Posts by Lucy Stewart
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 1: Beach…, in reply to Geoff Lealand,
I love animals (dogs more than cats) but there is an economic and envuronmental cost.
Can't recall the details but I've seen at least one reference to a cat being the equivalent of owning a Volkswagen, in terms of effective carbon emission/lifetime, and a big dog being like owning a 4WD. They're not environmentally efficient, and often not cheap. That Japanese petfood statistic is kind of terrifying, and kind of unsurprising. After all, how much of their land would they need for food, if they didn't import food for humans?
But, then, this sort of analysis can be a bit like the causes of cancer; just sitting there breathing has some environmental cost (just like keeping on living raises your chances of getting cancer.) It's about finding a balance.
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 1: Beach…, in reply to Geoff Lealand,
Just taken the cats to the vet, for jabs and pills. Cost $179. Why does animal treatment cost so much more than treatment of humans?
To be prosaic: because your taxes don't pay for it. Over here humans are much, much more expensive to treat. Not that animals are cheap, but.
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2:…, in reply to Steve Parks,
What I’d like to know is who thinks calling someone a Muslim portrays more hatred of the individual than calling them a torturer & war criminal?
Calling someone a Muslim with the intention of it being a slur is like when bigots try to insult someone by calling them a homo – it says more about the people making the claim than the target of their name calling.
It's also an (attempted) slur aimed at what and who a person is, rather than what they've done. The distinction is quite important.
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2:…, in reply to Martin Lindberg,
That was a good one, but the one with the rape-analogy (short version: the left = rapist; the right = victim) is right out there as well. Possibly by a different Anonymous – it’s so hard to tell them apart.
The rape analogy is brought up almost without thinking, by certain people; like this guy saying that he would have used the metaphor of gang-rape rather than "blood libel", but it was too obscure. Because there is no argument that cannot be reduced to an accusation of metaphorical rape, if you try hard enough.
Really, I'm way too young to be this depressed about humanity.
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2:…, in reply to Kyle Matthews,
What you’re seeing at present pales in comparison to the ‘dialogue’ that took place in the 1950s and 60s around Civil Rights issues. Frequent bombings, shootings, lynchings followed open threats to do so, which often wasn’t punished and was even endorsed by local authorities. Birmingham, Selma, the freedom riders etc.
Absolutely true, but it's also true that the violence of those years was explicitly racial (and racist). Americans have lots of practice at dealing wth - and laying aside - that sort of violence. This is new if only because it falls very much outside that frame of reference (whatever issues some people have with Obama aside.)
I have no hobby horse. I just think that the conclusion that these events are in any way strongly linked to Palin’s maps, some NRA morons turning up at rallies, tea party rhetoric, etc is a stretch without concrete evidence.
I think the argument for a few pages has been that whatever Loughner's reasoning turns out to have been, the whole thing has illustrated explicitly the problems with that sort of rhetoric.
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2:…, in reply to Angus Robertson,
Americans like politicians who are brave.
They like politicians who project an image of bravery, yes. What this has to do with a woman who was tragically shot while going about her everyday work is beyond me. It's also pretty tasteless to be speculating about while she's in a critical condition in hospital. Or, you know, for the foreseeable future.
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2:…, in reply to Angus Robertson,
If she (as is hoped for) lives Congresswoman Giffords just might do very well out of these unfortunate events. She is now famous without having pursued of fame, this makes her modest. She has demonstrated courage in the face of credible death threats, this makes her brave. She has been shot in the head and could live, this makes her lucky. These are good qualities, even Presidential qualities.
Why, yes! I'm sure every member of Congress wishes they'd had such good fortune.
Seriously, what do you even mean by this?
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2:…, in reply to Simon Grigg,
Really? I’d argue that one targets the item/place (in this case a district) for something, perhaps change, whilst the other is almost universally attached to a gun and used to kill or maim a living thing.
Also, one is incorporated into the logo of, to start with, the RNZAF and a very major big box US chain (called, uh....Target.) The implications are simply not the same.
Here's a quick thought exercise, if you're unconvinced: stick a crosshairs over the kiwi in the Air Force logo, rather than the bullseye currently used. And tell me the meaning doesn't change.
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2:…, in reply to Simon Grigg,
Hey James, wanna read what was actually said in the thread before you stagger in here with a 'kneejerk reaction'? I guess not.
You do love those straw men....
Real people and their actual comments aren't nearly as flammable.
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2:…, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
So, yeah, it’s a pretty big fraking “what” that the executive branch knows a little something something about the judicial one, its role and effects.
And, not incidentally, is not involved in personally hunting down Osama Bin Laden with their bare hands.