Tag: General nonsense

I was surprised by the disgust that I generated with my post about Saddam’s execution. People said they’d never read my blog again. Other people said they had lost all respect for me. My reaction to this disgust was “Someone once respected me? Cool!” But I also spent a lot…

I remember my excitement the first time I saw a restroom faucet with a motion detector. It was like magic. I just waved my hand in front of the sensor and water spat forth. It was like the food replicator on the Star Ship Enterprise, but Version 1.0 that only…

Apparently the airport security people are trained to look at your face to see if you are twitching like a terrorist. I don’t know this for sure, but they always take a deliberate look at me after checking my boarding pass. I figure they must have taken the one-hour course…

I always check a movie’s critical reviews before committing two-plus hours of my life to it. This method of movie filtering does not work because movie reviewers are sick bastards who enjoy misery as long as it is well crafted. My second filter is based on the actors and directors….

Yesterday I “helped” by taking the dishes out of the dishwasher and putting them in the cupboard. I did all of the plates and cups and glasses and bowls first. Then I put away the larger serving spoons and odds and ends. The last step was the flatware. But some…

Oh how you mocked me for my post yesterday about free will. I said a good test of free will is to have a surgeon stimulate the brain and then ask the patient to somehow override that stimulation with free will. About a hundred or more of you sliced my…

There was a court case recently in Australia where a guy claimed he became uncontrollably horny after suffering a head injury at work. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/12/20/1166290613406.html This guy’s lawyer convinced a judge that his client was extra horny because of the brain injury. After the accident, the client allegedly misbehaved around women,…

The Middle Ages was a great time to be a guy. In those days, men were the kings of their castles. Guys made the rules because being large and strong were the two most important things. If a wild boar attacked a family’s twig-and-mud hovel, it was the man’s job…

Al-Jazeera just broadcast the 15th recorded message from al-Qaeda’s #2 guy, al-Zawahri. He appeared in front of the same brown background as before, with his same rifle propped against the wall. Am I the only one who thinks al-Zawahri has his own cubicle at al-Jazeera? I imagine al-Zawahri coming to…

Most enlightened people agree that discrimination is bad. The thing they can’t agree on is who should be on the protected list. The general rule is that you shouldn’t discriminate against people for things they can’t control, such as gender, ethnicity or disability. But there are some interesting exceptions to…

A number of you asked me what I believe about the universe, given that I’ve ruled out God and I also have suspicions about evolution. That’s a revealing question because I think the real reason anyone believes anything is because uncertainty hurts. So we pick a side and rationalize it…

As a practical matter, it’s almost impossible to prove or disprove anything to another person’s satisfaction. Sure, there are special cases where, for example, a mathematician or a scientist can prove something to another mathematician or scientist. But you and I generally can’t prove anything to anyone. If you want…

In yesterday’s post I said I wasn’t worried about voting machines being manipulated. Several of you asked to see my list of things I AM worried about. Your wish is my post. First, I’m not worried about any problem that we can see coming. If you look at the history…

At about this time every year I have two lists that I carry everywhere. One is my Christmas shopping list. The other is the list of people I need to kill because they finished all of their shopping in October. Regular readers of this blog will not be surprised to…

Beneath the cabinets in my kitchen is a row of fluorescent lights that illuminate the countertops. One of those lights has decided to go all Baghdad on me. It crackles and pops and blinks for the entire time it is on. You might be thinking this is no big problem….