Skepticism

Afternoon Inquisition 12.4

Well, I’m having a difficult time coming up with a thought-provoking and fun Inquisition. Non-Skepchick life is pressing hard against me, and I just can’t seem to get it in gear. But I don’t want to complain about external influences this afternoon. I just don’t feel like crying or being angry about how things are going in my life today.

However, I don’t mind at all if you guys do it.

So in the spirit of good griping, I’m just going to open the floor and allow you all to unburden yourselves of anything that’s bothering you. Go ahead and complain about an injustice, whine about something nit-picky, bitch about something that’s bothering you, rail against something outrageous, or pick a fight like a street thug; whatever.

Let’s hear it:

Skepchick readers, what’s your beef?

Sam Ogden

Sam Ogden is a writer, beach bum, and songwriter living in Houston, Texas, but he may be found scratching himself at many points across the globe. Follow him on Twitter @SamOgden

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90 Comments

  1. My beef is that I like Christmas, the gifts, the tree, the lights and the general happiness of everyone. The beef part is religion or more precisely organised religion, I hate it, would like to see it go away but can’t see it ever fully going away with good old X’mas still around. See the problem? Although we do celebrate Hallowe’en and noone believes in ghosts…

  2. My work computer died in spectacular fashion the other day. There was smoke and everything. The PSU overloaded and blew, taking several key system components with it, including the hard drive (tried mounting it in another computer, but it doesn’t spin up). I lost about 8 months of archived emails and some test code that hadn’t been checked into source control. Luckily, it was nothing critical, but it set me back a bit.

  3. I’m getting sick and tired of listening to people espouse a good mass transit system only to continue driving everywhere in an SUV the size of a bus.

  4. @mikekoz68: Yeah I’ll amend my previous beef. Christmas starting on 31 Oct is a way bigger beef for me than the stupid government. Because I have to deal with that for 2 months every single year…possibly for the rest of my life.

  5. Alrighty then … The chili I had for lunch is too salty and meat is all fatty. I feel like going downstairs to the deli and give them a piece of my mind … Also, that thing between the Muslims and the Jews.

  6. People in malls, stores, or shopping centers who walk … really … slowly … for no discernible reason.

    I’m not talking about the elderly or the disabled. I’m talking about young, healthy people who practically bound across the parking lot, and then, upon entering a commercial establishment, start walking two and three abreast in a kind of listless shuffle.

    I mean, I’m in fairly poor health and approaching middle age, but at least I don’t forget how to walk in the presence of consumer goods.

  7. I can’t stand the fact that I have no cell phone service when I am inside my office building. There is perfectly good service outside, but the moment I enter my building, I lose all reception. It makes it really annoying for multiple reasons:
    1) If I leave my phone on, my battery drains like crazy.
    2) If my phone stays on and I randomly walk to an area with service, or the magic waves hit my phone just right, it starts to blow up due to all the e-mails, texts, etc that I have missed due to the lack of service.
    3) Seriously, you would think having cell-phone service would be important to a company in a new building, but nooo.

  8. Right now my beef is with an entirely too gullible co-worker whose views are shaped by an entirely too gullible media. I want to show all the flaws in thinking, and silly claims, but I don’t want to come off as a know-it-all jerk. In other words, the eternal skeptic’s dilemma. Ugh I say.

  9. Something that bugs me a little is that there isn’t more substantive discussion at this site about the issues ‘movement skepticism’ deals with. Sure there’s general mockery and condemnation, but it would be nice if there were a bit more detailed analysis. I know that doesn’t really fit the general tone of the site, but I would like to see it occasionally. As it is, I have to post at a psi-believer forum to get my fill of dealing with the scientific issues, while Skepchick content stays a bit more fluffy.

    I am a Hedge

  10. It makes my wife very happy to enjoy holidays to the fullest and buy me presents. I don’t enjoy holidays and hate gifts. The problem is my greatest joy is making my wife happy. And around we go…

  11. Sam, asking a question like this to a site full of cantankerous curmudgeons such as we are… you may be opening a Pandora’s box where not even Hope will remain once all the vice and venom have fled :-P

  12. Inconsiderate and lazy people irritate me. As I pulled into the parking lot at work recently, I saw two SUVs trying to grab a choice spot near the door. I parked at a spot farther back which, unsurprisingly, no one fought me for. I got out of my car and walked past the two SUVs that still hadn’t finished parking yet.

