MetaFilter

Even if I can't abide Sarah Palin or anything that she stands for, I still find the "narcissistic personality disorder" criticism profoundly unfair. Is she profoundly narcissistic? Well, of course she is! She's a politician, fer Chrissakes! It comes with the territory!

Nobody with an ego smaller than the Hindenburg would even remotely consider going through the indignities of running for office (and Sarah Palin did get her fair share of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Skeptic at 2:04 AM on July 1, 2009

There are certainly people around who say that God made everything with the appearance of age, which is a much larger deception than it might seem at first.

While I don't believe this is true, I find it much more appealing than most people, and I wouldn't call it a "deception". I'd call it "creating a fully-fleshed-out world with extensive backstory." Because a "brand new" world would be empty and boring. The sky... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by straight at 5:55 PM on June 22, 2009

But Heaven -- as many times as it's been imagined (from Dante to "Cabin in the Sky"), it's never very interesting.

Well the problem is that conflict and contrast are what makes life interesting, and everyone wants Heaven to be better than life. But once you remove the messy parts from life, the negatives, the striving, the nervous anticipations, you are left with nothing. It's as if you removed all the darkness from a chiaroscuro work and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by BrotherCaine at 3:13 PM on June 19, 2009

Why are the light-skinned negroes who sing like white folks so often popular?

Oh, I dunno. Maybe cause it's a very big world with all kinds of people of all sorts of epidermal shades who enjoy singing in all sorts of ways and who enjoy lisyening to all different sorts of singing?

That'd be my guess, anyway.
posted to MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite at 12:58 AM on June 17, 2009

i was a hipster. i received money from my middle class parents to get a creative degree. i played in bands that puzzled the audience. i wore clothes because i thought they was so ugly they had to be beautiful. i danced in public the way i danced at home in front of the mirror. i went to a lot of parties and sold my cd's for beer. i stole merchandise rabidly from my retail part-time job employer. i had a beat-up old car i inherited from my grandfather and i crashed it three times. i slept around.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Potomac Avenue at 1:56 PM on June 8, 2009

Submitting "TED Talks" to Things White People Like.
posted to MetaFilter by boo_radley at 9:55 AM on May 25, 2009

I didn't know Jeremy Clarkson was in a Japanese MOR band. I thought he went in more for prog rock.
posted to MetaFilter by PeterMcDermott at 9:53 AM on May 25, 2009

I don't think there's anything wrong with this article but I don't know what it contributes to the poverty discussion that hasn't already been covered over and over again. Honestly, this vibes like yet another well meaning journalist with no real commitment to poverty or social justice issues who just got the itch to do the Serious Poverty piece and did the old parachuting-in-to-spend-a-couple-days-in-the-hood thing. These articles print in the Inquirer like every other week, basically a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Straightener at 9:42 AM on May 19, 2009

"approximately 8-15% of people with stage 4 colon cancer are alive five years after their diagnosis."

And yet, she almost certainly was inspected as often as recommended for someone her age. (i.e. never.)
posted to MetaFilter by markkraft at 1:55 PM on May 14, 2009

That's a bit of cock-and-bull neoprene-wasting flange of a meep meep, but then I'm a potato fart of a tricerotops looking rake practically mounting an ostrich with a Korg synthesizer lodged in a small annexe, some would say a vestibule, embedded in the spacetime to the left of my todger, fuming mad after an afternoon of snuff nudgage and cheese worship, as usual.
posted to MetaFilter by snoktruix at 1:34 PM on May 12, 2009

Anyone had a thank-you note work for them? Or been on the receiving end and thought anything other than "Man, weirdo!"?

Quite the opposite. I'm a big fan of writing thank-you notes and I'm a freak about stationery and penmanship. It's actually very common for people to call or e-mail me thanking me for the thank you note, which, as it turns out, is a great way to cement a relationship and get work. Perhaps it's because I write them, but... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Thin Lizzy at 11:26 PM on April 16, 2009

I was FOB in Japan in 1992. 16 years later they're more fucked now, partially for demographic reasons and partially for the immense stupidity of mal-investment that occurred in the late 80s.

