GastJohn AmericanProgress 1500

the collateral damage of manifest destiny

I STUM­BLED OVER THIS IMAGE on Face­book at about 5:00 AM this morning and my im­me­diate re­sponse was to type “this is the col­lat­eral damage of Man­i­fest Des­tiny” into the com­ment sec­tion of the other per­son’s page. Then I thought, “No! Wait” and in­stead I posted the image onto my Face­book page. [Read more] “the collateral damage of manifest destiny”

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how apropoe – on poe’s law and the wasting of irony on the internet

I AM A PRAC­TICING IRO­NIST. Need­less to say, I have run up against a few ob­sta­cles trying to use it ef­fec­tively on the internet, es­pe­cially on Face­book. I usu­ally use irony as a rhetor­ical de­vice when I want to make a point about someone’s ex­tremely ir­ra­tional or just plain stupid comment—a rather common occurrence. [Read more] “how apropoe – on poe’s law and the wasting of irony on the internet”

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oh yeah, the guy brings the condoms (hah!)

EPISODE 17 OF SEASON 6 of the ABC TV se­ries Grey’s Anatomy is ti­tled “Push.” It in­cludes sev­eral on­going sub-plots, in­cluding a rel­a­tively new one: the re­cently di­vorced Dr. Mi­randa Bailey is dating for the first time in years. And there is a con­ver­sa­tion about who brings the condoms:

She turns to fellow sur­geon Dr. [Read more] “oh yeah, the guy brings the condoms (hah!)”

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were you picked on for being gay (even if you weren’t)?

OC­CA­SION­ALLY, I am given an op­por­tu­nity to take on a one-day gig and pick up a little pocket money. So far, my fa­vorite has been serving on a couple of mock ju­ries. I have also been a test pa­tient for a psy­chi­atric grad stu­dent: I warned her in ad­vance that she would get nowhere with me. [Read more] “were you picked on for being gay (even if you weren’t)?”

Brand Arthur

vapid vacuous mindless journalism in my mailbox

IN­CON­CEIV­ABLE! This is what is passing for news in to­day’s rightwingnut media world of faux news or­ga­ni­za­tions and the ubiq­ui­tous blog­gers all over the In­ternet: “Rus­sell Brand la­bels ex-wife Katy Perry ‘vapid, vac­uous and plastic’ in doc­u­men­tary.” 1

(O!my!gawd!)

Or my fave, the one that I re­ceived in my mailbox from an email newsletter: Ex-Husband Has Ex­tremely Harsh Words for Hillary-Supporting Pop Star Katy Perry”! [Read more] “vapid vacuous mindless journalism in my mailbox”