    As I walked to the door, I saw a coworker ahead of me. He was talking on the phone. He walked right in front of a car, causing it to brake to avoid hitting him. He barely looked up. When he reached the door, he pushed the handicap-access button to open it, despite having one hand free.

    Also, my local grocery store parking lot is frequently littered with abandoned carts. Even when the carts are returned to the corral, they’re often just pushed in the general direction instead of stacked properly. I’ve been grocery shopping with two kids in tow and still managed to put my cart away. I have to assume that people who don’t are either too lazy or too stupid to figure out how to stack them properly. Maybe they think there’s a special tool or some sort of irreversible geometry that prevents them from returning the carts to the state they found them in. Maybe their HFCS-ravaged bodies are too exhausted after pushing a cart full of Cheetos and Pop Tarts through the aisles. Maybe the think someone else will take care of it; probably the same someone that they think will take care of the bunch of bananas they inexplicably left in the toilet paper section.

    Sometimes I imagine what it’d be like if Dante’s version of hell really did exist. I’m sure there’d be a special circle reserved for these people. Maybe some sort of Sisyphean punishment involving shopping carts and parking lots.

  13. My beef is with my younger sister, who seems to have no self-worth and is communicating again with the father of her child, who got out of fucking prison this October. He was in prison for beating her nearly to death and tying her up in a closet.

    RAGE.

  14. @Steve DeGroof: I hate crowded parking lots and usually will automatically go near the back/end, where I know there will be more than enough empty spots. And then I walk. Even in the summer, when it’s 115 out. Of course, we Arizonans are known for finding a parking spot with shade, even if it means having to walk 3 blocks to where we need to be lol.

  15. I work in a state office that gives financial assistance to low income families with children who have chronic medical conditions. One of my collateral duties is to do name changes in our system. Because of the social-economic stature of our clients I see a lot of creative names. When they just make up names it makes me role my eyes. “Sorry we misspelled Tanica, it’s Taniqua, gotcha.” But what really bugs me is when I have to go into our system to change a correctly spelled name into a horribly misspelled one or delete a proper name and replace it with a nickname so it matches the child’s birth certificate. Jasmine becomes Jazmyn. William becomes Billy Joe. Baby Girl becomes Babie Girl.

    I wouldn’t really categorize this as beef. I guess I just feel sorry for the kids when they grow up and try to find a job. Nothing says “hire me” like a misspelled first name on a job application.

  16. I know this seems somewhat petty, what with all the horrible shit going on in the world, but the thing that annoys me most consistently are commercials.

    I don’t watch a lot of TV, but the few shows I do watch are constantly ruined by insipid, innane, intellectually-stunting pitches. I usually have a book handy, so the second “Mythbusters” cuts to a commercial, I can mute the TV and read for a few minutes.

    But sometimes the filth breaks through the filter…

    I’m not a violent man, but I swear on the perpetually-pissed soul of Buford Pusser that, if I ever see that “Can you hear me now?” jackass from the Verizon commercials, I will chop him in the throat with no warning. And I will feel good about it.

    And that “band” from the Free Credit Report.com commericals? I would kidnap them, chain them up in an abandoned house in the country, and violate every single Geneva convention. Twice.

  17. a) I’m home sick today — but too sick to actually enjoy being home alone while kids are at school.

    b) totally inane rules – a coworker was sharing that she used to work at a grocery store – the garbage cans needed to be covered. If you touched the garbage can you needed to wash hands. If you washed hands, you needed to dry with paper towels. When you used a paper towel, you needed to throw it away. (If the health department stopped by, people tried really hard not to have to wash hands — actually that might be entertaining to do to make a point in front of the health inspector).

    c) puppy mills.

  18. @Sam Ogden: No ya don’t. Cuz I really wish I was home and horizontal after blowing mass quantities of my sick leave on genetic abnormalities the past five months which has led to my current viral state. WHINE!

