Entries from July 2017 ↓

Anyone remember this, from the campaign last fall?

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump holds up a rainbow flag with “LGBTs for TRUMP” written on it at a campaign rally in Greeley, Colorado, U.S. October 30, 2016. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

How about in February, when the liar withdrew federal protection for transsexual students?  And now, he banned transsexual people from serving in the forces.

Republicans, how dense are you?  Really.  How  stupid do you have to be to not get it?  This is just an example from today.  There are sites that list hundreds of promises this piece of shit has casually broken.  Promises to you.  That’s why you voted for the fool, isn’t it?  Do you really not see he doesn’t give a crap about you or your little problems?

It’s one thing to see this  idiot destroy what our country has worked hard to achieve.  Those things can probably be fixed, and quickly.  But, it’s entirely another to wake up realizing that just under half the people in this country are as stupid as republicans are showing themselves to be.

What’s it going to take for you to wake up, republicans?  This is your doing.   Everything that this jackass screws up is on you people.

You know what we’ll hear from republicans now?  “Oooh, you can’t paint us all with the same brush!”.  Bullshit, I can’t.  You republicans do it with brown people all the time.  Now, you can feel what it’s like when others do it to your group.

Aside from bathing regularly, it’s pretty common to use underarm deodorants or antiperspirant/deodorants.  The most common active ingredients in antiperspirants are aluminium chlorohydrate and aluminium zirkonium tetrachlorohydrate glycine.  I don’t know what all that means, I’m not current on my knowledge of chemistry.  But, the word on the street is that aluminum is bad.  I suspect that word is, at best, incomplete.  Chemistry is weird that way.  Lethal poisons totally change toxicity when they are found in differing compounds.

Everyone knows of the example of salt.  Sodium chloride.  NaCl.  Both of those elements are damned nasty when in their elemental form.  Sodium will explode on contact with water, and chlorine will simply dissolve you.

Back to that aluminum problem.   The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in their June 2003 document, Antiperspirant Drug Products For Over-the-Counter Human Use; Final Monograph, does admit that the aluminum from antiperspirants can pose a risk to people with kidney failure.  But, they don’t find evidence of toxicity from the aluminum compounds used in antiperspirants.  It appears that someone made a connection between aluminum and Alzheimer’s disease, and extrapolated that connection to any compound that contains aluminum.  Typical of marketing people, I guess.

My wife settled on an article at Instructables.com that described how to make deodorant.  That’s fine for me.  I don’t worry about sweating.  I just don’t want to stink.  60 ml (1/4 cup) of powdered cornstarch, 60 ml sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), and about 45 ml (3 tablespoons) of coconut oil.  Mix it all together, add a few drops of some essential oil if you want scented deodorant.    That’s pretty much it.  How you dispense it is your choice.  I packed it into an empty deodorant canister she saved, but new empty deodorant canisters can be had online, too.  We figured it’s better to re-use one instead of buying yet another new plastic thing that will eventually end up in the environment, where it will stay forever.  You could also use a small jar, and just put the stuff on by hand.  It’s your own damned armpits, if you can’t stand touching them, you may want to bathe more often.

I can report this formula works perfectly.  Easily as well as the commercial deodorant (Old Spice Classic) that I’ve used for years .

The cost?  Hard to work it out in my head, because we used so few ingredients to make it.  Pennies, I’d guess.  This is our main reason for this experiment:  economy.  That, and independence from a commercial product.  And, for environmental reasons.  Economy, independence, environmentalism, and effective hygiene.  A successful experiment.

I introduce my friend Theropod, who is a paleontologist and a contributor on this site.  This category exists for him.  What can we learn about dinosaurs?  We have a resident expert.  Let’s find out.

Skepdickus.

In another forum, I’m involved in a topic about male parental responsibility.  In this forum, there are actually males who seem to think that since they don’t want children, if a child is born as a result of their fucking, they aren’t obligated to support that child.

No shit.

I’m dead serious.  These fucking guys think they get a free pass if they knock up some woman.  Some are actually suggesting that since a woman has a choice to abort, if she doesn’t do so, the baby is all her problem.

There’s a few things going on with this effect.  First and foremost is the childish inability to accept responsibility for one’s own actions.  Also in the mix is their demonstrated misogyny.

Earlier I referred to these guys as males, instead of referring to them as men.  That was no accidental turn of phrase.  I didn’t choose that word accidentally.  To be called a man is a title that goes beyond merely being male.  It is an earned title.  To some, it seems.  Others seem to come by the title much more cheaply than most.

Here’s the rundown:  If you are male, and you have your garden variety vaginal sex with a female, there is a non zero chance that happy fun time will result in a baby being born.  You, the male, have no input to that process after you donate the sperm for it, until a child is born.  Maybe she’ll have an abortion, maybe she won’t.  Maybe the pregnancy will result in a healthy child, maybe it won’t.  Regardless, if the happy fun time fucking ends up with a new human, both of its parents are obligated to support it until adulthood.

Did you see the period at the end of that paragraph?  That’s it.  The end.  There are no further arguments, no justifications, no what-ifs.  Period.

So, I start again, with a different domain.

I recently deleted my Facebook and Twitter accounts, they were taking too much of my time, they were loaded with advertising, and the signal to noise ratio was nearly unity.  Here, on the other hand, I will say whatever in hell I want, and it’s me who says what does and doesn’t go around these parts.

Commenters, you want to pay attention to this part:  I’m not posting a lengthy set of rules.  If I think you’re being a dick to me or another commenter, you are gone.  The first time, and forever.  If I see an unsupported assertion, you are gone.  The first time, and forever.

What does that mean?  Don’t be a dick.  Don’t make claims you can’t support with evidence.

You can have whatever opinion you want, and that’s fine.  But, the moment you form your opinion into an assertion without support, you are gone.  I bet you understand by now when and for how long.

I have no tolerance for the sort of shit that drove me away from mainstream social media.  Try it here, and I will end you.

Any questions?