Is it really true? Can we change humanity by banning words? Is it liberating to limit your vocabulary? Who is to tell us which words we can and can’t use? Someone bossy?
I went to school with a kid who’s last name was Bossy. But he was a guy. So maybe we could just call him over-bearing and fussy, had he been anything other than a great fellow, and just the opposite.
How in the world is preventing us from describing someone as being bossy going to prevent them from being bossy? Or are we to learn to revere being bossy, in which case banning the word might be a mistake. So is it a virtue to be bossy, and we mustn’t mention it, and must rename it, like the Orange Roughy, formerly a Slimehead?
[The orange roughy, red roughy, slimehead or deep sea perch, Hoplostethus atlanticus, is a relatively large deep-sea fish belonging to the slimehead family (Trachichthyidae).
“How would you like your slimehead, Sir, poached or pan-seared?” just didn’t sell the fish dish.]
Or is being bossy a bad thing, and by banning the word we will somehow ban the activity.
Often banning things has an inverse effect, like prohibition where it became easy to get hard liquor but hard to get soft liquor, and we ended up with the Mafia and biker gangs as a nice unintended consequence. Oh and probably the war on drugs, one of my favourite modern wars, because everything must be a war of course. Banning the incandescent light bulb is going to have a terrible effect, and Thomas Edison must be cringing in his grave. But at least those were physical things, like one of the King George’s banning coffee shops back in the heady days of the 1600s.
But this is the height of petty bossiness, this banning of bossy, and the irony is so thick one could cut it with a knife. One doesn’t often run into this kind of true, literary, self-inflicted, irony in real life. But banning bossy is just so Marie Antoinetteish it is flabbergasting. Worry about something important !!!!!!! you bossy people!
If you want to give girls confidence, enrol them in karate. Giving them a protective shield, so they never hear that they are being little pills, could lead them to become the kind of large pill who would be so stupidly and irritatingly bossy as to suggest what words we can and can’t use to describe them.
What ever happened to women who wanted to be treated equally? Sorry Mrs Pankhurst, you did your best.
44, yes I would trust Pailin’s intuition on this. Maybe not on everything (he takes the term “tightwad” to a whole ‘nuther crazy-ass level). But on the buying and selling of metal, yes. And you can tell him I said so.
I think we should have a day where we all post pics of all our long gone dear departed old dogs and beater cars. In my case I’ll have to go over to mom’s and take a phone pic of an old faded print from about 1977, for starters. You know me. I like to start at the beginning. Maybe I’m just funny that way.
I’m amazed, and grateful, for the crap Mrs. O puts up with..
I think I will repost that picture … we had a lot of fun with that truck, even if it was a hood open eyesore in the driveway, along with its parts twin, ’cause range rovers are gregarious and need a lot of fixing. The twin is rusting in a friend’s farm field, and we would have to go and take a picture, maybe when back near our old hunting grounds in the spring, if there ever is one.
I remember “joking” that if we had as many Range Rovers as a Range Rover had parts, we would be covered.
Another one from maybe 1963 is toddler me and one of our old dogs. Again it would require conversion from faded hard copy to modern jpg. It’s doable.
Gotta run. Those tax returns are not going to check themselves.
Xty, I didn’t miss your post. I was inspired by it.
a bossy old new car from 1963.
Wow – way to combine two disparate threads!
Are you buying more lightbulbs?
i am transitioning to the new bulbs. the quality of the light now on the compact fluorescent bulbs is quite good, and they are cheap now – they make sense. they save you money over the long run, are better if you are a power plant NIMBY, but they do contain mercury. yes, they are a pain in the ass to dispose of properly. i will start buying the LED lights when they become cheap enough. our house is probably 1/4 incandescent yet. i’m certainly not going to throw away a functioning bulb, yet i am no anti-prog reactionary luddite jerkwad either! 😛
son of a bitch! fuck! damn is it cold here again today! surly and expressed with impunity in the spirit of your post! i’m going to hang out in the kitchen much of the day again. shit – it’s even snowing a little now. 🙁
how did we start talking about light bulbs? i really missed some posts yesterday didn’t i? i have been out of sorts lately.
i have some fond memories of beater cars, and McGiveresque repairs, but the pictures are on paper like yours EO.
i will play a nice song later to make up for my profanity laced rant, i promise! 🙂 🙂
oops. i see it now. i thought they were just going to stop manufacturing them in the USA – that’s not the same as banning them is it? we don’t manufacture anything tangible here as it is.
i can have my guy smuggle me in some incandescent bulbs hidden in a bag of weed if necessary. let me know.
check out this dog! leave Mouse at home and take this dog to the bank… “go get the money. good boy.”
