You don't need to troll John Emerson, you know. He's a pretty reliable agitator no matter what you write.
People often say that they gave birth to a child, but that's not really right; you give birth to a fetus, thereby making it into a child.
Her most humbling moment was giving birth.
That's when they *really* break out the good recreational drugs. It's awfully difficult to find anybody on the street who's willing to inject the good stuff directly in your spinal column.
While she was in HS my North Dakota niece was corresponding in French with a mysterious Brazilian type. I'm sure he was imagining a Nordic love goddess, but that's not really her. She's safe in Atlanta, GA now.
You send your nieces to Atlanta to keep them safe?
2: No, that's clearly wrong. If it's a fetus, one hasn't yet given birth. Once one gives birth, it's a child.
Q: How easily am I trolled? A: Very easily.
I don't understand, Sir Kraab. Obviously you can't give birth to a person outside of your body; any such person already has birth and has no need for another.
People do, however, often claim to write books, but what they actually write is a manuscript, which is then bound between covers and made into a book.
If it's a fetus, one hasn't yet given birth. Once one gives birth, it's a child.
Right, this is the paradox. It's like the old conundrum: how is it possible to die? If you're alive, you aren't dead yet, and if you're dead, you can't die.
The only proper recipient of birth is a fetus—but its very receipt makes it no longer be a fetus! O ironic consummation!
any such person already has birth and has no need for another.
Ben w-lfs-n: objectively anti-Christian.
Does this not also mean that one can't say, for example, "The murderer killed his victims with a hatchet" because before they were killed they weren't his victims?
13: Keep digging that hole, Chosen Person.
You can do it, but you have to be aware that you're using prolepsis or hysteron proteron or some similar rhetorical technique.
States are not permanent and unchangeable, of course. Some actions change them.
17: For example, Hawaii didn't become a state till 1959.
It's like the old conundrum: how is it possible to die? If you're alive, you aren't dead yet, and if you're dead, you can't die.
Like that old conundrum for the ages, "How is it possible to leave the room?"
18: And just look at West Virginia. There's an action that changed two states.
Or even more baffing, "How is it possible to carry out an action on Object X such that it becomes Object Y?"
No, it changed one state. There was no West Virginia to be changed beforehand.
To the topic, this makes me genuinely interested about ogged's work. The "What are five things you can't live without?" is an eHarmony question, and you can't just browse profiles there, but have to wait to be matched. So ogged's trolling dating sites? What, we're not good enough for you to troll?
"What are five things you can't live without?"
"Well, if they existed and I existed, and I was without them, then I wouldn't be living, so it wouldn't really matter."
1. Hair shirt
2. Flog
3. Stylos
4. God's love
5. Maggots in my sores
The real question is, would I have a more or less keen appreciation of w-lfs-n's conundrum if I were a lovelorn North Dakota meth head?
Some commenters here could probably speak to changing states recently, IYKWIM.
There was no West Virginia to be changed beforehand.
There was, it just wasn't a state yet. The action in question put it into that, er, state.
"My Drugs" is way too vague. There is a big difference between a meth-head and an acid-freak. How am I supposed to know if I want to date this person?
That is the vulgarest sort of realism, teo.
1. Blood.
2. Semi-permeable skin.
3. Brain stem.
4. Oxygen.
5. My recreational drugs.
Semi-permeable skin (permeable only by lions).
Excuse me. Permeable by everything but lions.
1. Raindrops on roses.
2. Whiskers on kittens.
3. Bright copper kettles.
4. Warm woolen mittens.
5. My recreational drugs.
33: Really, more vulgar now than you were before.
I'm looking for a partner with somewhat good hygiene. Had a bad experience once with immoderate hygiene.
West Virginia changed from a pure geographical designation to a politico-geographical designation. There were some grey areas that got stuck in the wrong place. In fact, parts of Virginia are west of the entire state of West Virginia. Suck on that.
If you ask me, though, American states are not states at all, since they don't have sovereignty and don't follow the Schmitt / Strauss definition of a state. Theyre' non-states or pseudo-state. The football rivalries don't cut it. You need blood. Lots of blood.
Nothing's worse than a doorknob wiper.
American states aren't states in the same sense as that in which America is a state, no.
44: Try telling that to North Dakota.
What would Davidson say about "in the same sense". American "states" are just plain non-states. Either you're a state, or you're not.
