In my experience, Rolaids are much, much better than Tums, and liquid stuff like Mylanta or Pepto Bismol is best of all.
Do they insist on the right to have their own opinion in calculus classes?
Prilosec probably saved my sanity. Much better than a simple antacid.
2: Nah. There are a lot of reasons that I can happily teach math but nothing else.
See, to me, the rationals are not dense.
Because I watch too much television, I'm reminded of the judge on The Good Wife who makes the lawyers in her court append "in my opinion" to almost everything they say.
When I used to teach I came up against 'but it's my opinion' all the time. Head/wall.
My opinions form an abelian group.
6: Ahaha. I was thinking the same thing. (Did you know that the young, blond aw-shucksy fausse-naive lawyer is played by Meryl Streep's daughter?)
8: Under what operation? Entailment?
Let me start by saying that I'm sure the phenomenon (saying "it's my opinion") is infuriating. How many of your own thoughts are really just opinions unbacked by evidence and rooted in prejudice?
I ask, because this is true of me more than I would like. (And now I have to duck out to get a bus so I can get to the dentist in time, so I won't be here for the discussion.)
My best friend's father is a source of many great aphorisms, among them, "Opinions are like assholes: everyone's got one."
9: I didn't know that! But I can see the resemblance, now that you mention it.
I don't even have a television opinions.
"Opinions are like assholes: everyone's got one."
It seems to me that opinions are quite unlike assholes in that most people have many of them.
13: Also, some are tighter than others.
In MY opinion, if you're not talking about prescription antacids that actually reduce the production of stomach acid, nothing beats baking soda in water for reacting with the acid and producing a huge, excellent burp.
Mindlessly denigrated but vital for human survival?
nothing beats baking soda in water
Does it matter what kind of soda you bake in the water?
"Opinions are like assholes: everyone's got one."
This is usually/often extended with "and everyone thinks there's is the only one which doesn't stink". Which has always confused me. Do people really hold high opinions of their own anal aroma?
Assholes are unlike opinions: everyone's got only one.
Let me start by saying that I'm sure the phenomenon (saying "it's my opinion") is infuriating. How many of your own thoughts are really just opinions unbacked by evidence and rooted in prejudice?
I think the problem is that the kids appeal to "opinion" rather than actually trying to back up or defend their ideas.
Stanley, you're not tricking me into giving up my secret meth recipe.
Opinions are like onions. They're often, uh, peeled, too.
Opinions are like assholes: They need to be defended.
I'm wicked stoned right now, guys.
Opinions are like assholes: no one's interested unless there's a hook.
Opinions are like assholes: paper brought into contact with either makes for poor reading.
Awards are like hemorrhoids: every asshole gets one in the end.
--Stanley's best friend's father
32: The only other thing I've heard him say about assholes had to do with the assholes of ducks, specifically regarding the watertightness thereof.
Opinions are like assholes: sharing yours on the internet is likely to scuttle any future Supreme Court nomination.
Back to the OP:
By The Kids, I mean the kids who really just have half-baked ideas and use "it's my OPINION!" to justify the half-bakedness.
Is this more common these days? Or, maybe it's more common in more conservative/republican states? I don't remember encountering a lot of that kind of thing back when I was around the college-age kids on regular basis.
My friend whose son joined the Army half a dozen years ago frequently reports that the son's fellow soldier mates engage in this "my opinion" foolery fairly often, and it's jaw-dropping stuff, often connected with intelligent design or homosexuality, the classic conservative/Republican themes, but sometimes about, oh, whether muslims are sadistic animals or Saddam really had weapons of mass destruction. Methinks conservative anti-intellectuals have normalized the move.
Of course there is the "it's my opinion" thing cropping up in, say, philosophy courses. Shudder. Pain.
"it's my OPINION!"
"Yes, but your opinion is stupid."
"it's my OPINION!"
"Yes, but your opinion is stupid you're an asshole."
Having suffered reflux for five decades, I would point out that Prilosec does not require a perscription and works infinitely better than Tums or Rolaids (or Zantac or Tagamet, for that matter). The chewable calcium tablets can provide some relief almost instantly, however, while the others take roughly a half hour to kick in.
Omeprazole, the generic form of Prilosec, is about half the price. One pill a day and you'll forget you ever had reflux (or GERD). Untill, that is, you forget to take the Prilosec.
!!
Oh, good grief. Sorry to go all live-journally, but my brother is freaking me out a bit. I've just heard from him that ... well, back up. Remember my mom's house/cabin/cottage up in NH, which we're renting to our cousin, who hasn't paid his rent in like 8 months?
