Well, if these kinds of churches' preferred candidates have taught them anything, it's that the fact that something is illegal is no reason not to do it.

There doesn't seem to be a winning free-speech case (for reasons I don't really understand).

They aren't restricting churches' free speech, they're restricting their access to a special tax status, which is not a constitutional right. Same restrictions apply to all... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 2:14 PM on September 9, 2008

Seriously though, it's worth amplifying that the goal of this organization and its cat's paw churches is to incite a prosecution by the IRS that it can try to take to the Supreme Court for a constitutional challenge of the law.
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 2:24 PM on September 9, 2008

I chuckled at the cutesy little disclaimer on the tadigrades.com home page that warned you might develop an "addictive" fascination if you kept reading. Then I looked at the clock and realized I'd been reading about water bears for thirty damn minutes.
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 2:00 PM on September 9, 2008

does our already existing knowledge of what they have done obligate us to press for legal redress?

Sounds great, now how exactly am I supposed to do that again? Write some more letters? As far as I can tell I am absolutely powerless in the face of a gutless, compromised congress. Perhaps I shall vote for a third party candidate, or do some anarchist street puppetry.
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 6:42 PM on September 8, 2008

Were they better in the '80's?

They were metal in the '80's. This sounds like the same heavy pop alternative with metal highlights they've been doing for years. I made it about 4 minutes into that tapioca-toned lumbering cliche of a video.
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 12:54 PM on September 7, 2008

The real issue here is not to think of new ways to justify people's lifestyle choices, but to ask the question: what medicinal qualities do cannabinoids have and how can we harness them without incurring the various side effects associated with smoking cannabis.

There are two falsehoods here. The first is any further justification for legalizing marijuana is necessary: it's physiologically safer and has a lower potential for abuse than alcohol and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 5:27 PM on August 27, 2008

I'm pretty sure it qualifies as animal cruelty to force a couple of innocent chickens to participate in a Neistat Brothers film.
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 10:28 AM on August 27, 2008

It is a neat application... but there are an awful lot of limitations imposed by essentially only being able to view one panel at a time and the restrictive panel dimensions (you can only break out of panel borders if you cut the screen down into what start to become very small panels, no across the fold layouts or splash pages, and little significant visual interaction possible between the panels).

It seems particularly suited to strips, honestly - not too many panels,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 10:24 PM on August 23, 2008

Am I missing something? She has no actual experience in government at all, correct? I don't mean associated with pertaining to relevant to blah blah blah. I mean, holding elected office. The suggestion is idiotic.
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 5:30 PM on August 19, 2008

Any clue to what Moore meant when he said he "knew" JFK?

He's talking about JFK Jr.
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 5:31 PM on August 19, 2008

Most of them will be about 18 years old, born in 1990...

Ah, this year's graduating class was born the year I graduated from high school. Ouuuch.
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 2:11 PM on August 19, 2008

No artists or labels have complained.

The artists and labels pay the RIAA to do this for them. The only thing that surprises me is that it took this long. If you're not doing it by the book and you get popular they are going to come after you, and this is going to be the case for a good long time to come. I think their apparent belief that they will weather this is exceptionally optimistic.

Pandora is really another issue;... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 10:44 PM on August 18, 2008

Oh for crying out loud, don't ask him to explain it further. Just keep flagging it until it goes away.
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 11:45 AM on August 17, 2008

is it just me, or is everyone on a particularly snarky tear these past few days?

Wow, real "insightful" comment there. Your early comments were like classic Metafilter but you've clearly lost the magic. Honestly I've kind of been over your schtick for a while. I'm totally into yort now, that's some real Metafilter.
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 11:46 PM on August 16, 2008

I'd totally forgotten that I discovered MST3K waaaay back in the KTMA proto-season (the first episode I saw was Superdome), and was utterly bummed when it moved to the Comedy Channel - my Luddite parents didn't believe in cable (still don't! I just realized they are totally the people those PSAs about talking to your senior citizen neighbors about the switch to digital broadcast are talking about... I probably should give them a call about that...). We were still renting the VCR along with the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 12:46 AM on August 15, 2008