But they used to be States. Back in the day. Then they got United.
United states are un-states. States are wholes, not parts.
Then they got United.
United states are un-states.
One might even say they changed states.
The Confederated States may have been real states. Did any of them ever attack one another?
If you're wondering whether you're a state or not, by the Schmitt-Strauss theory you count as a state if you either subjugate everyone to your will, or destroy them. It'd permissible to maintain temporary friendly relations with other purported states as long as you intend to subjugate them at some point. You should always be annihilating or subjugating someone, however, or you're decertified.
The football rivalries don't cut it. You need blood.
North Carolina is a real state.
state = monopoly on violence?
so no US state is a state. But neither is South Korea.
No, lots of it.
The Texas A&M bonfire disaster would have counted, but A&M (where Heebie teaches) is not a state in any sense, and no enemies were killed.
I'm pretty vulgar. And real.
.GIF! .GIF! .GIF!
There's only one state now, Peter. Bush's state. The others are to be subjugated or annihilated.
an eHarmony question, and you can't just browse profiles there, but have to wait to be matched
Looking for a good Christian woman, sam?
Texas was a state as the United States is a state before it became a state as these united states are states.
What has Heebie done to you, O John boy, that you would associate her wrongfully with A&M?
The A&M bonfire disaster ended up in a gigantic, lethal game of Pick Up Sticks -- students were trapped in the log stack and the logs had to be carefully removed one at a time so the stack wouldn't shift. One wonders whether Pick-Up-Sticks champions were flown in to direct operations.
Even for you that's pretty tasteless, Emerson.
I just assumed that she was from A&M. She's not? I'll be damned.
Hey look! Little Spitzer's back in the news!
The football rivalries don't cut it. You need blood. Lots of blood
O unhappy country, where "football rivalries" and "blood" are considered to be substitutes rather than complements.
By the way, I consider that the final sentence of this paragraph to be the single wrongest assessment of anything ever written on the Internet:
"I [ie, Megan McArdle] have a new article in this month's print edition on the attempt to count the number of dead in Iraq. My article focused mostly on how we process the numbers, but over the course of my research I accumulated a fair store of knowledge on the subject. Since the fifth anniversary recriminations are still in full swing, I thought it might be useful if over the next week or so, I covered the state of the debate.
Megan deserves a lifetime achievement award.
Don't spare us, Dsquared:
In some sense, I don't think knowing the number matters. The lower bounds of reasonable estimates are still high enough to make me think our involvement in Iraq was a bad idea, especially when considered in conjunction with the various other problems we know about, like the attacks on key infrastructure and the refugee crisis. So debating whether the number is 100,000 or an order of magnitude higher than that doesn't change my basic assessment of the situation.
But in many other ways, accuracy is tremendously important. These numbers shape the national debate; it is therefore critical that they should be as correct as possible. Also, the results from these studies have important implications for a range of policies. Knowing how bad the violence is, and what kind of violence we are dealing with, should shape many of the priorities and goals that we and the Iraqi government set for ourselves.
Looking for a good Christian woman, sam?
Actually, yes. But I was goaded into trying eHarmony, and my opinions of the service were confirmed when I was matched with Fontana Labs.
69: Except for that last sentence, the somewhat clinical tone throughout, and whatever you're willing to project about what she will conclude based on your prior knowledge of her past conclusions—I have to say that these two grafs don't read wrong to me.
McArdle does set new records for fucking idiocy.
I filled out the eharmony profile, because I wanted to see what my type was, but it simply rejected me. I think that it did that because I admitted to having a poor relationship with my parents. I'm also sometimes sad for no reason, but I thought that self-awareness would be a bonus. I know enough to keep it from other people.
It's mostly my expectations. But paragraph 2 doesn't seem to recognize that the reason why the topic is being debated on the pages of the Atlantic (rather than in epidemiology and statistics journals, or in strategic planning circles) is that the original Lancet study was subjected to a ferocious and mostly dishonest or ignorant attack meant to discredit it.
Time will tell.
BG, I think that it was that questions about alien forces controlling your brain and the large green spots covering your body that turned them off. (Good old Minnesota Multiphasic.)
Hm, if I can paste together an interest in metaphor, a failure to despise philosophy (even in its analyticity), a realization that most honkies can't sit in that position because it appears undignified, plus they fall over, and the odd indulgence in intense moments of self-righteousness, I might have a Nerve profile.