My brother informs me that his friend's mother is interested in renting it, and he'll be showing it to her in 2 weeks. Um. Our cousin has no clue as yet that we're thinking of evicting him (though I've talked to him a couple of times over the year about the need to pay his damn rent, and he falls all over himself apologizing and claiming that he doesn't want it to be this way). We haven't even stepped foot in the place for about a year. Who knows what kind of shape it's in with my cousin in residence.
And does this woman (how old is she?) know what she's in for, moving into a lakeside cottage in, what, November? It snows *a lot*.
This makes me anxious, for crying out loud. That is all.
|>
40, 41: Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.
Of course there is the "it's my opinion" thing cropping up in, say, philosophy courses.
And lit courses. Though there the refrain tends to be "It's my interpretation." Because literature is all about what the reader thinks about the book, right? (Nothing as sophisticated as reader-response criticism, unfortunately.)
43: Sympathies. Maybe the woman will turn out to be Meg Ryan or Julia Roberts, in which case I'm pretty sure she moves in with your cousin. At first they'll seem like totally incompatible roommates but eventually fall in love. Or maybe that was just a movie.
||Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito have been cleared, which, in my opinion, is a good thing. Both the BBC and Guardian initially reported she'd lost, so I am moderately interested in how both managed to screw the pooch on that.|>
46: Yeah. Thanks. Obviously the thing to do is not to yell at my brother. We'll talk this evening; he has a weird "end of discussion" way of proceeding sometimes that throws me for a loop, so this will mostly be about me doing damage control with the rest of the family (cousin's family, our aunt and uncle) who will be very shocked.
'course the woman (who I'd guess is in her 60s) may pass anyway. Especially if the cousin is running what may look a lot like a bachelor pad, with all kinds of crap casual living all over the place.
46: Or maybe it will go all House of Sand and Fog. KIDDING.
Isn't radical subjectivism an odd basis for an authoritarian world-view? How would they respond to someone that said, "The Bible is a lot of foolish nonsense, in my opinion"?
Because literature is all about what the reader thinks about the book, right?
Sentiments like this made me unable to stomach more than the required number of literature courses in college. Although, it was largely the professors expressing the sentiment, not fellow students. And it made the courses feel completely useless. Maybe I just had bad professors.
How would they respond to someone that said, "The Bible is a lot of foolish nonsense, in my opinion"?
"You'll burn in hell for saying that, in my opinion."
'course the woman (who I'd guess is in her 60s) may pass anyway
For a moment I thought you were saying that the woman might pass away.
Can't you use this woman looking at the house as a way to put the fear of god into your cousin, so maybe he'll cough up some rent? If she doesn't want the house, he'll still at least know you're serious about "pay up or get out"; if she does want the house you can decide whether to rent it to her and throw him out, or let him beg you to pay up and then tell her you've decided to let the current tenant stay. Either way, it seems like a good move, apart from any related family tension and indicental destruction of familial bonds it may cause.
54: That's presumably how it's going to pan out, and it doesn't hurt to put the fear into the cousin; but I must say this seems an extreme way to do it.
or let him beg you to pay up
I put it at a 75% chance that that's exactly what he'll do, and that my brother will basically insist on throwing him out anyway, which is grim when someone is begging you. But okay, okay. I can't really justify being against the possibility of another renter. I'm just going to have to do damage control.
I'll stop fussing about this for now. Thanks for humoring the fret.
Isn't the canonical academic response, 'Oh, you've got an opinion, bless your heart.' I.e., same content as 41, but with a tall glass of sweet tea to wash it down.
Half OT: did you know tear gas is an acid and the best remedy is half water, half Maalox or some other antacid? The internet told me so.
57: Did you get teargassed at Occupy Wall Street??? Good old internet, though. This was the kind of thing one used to have to go to the Anarchist Cookbook for.
Do you pour the maalox in your eyes, or what?
Um, I know it's in Wikipedia and all, but none of the agents collectively referred to as "tear gas" is an acid.
The Anarchist's Cookbook was available before the Internet? (Nice lawn BTW.)
I got teargassed at the Seattle WTO protests. I was surprised how much it sucked.
but none of the agents collectively referred to as "tear gas" is an acid.
Isn't everything that we casually call acids actually a base? And antacids are acids? Or something like that?
Isn't everything that we casually call acids actually a base? And antacids are acids? Or something like that?
I don't know what you're thinking of here. Acids have a low pH value, and bases have a high pH value, which is counterintuitive to a lot of people.
42 is seriously right. I went through so much pain before I finally went to the doctor about reflux and it was all pointless. Omeprazole will kick the shit out of it in a few days. If you think you might have an ulcer or it doesn't go away, go to a doctor.
Isn't everything that we casually call acids actually a base?
No.
I feel like 33-34 should be the perfect straight lines for me, but I just can't close the deal.
Isn't everything that we casually call acids actually a base?
