Majikthise

English lit and rap

Tightly Wound has harsh words for a certain dissertation topic. No doubt she suspects that the candidate has failed to keep it real.

But compare:

She interrupted: "I'm not doing that. I'm doing Baseball. Bats are obvious phallic symbols. The balls clearly represent sperm, which comes from the 'balls' of men. The gloves are symbolic vaginas, which accept and then reject the sperm. The gloves are worn on the hands, indicating masturbation fantasies. It's all very male, and has to do with discourses initiated in an attempt to exclude the feminine other by appropriating the methods and means of reproductive symbolism."

and contrast

The Prince of Crunk wishes to shake your hand

One major problem with the music of white people is that they’re so goddamned stilted, shy, and uncomfortable. Even songs that are seen as sexually blatant and audacious generally skirt the issue and speak with little frankness about anything. For example, a white person would be hard-pressed to write a song about the true power of testicles. Even songs that you hope are about testicles, such as “Great Balls of Fire,” turn out to be about basically nothing at all. Lil Scrappy, however, isn’t afraid of the magnificent power of balls. “I got big balls and bullets like baseballs,” he brags; “straight nuts to your face, put your pistols away.” Bullets, being like baseballs, are represented as useless and unwieldy; his balls, however, have the power to make peace with his enemies. Once they have seen his testicles, they will have no choice but to relinquish their firearms. This is not a homosexual thing at all: notice that he specifies that these are straight nuts. These nuts are not meant to be sexually menacing, but rather to be seen as peaceful nuts which soothe tensions and dismiss the need for weaponry. After the testicles have been shown, his former enemies are now free to “get crunk in the club”; “You can walk on by with your nuts in a tuck,” he says, “and I’ll be obliged if you really want to get crunk.” The spirit of peace, crunk, and testicles prevails once more. Do you think those stuffy white Washington fat-cats who send us off to war for power and money could possibly understand the significance of a man disarming another man with his testicles? I doubt it. That is why they’ll never experience the joy of getting crunk in the club.

[Via Something Awful.]

Funn with Venn diagrams

Diagrams For You from Brunching Shuttlecocks. [Via Miscellaneous Heathen.]

Also fun, but in a different way, from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

I "heart" Semitic people

Raed was invited and summarily disinvited to speak in the USA. The accusation? That Raed is anti-semitic. The evidence? That the word "Zionist" appeared twice in his blog.

Never ends. Just when you think you've got caught up with the vicarious atonement...

[Via Needlenose.]

New naturalized epistemologists on the blogroll

Two new additions to the blogroll. Each would fit almost equally well under "science" or "politics." If Quine had a blog, he'd say they were both naturalized epistemologists. So, in the spirit of WWQD, I give you:

Science and Politics
Neuroinflammation.net

Saluting >70-year diabetes veterans

Diabetic brothers recognized for longevity [CNN]:

On Thursday, the world's leading diabetes research center paid tribute to the Clevelands for their longevity and everyday perseverance. According to the Boston-based Joslin Diabetes Center, they are the first siblings known to have lived with Type 1 diabetes for 50 years or longer.

Robert, 84, has lived with Type 1 diabetes for 79 years and, according to the center's Dr. Hillary Keenan, is the longest known survivor. Gerald, 88, has had diabetes for 72 years.

For those of you who are suspicious of progress:

[Back in the early days the brothers' mom,] Doris Guercio weighed and measured everything her sons ate. She gave them each three shots per day. She had to sterilize the needles. In a time before instant blood tests, to check her sons' sugar levels, Guercio had to take drops of urine and boil them in a test tube over an open flame, watching for changes in color.

Okay, hipsters and consumer advocates want to ban the Bible

The Bible You Sold Me Is Clearly Defective and I'd Like to Return It, Please [McSweeney's]

[Via La Di Da.]

Colin Powell, pessimist

Colin Powell admits that the situation in Iraq is getting worse. [Reuters]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell on Sunday said anti-American sentiment in the Muslim world had increased and the insurgency in Iraq was worsening, but the United States was taking action to improve security ahead of elections. [...]

There's increasing anti-American sentiment in the entire Muslim world? That's a pretty dire admission. I'm sure it's true and everything. But what a strategic blunder. Who'd want to vote for a President with such a defeatist Secretary of State?

H.E. Baber redeems Butterflies and Wheels

H.E. Baber has an outstanding essay on the roots of left-wing anti-intellectualism: The Sleep of Reason.

I am often exasperated by Butterflies and Wheels, but sometimes they link to real gems. This is essay is one of them.

Nixon, Rumsfeld, and Gallup

Benj of For the Record on The Danger of the Gallup:

By now the explanation for the Gallup poll's massive pro-Bush slant is clear -- they overpoll republicans. Why? The Gallup boss is a big GOP donor.

Harmless, you say? -- Maybe not, if Dems get discouraged and don't vote. Jess suggests a more sinister purpose: camouflaging the e-theft of the election.[...]

People forget that Gallup has colluded with the Republicans before. Donald Rumsfeld was caught on the Watergate tapes recounting his covert ops to the President. The Rise of the Vulcans, James Mann describes how Rumsfeld ingratiated himself with Nixon by working his Princeton connection with George Gallup Jr.

Mann writes:

There is no evidence from the Nixon tapes that Rumsfeld tried to sway the outcome of Gallup's polling results. Rumsfeld did, however, manage to gain some advance information about what Gallup's upcoming poll results would show, giving Nixon an edge of a few days to prepare. Rumsfeld appeared to realize that in these contacts he was asking Gallup to go beyond the traditional independent role of the pollster. At a White House session in October, 1971, Rumsfeld urged Nixon to keep these contacts with the Gallup Poll top secret:

RUMSFELD: Say, I just want to report, sir, about my conversation with George Gallup [Jr].

NIXON:Oh, yeah, you went to school with him, didn't you?

RUMSFELD: I did. And I kind of want to be awful careful about telling people around the building that I'm talking to him. Because all he's got in this business is his integrity.--[ROTV, pg 17]

Mann goes to say that Gallup agreed to postpone the release of polling data for almost a month while Nixon was visiting China. The record shows that Rumsfeld and HR Haldeman claimed that Gallup sat on the data in order to help Nixon.

[Edit: On second thought, forget my impudent revisionism, just read Fafblog.]

Watermelon carving

Bitchin'

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers (Well, not really.)

I wonder if Brad Delong has heard about this.

[Via Apothecary's Drawer.]