What a terrible idea, so far. Unfogged sucks as a dating profile.
I think I might change mine to include the list in 27.
I have to say that these two grafs don't read wrong to me
Well, there's the question of the historical context behind these paragraphs. Some people have been saying for a long time that the number of post-invasion deaths is likely very high even at its low bound, and that the extreme difficulty of estimating the number is itself an indication of how bad things are on the ground. But those people have also tended to be categorized as not really worth listening to, typically by people who didn't show much evidence that they knew anything about statistics or data collection.
Unfogged sucks as a dating profile.
You can pick up the auto-cockblock germ just from commenting. Not to mention swimming, or commenting about swimming.
BG, I can't decide which is preferable: a) your profile rejected by eHarmony or b) your profile rejected discretely by every member of eHarmony.
80: By which I mean, in case it isn't clear, that a) describes your experience while b) describes mine, and that in either case eHarmony is a bust, save for the one lousy bj I got from Labs.
Is Chuck Klosterman dating anyone now? He's all over the North Dakota meth head scene.
The list in 27 is genius, Ben. Are you busy Saturday night?
any such person already has birth and has no need for another.
Christophobe.
I think I might change mine to include the list in 27.
What are Stylos?
81: Can you and Labs do an e-Harmony commercial together?
Please! I want to see that!
Stylos are the pillars on which stylites stand.
73 et al.: I also filled it out out of curiosity. It accepted me but matched me up with very religious Christians despite my clearly saying that I'm a follower of the Apostropher Creed. I didn't realize then that the applicant pool was skewed quite the other way.
(I do know a woman who met her husband via eHarmony and they seem to have a great relationship. So, anecdata, etc.)
Stylish is the head that wears the crown.
Alas, Labs wouldn't sign the release forms unless they superimposed the Ayatollah over his face.
If I ever become a writer, I pledge to never use "we" in the sense that means "everyone who is stupider than me".
73: The chemistry.com tv commercials have a woman that is rejected by e-Harmony because she is insufficiently happy.
92: I filled it out, too. One of the matches it sent me was a guy who stated clearly in his profile that he does not like to read books.
Heh, just got rejected by eHarmony. Amusing but I'd like that 20 min back.
she is insufficiently happy
This is why we depressives need our own site: fuckedupbrainchemistry.com
One of the matches it sent me was a guy who stated clearly in his profile that he does not like to read books.
The shocking truth about Sifu revealed.
"We are so convinced of the importance of creating compatible matches to help people establish happy, lasting relationships that we sometimes choose not to provide service rather than risk an uncertain match.
Unfortunately, we are not able to make our profiles work for you. Our matching model could not accurately predict with whom you would be best matched."
This is why we depressives need our own site: fuckedupbrainchemistry.com Unfogged.com
I also took the eHarmony quiz for fun. I got accepted, but in the 6 months that I had the profile available it matched me 3 times and not with anyone who lived under 1000 miles from me.
I really should have seen 111 coming.
105: Well, with 29 Dimensions of Compatablity, you've got to figure one or two won't match up.
105: Snob.
Exactly! How can they expect a relationship between two people of different levels of snobbitude to ever work?
79 and surrounding: Right, then, since the stylos are totally turning me off, and since auto-cockblocking is Unfogged's metier, I will away from this mess of pallid charts.
Damnit, McArdle's clinical tone is distracting and annoying, and dating sites must surely be a hurdle.
Hey, does anyone have helpy-chalk's email address? It's not on his site. If you do, please send it to mypseud at geemail. Thanks.
119: He's no longer at that job, though, so that address probably doesn't work.
Is there an "are you Shi'a?" question on eHarmony?
I didn't see one, but I imagine if you check the "Muslim" box under religious preference it takes you to another page where it asks your opinion on Ali.
Are people actually working today?
Sadly, my employer does not recognize International Cube Day as a holiday.
I'm not working, BG. SPRING BREAK! WOOOOOOO!
I am, however, discovering that good daycare around here will be about the cost of buying a smallish new car. Every year.
The commenting is awfully slow. I met someone in the coffee shop and talked to her for about an hour, and there were only about 3 comments when I came back to check on unfogged.
