Quick Roundup 325

Friday, May 09, 2008

Well! Looking forward to a (relatively) light weekend, I was feeling frivolous going into this post. I figured on a joke I got in the mail yesterday, maybe a meme, and something interesting.

But then, before I could really get going on the meme hunt, I realized that I was seeing too much good stuff to go with the original plan.

I'll get the joke out of my system first....

I didn't know what I was getting into!

This comes from my father-in-law:

The first man married a woman from Georgia and told her that she was going to do dishes and house cleaning. It took a couple days, but on the third day he came home to a clean house and dishes washed and put away.

The second man married a woman from South Carolina. He gave his wife orders that she was to do all the cleaning, dishes and the cooking. The first day he didn't see any results but the next day he saw it was better. By the third day he saw his house was clean, the dishes were done and there was a huge dinner on the table.

The third man married a girl from Louisiana. He told her that her duties were to keep the house cleaned, dishes washed, lawn mowed, laundry washed and hot meals on the table for every meal. He said the first day he didn't see anything, the second day he didn't see anything, but by the third day some of the swelling had gone down and he could see a little out of his left eye, enough to fix himself a bite to eat and load the dishwasher.
I am in fact much more "domestic" than my wife.

But that's a coincidence.

It is!

Take Care of Yourself, First

Flibbert makes an excellent point about taking care of oneself in one's relationships when commenting on a scene from House:
Many, if not most, people would have said, "Do what you want" and mean "Do what I want," but she didn't. She told him precisely and plainly without hint of manipulation that she wanted him to do what he wanted.
Yes. "He" is oncologist James Wilson, but you don't need to be a House fan to get Flibbert's point.

And there's lots of other good stuff up where that came from, so stop by and start scrolling.

Quote of the Day

Paul Hsieh brings up a quote from Richard Ralston of Americans for Free Choice in Medicine that perfectly sums up the correct approach to cultural/political activism:
Don't worry about changing the politicians. The politicians will wear their fingers to the bone sticking them in the air to test which way the wind is blowing. Instead, work on changing the wind. If you change the wind, the politicians will follow.
And stop by there, if you haven't already, to see what "changing the wind" looks like.

Obama's Ideas

Myrhaf offers an interesting insight on how Obamamania might cost the Democrats yet another presidential election:
The attacks [on Obama] are just name calling? This is the kind of self-serving delusion that keeps the left from realistically assessing the American electorate. Voters are smarter than the Democrats think they are; they understand that there are ideas behind the names and the labels.
And on top of his terrible ideas, there is either a remarkable lack of sophistication or an incredible degree of cynicism going on in his head:
CNN showed a clip of Barack Obama this morning in which he said that the Gas Tax holiday is a sham because -- and I'm paraphrasing -- "every time we've tried to do that, the oil companies just raise the price to where it was with the tax." [minor edit]
Hmmm. Before I read the whole post, I would have leaned towards the former, but now it's at least equally the latter.

Iron Man

Jennifer Snow has a good, short review of Iron Man that I am glad I saw.

Objectivist Carnival

This week's Objectivist Roundup has been posted by Rational Jenn.

Caption Contest

This is too good! (And I get to end my roundup on a frivolous note, after all!)

-- CAV

PS: A couple of the Boston bloggers have posted reviews of last night's Ford Hall Forum lecture by Yaron Brook.

Updates

Today
: Added a PS.

6 comments:

Jennifer Snow said...

As always, thanks for the plug, Gus. I know a lot of people enjoyed Iron Man and I don't criticize them, but that's what I thought.

Gus Van Horn said...

Sure!

I still plan to see it, but I appreciate having the more realistic expectations going in....

Vigilis said...

Gus, I once thought Objectivist humor a rare commodity. Here are two examples from "I Hate Wikipedia.com":

(1)
Dear Ayn Randers: Help! I've lost my car keys! My wife says they're somewhere in our house, but my son says they're not. What should I do? Signed: Keyless in Milwaukee. Dear Keyless: Check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.

(2)
Why don't Objectivists wear pocket protectors? So that people won't mistake them for accountants.

..............
My reconsidered conclusion is that funny Objectivist humor is probably a very rare commodity.

As you are certainly not humorless, would you share your favorite Objectivist joke?

Gus Van Horn said...

Hmmmm. I've never given that much thought because so much of what I've heard called "Objectivist humor" has been pot-shots or worse, and often based on gross misinterpretations of the philosophy.

I think the first of your examples is actually funny. The second would be a pot-shot -- and knowing the kind of people who ridicule Objectivism, it's probably a pot-shot at accountants!

Anonymous said...

I liked the "check your premises" joke, but I've always had a weakness for terrible puns.

Gus Van Horn said...

Yes. There's something to be said for a good groan!