Kid Dynamite had a good post recently.
Blame Is For Losers
One of the things that drives me fucking bats is the idea that every downtick in metals is “an attack”, “a raid”, “manipulation”, “corruption”, “criminal”, “keynesians”, “socialists”, “HFT’s”, “algos”, “immoral”, “atheistic”, or whatever the hell else these mental deficients dream up to justify their losses. Of course, every uptick is on account of “truth, justice, God, Mother, Liberty, Apple Pie, and the Austrian Way” LOLLOLLLOLL
End of Keynesian Experiment? Gimme a fucking break! That is pure conjecture at this point. The only “experiment” that is clearly dead and buried, based on actual historical data is the “Austrian Experiment”. The only ones pushing Austrian economics are the ones desperately trying to find a way to make rich people EVEN RICHER! (and their unwitting toadies, who’ve been bamboozled into thinking they are fighting for the little guy). This is a tall order in this day and age which rivals even the darkest days of the Victorian caste system. Can you stretch the rubber band even further? Props to you for even trying. You are not shy in waging class war on behalf of the uber-rich, I’ll give you that.
One of these days, I’ll stop sugar coating all this and tell you what I REALLY THINK.
Time to run dogs.
FUCK
um, so you weren’t impressed by Jumpy’s tricks EO?
i hope your resolve didn’t break. did you go back to sniff around the vomit puddle? you are exhibiting some of the telltale signs.
the weather was defeating me this morning so i decided to paint a place that would probably be worse than Wisconsin right now. at least there are a few birds singing in the dead trees here. in honor of the jam session last night, i’ll call it the Winter Blues.
🙂
No, I didn’t. Just ruminating on some shit that’s been on my mind. With some…uh…lubrication.
Here’s another one of my favorites. The Hard Money Muppets like to toss around that old chestnut “No fiat currency has ever survived.”
Ok, where to even start.
In order to “survive”, one has to actually “exist”. Name me one hard money system that exists today, and I’ll acquiesce to the idea that it has a chance to “survive”.
The only systems that “exist” today, and therefore are still “surviving” are all fiat currencies.
One can easily, and with more and better data backup, say that “No hard money currency system has ever survived.” That appears to be a lock truth, given the data at hand.
Come on, bitches. Name me one hard money system that exists in the world today.
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Go
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The ball is in your court..
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And don’t give me any shit about thousands of years of Chinese silver. It’s gone. It’s dead. It couldn’t survive the machinations of homo sapiens. Try something else.
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OK, now you are boring me.
OK, you caught me. I’ve been remiss in updating my lightbulb spreadsheet. Yes, I have a spreadsheet for it. Doesn’t everybody? I’m supposed to take inventory at 12/31 each year, and therefore know annual usage as well, via the change. But I haven’t done it yet.
At last check, 12/31/12, I think I had about a 16 year supply of incandescent bulbs.
Don’t laugh at me…
grump
the logic backing your fiat vs. hard currency survivability ranking is rock solid. but you get no hat tips because you are a lefty pinko. 😆
True. But what I really want to hear about is YOUR lightbulb spreadsheet.
well, i will have to fit the facts to the present argument so i will need a few minutes to play with the numbers. aren’t you on the anti side of the bulb ban? my trouble is that i can’t seem to get torqued either way! my data is for sale nonetheless and to either side.
i just spun up a batch of popcorn with the Whirly-Pop. what do you put on yours?
so far i have only added salt, pepper, and/or seasoning salt over and beyond the oil you need to use while popping it.
It is not a matter of being FOR or AGAINST the ban. Not a matter of pointy headed liberals vs a bunch of flat earthers.
It just IS. My only job is to deal with it. I happen to like the old bulbs, so of course I’ve laid in a supply, that with proper husbandry, might last me the rest of my natural life.