  19. @ramblingmom:

    the garbage cans needed to be covered. If you touched the garbage can you needed to wash hands. If you washed hands, you needed to dry with paper towels. When you used a paper towel, you needed to throw it away.

    That’s excellent. I want to get these rules instituted where I work. We can all just spend all day going around in circles between the sink, the paper towel dispenser, and the trash can.

    I can’t wait, I’m going to go wash my hands now.

    I am a Hedge

  20. @Oakes:

    Oh my god! I’m nominating this for COTW:

    I’m not a violent man, but I swear on the perpetually-pissed soul of Buford Pusser that, if I ever see that “Can you hear me now?” jackass from the Verizon commercials, I will chop him in the throat with no warning. And I will feel good about it.

    Because it’s funny, but mostly because it is probably the first appeal to the “perpetually-pissed soul of Buford Pusser” I’ve ever encountered on the Internet.

  21. Oh, got another one. The coffee station at work. It has three pots: two regular and one decaf (has an orange handle). Invariably, one of them will be left on a burner with a few drops of coffee left in the bottom, slowly carbonizing. Even when there are two full pots of regular, people will always pour from the one sitting under the drip basket, assuming it’s “fresh”. As if their tobacco and fast food deadened taste buds could possibly discern the difference between 60-minute-old cheap-ass Maxwell House and 10-minute-old cheap-ass Maxwell House. I’ll occasionally switch the pots. No one ever notices.

  22. My hands are so clean now. I have discovered that the cycle can be exited by eating the paper towel.

    I am a Hedge

  23. Despite being more proficient I was passed up for promotion twice, I can only assume, because the others had more seniority. Now that I am the most senior person at my position the economy has gone to shit. So, instead of being the lowest paid person at a higher position I am the highest at the lower and, of course, the highest salaried at each position are the first to go.
    @Sam Ogden: I’m tired of my town of Arlington Texas being the largest city in America without public transportation. We can’t get the people to vote for financing yet we’re also the newest home to a multi-billion dollar NFL stadium at taxpayer expense.

    @skepticalhippie: At the elementary school where my wife teaches there are three chldren with the name Imunique.

  24. @ Im a hedge

    COTW–eating the paper toweling… lol

    my beef: being on a waitlist for a class I want. Finals happening next week. Having to write a paper tonight. My neighbors being loud quite often.

  25. @Star Snuffer:

    While I appreciate the nomination, I think COTW should go to @Oakes. I was honored last week, and I believe in sharing the wealth.

    Well, I don’t really believe in sharing the wealth, but I don’t think I’m likely to win two weeks in a row, and it makes me look so gosh-darn gracious to say someone else should get it.

    (Rebecca, I still haven’t received my MacBook Air)

    I am a Hedge

  26. Windows Vista causing a problem for 2 months, that was solved when it was realized that even though you are an administrator, Windows doesn’t run things as an administrator.

    (Note: I can’t switch, since this is at work, and I need to ensure that things work everywhere.)

  27. I’ve been trying to come up with a beef, but I’m just not angry about anything.

    It’s like this: There are a few exceptions, but most humans are just walking, talking hemorrhoids towards each other, and no one wants to be Preparation-H.

  28. My beef…The club all my friends go to is coincidentally the only club I know of in this city that has no interested in acknowledging the smoking ban. Because of this, when I go out my throat gets shredded and I have a sore throat the next day which often turns into a cold or opens the door for an allergy attack. I am rarely sick otherwise. grrr.

  29. Beefs:
    Terrorism: WTF is that all about? Blow up other people because they don’t agree with you on politics, religion, your skin color, etc. What kind of solution is that? Recall that “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” leaves us with a bunch of blind, toothless people. Just another example of religion-based idiocy.

    BTW: I have a terrific first-person account of the Mumbai massacres from a Northwest Orient Captain that happened to be overnighting at one of the hotels hit by the terrorists. I can send it to those that want to read it, but it makes chilling reading. As far as I can tell, it’s legitimate. The language, tone and ‘color’ are dead on for an experienced airline captain. How can I send this to those here that want to read it?

    People that don’t read anything at all and are proud of their ignorance.

    Pointless jobs like mine.