Maybe you mean that we associate causticity with acids, even though strong acids and strong bases can both be caustic? Most of what I think of as acid has "acid" in the name, though.
This short discussion of terms at Wikipedia for "Corrosive substances" is not bad:
The word 'corrosion' is derived from the Latin verb corrodere which means 'to gnaw' indicating how these substances seem to 'gnaw' their way through the flesh. Sometimes the word 'caustic' is used as a synonym but, by convention, 'caustic' generally refers only to strong bases, particularly alkalis, and not to acids, oxidizers, or other non-alkaline corrosives. The term 'acid' is often used imprecisely for all corrosives.
43
... that we're thinking of evicting him ...
You are aware that (due to pro tenant laws passed by bleeding heart liberals) that evicting someone can be a long and expensive process in many places? Perhaps NH is not one of them but I wouldn't bet on it. Do you even have a written agreement with the deadbeat?
I'm right and ned and nosflow are wrong!
pro tenant laws passed by bleeding heart liberals
The Berkeley rent control agency once sent me a pamphlet, which included a little section where they traced their origins back to... Richard Nixon (and before that, Franklin Roosevelt).
74: It's New Hampshire. Yes, we have a signed lease, but this is family, and trust me, we can ask/tell him he has to move out and it will be done. No one's going to try to run away with the key or set fire to the place. It's everyone's beloved childhood place.
You're a suspicious person, Shearer.
75 -- Some idiot wrote some stupid shit on the Wick. It's his opinion, though, so it has to stay. (Yes, I think the idiot was probably male.)
Shearer didn't leave the human race. The human race left Shearer.
78: Not sure what you think is stupid shit, the tear gas sure, but the part quoted in seems pretty accurate.
77
It's New Hampshire. Yes, we have a signed lease, but this is family, and trust me, we can ask/tell him he has to move out and it will be done ...
Well if family isn't enough to get him to pay his rent I am not sure why you think it will be enough to get him to move out without trouble.
No one should call a caustic substance acid. It's not just dumb, it's dangerous.
82: Which is why it says, "Sometimes the word 'caustic' is used as a synonym but, by convention, 'caustic' generally refers only to strong bases." I guess it could have been more strongly worded, but originally "caustic" was not used according to current convention. Mot only "dumb", but "dangerous" would be using "caustic" for general audiences where the distinction mattered given the first definition in most dictionaries.
81: Look, you're not going to convince me that I should view it as a combative or hostile relationship when there's no reason to think it will be. It's an unfortunate situation, and everyone will be sobered by it, but that's the extent of it.
Parsimon, I wouldn't be so sure this isn't going to go sideways on you guys. It might not, but it happens all the time and no one sees it coming. Tempers and emotions can run high and unpredictable when money and family mix. I mean, you guys didn't predict 8 rent free months, right?
Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito have been cleared, which, in my opinion, is a good thing.
This is a good thing because the Italian legal system is as fucked up as something that's extremely fucked up. I'm inclined to think they're as guilty as sin, though. In my opinion.
I'm inclined to believe pretty much anything of a police/prosecution system that thinks "OMG teh secks! white girl black guy! whoops! wrong black guy! get another! OMG teh secks!" amounts to a case.
I was told by an academic lawyer, and I don't know how far it's true, that the root of the problem with the Italian legal system is that is was never reconstructed properly after the fall of Mussolini. Any improvements since Fascism have been more or less ad hoc. I'd be interested to know if people who specialise in this stuff endorse that, but I don't know anybody who does.
why? it was my impression that there was little to no physical evidence and the person who originally implicated them might have been guilty? and i thought the premise of the prosecutor's charge was that it was some kind of satanist orgy gone wrong or something? this strikes me as weaksauce motive-wise. why did they want to kill the chick, in your opinion?
90. At the time I thought it was probably an accident, as part of a game that went horribly wrong. I can't remember exactly why I thought that, it was four years ago. Bear in mind that they were originally charged with manslaughter, not murder (the charge was upgraded for no obviously good reason because the judge felt like it), and tbh, it's manslaughter I suspect they're guilty of.
As I said, clearly it's right that they get it overturned because the behaviour of the authorities throughout would disgrace a gangleader on crack. I do feel for Kercher's family, who have no hope of justice ever.
I can't remember exactly why I thought that, it was four years ago.
I'm afraid the answer is "probably because the police said so and the entire media went ape for it".
92. Yeah, probably. And the fact that they seemed to have copped to it at a very early stage before what we'll have to describe as the "alleged abuses" happened.
they seemed to have copped to it at a very early stage before what we'll have to describe as the "alleged abuses" happened.
Just not true. You can read here if you like.
I was going to link to 95 in the course of saying something really angry and unfair at Chris Y, who is merely a blameless brainwashed follower of the gutter press.
