February 27, 2006
IS IT THE BOTTOM OF THE BARREL, OR JUST THAT LAYER OF SLIMY STUFF THAT GROWS ON TOP OF IT?
Blogdaughter Boudicca of
Boudicca's Voice said
What has this blog come to that IÂ’m carpet blogging? I am sure it is truly the most pathetic blogging around...
Most people put cat-blogging at the bottom.
Which makes me wonder... what IS the "quality blogging" hierarchy?
I'll take a stab at it. From highest to lowest:
1) Original news - breaking a story before the MSM
2) Competing news - covering stories that the MSM is ignoring
3) Original opinion - finding an angle on a news story that no one else has
4) Helpful advice - posting a piece containing a solution to a problem
5) Essay blogging - sharing a common opinion, but doing so in uncommonly good style
6) Story blogging - well-written original fiction
7) Life blogging - well-written true-life stories
Original humor - just making stuff up to make people laugh
9) Forwarded humor - re-posting something funny you found elsewhere
10) Hey! Look at this! - linking something interesting you found elsewhere
11) Memes
12) Quizzes
13) 24
14) American Idol
15) Carpets
16) Kids/Cats/Dogs/Hamsters/Ferrets and other critters that mess up carpets
17) WTF! OMG! RU serious? - Live Journal teen angst diary-posting heavily laced with IM abbreviations and/or dark, introspective poems about how painful life is.
Which is not to say that any of these are - by definition - not interesting. I'm just talking about perceptions of status.
You may bicker & second-guess in the comments.
Posted by: Harvey at
09:40 AM
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Where does photo blogging rate?
Posted by: oddybobo at February 27, 2006 10:06 AM (6Gm0j)
2
American Idol - popular amongst Americans because it's a sure fire bet that an American will win. Winter Olympics - unpopular amongst Americans (and Brits) due to the Russians and Europeans winning everything. Hence AI trouncing Turin-a-thon in your ratings?
Posted by: Alex at February 27, 2006 10:50 AM (7vhJl)
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Eh, well, I suck. All my blogging falls between #7 and 16... hamster blogging. But I happen to like some of my hamster blogging best as it usually involves some sort of chaotic mess that results in a pseudo funeral service with my handling a shovel in our pet cemetary. ;-)
Posted by: Bou at February 27, 2006 11:42 AM (iHxT3)
4
Nice list. I was feeling pretty good about myself (and averaging a 4) and even getting pretty smug about the fact that I've never mentioned either 24 or American Idol on the Yak until I hit #15 and 16 and realized that for a short time I blogged a few entries containing both the words "carpet" and "cat puke."
At least I've never let the "send" button go down on my angst. Then again, yaks aren't exactly known for suffering from angst.
Posted by: The Random Yak at February 27, 2006 12:07 PM (H4MUq)
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.. wait.. where do I fit in?... oh, and you left out drunk-blogging...
Posted by: Eric at February 27, 2006 02:04 PM (r5XsL)
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Hmmm. Wonder what this says about your spawn? Since a few of us fit close to the bottom (though not the very bottom). ;-)
Posted by: vw bug at February 27, 2006 03:16 PM (wEbEm)
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Eric... is... an... ellisis... blogger....
Posted by: Madfish Willie at February 27, 2006 05:11 PM (D2pBz)
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ELLIPSIS.... fucking dumbass retarded typing finger!
Posted by: Madfish Willie at February 27, 2006 05:13 PM (D2pBz)
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... damn, Madfish....
Heidi Vodka..
Posted by: Eric at February 27, 2006 05:24 PM (r5XsL)
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So how does cursing your own body parts rank on this list of blogging? *sidelong glace at Madfish Willie*
Posted by: ktreva at February 27, 2006 06:33 PM (e8b4J)
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Ha! Gunblogging is at the very top of the list.
Click.
Posted by: Peter at February 27, 2006 06:49 PM (Ffvoi)
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Well sh*t, I didn't even make it on the list. :-)
Posted by: MathCog Idiocy at February 27, 2006 08:46 PM (fF4La)
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WTF? Y U h8? Life sucks, so Y not blog?
Posted by: Ogre at February 28, 2006 09:40 AM (/k+l4)
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Crap blogging!!! Has to be in the top five
PS: Carpet is way more interesting than American Idol (except for the tryouts with all the really horrible people. That's some funny shit)
Posted by: Graumagus at February 28, 2006 01:34 PM (5u5N6)
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Crap blogging kinda goes with "critters that mess up carpets"
Posted by: Harvey at February 28, 2006 02:55 PM (ubhj8)
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American Idol needs to be moved up. I live to see who Simon makes cry each week.