I’m a purist on the popcorn. Butter and salt. My wife and daughter have left the reservation recently and gone to this stuff though. In the White Cheddar flavor. I think it tastes like sour milk, but I’m clearly in the minority on this and most other things around this house. Maybe that’s why I get to drive the “dog car” to work every day while the kid takes the 2011 Subaru to school. Which is less than a mile away…
i actually like the compact fluorescent bulbs better now. they have some that are real close to sunlight. so colors look right, and my houseplants do better too. those LED’s are going to have to wait. i ain’t paying.
i got the popper mostly for health reasons – those microwave popcorns are really unhealthy. so no way am i getting those fake flavored kernels now. and the other reason is because it saves a load of money for as often as i eat popcorn. oh, i almost forgot… i have to try growing my own popcorn now too, to compete with you and the Dude. so put me in the purist camp.
the car situation is fair. you get the grocery getter because you always want to look poor at work. park that beater right next to the bosses Lexus. the kid should get the babe magnet for college. remember, you are a swell Dad.
As long as we’re doing Hank…
And then you could go to Patsy Cline doing Hank Williams. The best of all possible worlds. She basically yodels the whole tune.
Mrs. O chimed in. She requested “Walkin’ After Midinght” and then I said “we can’t leave the Patsy meme until we play “Sweet Dreams”. Punch ’em up if you like.
fwiw, I’ve had exactly ZERO PERCENT allocated to emerging markets for the entirety of my recent ( since Nov. 2012) adventure in the stock market.
“I” Shares
My (recently renovated) post-it note on my imac says:
Don’t Fight The Tape
The Trend Is Your Friend
Buy Strength, Sell Weakness
Don’t Get Too Clever
Ignore the Chatter
If you take a hard look at the holdings of most emerging markets funds, you find them dominated by State-Interfered-With-Banks-and-Oil-Companies. This is NOT where you want your money. And I’m a lefty pinko saying this! 😆
Here’s how it typically works. They start with some sort of “enlightened” public-private partnership. Then they do a bajillion dollar IPO to find the greater fools who will buy such a turkey on the NYSE.
Then, in the boom times, the State will demand most of the cash flow for it’s own purposes, leaving the private piece unable to reinvest in itself. Then, in the lean times, with the private part on the ropes of bankruptcy, the State will come to the rescue, but of course you’ll have to give up another big chunk of equity for the cash. And thus, instead of maybe 50-50 to start, now the State owns 70-30. Wash, rinse, and repeat. Until it’s pretty much toast. Then do another reorg and spin off 50% again in another “must have” IPO in New York to another batch of greater fools.
Emerging markets are an open sewer. Pretty much like gold mining.
OK – i’m back – made a nice Sunday dinner. here’s one for Mrs. O.
So, why have I been so chatty today? Because the madness of tax season has descended upon me in a big way in recent days. And I feel like nobody is going to see much of me for the next month. Not my wife, not my kids, and certainly not anybody on the web. I’m kind of blowing it out for the last time for a while, in more ways than one.
See y’all when it’s over.
Okay you got to me – the Austrian economists that you bash are not exactly one cohesive pool of morons. Much of Austrian economics is sensible but you dislike the misuse of it by greedy bastards. What Austrian experiment have we seen? That would be like me saying socialism never works just look what Stalin did. I frequently post very excellent thinking by so-called Austrians, or in this case more like Chicagoians, and you don’t comment. But then you go all pissy because of something Kid Dynamite, who is as foul-mouthed a jerk as I have ever met on the internet, wrote.
When Russ Roberts discusses economics, do you really think he is trying to justify the uber-rich?
Who is waging class war for the uber-rich? what you are you referring to?
And I am against the lightbulb ban – we have no idea if these new bulbs will be better for the environment, being shipped here from China where pollution standards are so low. And who in north america disposes of them correctly? I use both, and the new ones don’t heat. People have done studies and in a cold climate you would be best to switch them winter and summer. My in-laws heat their pump house with a single incandescent bulb all winter.
But good morning.
Seems like it’s always the ready made justification for cutting taxes and regulations on the rich, and cutting wages and benefits for everybody else. But, what the hell, that was yesterday.