    The fear that my grandchildren (already born) will inherit a world in the process of imploding back to the Iron Age or worse.

    Puppy/kitten mills! Animal abuse! Domestic violence! MAKE ME RAGE!!!! :-(

    @GabrielBrawley: Nice gratituous use of a H2G2 reference!

    @augustus: Been there, been screwed over by that. I don’t know what to tell you to do when “they” keep changing the rules on you.

    @hedge: Can you elaborate about “movement skepticism?” I’m not familair with the term.

    @stacie: I have the same problem with tobacco smoke that you have. When I get a good dose of it, I look like I’ve been tear gassed.

  30. Kids. No sorry, parents who don’t control their kids. How hard can it be to stay away from my property and off my lawn?

    Sweet Christ in Heaven if they’re not in my garden they’re at my door trying, hustling me for sweets at Halloween, demanding money for the Guy at Nov 5th, trying to sell me Baked goods for the girlguides. singing Carols and asking for sponsorship for a run/ride/walk/swim.

  31. Excluding my Ultra-Catholic dad and my really weird “Born Again” brother, I’d have to say the entire freeloading corporate bailout welfare programs.

    Also, the general lack of what had been called common courtesy (respect for others), George W. Bush and all he has done, The Microsoft Monopoly, wall-to-wall Christmas tunes beginning before Thanksgiving, and many other things.

  32. @QuestionAuthority:

    @hedge: Can you elaborate about “movement skepticism?” I’m not familiar with the term.

    Sure. It’s a bit nebulous, and not really a cohesive movement, which is why I put it in quotes. I think I’ve heard Dr. Novella use the term “the skeptical movement” on the SGU, and I mean the same thing that I interpreted him to mean by that: things that groups like JREF and CSI are all about. It’s a loose collection of organizations, publications, and individuals who generally agree in their outlook on many issues (such as parapsychology, cryptozoology, creationism, homeopathy, astrology…) and work in a more-or-less coordinated fashion to promote their positions.

    I used the term in the same sense that some discuss “movement conservatism”, to refer to a loose connection of think tanks, politicians, and media personalities that generally agree on a set of political and social issues, and work in a more-or-less in a coordinated fashion to promote their positions

    And you were all expecting some kind of scatological joke, weren’t you? Admit it, you know you were.

    I am a Hedge

  33. @russellsugden: Do what I do.
    I have a sign in the middle of my door in bright, friendly letters that says:
    “PLEASE ABSOLUTELY NO:
    Religious preaching
    Religious witnessing
    Unrequested door-to-door sales
    Political party representatives
    Surveys or questionnaires…
    of any kind.”

    It works pretty well. The few vendors that are welcome have been told to ignore the sign and are on regular routes anyway.

  34. @Im a Hedge: Maybe, but I love this site because it isn’t a hardcore fist fest. It’s a bit lighter, all in fun, and really all just for the best. ‘Ya gotta lighten up sometime or ‘ya go nuts.

  35. My beef is that the internet is too public to vent.

    @Elyse: Comcast responds well to Twitters. Try Twittering @comcastcares.

  36. Young People in Pubs, getting drunk and fighting.

    Expensive Petrol.

    Expensive Beer, it’s heading toward the £3 a pint mark.

    Train fares going up AGAIN by 10% for the second year in a row.

    People who wont turn their f*cking phones off in the cinema.

    My Mormon Neighbours who are on a mission to “save” me and wont take “f*ck off” for an answer.

    The fact my hometown of Dewsbury is now famous for child abuse. Thankyou Caron Matthews.

    Anyone who says “Seasons Greetings” or “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Xmas” because they dont want to cause offence.

    Politically Correct Campus Liberal types who are more concerned about “the need to respect other cultures” than thoes victims of female circumscion who have been “purified” in west yorkshire by members of the muslim community in west yorkshire. (Thats right, I went there).

    The morons who decided to shut down 70% of the Post Officies

    The Bastards who Privatised our nationalised industries

    Anyone who buys foreign made cars (hell foreign made anything) and complains that the car industry (any industry) gets too much government support

    People who say Dar-tar instead of Data.

