My brother has decided to stir up discussion on atheism, starting from two statements, neither of which he personally endorses (so far as I know), but both of which are commonly expressed by people who oppose (and, in my opinion, completely misunderstand) atheism:
(1) Atheism is ridiculous.
(2) Atheism is faith.
Somehow in the last few years it has become popular to have traditional graduation ceremonies—caps, gowns, Elgar—for increasingly younger students at increasingly inconsequential stages in their education. Apparently this idiotic tendency has also taken up the traditional valedictorian and speech.
For people who understand these things, does anyone know why the pop-up blocker on the Safari browser is so stupid? By “stupid” I mean, why isn’t it “smart” enough to tell the difference between a window that is involuntarily popped up and a window that occurs when I deliberately click on a link that opens a “pop up” window?
Normally, I keep the option “Block Pop-Up Windows” checked, but there are some sites where the basic function of the site is a “pop up” window that occurs when I voluntarily click a link. Or some sites, like Gmail, have certain features (like composing in a separate window) that require the pop-up blocker to be deactivated. When I go to those sites, I have to go up to the Safari menu and uncheck the blocking option. This is lame and annoying.
So why can’t Safari tell the difference between a site that opens a window without a click from me and a site that opens a window when I want it to? Why can my iPhone tell when it is up against my ear but Safari can’t tell when I clicked a link to open a “pop up” window? This disparity in interface keenness is ridiculous.
Wow. This guy in Michigan who was denied admission to the bar there sounds a little nuts:
“I have faith in the Supreme Court, and in particular Justice John Paul Stevens, who is the true guardian of our constitutional rights.”
Whenever somebody whips out that word “true” in a context like that, it makes me cringe a little. Sort of like when people start talking about “true believers.”
A story in the San Francisco Chronicle quotes “Emily Solomon, 45, a Washington, D.C., playwright and Pennsylvania native”:
[The news media] completely downplayed the first serious female candidacy. When she won New Hampshire, it wasn’t, ‘The first woman to win New Hampshire,’ it was ‘Clinton steals New Hampshire.’ Very subtle sexism, you know. And I’m not even a rabid feminist.
Okay, I am tired of this “very subtle sexism” thing. What Solomon is saying in this remark is that the only way people could have reported Clinton’s win in New Hampshire was by specifically pointing out that she was “the first woman to win New Hampshire.” Anything else, apparently, would be “sexism,” albeit ”very subtle sexism.” If Obama had won New Hampshire and no one reported it as “The first African-American to win New Hampshire,” would that have been racist? I doubt it. (So would that difference be racist, or sexist? Honestly, I don’t care. Nobody should. There are bigger fish to fry.)