Overnight Open Thread (6-12-2012)

FYI the blog now has more aggressive anti-spam filter so if you've been banned by mistake (as opposed to ban-banned), email me your nic and ip address and I'll forward it onto pixy. Also the new registration thingy is still on schedule for Real Soon Now but just remember that we're working on ewok-time here.

Also some of the intrepid moron-types discovered that the Yahoo group has a chat function so go knock yourselves out. Just don't get the blog in trouble or do anything that makes a three-letter agency take an interest in us.

The Suckiness of America

Yeah we're racist, dog-eat-dog capitalists who allow super-income inequality, don't have national healthcare or free universities, let people live in the streets and keep too many people in prison, bla bla bla. So we suck.

But...when you compare us to other first world countries on the OECD Better Life index, it turns out that all the other countries suck a lot more than we do.

On these kind of rankings I always suspect the US gets cheated in healthcare since the scoring is heavily weighted on how 'free' medical care is. But notice that you never hear about Americans going off to Canada or France or the UK in order to get better medical treatment.

Marine Week and Marine Derangement Syndrome at DU

So apparently it's Marine Week in Cleveland and everyone is pretty happy about this - well except for a writer at Democratic Underground who really doesn't like the Marines or anything they do.

"Trust us, children . . . using one of these to blow the beJAYsus out of sovereign nations that never threatened one American citizen is a noble and just sacrifice your country's willing to make for your educations and futures."

So What Does Human Flesh Taste Like?

Like veal...maybe. The problem is that human flesh connoisseurs tend to be crazy and/or liars or very remote which makes their accounts unreliable.

Seabrook noted that, in raw form, human meat looks like beef, but slightly less red, with pale yellow fat. When roasted, the meat turned grayish, as would lamb or veal, and smelled like cooked beef. As for the taste, Seabrook wrote, "It was so nearly like good, fully developed veal that I think no person with a palate of ordinary, normal sensitiveness could distinguish it from veal."

That's Mrs. Sinclair Lewis to You

After Lewis Sinclair won the Nobel Prize in 1930 he was deluged with fan letter including one from a woman who offered to become his secretary, adding, "I'll do everything for you-and when I say everything I mean everything."

His wife, Dorothy, responded to the offer this way:

My dear Miss:

My husband already has a stenographer who handles his work for him. And, as for "everything," I take care of that myself-and when I say everything I mean everything.

Dorothy Thompson
(Mrs. Sinclair Lewis to you.)

How to Bet on Sports Online

The current legality of betting online for Americans is somewhat murky, but here's how it works. Back a few years ago I did a lot of betting on baseball. I probably couldn't have made a living off of it but I did make enough money to make it worthwhile. Hockey is another sport that has lots of good wagering potential.

The War Film Alphabet

Can you name them all?

The Worst of Online Profiles

Okay some of these must be jokes but most aren't...which is scary. More here.

The Yahoo AoSHQ group. You know the way.

Tonight's post brought to you by Wonder Woman and the Bionic Woman:

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posted by Maetenloch at 09:48 PM

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