    Banks

    Bankers

    Anyone who works in The City. (except for the cleaners, photocopiers etc who work for shit wages)

    Dr Andrew Wakefiled (will he ever be struck off?)

    Jenny McArthy

    Tony Blair

    Cameron, Osbourne, Johnson and the rest of those Bastards from the Bullingdon Club

    George lying incompetant greed-drive Herbert F*CKING Walker Bush.

  37. The party line. Doesn’t matter whose, or even if I agree with it. I loathe the mindless towing of the party line.

  38. @QuestionAuthority: Tried that, doesnt work. I’ve even tried answering the door holding a shotgun on the Mormons down the street, but being raised in america seeing people holding guns dosent seem to deter them “Thats a very nice shotgun Mr Sugden”

  39. @emcgillivray:

    They respond, but no one ever actually helps.

    I’ve decided to use Twitter as a tool against Comcast.

    It’s just me, comcast and 140 characters…. and I will win. I WILL!

  40. Oh and when did it become not acceptable for any adult to disapline any child? Seriously, when I was a kid, if you were misbehaving and any random grown-up saw you, you’d get a bollocking.

    You can’t even hit other people’s children these days. The way things are going you soon wont be able to hit your OWN children!

  41. @Protesilaus: Vista is bloatware junk. It won’t utilize system resources efficiently. Most software companies that do business and medical applications don’t want to get near it. An OS as bad as Vista would slow an IBM mainframe to a crawl.

  42. I see a lot of creative names. When they just make up names it makes me role my eyes. “Sorry we misspelled Tanica, it’s Taniqua, gotcha.” But what really bugs me is when I have to go into our system to change a correctly spelled name into a horribly misspelled one or delete a proper name and replace it with a nickname so it matches the child’s birth certificate. Jasmine becomes Jazmyn. William becomes Billy Joe. Baby Girl becomes Babie Girl.

    (Emphasis mine)
    Wait – so what role do your eyes play, exactly?
    Thank you, skepticalhippie. I laughed out loud when I read this and contrasted your beef with ‘misspelled’ names with your misspelling of ‘roll’.

  43. My Mormon Neighbours who are on a mission to “save” me and wont take “f*ck off” for an answer.

    Tell them you’re a son of perdition.
    Mormons, like a few other protestants, believe that some people have done so much evil, that Lucifer has already let them know that they’ll be cast into outer darkness when they die. These people are known as sons of perdition, and they can’t be saved.
    (Unfortunately they’ll probably insist you can’t really be a son of perdition. After all, I had a Mormon seminary teacher who taught that Adolf Hitler was not a son of perdition. How did he know? Because Mormon baptismal rights were performed for Adolf Hitler after he died. In Mormon theology, this can only happen if Adolf Hitler was converted by a missionary during the afterlife, and a request was sent down to Earth that someone a baptism be performed for Adolf Hitler. I was taught the same was true for Josef Stalin. )

  44. I couldn’t think of something to gripe about until I started watching videos about the making of the HBO miniseries “From the Earth to the Moon” on youtube tonight. The videos themselves were fine, the problem is I can’t stop myself from reading the idiotic comments that people post there… stuff like:

    That moonset sure does look like the “real” Moon that we got to see in all of the Apollo videos.. Even the Sun looks identical.. How about that!.. LOL

    bunch of retards in this video.

    I know it’s just old fashioned trolling, but I don’t like to be reminded every five seconds that there are people on this planet that are unspeakably ignorant.

  45. @russellsugden: We never tried shotguns against the Mormons going door-to door in East Phoenix because that would be prosecutable as “Brandishing a Weapon”. It REALLY would have been fun, though.

    They always left when I said “I’m Catholic, and the Catholic Church founded Christianity in the first century. Thanks for stopping by, but I’m NOT interested”. I wasn’t religious at all at the time.

  46. The term “identity theft”. I mean, if you “steal” my identity, I’m still me — that isn’t theft. It’s fraud. But no, we can’t just call it fraud (and a kind of fraud that’s as old as credit itself, mind you). We have to invent a whole new idiotic term for it.

    Also, get off my lawn.

  47. @Knurl:

    Maybe, but I love this site because it isn’t a hardcore fist fest. It’s a bit lighter, all in fun, and really all just for the best. ‘Ya gotta lighten up sometime or ‘ya go nuts.

