Wiseass's Latest Lies

The hegemon's privilege.

Still all over the goddamned television, or so I hear. Meanwhile the Daily Fail comes through with the news.

Go on and Google the names. There's ol' Barb Mikkelson over at Snopes -- even she seems to've had a liverful of this one, too, by the way; she's in there plugging away with a straight face, but she knows it's a losing fight. And there's some Tulsa news stories. And there's four thousand websites and blogs run by people whose politics you don't like, which as we all know means that in private moments, when no one is looking, they pull the wings off of kittens for sport.

Zimmerman remains in hiding, because he knows he'll get his head torn off and horrible things done down the neck hole if he's stupid enough to show his face in public; the "New Black Panther Party" and others have made clear that they have more important things to worry about than mere law when it comes to exacting their vengeance upon this particular wrongdoer.

No one who matters is complaining about that -- complain about vigilantism? Sure, but what the NBPP has said isn't vigilantism somehow -- so I guess it must be OK. But if anyone were to suggest this Woodfork creature ought to be facing a rope, after what he went and did? Oh, shit, neighbor! Now we have a problem.

Oh, Christ, not another Texas governor.

We could've had the Moon. Instead, we got Afghanistan.

You'll suffer, but it's mostly worth it.

Not that I'm arguing against either the concept of climate change or the role of human agency in its causation, because that would be foolish; I am of course well aware that nothing save a sackcloth-and-ashes energy policy based on solar, wind, and their consequent widespread privation will avert the otherwise inevitable extinction of all the worthwhile species on this planet and humanity too.

But why is it that, when poked and prodded not too roughly, the IPCC's models seem to be so crap? I mean, 3.7°C±130? Why should I take at all seriously a projection whose margin of error is two orders of magnitude larger than the projection itself? Why should I take at all seriously a model in which that's neither the only nor the largest source of uncertainty? And if "the science is in" on anthropogenic global warming, then why the hell can't IPCC, who would necessarily have a major role in the bringing-in of any such science, do any better than this?

Really.

Which three guys from Shithole Flats, North Dakota wanted that one?

Edit: Anybody know where I can find a copy of the Motif library that can still be linked against? I figure what the hell -- if Chrome's gonna go retro, why not go all the way?

This phrase is dead. It died several years ago. Using it makes you sound like a 19-year-old who has just discovered the fedora, but has yet to realize that the fedora has been out of style since about 1959 and that this is not going to change. If that's who you are, then go on saying 'well played', I guess. Otherwise, stop. Think of something else that means the same thing, but hasn't yet been beat to death by two-thirds of the English-speaking Internet, and say that other thing instead. We will all be happier for it. Thank you.

Here.

Because, seriously, what else can you call the Honor Harrington series**? And it works two ways: first, because there's all but nothing in its politics or society which would be out of place in the Victorian era -- once the Victorian era has been neatly shined and polished first, of course -- and second, because while Weber likes to go on at length about fusion this and fission that and reactors the other damn thing, he never utters so much as a single word on the subject of how all that energy gets from the reactor to the rest of the ship's systems, so I feel myself perfectly justified in assuming they must be using updated, shinier versions of the same old steam-driven turbine technology we've been using to generate electricity since about the end of the Industrial Revolution.

I mean, what's the alternative? I guess you could just pipe reactor plasma around the ship to do everything, but that's just stupid. (Don't think so? Imagine a house where all the lights and computers and washing machines run on steam instead of electricity. Fun, right? Now make the steam explosive.) What else ya got? Implausible future-tech niftiness Weber's never even hinted about? Sure, if you like, but if you're gonna have to fanwank anyway, why not have some fun with it?

* There is no better or more worthwhile use of this phrase. In fact, I'm sorry I even made it up. Please just forget I said anything. (Or at the very least, use the silver-tone Krylon for it, okay? The brass-tone stuff just looks like crap.)

** If you're gonna get on to me for my poor taste in reading these, fine, but I guess all your guilty pleasures must be vegan or something, huh?