Posts by Rich Lock
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Are there any good willy jokes?
Willy good? Or willy, willy good ones?
I'll get me coat: this man is retreating. :)
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Certainly the most odious appearance of Norse mythology in (un)popular culture at the moment must be the peculiar popularity of Odin worship among white supremacists. Which quite puts the point on Leopold's earlier comments: this is a show deliberately constructed to be about a bunch of straight white dudes. Still, there's no reason gods from other pantheons can't or won't show up, right? -- although that does raise the spectre of unfortunate trips through exoticist fantasies about other religions and cultures. (There was a terrible episode of US genre show Supernatural with a similar American-Gods-knock-off theme recently, which included frankly gross and extraordinarily insensitive portrayals of a bunch of gods - off the top of my head, Kali, Loki, Odin, Baron Samedi, Zao Shen, and Ganesh
A thought: Possibly this cuts both ways, though. I wonder how much of the over-use of the Norse pantheon is precisely to avoid those sorts of issues. Putting a white male in a furry jockstrap and asking him to smash things with a polystyrene hammer is not particularly problematic. Apart from stopping him looking ridiculous.
Even with the best of intentions, trying to portray anything from a not-exclusively-white pantheon could easily see you speeding waaay over the line into 'unacceptable racial stereotyping' territory.
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I was present at both my kids births, and I know out of me and my wife who got the better deal. Suck it up, fellas.
If I ever have this procedure done, I shall be insisting on an epidural.
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I do have to say that I’ve known people who display psychopathic behaviours who have been both bad, conscienceless swine and others who have been a hell of a lot of fun to be around (provided you don’t loan them money or expect their schemes to come to anything).
Psychopath is one of the most misued word in the English language, given it has a reasonably precise medical definition.
Robert Hare's 'without conscience' is a good starting point for those who are interested. His website is here.
I’ve no problem being identified as a member of a cognitive subspecies. As Peter Watts likes to observe, maybe we’re undergoing a neurological equivalent of the Cambrian Explosion to cope with the pressures of accelerating technology.
Something I've been thinking about recently, prompted by a rewatch of the film 'cube'. Would love to have a discussion about this, although this is probably not the time and place.
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The story is really about how, having perfected a skill where the actual technical ability has been subsumed into a non-thinking "pure" action - and this can be your rally car driver, for want of a better example - a person can be completely confounded by their own inability to analyze how they actually do it.
It's known as the centipede's dilemma. And it crops up everywhere when you start looking for it.
Anyway, as you were. I'm not going to get stuck into a discussion about 'what is art' again.
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Of more concern to me right now is the fact that Cambodia and Thailand have just closed their borders.
As the PAS freelance wire reporter on the spot, what can you tell us about the background to this?
And how do you feel (obviously)?
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The celtic gods need to work on their names and pronunciations of same without the need for half a bucket of phlegm if they want to make any headway.
Lugh, Morrigan, Goibniu, Crom Cruach, Manannan, Cernunnos, Cerridwen.
They just trip off the tongue, don't they?
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a PAS flag
I'm imagining a red flag with a hammer, sickle, glass of champagne and a felafal in the top left-hand corner, surrounded by stars.
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OK, first time since Friday arvo I've been able to catch up with this thread - been offline all w/e.
Recordari - It was not my intention to make you feel like an idiot. I do sincerely apologise for that. My participation in this discussion is at least in part motivated by a genuine desire to understand peoples reasons and motivations for doing what they do. I will try to moderate my tone.
We have had some decent exchanges in the past, and you are actually close to the top of a shortlist of PASers I'd like to meet in real life, for what that's worth
So, apologies again. And, um, friends?
As an aside, I have recently updated my profile to include an e-mail address. Anyone who wants to throw brickbats my way ex-discussion can now do so.
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Oh, and this is where the 'Yellow Dog' quote comes from, for those who are interested.