    Right, I don’t mean that. I also like this site because of the lighter and friendlier tone than many other sites. I mean that I would like to see more detailed and substantial analysis of some of the various claims, rather than just dismissing things with snide comments (although that certainly has its place).

    For example, Rupert Sheldrake did some experiments which he reports as demonstrating telepathic powers in dogs. It would be nice to see an explanation of specific flaws in the experiment or in the interpretation, rather than something like “that’s just nonsense”. People who already think it’s nonsense may find that satisfying, but there are a lot of people who may visit a site such as this wanting to know if they should believe that or not. Saying its nonsense is not a very convincing argument to someone who is not already convinced.

    I think it’s possible to do this without it becoming a brawl.

    I am a Hedge

  48. My beef: existence. All other issues arise from this one. I look forward to the day that a cure is discovered. Until then, I’ll continue my approved treatments: vast quantities of alcohol, long hours of television, and an occasional movie with some hot squid-on-squid action.

    Oh, I also get slightly annoyed when people substitute Google for research.

  49. @Im a Hedge:

    Never fear, Hedge. The Chicks and I have been batting around ideas for regular investigative posts and things of that nature. Nothing set in stone yet, but we definitely want to keep making those types of posts part of the content.

  50. @Im a Hedge: I can easily agree with that. Maybe links can be given also. I would like that. I’m really sort of a newbie in all this in that I’ve finally chosen to fight outside my profession. A port in the storm is what we all need, and that’s all I meant.

    BTW. Despite the Dutch spelling, Knurl Knarlssen was a Viking Warrior. Somewhat fictitious perhaps, but that’s another story.

  51. how hard can it be to buy a fake Tokidoki bag for my teenager for Xmas. VERY!

    Not going to happen so she’s getting new snowboots and a pout for Xmas

  52. Just fucking Christmas in general. Some (very large even) man was trampled to death when Walmart opened on “Black Friday” (in NYC I think). That “Christmas spirit” epitomizes everything that’s wrong with the holiday and everything Jesus supposedly stood against!

  53. My beef is people who think kids are too young to tell fact from fantasy and so vulnerable that exposure to a few bad ideas at an early age will permanently damage them.

    Yes, I admit my daughters are going to get a xmas full of barbies, bratz, princesses and Mamma Mia, and it just so happens they’re too young for “Twilight”, so that will have to wait. Am I worried that all this candy-floss commercialism will turn them into bubble-headed Paris Hilton wannabes? Not really. They also get exposed to plenty of more emotionally and intellectually stimulating experiences and I expect they’ll grow up fine. Most people do.

    Am I being irresponsible? Well frankly I could make an argument that people who try to “protect” their children by shielding them from bad influences (barbie-dolls, rock-music, religion, irreligion … take your pick) are the irresponsible ones. But actually I think kids are generally quite resilient or, to put it another way, are quite capable of fucking up their lives regardless of what you do to protect them. So I’m going to stick to being an irresponsible easy-going live-and-let-live dad, and just hope that one day my daughters forgive me for it.

  54. 1. I was shamefully (but joyfully) watching E entertainment channel the other day and they were talking about these slimming tights for women who want to look a size smaller. Sounds okay. But then, they mentioned caffeine. The company claims ”Welcome to the fastest selling product in the history of tightsplease! These caffeine tights have microcapsules of caffeine which are released into thighs, bottom and legs. This increases the metabolic rate and the burning of fat. They have been shown to reduce fat and the circumference of thighs up to 2cm. They can even help with the dreaded cellulite “orange peel” effect!” http://www.tightsplease.co.uk/caffeinetights/index.php

    Oh My god. Jaw drops… and heart sinks.

    2. Then I went on to watch ‘Pam, Girl On the Loose,’ a reality show covering the everyday life of Pam Anderson. She supports PETA, and protests animal testing, claiming that it is out of date and useless. There is nothing more despicable than a celebrity promoting false, stupid and damaging ideas. I hate PETA. And as an aside… Jenny McArthy can also go suck her dog’s balls.

