Wheee, meta-thread!
(This is a perfect place to announce that I'm going to the Grand Canyon for the rest of the week. Family vacation.)
One of the big sites (I think it's Kos, but it might be Atrios) has a script that sets up a new open thread automatically. Clearly that's what we need here.
Also, it could automatically set the title to be "Pacing!"
Oh yeah, and did I mention that I need coffee and that I never read post titles?
No, Becks said "elephant in the room" so this can be another politics thread.
I hope this meta thread allows us to really talk about our feelings.
I think that there should be fewer and better posts, but not a lot fewer, and not too much better either because we want to preserve the informal, folksy tone of the place.
Just work with that and I'll tell you if you're wrong.
This is a perfect place to announce that I got a bottle of artisanal Thai basil-infused absinthe this weekend. It's such a lovely green.
It is heartwarming to see that Ogged did not take this blog's necrotic self-absorption with him when he left.
III wouldn't recognize a necrotic if it crawled up his butt and started munching on his liver.
Once I had to milk a cow whose udder had produced a small ball of necrotic tissue. The whole time, the milk had to be thrown out, but the tissue worked its way to the surface of the udder, eventually breaking the skin. The vessels in her skin burst as it pushed through, so I milked her with a thin arc of blood streaming over my shoulder and congealing in the ditch below along with urine and spilled milk, forming a bright pink pudding.
After that, the tissue was close enough to the surface that it could be pulled out a little bit at a time.
The cow, named Strife, didn't much seem to notice.
Elephant duly noted. Now can we please have a Zimbabwe thread? Seriously.
You know, Wrongshore, that happens all the time with those cows in industrial settings. And they don't throw out the milk.
The rape article from this morning's LA Times was bracing. I realize this is all about the low, low bar, but I was relieved to see that they didn't try to be coy about what actually happens to a "sex slave" (a term that carries an exploitation-movie ring) -- the article starts out saying that she's raped five or sex times a day. Not "has to have sex" or "is used by" or any other bullshit.
This post-ogged meta-thread sucks. The old post-ogged meta-threads were way funnier.
Now can we please have a Zimbabwe thread? Seriously.
"Like, dudes, what's up with Zimbabwe? I don't know, really, but it looks like it sucks! Anyway, here's your thread. Laterz."
Mill about, mill about. Up to you.
But, no, snarky anti-meta-commentary comments aside, unfogged wound up being a gathering place, and a diaspora is in the works! It's alright. Feeding this place would be a hell of a lot of work.
Josh might not be entirely wrong in 2.
ObSwipple: I just got a magazine ad whose free bonus if I subscribed was a chance to win a KitchenAid stand mixer. Do I laugh or cry? They have me pegged, except for the fact that I already have one.
One of the big sites (I think it's Kos, but it might be Atrios) has a script that sets up a new open thread automatically.
Dude, every Atrios thread is script-generated. Duncan Black has been dead for three years; Avedon Carol keeps his stuffed body in her attic.
It would be too earnest to just say I've been enjoying the quality and pacing of recent threads, right?
Mock Zombie Atrios, if you will, but if it wasn't for him, I never would have known about the greatest threat the Republic has ever faced.
Oh, go on, Di. You don't have to play, but you don't need to interfere with other people's pissing and moaning. We were so happy while it lasted!
Oh come on, John. You didn't think this was predictable from the moment we learned she was dating a libertarian?
You didn't think this was predictable from the moment we learned she was dating a libertarian?
Wait, what now? Di, you're a) not in your 20s and b) don't live in DC. What's your excuse?
Is posting too much or too little an avoidable or unavoidable error ? Is there a safety net of written but unposted, quarantined posts ?
Why unfogged doesn't carry Adsense or somesuch FairEthicalAds which would at least help out some deserving soul
(mugged blogger, undermilked cow, ...) or fund the first plate of roast lamb and round(s) of drinks at Unfogged Live! ?
I have libertarianism in my very blood, like hepatitis or malaria. Don't talk to me about those motherfuckers, except for Henley and a few others.
What's your excuse?
I'm newly divorced and enjoying the hell out of it? (He is quick to clarify that he is not libertarian in the Libertarian Party sense "because those guys are just nuts.")
I think that blogads are taboo for the Lur.
The Lur isn't here anymore, now is he?
The Lur is everywhere. His cosmic powers terrify me even now.
Di, are you saying that libertarians are easy? It explains so much.
Yes. Yes, it is the libertarian that is "easy" in this scenario. Precisely. And you never worry that they're just saying what you want to hear.
Um, yeah. So, how about Zimbabwe? Blogads could really raise funds for all the problems and stuff there.