Good Morning.
i can dish it out, and take it. i see both sides of the bulb debate, and because of that i do not take a strong stand. i was being cheeky, aka being a smart-ass, and that’s it. 🙂
i (we) recycle our fluorescent bulbs – my wife takes them to work. it is difficult to recycle in my backward ass (opposite of progressive) town despite a population of 60,000, in fact it costs money to recycle many things here. um externalities. um, private profits, public losses. um, hometown of Rep Paul Ryan R.
i don’t have a beef with the Austrian school, but i will offer a theory as to why EO isn’t a fan. in the USA, for whatever reason, libertarian thought has been commandeered by the political far right. that is why i like that political compass test. i am a true libertarian, despite having a fully functional and beating heart.
here’s that link again. i land in the quadrant the most opposite to all (every single one) of the modern “western” leaders. unfortunately my style of anarchy can only work if people don’t behave like assholes.
good morning Xty. i meant no harm. i think we’re all good though anyway.
http://www.politicalcompass.org/
Yes, I go off too harshly sometimes. I actually used to read a fair amount of that stuff years ago. Mostly as an exercise in confirmation bias (before I ever knew there was such a thing) because I was looking for reasons my gold would go up.
In recent years it seems like you hear about it more often in circles outside of just the goldbugs, and now it just looks more like an archly conservative political agenda, wrapped up in a pretty academic bow, to give it a veneer of respectability.
I believe those people are doing great harm to this country.
Dung hills rise and castles fall, we are all equal one and all.
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!
“Consider the ethical and political implications of what the FDIC investigation has confirmed. The entire barrel of apples is rotten. Every CEO failed the ethical test, and the ethical bar that they failed to surmount was set exceptionally low. That can only happen when a “Gresham’s” dynamic has been allowed to persist for years because of the three “de’s” (deregulation, desupervision, and de facto decriminalization). Such a dynamic can cause “bad ethics to drive good ethics out of the markets.” No one should be able to view the facts the FDIC cites without a sense of horror combined with an urgent commitment to transform the industry that has done so much financial and ethical harm to our nations.”
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/03/dishonest-number-world-libor.html
“Would this process have put Jamie Dimon, Lloyd Blankfein, Robert Rubin and the rest behind bars? Who knows, but we know with certainty that the Justice Department never started on this path so there was no way that the honchos could ever be held accountable for any crimes they did commit. This speaks volumes about the nature of justice in the United States today.”
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/locking-up-the-banksters-its-not-hard
I will forgo any St Pat’s Day observance this year and will save my revelry for Bastille Day since I just scored in the same quadrant as Francois Hollande from DP’s test link above.
“When Obama won the presidency, I assumed that Bill Black would soon be moving to Washington to usher prominent bankers through their perp walks. That’s what opportunity and meritocracy meant, after all. You bring in the guy who understands the problem.
Of course it never happened. His phone never rang. There was no ladder of opportunity for him or anyone like him, precisely because they represented accountability. And Barack Obama, champion of meritocracy, went on instead to pick the second-worst-possible source of advice.”
http://www.salon.com/2014/03/16/there_is_no_meritocracy_its_just_the_1_percent_and_the_game_is_rigged/
see you all in hell.
by the way, all of these articles are listed here. thank you Jesse.
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/
me too Dude.
and now after all the above commenting, i’m going to seem even “slow”er by asking this, but- What word (bossy?) was banned? from where?
not slower at all, maybe braver.
c’mon Xty! please come back!
Not off in huff. Just had a moment with the car, and a doctor’s appointment but just for an inhaler and a nasonex in case anyone wants to tell me how evil western medicine is so we can fight about that, and a trip to the post office. Middle son walked dog after being rescued from apartment and fed Tim Hortons. Now unfortunate pain in side must be dealt with.
As to the stinking word bossy, there is even a web site, banbossy dot comandtakemeaway
condelezza rice, is one, and I refuse to go and look to see who the other two lunatics were. It takes some hubris for a woman who became secretary of state to whine about how women never get a fair shake. And it was actually all over the news it turns out, and I even scooped the National Post. But the New York Times was on about it. There might be a book.
As to why the criminals are not prosecuted … disgusting doesn’t begin, andw hen I took that test I was in the middle for left vs right, and then an antiauthoritarian.
i found it. sheesh. meanwhile back at the ranch. or Crimea. or anything that matters even less. but i will give credit that at least it is presented as an op ed.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2014/03/dont-ban-bossy.html
i didn’t think you were ticked off Xty.