Fucking eharmony. They matched me with a) 2 people in New Jersey, one of whom was photographed in an electric blue suit, and b) some geezer in upstate New York. Then nothing. If I'd realized it was mainly a Christian site, I wouldn't have bothered.
mrh--Is day care less expensive than a shared nanny? I think that sometimes 3 or 4 families have a nanny who looks after their kids in a home setting.
130: I put down that I'm a Christian though. I did say that I preferred mainline Protestants, Catholics and the Orthodox to Evangelicals.
From right before the quote in 97:
Witness the Johns Hopkins team's critics, who triumphantly waved the WHO results at their opponents. But even if "only" 150,000 people have been killed by violence in Iraq, that's a damn high price. Conversely, few of the study's supporters expressed much pleasure at the news that an extra 450,000 people might be walking around in Iraq.
Am I the only person who reads that as saying that the war's opponents are/were hoping for things to go as badly as possible?
I'm only willing to date hot Monophysite babes.
I'm not working, BG. SPRING BREAK! WOOOOOOO!
I'm on spring break, and I AM working. Though I just got back from five days in Miami, so I guess I can't complain too much.
(A great, brilliant idea it was to teach a section of this additional class. This class that has 150-300 pages of reading a week. Even if it is the best class offered here. And will look good on my c.v. No really, I didn't have anything else to do with all of my free time until mid-May.)
good daycare around here will be about the cost of buying a smallish new car
Yep, especially with two infants. An infant and a toddler runs us ~$21K/year.
Rebecca Traister wrote a pretty good article on eharmony and the fellow who founded it. Now, whenever I see those smiling couples on the TV, I can only think of this:
As for my romantic prospects, Warren had some grim news. He said that because I was bright, I "lose at least 95 percent of candidates because of IQ." Great. Apparently, I also need someone articulate, ambitious and energetic. In short, as Warren said, I am "looking for a rare, rare, rare person."
At those prices, there's no way you'll ever turn a profit.
I'm sort of working. I'm in the coffee shop trying to figure out whether Type II regression analysis applies to my present situation while thinking I should prepare more for this phone interview for a programming position that will happen in 3 hours.
At the same time I'm refreshing Facebook's new "People You Might Know" feature, which is in fact yielding people I might know, filling out dating site questionnaires, and contemplating a haircut.
And BG, I'm pretty sure it's not issues of religiosity that get people bumped from eHarmony. I think having been sad in the last month is a much bigger no-no for them, based on my googling of the issue.
Hmm...googling "depressed dating" yield this site. Perhaps I'll give it a shot.
I'm only willing to date hot Monophysite babes.
chemistry.com -- which I know nothing about, but I have seen their commercials -- advertises itself as the dating site for eharmony rejects.
An infant and a toddler runs us ~$21K/year.
Dude, at those prices, an au pair would be more economical (assuming you have room enough to house her).
Fleur can give Mrs. Apostropher some advice on how to pick out one who's not too hott.
According to Atrios four thugs from Nicetown killed his Starbucks manager for no known reason.
chemistry.com works with Helen Fisher who is at Rutgers and claims to be scientific. I thought her work was reputable; she studies bonding and romance, but the application part and the 4 types seems kind of silly to me.
I actually have a guy who's kind of interested in me right now, also named John* (not really, but it's the same name as the guy I had such a huge crush on).
OT: Apparently Iraq is in or near civil war. Based on this report the government offensive seems to be failing.
I claim NO insight on the specifics, but in general betting against the Bush administration has worked for me.
Cheney was there and we have to assume that he gave the go-ahead. Thi isn't a stretch; it should be the default assumption. I hope, hope, hope that both Democratic candidates have the guts to say something.
There's an ad accompanying the Rebecca Traister story for a "millionaire dating service", which I'd never heard of.
$40k for a nanny. And we don't even like her very much. Children blow.
I was working. Now I've ground to a halt. It's all very fascinating.
140: Try this site out. A friend set up a date through it a couple of weeks ago, which worked out *spectacularly* well.
Try this site out
Whoa, that's awesome. But I'm never going to say something this stupid again. (Or I won't say that stupid thing again.)
Someone sent me a different millionaire dating site a while back that was much classier looking. Black with gold writing.
If you're really a millionaire, Blume, I'll date you even though you're not Monophysite. I thought you were just an ordinary person.