Incidentally, you can find horrible multi-part VHS transcripts of many of those first-year episodes in all their reputed $250/show glory floating around on YouTube by googling MST3K and the episode titles. Lest ye think I dreamed it all...
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 12:53 AM on August 15, 2008

Dang (talking to myself in some soon-to-be-forgotten corner of the internet again), I just realized I got a copy of the first fanclub newsletter in the mail, I really was in early. I am awash in nostalgia. And damn do I feel old.
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 1:05 AM on August 15, 2008

Hey, they added the KTMA episodes, the circle is now complete. Of course, they're all still impossible to download. Apparently they've added some kinds of clever business that organizes and streamlines the process of all episodes being impossible to download.
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 2:38 PM on August 16, 2008

But what really happened was not so simple. What really happened is Staci started to loose her mind.

FAIL
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 2:12 PM on August 16, 2008

Man, Lamborghini makes an ugly car.
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 10:54 AM on August 12, 2008

I can't help but wonder how that guy takes a shower.

Well, for starters...
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 12:51 PM on August 12, 2008

I get it! It represents the fantasy state you enter when you're slipping in and out of consciousness after being tazed for throwing a fit after being held captive on the runway for seven hours, right? Trippy, bro.
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 11:31 AM on August 12, 2008

From a journalist with a book to sell opining 4 degrees could mean "perhaps the beginning of our extinction" to "by 4 degrees we're all dead"? I'm 100% in favor of mitigating global warming but insisting on the most catastrophic interpretation (from the least rigorous sources) is not helping.
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 5:53 PM on August 10, 2008

Also, "44 percent indicated addressing global warming should necessarily cause them personal financial hardship" does not mean the same thing as "44 percent would be willing to face any financial hardship in the name of a solution."
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 5:57 PM on August 10, 2008

I've been hearing a lot recently that the general scientific opinion on global warming is that it's real, and is happening, but that human behavior isn't really doing that much to affect it

Hearing a lot from where? I've been following this scientific debate for 12 years now and my perspective is that the overwhelming and consistently growing scientific consensus is that the origin of global warming is CO2 emissions resulting from human activities,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 6:56 PM on August 10, 2008

80 % of Americans are retarded. Man made global warming is a lie.

Who can argue with such eloquent rhetoric?
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 2:01 PM on August 11, 2008

Oh look, they have also taken advantage of the "exploit an alcoholic transient" meme. Flags need a "piece of shit" label.
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 5:22 PM on August 10, 2008

God damn global warming.

(Because the catastrophic transformation of the planetary ecosystem is comedy gold, yes, yes).
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 1:22 PM on August 10, 2008

William, who resides in the Netherlands Antilles, says he also has a moral problem with the IRS requiring Americans living abroad to file annual income tax returns.

Oh, is that what they're calling that now?
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 10:25 AM on August 10, 2008

WTF, I thought toilets with two flushing options was the norm everywhere.

You should stop reading the internet so you can enjoy living in the happy dreamworld where things in Copenhagen are representative of the "norm everywhere"! The norm in America is a toilet with an automatic sensor to trigger it for the sort of dumb slump who can't be trusted to flush at all.

I saw the first one of these two-option toilets just... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 6:29 AM on August 10, 2008

I don't need to answer 100 questions to find out I don't take a firm enough hand with the little woman.
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 7:08 PM on August 9, 2008

Is one of the effects anger? Because after listening to that second Wikipedia sample for a couple minutes I kind of want to punch somebody.
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 2:26 PM on August 9, 2008

Since Georges Melies' 1902 'Trip to the Moon' cinema has been in love with in a frequently abusive relationship with science fiction.
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 6:53 AM on August 9, 2008

So, I guess I'm still the only person that actually liked Alien3.