Kids and dogs need to be removed from ANYTHING that has the word cat in it. It's just not right. Well, especially the dogs.
ROTFLOLPIMP!!! OMG at the Live Journal reference.
Posted by: Moogie at March 01, 2006 02:49 PM (wEYaf)
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February 23, 2006
WHITHER ACCENTS?
In the comments to this entry about
Hugh Laurie's marvelous American accent posted by Jim of Parkway Rest Stop, commenter
Sluggo chimes in:
Why do Americans sound so phoney when they try to put on an English accent, but the gotammed Brits can sound like they just rolled in from Lincoln, Nebraska whenever they want?
If I had to guess, I'd say that it's because the "accentless" cornbelt dialect is quite popular in movies & TV, and fairly consistent between speakers. If you can tell the difference between someone from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska, I'd be flabbergasted. So of the thousands of famous people who speak "Normal American", you can pick any one of them to emulate & pass yourself off as a Yank.
Famous British accents, however, are numerous and conflicting in style. If you're in-country and travel 20 miles down the road (or even across town in London), it's going to be noticably different. It's just harder for an American to pick one and find enough examples of it to master it properly. Who should I pick? Mick Jagger? Pierce Brosnan? Benny Hill? John Cleese? Tony Blair?
So my short answer is: because Hollywood is a district of Los Angeles, not London.
Posted by: Harvey at
02:46 PM
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Really? MJ has British family and they all do truly reprehensible American accents. We spent some time with them at Bro in laws wedding and they were shooting BB guns and trying to act like cowboys...
It wasn't pretty!
Posted by: Jake Jacobsen at February 23, 2006 02:55 PM (8rEm3)
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Aren't you forgetting Madonna? Who can forget her wonderfully authentic British accent.
'Scuse me while I vomit.
Posted by: Raging Mom at February 23, 2006 03:19 PM (7L3I1)
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I can pick out accents from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Ontario.
It's easy if you actually live near these states.
Posted by: Machelle at February 23, 2006 03:29 PM (ZAyoW)
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When I was in NY (briefly) I learned to distinguish a Lon Giland from a Brooklyn. It is a proximity thing.
Also, some people's brains pick up accents easier than others.
Also, accent-less speech (such as computer speech) is closest to west-coast US (including California), so maybe it's harder for someone who doesn't normally use the tools of accent (pacing, inflection, tonal quality, etc) to utilize them than for some who already does....
Posted by: caltechgirl at February 23, 2006 03:55 PM (/vgMZ)
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So, after all this readin', somebody tell me, how do you say "Wanker" properly.
Posted by: RedNeck at February 23, 2006 04:59 PM (tSJ8V)
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Redneck? It's pronounced "Michael Moore."
Posted by: Ogre at February 23, 2006 05:39 PM (2IrwV)
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It might also be a factor that a central or south central accent is how rock and roll is done. Or was. Whether you grew up in Helsinki or Crumbly-on-Cheese you could do Mellencamp or Fogerty.
Posted by: Sluggo at February 23, 2006 06:30 PM (8WuIi)
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I've also marvelled at Hugh's accent, being a fan of Blackadder as well as House. I thought maybe he'd lived in the US for a while or something, but then in the movie Flight of the Phoenix he was back to a strong British accent. Guess the guy is just a major talent. Mind you, I'd like to see him try an Aussie accent, it seems no one but us aussies can get that right. Still cringing from Meryl Streep's attempt in the Lindy Chamberlain movie ...
Posted by: Amanda at February 23, 2006 11:38 PM (L4Sch)
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Rachel Griffiths, the Aussie who played Brenda in "Six Feet Under" did a great American accent as well. However, I prefer to view Hugh Lauire and Rachel Griffiths as losing their "foreign accents" to play these parts.
:-)
Posted by: Jim - PRS at February 24, 2006 03:55 AM (njBz/)
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Wow.
I just thought it was because when Americans do a British accent, they try to make it as annoying as they percieve real British accents to be.
Or may that's just me; nudge, nudge, wink, wink, knowwhatImean...
Posted by: jimmyb at February 24, 2006 08:02 AM (lmeFW)
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I don't think there are more accents in the UK than here in the US - it's just that they are all squished up into a tiny little space - if you squished up all the accents here into a space the size of the UK, then I think the accents would be much more noticable.
I can tell the difference in regional accents here - St. Louis, Chicago, Kansas City, Southern Missouri and Western Kansas all have distinct sounds and even words.