Ogged? Are they still in the league?
Halp. I find the wiki program for AWB's food wiki hopelessly confusing. Among other things, it won't let me add tags. (I can type them in that little box, but they don't stick.) And I don't know if the recipes I added showed up in people's e-mail 3 times as I fixed typos or only once or never.
Will someone take pity on me?
I can't believe we've gotten this far into the thread without someone pointing out that it's perfectly natural for the refractory period to get longer as you age.
46: I should have specified: Would someone capable of pity take pity on me?
Please note that I'm only talking about recipes because no one will tell me what the African Union and/or the UN and/or the U.S. should be doing right now about Zimbabwe. Is there any possibility of ousting Mugabe? Can the military be swayed? Are sanctions of any use, or will they just make daily life even more impossible? What are the likely scenarios whenever Mugabe goes to his hellish reward? Etc.
SK, I just posted there this afternoon, and I was able to assign tags that stuck when I hit return after entering them. And I did get your recipe in my email, but only once. Did you get mine?
Oh, and who are the reliable reporters on Zimbabwe?
I did get yours, Jesus. I think I hit return after entering the tags, but I'll try it again. Thanks.
Apparently you're our Zimbabwe expert, SK.
Please note that I'm only talking about recipes because no one will tell me what the African Union and/or the UN and/or the U.S. should be doing right now about Zimbabwe.
Nobody knows, because the world order and credibility of various powers is totally fucked in a transitional period.
The Lur is everywhere. His cosmic powers terrify me even now.
He His back hair has begun consuming entire planets!
max
['He needs a herald!']
I just got one recipe email from you, Kraab.
I pity suffering humanity in groups larger than a million.
All right, tag issue solved by the simple expedient of entering only one at a time. I just assumed I could do multiple with commas. And any further typos will remain, lest I bombard people with endless revision e-mails.
Can I get a witness that the program seems like it was designed by a novice circa 1991? (No offense to AWB -- I'm glad you set it up so we could share ideas, and free is free.)
His cosmic powers terrify me even now
yesterday for example i rooted for Nadal and he won, it's like scary
sure i shouldn't influence global tennis, just thought if i were queen i would have kissed him in the heat of the moment
yesterday for example i rooted for Nadal and he won, it's like scary
I rooted for Federer. Curse you!
62 lets us know that read is Ogged.
Of course!
read has way more cosmic power than DS. You need to do some spirit push-ups, DS.
read's best hope for a national hero is one Duurenbayar Erdenebayar. Not to be confused with chess master Duurenbayar Erhembayar.
You need to do some spirit push-ups, DS
I just bought the Charles Atlas Spirituality System. Read is TOAST.
DS, and I say this with all due respect, has spirituality up the yinyang. Probably he was just have an off spirituality day due to the fengshui and flow of ch'i.
I am amused by seeing idiomatic English in read's voice (heat of the moment? Really?)
Since no one is answering Sir K's request on Zimbawbwe, I'll link to this January '07 post of hilzoy's on what she called the slow-motion meltdown. I'll also link publius's reprint of a very recent Washington Post article. And this piece reporting on the African Union statement from a few days ago.
Unfortunately I don't know any Zimbabweans, so can't ask anyone to vouch for reputable news sources. All Africa is a bit low-frills but will probably have more substantive news than a lot of US media. Even the African bloggers I know of are elsewhere on the continent, so not much help there. Somebody in ObWi comments linked This is Zimbabwe and perhaps that will be useful.
I was going to say that I hadn't heard one single good thing about the country recently, but that's not quite true, as a number of folks are quite looking forward to the movie adaptation of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Charming books, although more than a little unsettling to have a white man of Scots descent writing in the persona of a black woman. I'm cheered to see that they cast Jill Scott in the movie version, though.
Sorry the wiki is crappy, Sir Kraab! MRH set up a different one when we were discussing all this, and for some reason we went with mine. (I also added an author tag to your recipes.)
There is now a PBwiki 2.0. I'll convert and see if it's better.
I thought 15 was by Knecht. Are we allowed more than one farmboy?
It's fucking 4am and I can't sleep. Haven't been to sleep. Have stinking cough and cold and am a bit feverish and buzzy. Still, I blogged, so it wasn't all time wasted.
As for Zimbabwe - I just glance at stories and shudder, I'm afraid.
up the yinyang
Emerson knows the score. Simultaneously up and down the yinyang, as it happens.
I wonder if South African papers are good on Zimbabwe? I sourced most of my college thesis to the Mail & Guardian website, which was recommended to me by a Prof. from South Africa. But I haven't read them lately.
