Monday, September 26, 2011

An Actual Renaissance Woman

I've been thinking about my latest video and blag article on Twatson, and some of the, um, eloquent feedback, "leave Becky alone you [sic] rapist." and other pearls of erudition. Here's Carolyn Porco's discussion, in part, about Galileo. Note the difference to Twatson.

So, here's part two!


Unrelated note: Wangari Maathai's death is trending on Twitter still. Apparently, if you're an AIDS denialist, conspiracy theorist but plant a lot of trees, you can get a Nobel Peace Prize and people magically think you're a person of note. She's one smart cookie, noting that she knows HIV/AIDS didn't come from the moon (as a followup to her claim that HIV/AIDS was the white man's attempt to kill off the black man).

I suppose it's fitting she had Oprah and Tom Cruise as the masters of ceremony for her 2004 Nobel Peace Price party shindig thingy. Bleh.

7 comments:

ERV said...

UGH.  Thanks for the heads up.  Turns out SciBlogs last dumbass wrote a *loving* remembrance for Maathai and I 'corrected' her (Casaubons Book-- I describe it thusly-- its like even though my mom has no relevant education on the topic, you gave my mom a blog to talk about agriculture. But FIRST, you drove several railroad spikes through her brain. Thats Casaubons Book.  How/Why the fuck she is on SciBlogs is beyond me.  My non-rail-road-spiked mother could write a more educated blog on the topic.  Hell, Im fairly certain my dog could).

The Justicar said...

Sorry, I've been slow in writing back. I've been on a pilgrimage to the middle east (well, middle lower east side) of the Vatican's secret underground tunnels of information to suss out this Galileo execution thing. I bet 'died' of 'natural causes' aged 77 is merely a campaign of active misinformation on the church's part.

I watched Wangari Maathai's Nobel Peace Prize concert, and I was amazed at how many people considered it a privilege to perform at it, to include Patti Labelle and Diana Krall - both of whose music I love. It's where I was introduced to the Polyphonic Spree. They had a damn fine cult choirboy singing. MM hmm. Oh yeah, the song was good too; "Hold Me Now" (nothing like the Thompson Twins song of the same name)

Moving on, given that Henry Kissinger received the same award for his work towards peace, I am, um, not exactly impressed by its requirements. What was it Tom Lehrer said? Oh yes, that Kissinger being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize rendered all political satire immediately obsolete.

I am going to have to take a look at this warm, posthumous kindness western intellectuals (intentionally lowercased) tarry none at all to indulge the world with by wedding an effete wrist to an ergonomically correct keyboard, the likes of which are guaranteed not to put that aforementioned effete wrist in harms way. Why, have you ever tried swishing a 720 thread count silk kerchief at a foul smell with a stiffened wrist? It simply will not do, my dear.

How about a good, honest story? AIDS denialists and conspiracy theorists occasionally do useful things too. To encourage the latter while minimizing (or making sellouts! - such a middle class concept) the former, here's a thank you award given out to one as an example. Other notable recipients of this peace prize have been those under international indictment for war crimes (no, not a former secretary general of the UN, silly. That'd be crazy!), a president-turned-professional-apologizer-for the United States and a black dude who got a job without being murdered (immediately; there's still time for the white supremacists to have it their way. But ha! Joke's on them. The award is permanent!).

It's prestigious I tell you. Prestigious!

The Justicar said...

I just saw comment number 4 there. You're so subtle, Abbie. Like a lead pipe to the head.

I'm dying laughing. (Or maybe it's some new XMRV variant that's immune to the homologous recombinaltion tiniker treatment Mikovits has suggested. Ok, I'm getting way too much mileage out of that much stupid.)

Also, I've come up with a acrostic line: CTit, and CTit-ty. Explained on Casaubonsbook

ERV said...

I feel my behavior is best explained by this conversation I had with my mother several years ago--

Me: *ranting about this stupid thing a veterinarian did to Arnie*

Mom: Now, Abbie.  You know you have trouble interacting with those kinds of people.

Me: *stops mid-rant* ... What kind of people?

Mom: You know, stupid people.

The Justicar said...

with a new acrostic. Grr.

The Justicar said...

So bigoted.

Upshot, like telling a polack joke in a Polish bar, no one who'd be offended will get it. So you're safe.

Spence said...

Wow.  I didn't know that about Maathai.  That sucks :(  And I'm glad I wasn't the only one thinking that about Casaubon's book.

There are serious problems in Africa associated with movements of this kind; the animal rights movement are amongst the worst.  They get first world money to make wildlife preserves or plant trees.  But that filters down to the local (highly corrupt) officials who commit atrocious acts with this money.  A recent tree-planting programme funded by the UK resulted in an 8-year old child being burned alive during a forcible eviction.  (See link below for more info)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/world/africa/in-scramble-for-land-oxfam-says-ugandans-were-pushed-out.html?_r=1

The trouble is those at the top are too busy collecting plaudits and Nobel prizes to even notice what is going on at the ground.