You can't avoid fallout from large-scale malinvestment. You just can't. Japan tried to dodge theirs, suffered for twenty years, and they're STILL having their final collapse. All their interventionism saved them no pain at all. All it did was defer and magnify... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 2:56 AM on April 17, 2009

Cleveland's a great place to live, but I wouldn't want to visit there.
posted to MetaFilter by FfejL at 4:35 PM on April 16, 2009

What happened to this place?

It stopped showcasing innovative and interesting bands and instead because a parodic mausoleum to a scene that passed it by decades earlier.
posted to MetaFilter by saladin at 2:26 PM on April 6, 2009

I saw this in a movie theater with my father, over 25 years ago - on a double bill where the first movie was Harold and Maude. In the break, we agreed that there was no way the second film could be as good as the first - we had no idea what "André" was about.

We were blown away. I walked out and I felt like I was tripping - the colours seemed brighter, I can remember it till this day.

I don't remember expecting "something to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by lupus_yonderboy at 11:29 AM on April 3, 2009

The situation is bad, but a good bit of the downward price march is "the Market" throwing a hissy fit because the gravy train is being challenged.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 10:22 AM on March 5

I LOLed. Do you understand that "the Market" is already hiring government contract lawyers in DC to figure out how they can get get their hands on that stimulus money? Money for bridges? No problem. They'll build you a $10... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pastabagel at 7:34 AM on March 5, 2009

The reason TDS is more honest than other news stations it that it looks backwards. TDS can rewind through their Beta and PVR archives and see what someone said years ago, against what they're saying today. Most other news shows live in the extreme present, where the world disappears when they can't see it. The past doesn't sell - what's happening right now is the only thing that matters at all.
posted to MetaFilter by filthy light thief at 7:16 AM on March 5, 2009

Okay, is anyone NOT aware of breast cancer by now? And does the sheer tonnage of pink ribbon crap make any difference in the number of people getting mammograms?
posted to MetaFilter by Madamina at 7:46 PM on March 4, 2009

I can't think of a single instance of the U.S. acting against its own interests in favour of honoring a treaty.We honored the treaty wherein we were to relinquish control of the Panama Canal in 1999.

I'm sure an argument can be made that it was within our own interests to do so, but I think it would be harder to make such an argument assuming the mindframe that is often used to describe the foreign policy actions of the United States (e.g. that the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 1:55 PM on February 22, 2009

You know, it's actually racist to assume that every time someone mentions monkeys or apes, they are insulting dark-skinned people.
posted to MetaFilter by Mister_A at 11:56 AM on February 19, 2009

Also, the Rhine example isn't a particularly good one. The tolls were not really private if they were owned by a government. The toll operators that weren't sanctioned by a government were little more than bandits and pirates. (The Rhine toll operators are where the term 'robber baron' originates).

Also, the Rhine is a unique, rival good. That is, there's only one navigable waterway along that route and there's no practical way to build another one alongside it. This... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jedicus at 10:21 AM on February 10, 2009

C'mon. Deep down, we all knew Obama was gonna play ball.
posted to MetaFilter by you just lost the game at 3:52 PM on February 9, 2009

Basically, what he's implying is that by bailing out the banks, we're removing their incentive to bargain with mortgage holders by reducing their debt to make it closer to what they can pay, and what the current value of the property actually is.

Rather than split the loss in the mortgaged property's market value with the home owner, the banks would prefer to foreclose the home owner, and then get the taxpayers to bail them out for the nominal value of the mortgage --... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by orthogonality at 11:50 AM on February 5, 2009

That Bill Clinton was a great Republican president. (And yes, that is why I wouldn't vote for his wife in the Democratic primary.)