  55. @russellsugden: Maybe a round into the ground next to them will convince them that it really is a very nice shotgun and it works very well…LOL

    Heinlein’s Law also works well: “Learn to say ‘no’ and be rude if necessary.” I’d tell them that the next time they come onto your property, you’ll call the cops on them. If they show up, do it.

    “…Politically Correct Campus Liberal types who are more concerned about “the need to respect other cultures” than to than those victims of female circumcision…” Oh, I’m a liberal, and I fully agree with you. I don’t care what your ‘culture’ says: Some things are just wrong. Cutting off a starving child’s right hand because he stole some bread into this category, too. I don’t give a damn what your magic book says. Why weren’t you feeding the poor kid to begin with??

    Oh, other beefs: I HATE PETA!!!! They are lying scumbags!

    Celebrities that support causes and products that they have to know are worthless, if not outright harmful. (Note: The George Foreman grills work wonderfully and as advertised. Just make sure you get the big one. The small one can’t handle two chicken breasts or chops.)

    @rachaelwells: I would have dropped to the floor laughing hysterically at that commercial. The only weight reduction will involve the weight of the purchaser’s purse! Some people deserve to lose their money.

    @csrster: Your approach is quite correct. That’s how we raised our two daughters and they are doing quite well in their twenties. They had both Barbies and chemistry sets. Hell, I was eyebrow deep in science/science fiction from the time I learned to read and look how I turned out…Uhh, wait a minute… ;-)

    @hedge: Sounds like CSICOP. I get the Skeptical Enquirer and devour it every month. The latest issue takes up the latest “progress” in UFOlogy. :-)

    @mikecoz68: Actually, many of the Christers DO believe in ghosts, demons, devils and other mythical creatures. That’s why they are so upset about “Satan’s holiday.”

    @llewelly: I’d rather show up at the door in Klingon costume with a bloody bat’leh and shout nuq’neH!?! (literally: “What do you want?”).

  56. @rachelwells:

    rachel, our own tkingdoll is interested in investigating supposed health and beauty products. I suggest emailing that link to the Skepchick email address (attn: tkingdoll), and perhaps she will do a write-up about it.

  57. Can we do a “What’s your beef?” post every week? Because reading all of these beefs warms my little curmudgeonly heart.

  58. @QuestionAuthority:

    @hedge: Sounds like CSICOP. I get the Skeptical Enquirer and devour it every month. The latest issue takes up the latest “progress” in UFOlogy.

    When I said “groups like JREF and CSI “, I really meant, “groups like JREF and CFI”, aka CSICOP.

    Typing with these dang branches, you know… and hedges don’t have central nervous systems, which presents a severe handicap on the whole thinking thing.

    I am a Hedge

  59. @marilove:

    @Im a Hedge: And it’s a great way to get some fiber!

    Indeed. An additional long stay in the restroom ensued.

    Perhaps burning the paper towel is a better method. I’m off to disable the smoke alarm.

    I am a Hedge

  60. I have got some fully cooked beef with my previous employer who owes me £4000.

    If I had this money, I wouldn’t have been solely eating baked potatoes for the last 2 months.

  61. This bothers me…

    http://puppygod.tripod.com/

    I don’t know where they like got their information. Jesus’ puppy was soooo WAYY cuter than that. I mean, I like don’t know how they falsified those images.. I mean… They must have caught Jesus off guard and painted him with like an impostor puppy… Like… Seriously…

  62. An obese woman trailed by an equally obese child precedes me at the supermarket checkout. She unloads from her cart every conceivable sort of fat and sugar laden “food” I can imagine. Then, just for the insult to my senses, she proceeds to present the cashier with the empty containers of the stuff consumed while shopping in the store.

    I just want to STRANGLE that woman!

  63. J. Fox,

    For all practical purposes there is a cure for the common cold. This affliction is so “common,” however, that the medical community dare not admit as much. My uncle, the surgeon, shared this with me during a particular bad spell where I needed to be on.

    Narcotics. They will absolutely knock out each and every symptom until the damn thing passes. It’s a similar effect as when you are in pain – instead of making you “high,” it makes you comfortable. You can work – it’s great.

    Just don’t expect your doc to prescribe any for this purpose anytime soon.

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