Quickies

Skepchick Quickies, 1.17

Jen

Jen is a writer and web designer/developer in Columbus, Ohio. She spends too much time on Twitter at @antiheroine.

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22 Comments

  1. On the vaccine story:

    I’m glad to see someone looking at RFK Jr. with a more skeptical eye.

    I’ve been saying for a long time that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is not the hero that some on the left think him to be. He may be a good guy, I don’t know him so I can’t say, but he is a conspiracy monger and if it’s not the vaccine/autism link, he is flogging various plots about stolen elections (he says Ohio was stolen in 2004, there is little evidence for that claim). I suppose that’s what comes from having your family, and father, involved in assassinations that far too many believe are not what they appear.
    It could be enough to give you a complex.

    I will say that he is a good lawyer and a tremendous advocate for the environment; I just wish those on the left would stop giving him far too much leeway because of who his father was. At least he’s not Attorney General, that could have been a disaster.

  2. I was going to say that real Blue Mondays occur after Thanksgiving and Christmas, but it looks like that’s wrong too. (I learned something today . . .)

    I have unfortunately been witness to two suicides and the victim of depression myself. None of these occurred in the middle of January. If anything January—the beginning of our university’s spring semester—always perks me up, not that anecdotes count for much.

  3. So… what the fuck is “Blue Monday”? This is like the Twitter trending topics, where because I don’t watch TV or read newspapers I have no idea what half the words even mean, or whether some of the words are meant to be names, and who are these people I’m supposed to be on a first name basis with, exactly?

  4. @Joshua: “‘Blue Monday’ is a single released in 1983 by British band New Order, and later remixed in 1988 and 1995. The song has been widely remixed and covered since its original release, and became a popular anthem in the dance club scene.” – Wikipedia

    Beyond that… it appears that Sky Travel invented the idea that there is a “most depressing day of the year” in 2005. *yawn*

    I find it utterly mystifying, and only think of the song and its variations when I hear the phrase, and wonder that anyone else can have any associations beyond clubbing in the 80’s with it, or moshing in the 90’s to Orgy’s version. Both of which I’ve done.

    Tell me how, does it feel?

    Now I want to mosh.

  5. There is such a thing as Blue Monday. It’s the code applied to the garbage route assigned to my former residence in Tallahassee. I sang every time I took the trash out.

  6. I have enormous gaps in my pop culture knowledge. Unfortunately, Blue Monday (in the modern usage) no longer is one of them. It seems to be a day dedicated to English stockbrokers who feel sorry for themselves because they have to go back to work after the holidays and need to book a tropical holiday to recover.

    To me. Blue Monday always meant Fats Domino. Mondays are always much more meaningful and depressing for people who have to work for a living at real, low wage jobs, trying to survive til their next paycheck. See also T-Bone Walkers’ Stormy Monday.

  7. If I get this right, Blue Monday is made up to get you to buy something like Sweetest Day and Christmas.

    Also, why does Joshua swear?

  8. @Zapski:

    O wow, I am completely lost in a nostalgia trip. I had completely forgotten about Orgy, but now I remember listening to all those songs when I was in high school. Tonight when I get home from work I’ll listen to those songs online and remember how I was too embarrassed to ask my mom for their CD.

  9. Not to try to belittle what the women in the polygamy article went through, but it annoys me that when people hear “polygamy” they automatically think “Mormon” or at the very least, “creepy religious nut.”

    I know several polyamorous people, some of which might happily enter a polygamous marriage. None of them would waterboard their babies.

    While I agree that something needs to be done about abuse in these situations, I don’t think that outlawing multiple marriages is going to stop it. Clearly.

  10. Blue Monday” is a song originally written by Dave Bartholomew[1], and first recorded by Smiley Lewis in 1954.[2]
    It was later popularized in a recording by Fats Domino in 1956, on Imperial Records (catalog # 5417), on which the songwriting credit was shared between Bartholomew and Domino.[3] Most later versions have credited Bartholomew and Domino as co-writers. Fats Domino’s version was featured in the 1956 film The Girl Can’t Help It. It became one of the earliest rhythm and blues songs to make the Billboard magazine pop music charts, peaking at number five and reaching the number one spot on the R&B Best Sellers chart.[4] It was included on the 1957 album This Is Fats and the 1959 album Fats Domino sings 12,000,000 Records.
    This song is often used by Michael Savage on his radio program, The Savage Nation, particularly after Savage plays a clip of someone (such as George W. Bush, John McCain, or Barack Obama) saying something that Savage deems to be ridiculous.

    From another wikipedia entry.
    different song than the one Zapski mentioned

  11. @“Other” Amanda: To be fair, the article does mention that Carolyn Jessop ‘favours decriminalization, but only if it means that abuses will be investigated and prosecuted including what she calls the “educational neglect” that results in most FLDS children — at least in the United States — growing up illiterate, unaware of their rights as citizens and unable to function in the outside world.’

  12. @otherAmanda.
    Yeah, it bums me out too. You can use a bat to play an enjoyable game, or you can beat someone to death with it. It’s not the bat thats bad. Poly can be good, but the FLDS uses it like a club.

    Further, the whole water torture thing is pretty passe in conservative Christian communities. I hope this doesn’t mislead anyone to thinking only fundamentalist Mormons are bat shit insane, because frankly, they’re all crazy. The cult I was in recommended these people: http://www.nogreaterjoy.org/ they’re sort of a clearing house of abuse. They even sell special beating sticks (that don’t leave bruises) in their paper catalog.

    I was taught to read, but also told that if I talked to psychiatrist instead of a church approved counselor, I’d become possessed. These people are much more mainstream than anyone realizes.

  13. The article on Carylyn Jessop didn’t mention her autobio, “Escape”. Definitely recommended for anyone wanting a glimpse into the FLDS lifestyle and mindset.

  14. Comparing the forced and coerced polygynous (no polyandry in FLDS), often underage marriages to a freely-entered polyamorous relationship is like comparing priest molestation to a consenting gay relationship.

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