Here at Crasstalk, we regularly hear about annoying co-workers, boring co-workers, inconsiderate co-workers, incompetent co-workers, backstabbing co-workers and even the odd Scott Adams-style co-worker. And about managers who are petty, sadistic and anti-social. Of course, we also boast of our own errors, drunkenness, forgetfulness and irritating behaviours, often while we are meant to be doing productive work. We want our co-workers and managers to obey an unwritten code of etiquette. At the same time, we don’t want unnecessarily restrictive fascist management cramping our style and making us unhappy for no good reason. Where’s the line? Continue reading
Commentary
491 posts
The Chicago Tribune reports that Michele Bachmann, she who has the completely hetero husband, is guaranteeing TWO DOLLARS A GALLON GASOLINEif she is elected.
Just so you can see the lunacy, here’s the direct quote: “Under President Bachmann you will see gasoline come down below $2 a gallon again,” Bachmann told a crowd Tuesday in South Carolina. “That will happen.”
When reached for comment, Suze Orman quipped, “honey, I will be a patient in her husband’s clinic before gas goes down to two dollars a gallon again.” No, Suze didn’t really say that. But she should.
Seriously, her idea is to remove any restrictions on drilling and roll back federal regulations on the shale gas industry. OK, while she delivers the killing blow to the environment, what she doesn’t understand is that her actions would have little impact on gas and oil prices. Continue reading
Michele Bachman is scary. Behold her terrible gaze! Already the Eye of Moron has used her eldritch power to drive Little Timmy Pawlenty weeping from the GOP race. Tremble, America!
What makes Bachmann scary? First, she’s, well, sort of crazy. She believes some pretty wacky things. Perhaps “crazy” is too harsh. Let’s just say she’s not a big fan of the fact based environment. Bachmann got her start in politics doing things like trying to get Disney’s Aladdin banned because of it’s pro-occult stance. The Lion King is dangerous because of all the gay music by gay Elton John, which might make your children gay. In the Minnesota Senate, she would go over to the desk of Scott Dibble, an openly gay senator from Minneapolis, and pray the gay out of the Senate chamber. Apparently, in the Bachmannverse, gay is some sort of virus that can be spread through children’s DVDs and office furniture, and Elton John is Patient Zero. The Eye of Moron sees all, Elton John! Continue reading
Pity poor John Kasich. After enjoying the rousing round of Republican victories in the 2010 elections that saw him win the governorship of Ohio without so much as a majority of Ohioans voting for him, Kasich had to watch last week as Republicans in Wisconsin lost two seats in the legislature there. Then, of all the indignities, the two Democrats up for recall there this week retained their seats.
Now, normally Wisconsin state politics have nothing to do with Ohio state politics. However, when both states pass draconian anti-union laws within weeks of each other-laws that were eerily similar, they sort of do. Continue reading
First came the boy wizards, followed by sparkly vampires, tween demigods, and most recently, girl gladiators. Unless you’ve been living under the proverbial rock, chances are you have more than a passing familiarity with some or all of these multi-volume series. And yet, if bookstore shelves and library labels are to be believed, they were not written for you.
Why do so many adults read children’s fiction? Fans will be quick to cite the richness and complexity of the Harry Potter series as well as its progressively darker tone. Similarly, Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy has been praised for its mature themes and bleak, uncompromising approach to storytelling. But this sort of reasoning only raises another question: if these books are mature and complex enough for adults, why are they marketed as young adult fiction in the first place? Continue reading
The silver fox couldn’t keep a straight face last night during his Ridiculist segment as he launched into a series of puns describing actor Gerard Depardieu’s impatient urination on the floor of an airplane. After about ten such mentions of pee, poo, and all other manner of incontinence issues, the normally stoic Coop…Just Completely Loses It! And it’s probably the funniest and most heartwarming thing you’ll see all day.
Take a look. Continue reading
Fire Island, for those who don’t know, is a barrier island off the South Shore of Long Island that has evolved from a tiny summer community to a combination Gay Mecca / Family Circus. And away we go!
This narrow strip of land is awash in Gay History, and sun-spangled waves, and lovely white sand beaches. There are several communities here, but I will focus on the two I visited most recently: Cherry Grove and The Pines.
Prior to the past school year California had no way to track every K-12 student and so was unable to accurately report the dropout rate. The reason being that a student transferring districts looks the same to the state as a student dropping out and an entirely new student entering another district. With a new way to track each student California can now report that the dropout rate for 2010 was 18.2%. As early as 8th grade the dropout rate is 3.5%. That means that upwards of 17,000 8th graders don’t make it to the 9th grade. But the dropout rates vary widely based on several factors. Continue reading
Didja ever have some people exit your life, and you ended up wondering about them years later? People who don’t leave a huge digital footprint on myspace and linkedin and orkut and facebook, and yet you get curious about what the hey happened to them?
I had some friends two houses down when I was a little kidling, and I really loved spending time with them. Their parents had really tricked out their house, and what they managed to do with seventies technology was pretty impressive to a first-grade me. Their mom would feed us white bread, yellow mustard and baloney sandwiches for lunch, something that was verboten in my house – my mom was perpetually on a diet and fed us roasted turkey deli meat on dry high-fiber bread that had wood cellulose in it. Sawdust bread. Yeah. Continue reading
The Whole Foods Mega Buckwheat and Soy Bean grocery chain has decided that the cons outweigh the pros of being a socially conscious entity by basically becoming the poster child for retreating political correctness. How, you say?
By deciding that the big, bad conservative blog community should lead their marketing endeavors.