To his credit, Bill Clinton saw the data and tried to end the cash welfare-related crack epidemic, and the cash for babies epidemic, especially among crack addicts (but also among polygamists and poor single mothers generally). The last time I knew someone who had a baby in order to get welfare was so long ago I was... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Brian B. at 3:32 PM on February 2, 2009

You know what Marijuana really is? Its a dipshit check. How do you re-direct the scofflaws of society before they cause some real trouble? Tell them they can't do something. Then, they have to do it. Even if its stupid like smoking some lame weed that does practically nothing. There are thousands of other drugs out there but these guys just have to focus on this one that they are told they can't have. Because they are dipshits.
posted to MetaFilter by Osmanthus at 6:51 PM on January 7, 2009

I just read The Black Swan. Great ideas in it - about two pages worth. Then a lot of masturbatory noodling for hundreds more.
posted to MetaFilter by Dee Xtrovert at 3:40 PM on December 5, 2008

Taleb is just insufferable. His Black Swan is slightly less self-enamoured than Fooled by Randomness, but still. My theory is that these trader guys are so immersed in superficiality and bullshit that they need to give themselves airs of old-fashionedness and timeless scholarship to overcome their self-hatred. I'm sure Bourdieu would be able to explain it.
posted to MetaFilter by dhoe at 1:42 PM on December 5, 2008

"Don't go where you're not known or where you're not wanted."

Excellent advice.
But I have no idea why players should have to have firearms to protect themselves. In part, because as one said, it makes you *feel* safe (to his credit he added that you have to use common sense).

But mostly because they’re athletes, not cops, not soldiers, not pistoleros. The skills on the field do not translate (I can speak with authority on... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Smedleyman at 2:23 PM on November 19, 2008

Either I've misunderstood this, or this is a pretty offensive comment....

I am most definitely NOT aligning myself with MPDSEA, and I wouldn't phrase it the way he did, but I've lived in an area with lots of poor or lower middle class people and I've lived in an area with lots of richish people. I promise you the area with the richish people was way better. More attractive, cleaner, safer, etc etc.

One of the bad parts of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Justinian at 8:35 PM on August 25, 2008

Great post. Thanks for this.

I wanted to ensure props to for FPP to separate that from my comments.

---

The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Oh noes! We're all gonna die!

ANDREW BACEVICH: Sometime around the 1960s there was a tipping point, when the "empire of production" began to become the "empire of consumption." When the cars started to be produced elsewhere,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Cool Papa Bell at 11:37 AM on August 18, 2008

They'll hold fire at least until they after have sent creditors to collect, who come home empty-handed.

You realize that when Chinese institutions buy Treasury bills, they're buying them because they think they're the safest investment on the planet, right? Otherwise, they'd happily invest in Mexican pesos.

In order to buy debt, someone has to sell debt. And to sell international debt, you have to have a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Cool Papa Bell at 1:01 PM on August 18, 2008

That's the funny thing about irony, sometimes you say something that really cleaves and hits the mark but everyone in the room still thinks you're a fucking asshole for saying it.

And you know what? You probably are.
posted to MetaFilter by The Straightener at 7:02 PM on July 13, 2008

I look forward to reading this, even though I disagree with the author's contention that Revolver is one of the greatest albums of all time. In fact, Revolver was the beginning of the Beatles big downward slide. There are wonderful songs on Revolver, but there are the Beatles' first real original-song dogs (as opposed to cover dogs, like "Mr. Moonlight).

"Got to Get You into My Life," is only half or three quarters of a completed song. McCartney (as... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Faze at 9:45 AM on September 14, 2006

Has anyone checked on Zuleika Dobson's whereabouts on the nights of the deaths?
posted to MetaFilter by goatdog at 12:59 PM on May 3, 2008

Ellison v. Morrison

No contest, anotherpanacea. Morrison isn't even in the running. Ellison is an actual writer, fit to stand with the best of the white male writers. Morrison, with her crude, unmusical, unreadable prose, doesn't even qualify as folk art.
posted to MetaFilter by Faze at 6:40 AM on May 26, 2006