A friend and I were talking recently about that site from 150. It seems like it would lower your expectations for the encounter, which would certainly be a plus.
I thought you were just an ordinary person.
Oh, I am. Average even, the kind of person you wouldn't know where a grapefruit-sized tumor would fit. I'll let you know when this German lit gig lands me my first million, though, John.
150: That's actually quite appealing to me. The low stakes aspect of speed dating without the high pressure element of having to make an impression within 2 minutes and being situated amongst competitors. (I haven't tried speed dating, but I imagine I wouldn't like it for these reasons.) Plus, you're preselecting for people who aren't OCD about planning.
New post up, all about Crazy Blind Date!
This is actually the first weekday in the past two weeks that I haven't been too busy at work to comment on Unfogged.
an au pair would be more economical (assuming you have room enough to house her)
Actually it wouldn't (nanny rates for a single child run ~$30K/year here), and we don't have enough room for the five of us, much less a full-grown sixth.
159-- au pairs are a bit cheaper. But space would still be an issue.
158: I'm confused, what does being busy have to do with commenting here?
This is actually the first weekday in the past two weeks that I haven't been too busy at work to comment on Unfogged.
Not too busy at work, getting busy on your off-time? Nice combo.
If space is an issue than my point is moot, but I would not leave a child under two with an Au Pair full time. Having said that, if you go through a government regulated agency and have children over the age of two, it is a reasonable option for some families for the pros of cost, ($14,000 per year for 45 hours of care per week) and flexibility. It works well for us because Knecht travels weekly, and I like having another adult in the house when he is gone. But it is definitely NOT for everyone, and can require a lot of energy.
This would be a good place to note that I am now engaged to the second woman I met in person via nerve.com.
Actually we both signed up through salon.com but it's cooler to say nerve.
The Mineshaft was helpful--mostly the bit about not doing it in the middle of a crowd, per ogged! which I took to heart. There was a park, a seating boulder, a little Bollywood dancing, the ring at hand, and a full tackle onto the grass.
Congrats, Wronshore. That's great news.
John, you slay me. And Wrongshore, that's fantastic. As Apo would say, mazel tov.
What was the idea with the Bollywood dancing?
a full tackle onto the grass
She tried to run away?
Now that we've gotten the congratulations out of the way, and since you're taking my advice anyway, might I recommend that you leave as little time as possible for her to change her mind between now and the wedding?
This would be a good place to note that I am now engaged to the second woman I met in person via nerve.com.
Congrats! Getting engaged to one woman via a dating site is hard enough, but scoring two of them is really impressive.
Thanks, everybody.
175:We were walking home after eating at an Indian restaurant. We stopped in a park. There was some boogieing in tribute to the movies playing in the restaurant.
178 is a good idea, and for tax reasons too.
We were walking home
I thought you lived in L.A.?
181: Dude. I took the bus to pick up the diamond.
I thought out this post had been done before, but it turns out it was Tulsa.
182: Holy crap, she's willing to marry someone who lives in L.A. and doesn't have a car? You, my friend, have found a keeper.
Just adding my congratulations to the pile. Soon you'll be able to start having sex!
I didn't realize they were planning to have kids right away.
Soon you'll be able to start having sex!
"start" is not the verb I was expecting in that sentence.
Surely you don't think Wrongshore has been breaking God's laws. He seems like such a nice young man.
Go ahead and break God's laws because once you get married you actually have to put up with the person.
Since this is conversation is clearly taking a turn towards land-use planning, let me say that I've lessened my dependence on my car but can't quite part with it yet. I proposed becoming a one-car family, and it made her sick to think of it. She grew up in L.A. and the car is pretty critical to her sense of autonomy and self.
If it's critical to her sense of autonomy, she should keep it. I got by just fine the years I didn't have a car, but the sense of feeling isolated by not being able to go anywhere easily sucked. That said, now that we do have a car, I drive it about 5 miles a week, tops.
I'm late to the thread, but congratulations, Wrongshore!
It's not impossible to have a one-car household in LA -- I do it, and it's been more or less OK. Of course, I have the car, and he doesn't, so it's easy enough for me to give the endorsement.
What happy news! Congratulations Wrongshore!
I couldna done it without you guys.
Don't blame yourself, John. There's nothing more you could have done.
Wrong corsage--thorns.
[Careworn thong? Gross!]