It's fucking 4am and I can't sleep. Haven't been to sleep.
Oh, that's awful. Maybe you should eat something bland and stodgy and heavy, and then open the dictionary at random and force yourself to read the fine print, in an attempt to lull yourself into a dull stupor that approximates a state of actual sleep?
70: Thanks, AWB. Sorry about whinging -- I really do think it's great to have the wiki, however challenging it is to my wee little kraab brain.
I was a very short-term farmboy. It's in the archives somewhere, but I won't link to it because it's slightly over my discretion threshold.
OT: Am I allowed to blame one of the Boston commenters for this?
(If so, thanks!)
I thought 6 was going to win the thread, but 48 is awesome.
It's all in the timing.
Dsquared was going to be the Africa guru, but he just cribbed from a Zambiam blog, the bastich, so no hope there if you want to know more about Zimbabwe.
But really, it isn't that difficult. An ex-British colony turned white settler state, with a decades long struggle for liberation, turned into a dictatorship masquarading as a parliamentary democraty, no worse or better than a state like Egypt. But when Mugabe went for land reform in a big way back in 2000 he was suddenly promoted from bog standard African despot to the next Saddam, various sanctions were imposed and combined with the economic mismanagement of Mugabe, the dependence of the country on expensive imports that it needs to pay for in dollars has lead to economic collapse and hyperinflation, which in turn provides huge armies of young unemployed men to serve as militia for ZANU-PF.
The opposition in the past decade has been sticking to democratic ways of ousting Mugabe, in the face of ever increasing violence against them, while also seeking foreign support, especially support in the neighbouring countries. So far they've been unsuccessful, but are unwilling to risk armed confrontation or foreign military intervention, not without reason. The situation may be bad, but civil war would be worse and Mugabe won't be around forever.
The best thing the west could do is probably to end sanctions, which so far have only worked to destabilise the country and drive it further towards civil war and then shut up about it, especially the UK. The British aren't trusted by anybody there, have much to be blamed for in creating this situation int he first place and mouthing platitudes about what a bad man Mugabe is while also kicking out 11,000 Zimbabwiam refugees is helping nobody.
Fair summary, Martin. The other point is that the only external power that could intervene credibly is South Africa, and that would be a difficult sell because:
1) they really don't need to pick up the tab for anything like this at the moment, and it would be the kiss of death if they were seen to be acting as US or Brit proxies. And there's nothing in it for the South Africans as such;
2) the close connections between ZANU-PF and the ANC (and SWAPO) during the liberation struggle would leave a lot of the older ANC cadres reluctant to act too strongly.
The western press would have you believe that 2 is the determinative issue, but I understand that 1 is actually far more important.
69: I was going to say that I hadn't heard one single good thing about the country recently, but that's not quite true, as a number of folks are quite looking forward to the movie adaptation of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.
I thought that was set in Botswana, which is all peaceful and democratic and stuff.
I thought that was set in Botswana, which is all peaceful and democratic and stuff.
Unless you're a hunter/gatherer.
Why do these bad men keep messing up our former colonies?
86: See, that's just the kind of thoughtful discussion we should be having.
Why do these bad men keep messing up our former colonies?
Every time I see George Bush in the news I wonder the same thing.
Oh, and for the record, I appreciate this post. My only substantive comment (and it echoes those of others elsewhere) is, since we're all being pretty good about following Becks' request for no political discussion in non-political threads*, could we have some political threads? For all I care, they can be pure open threads (even though these are deprecated), but one political post a week is kind of a radical shift in subject matter around here. I know a lot of that comes from the end of the primaries, but there's always been current events discussion around here.
* Note that even Heebie's red-blue post was 95% non-political in terms of actual partisan discussion.
could we have some political threads?
I'd like it even more if we had political threads that were about something other than the election, or even something other than American electoral politics. Iraq, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, FISA, Iran, biofuels and food shortages, polar ice melt - there's a lot of stuff that's happening other than the epic battle between Hopey McHope and The Night of the Living McCain.
And I don't know if the recipes I added showed up in people's e-mail 3 times as I fixed typos or only once or never.
Whereas I don't get any recipes in e-mail at all, because I just had that guest login and cannot figure out how to get a regular login. Could someone enlighten?
OK, Zimbabwe freaks can read this and then argue about it while I eat the delicious risotto that awaits me.
The Night of the Living McCain
Once they adopted 1984 as the Republican platform, an undead nominee was pretty much inevitable.
93: most people in charge of repressive states love state sovereignty, except the really powerful states that want to start agressive wars. I don't think there's anything specifically African or anticolonialist about it.