Posted by: beth at February 25, 2006 06:15 AM (9FPYz)
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I've heard some awful American accents from British people and some great British accents from Americans. Most people on both sides of the Atlantic stink at doing the other accent, but a few are great. Mark Addy from "The Full Monty" does a great American accent on "Still Standing" too, by the way.
Posted by: MikeTheLibrarian at March 01, 2006 01:03 PM (ATcxA)
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Thank you!
http://wevugnxt.com/eoba/pzaj.html | http://fytqpovb.com/vbmg/wvil.html
Posted by: Rex at May 04, 2006 11:13 PM (/BK4F)
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February 16, 2006
QUICK! BURN AN EMBASSY!
He's
making fun of Jesus!
Seriously, though, no Christian would be upset by this, because Christianity isn't about an image, or even Jesus. It's about an idea. The idea that Jesus embodied. The idea that a person can examine his life, discover his faults, repent his mistakes, and choose new behaviors at ANY point in time in order to live his life more in tune with his professed moral code.
Juvenile mockery bounces off that like a pebble off a stone wall.
I hope that Islam embraces a similar idea someday, so that it its adherants may join the ranks of the civilized world.
[Hat tip: Lynn of A Sweet, Familiar Dissonance]
Posted by: Harvey at
01:28 PM
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I just burned a whole cigarette with Normal Bob Smith wrote on it. That's the best I could muster.
Posted by: Dr. Phat Tony at February 17, 2006 09:58 AM (fk/lm)
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February 15, 2006
IS IT *EVER* OK TO USE RACIAL SLURS? - UPDATED 2-16-06 9:30AM
Kevin of Eckernet is
a little pissed at Ann Coulter for using the term "raghead", citing this quote (I can't find a transcript - search "
ann coulter cpac" on Google News for more info):
"Maybe they do [have nuclear weapons], maybe they don't, but they're certainly acting like they do. ... If you don't want to get shot by the police, don't point a gun at them. Or as I think our motto should be, post 9/11," Coulter said, "'Raghead talks tough, raghead faces consequences.'"
I'm not sure I agree with him.
Now, I'm not usually a fan of racial slurs. Using them bespeaks a lack of imagination on the user's part. After all, there are SO many creative ways to be insulting, why settle for the easy target?
On the other hand, there may be times...
A thought experiment - if a black man murdered my wife, I wouldn't refer to him as "an African-American gentleman". I'd feel free to trot out a stream of the most hateful race-based epithets I could conjure, and I wouldn't feel bad about it.
I think in that case, it'd be ok, because it's personal between me & him. I don't mean to insult his race as a whole. I'm just trying to find the cruelest, most hurtful thing to throw at him, personally.
On the other hand, if I were to look at a black man looting stuff during Hurricane Katrina and I were to say something like "Ain't that just like a Negro to steal anything that ain't nailed down?", then that's NOT personal - that's just blanket bigotry. I'm insulting all black people in general.
Ann's case is somewhere in between. We're at war with a lot of Middle-Eastern Muslims. I'm a big fan of disrespecting my nation's enemies. Anything that pisses them off or makes their lives miserable is a GOOD thing in my book.
On the other hand, there are plenty of Middle-Eastern Muslims I would be proud to call "friend". Specifically, the ones who are working to help transform Iraq into a civilized nation in the face of a long, uphill struggle.
So if Ann were to say something like "I wish I could go to Iraq and personally shoot every last raghead I saw," then I'd say "Ann, you ignorant slut. Sit down and shut the f*ck up."
(Notice how "ignorant slut" is personal to Ann - I'm not insulting EVERY woman who's intellectually-challenged and vaginally-generous)
But upon examining her quote, she appears to be directing the "raghead" label only at Middle Eastern Muslims who actually threaten the security of American interests, rather than just haphazardly toward anyone who's wearing a turban. She's specifically aiming at terrorists, who - in general - suck. This isn't strictly personal, but I think it's nearer to that end of the spectrum than it is to bigotry.
So I'm leaning towards not having a problem with what she said.
Feel free to persuade me otherwise, if you're so inclined.
UPDATE 2-16-06 9:15 am: Perhaps the question should be, "is it simply wrong to insult a man based on ANY unchangeable physical characteristics?" For example, if my hypothetical murderer were bald, missing an eye, and had a club foot, would it be inappropriate for me to call him a "butchering, chrome-domed, popeyed, monopod"?
