts legislator wanted to nominate “Moby Dick” as State Book but ran into opposition (what about Little Women or some of the other classics?), so he settled for State Epic Novel instead.
So if Florida had a State Book, what should it be? The Yearling? Something by Hiassen? Or what?
Male contraceptives
August 7th, 2008, 12:32 pm by fshermanechidneofthesnakes.blogspot.com and her commenters speculate a little on what the effect might be if a reliable male equivalent to the Pill developed:
•It can’t in any way be accused of causing abortions, so that argument of the religious right against contraceptives would no longer hold water.
•If a man’s taking contraceptives, then getting pregnant requires both partners be on the same page.
•It eliminates the risks of impregnating a one-night stand, which might encourage men to have more of them.
This is a topic echidne has discussed before and one argument some people raise is that men won’t want to take birth-control, period, regardless of the benefits. True? False? Your thoughts?
I can determine myself just fine, thanks
July 28th, 2008, 2:56 pm by fshermanBruce Hausknecht, an analyst for Focus on the Family on the prospects for banning gay marriage:
Voters will be driven to the polls by “their justifiably angry reaction to judges taking such matters out of the hands of voters …Those voters are going to feel the need to protect their own right to self-determination.”
Self-determine what? Whether to divorce their spouse and go gay? Is the impulse that overwhelming among that many right-wing Christians that if it becomes legal, they won’t be able to help themselves?
After all, no matter how much the right wing whines about how gays are threatening “traditional” marriage, that seems to be the only threat they could possibly create.
From the hathor legacy
July 24th, 2008, 9:45 am by fshermanIn response to an e-mail from a man complaining that women are much, much more judgmental about prospective dates’ appearance than men are with women, the feminist hathor legacy posted the following:
“Men imagine themselves less picky about looks because they don’t even see the women they reject. Trust me. I’ve gone out to bars looking hot and gotten hit on. I’ve gone out to the same bars looking frumpy and had guys knock me down to get to the hotties - they don’t think of themselves as having “rejected” me because they’re too busy running over me while in pursuit mode. Something to think about, guys: as long as we have this stratified system in which men generally pursue and women generally reject or accept, a man’s refusal to pursue a given woman is equal to a woman saying “No” when asked on a date.”
Truth? Falsehood?
Your thoughts?
How will McCain respond to this?
July 21st, 2008, 2:56 pm by fshermanOn Saturday, al-Maliki of Iraq was quoted as supporting Obama’s proposal to withdraw from Iraq within 16 months of taking the White House.
The White House’s current occupants suggested al-Maliki had been misquoted.
Today, an al-Maliki spokesman said no, the Iraqis would like to see U.S. troops gone by 2010.
This leads me to a couple of thoughts:
•What does this do to the McCain campaign? As reporter Scott Ackerman has pointed out, the choices would seem to be either McCain agrees with al-Maliki–despite McCain’s insistence that timetables and deadlines are unworkable–or he announces an intent to stay in Iraq even though we’ve been asked to leave, which would seem rather hard to sell.
•What does this say about the state of politics in Iraq?
When al-Maliki and other Iraqi politicians started balking at signing Bush’s proposed long-term Status of Forces Agreement, a number of liberal bloggers concluded this was just posturing: Al-Maliki wouldn’t actually defy us, but establishing his independence from The Man would benefit him politically.
Now he’s saying the same thing to Western audiences as well (the comment came in an interview in a German magazine). Is it posturing? Is he trying to build international pressure on Bush? Or what?