Yeah, we're a small but scrappy contingent. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers! I've honestly never understood what so many people hate so much about it. I couldn't make Alien : Resurrection work for me though; Jeunet's fantastical-grotesque style just seemed like a really poor fit (I had no idea until looking it up just now that Joss Whedon wrote the script for that).
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 2:14 PM on August 9, 2008

Who still defines "at home" as where their parents live

Yeah, one of several questions that hints at the creator's age range... Yeah I live at home, I mean, I own the damn thing ("desperate years" my ass, grumble grumble). Of course I'm married and I have a kid so I suspect I'm not really in the "tradeable for goats" set (unfortunately for the wife...)
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 4:21 PM on August 7, 2008

I'm worth nine goats. My ex is worth 5. I think I'm seeing why things didn't work out.

Perhaps this should be included as a reference point in AskMe relationship posts...

DT4GMFA
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 4:22 PM on August 7, 2008

SLYP?
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 2:04 PM on August 7, 2008

Wait, wait, I want to have the argument about whether China is more dependent on America of vice versa again!
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 9:40 AM on August 6, 2008

Well, steam power as a method of heat energy reclamation is a technology that has been explored, Daddy-O.

However, straight up steam power is not a practical portable, on-board power supply for modern transportation, stop goofing around, DU. There's a reason the steam-powered train is unequivocally a thing of the past.
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 8:15 AM on July 30, 2008

A quick reading of designbot's link should stop all discussion right-quick.

That article is hardly definitive. While I pretty much agree that politically, hydrogen is a sort of gee-whiz technology politicians trot out for show, on the technology side Zubrin (who is certainly no expert in the field) is just setting up a straw man in that article but restricting the possible methods of generating hydrogen to two, electrolysis or cracking fossil fuels.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 8:58 AM on July 30, 2008

Wait, so is this related to Marketplace, the show on NPR?

Marketplace is on APM, not NPR, and no, it was created in 1989 and as that article discusses its name was chosen from scratch.
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 9:50 AM on July 30, 2008

Yeah, those were some sucky results. Although I did find out that the website doakajay.info is for sale! So long, suckers! I'm probably going to be way too busy counting my website entrepreneur millions to be hanging around here much from now on.
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 11:23 AM on July 28, 2008

Wow, I can't wait to relive the last 8 years.
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 6:25 PM on July 27, 2008

I'm so thankful to have Metafilter so that I can skim through one of these intellectual pissing matches any time I need help remembering why liberalism is basically fucking impotent in America.
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 11:44 AM on July 27, 2008

That kind of thinking, if it continues down the path it's going, will eventually tear the country apart.

Yes, yes, we'll end up a divided nation of color-coded states, where every political contest boils down to a few "battleground" states where the margins of victory are so narrow that they could "theoretically" be swayed by things like hacking electronic voting machines, or aggressively suppressing minority votes, or tactical... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 12:54 PM on July 27, 2008

I drink coffee like a functional alcoholic now; after I've finished my one cup (uh, one 10 ounce cup) in the morning, if there's any left in the pot (depending on how much got made and how much my wife drank before heading off to work) I have to dump it down the drain or I'll be swilling it down all afternoon, wondering why I feel so anxious and shaky. I can appreciate a really well-made cup of quality coffee but frankly I'll drink it any damn way, I will drink Lutheran... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 11:10 AM on July 22, 2008

More history.
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 7:19 PM on July 17, 2008

Well, if you're in the mood for some doomsaying...

From a theater major whose most notable distinction is being a staff writer for Rolling Stone? Who has been in the process of moving the deadlines on his economic collapse timelines as reality has rolled over them for several years, in a manner that would do any messianic eschatologist proud? Sure, I'm always up for a laugh. The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling!
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 11:51 AM on July 14, 2008

Interesting presentation (they do a nice job of reproducing the typographic feel of the titles on the spines of old paperbacks)... but does anyone else feel a little bummed by the phenomenon of abandoned photographs? I mean, a bunch of tossed out wedding or baby photos of people who would clearly, given happy outcomes, still be married/alive, pretty much tells a sad if enigmatic story. I mean, when my parents pass away the baby pictures aren't going to get thrown out, right? It reminds me of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 8:42 PM on July 13, 2008

Apropos - real books with actual surprising contents: specifically, hollowed-out hardbacks full of stashes hardcore homemade porn photos (found by one surprised bookseller). NSFW, in case you're, well, thick.
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 8:59 PM on July 13, 2008