Not a rhetorical question. I'm honestly trying to examine where lines should be drawn on this issue. I know it's a sensitive topic, and I appreciate that so far the discussion has remained rational.
UPDATE 2-16-06 9:30 AM: Would calling him a "bastard" be considered a slur against people born out of wedlock? Would the appropriateness of the insult be affected by whether or not his parents were married when he was born, i.e. if he actually WERE a bastard?
Posted by: Harvey at
07:57 PM
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vaginally generous. I like that term. Very Evocative.
:-D
Posted by: tommy at February 15, 2006 10:47 PM (EhwJT)
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In the cases you cite, if your issue with the man himself or his race.
If it's with the man, deal with that. Independent of his race, his race should have nothing to do with it.
Even if the cases you cite justify what you that situation, Ann was not in a similiar situation. She's playing to a crowd. She's not trying to "hurt" any militant Muslims as she knows damn well they don't care what an infidel like her thinks or says.
Posted by: Kevin at February 15, 2006 11:03 PM (Nmxi6)
3
The only racial epithets I use are towards Arabs.
I've dealt with Muslim Arabs, in their home countries. Not much will make you hate them faster than that.
Posted by: the Humble Devildog at February 15, 2006 11:13 PM (TIYju)
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I think the whole point is moot. Viva Feedom of Speech!
Posted by: Contagion at February 16, 2006 07:23 AM (Q5WxB)
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She didn't use "raghead" she used "jihad monkey".
Her column is up on yahoo today.
Posted by: Machelle at February 16, 2006 07:48 AM (ZAyoW)
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Harvey, I see where you're coming from, but I still disagree. A couple of reasons:
1) I don't use the word n*gger, and haven't since I was old enough to understand what it meant. If a black man killed my wife, I'm certain that if he somehow managed to get to the police before I got my hands on him, I'd be begging the cops to "let me get my hands on that black cocksucker", but I wouldn't start hurling racial epithets.
2) Raghead is too inclusive. Think about the Sikhs. They wear turbans, but are pretty much peaceful people from what I've seen. Don't you think that raghead is offending to too many people? Think if Ann had used the term "sand n*gger" because, you know, they all look alike over in that part of the world. Still not offensive enough?
3) And here's the killer: those of us that don't sit on the left side of the political aisle have had to deal with the prevailing sentiment that we're all racist bastards. I always hear phrases like "You voted for Bush? You don't act like a racist/homophobe/bigot/::insert slur here::". What I don't need is a prominent conservative like Ann reinforcing that stereotype. And that's why I found her comments so egregious. It's not just that they made Ann look stupid, but they made everyone sitting right of center look bad.
If I ever meet her, I'll be sure to thank her.
Posted by: physics geek at February 16, 2006 08:19 AM (Xvrs7)
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Machelle - apparently she used "raghead" during her CPAC convention speech, but I did find the column you mentioned where she said "jihad monkey":
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucac/20060216/cm_ucac/muslimbitesdog;_ylt=AlHqzAi3OriznQOXcp8tHj07vTYC;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--
also available at her site, which is painfully slow right now:
http://www.anncoulter.com/cgi-local/printer_friendly.cgi?article=100
PG - ironically, "cocksucker" could be considered a slur against gays :-)
Which makes me wonder... if the murdering black man were also gay, would calling him a "cocksucker" be as off-limits as calling him "n*gger"? Are you saying that it's only considered sporting to insult him if what I say is a lie, or am I misinterpreting?
Kevin - If I wanted to put a positive spin on Ann's remarks, I'd say that she's intentionally disrespecting militant muslims to show that she doesn't fear their terrorist threats.
Or it could very well be that she's just a rude, loud-mouthed, hate-monger who gets a perverse pleasure from being unnecessarily crude in public.
I don't read Ann Coulter on a regular basis, so I don't know if this is just some over-the-top schtick she does for comedic effect, or if she's just a loon. I'm not qualified to say.
Posted by: Harvey at February 16, 2006 09:32 AM (ubhj8)
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Towelhead would have been more approriate.
Posted by: spacemonkey at February 16, 2006 12:24 PM (DN55C)
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Is "nigger" even an insult anymore? All the gansta rappers call themselves and their friends that.
Posted by: Deathknyte at February 16, 2006 07:03 PM (cdtR7)
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Isn't "raghead" more of a
cultural slur? No one is born with a piece of cloth attached to his head. A minor point, possibly, because people don't choose the culture they are born into any more than they choose their skin color but they can choose how they respond to and participate in their culture.
Posted by: Lynn S at February 17, 2006 08:07 AM (cZY6q)
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