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Stuff everyone talks about as if true, but which isn't

  
  

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This Sunday
17:46 / 02.08.08
For those interested in discussing natural/unnatural, there is here, now. Somebody post quick before I feel the need to pull out Heinlein's if you believe a beaver dam is natural but a human on is not, you hate your species material.


And, to continue this thread with what it's meant for: As much as I disapprove and disagree with certain aspects of Dworkin's personal history and views espoused in her nonfiction, her fictions are still being treated like actual real-world statements and death seems to have made her an even bigger demon phantom horror scare-yer-children thing, hasn't it? Pick your targets carefully, people, and try to make sure they aren't imaginary or deliberately fiction!


And, another: Black/White World. Clearly visible in entertainment (Crash? Spike Lee Joints? I'm looking at you!), but prevalent in the really real world as well, too many White and Black people of America somehow seem to believe the world is drawn in racial lines of White and Black, with every other racial breakdown existing as a para-element or some sort of social service. The Asian guy can work a register but he can't have politics. Native Americans are just extinct. No, really. Those aren't real Indians, and those dark dark latinos? So not got any indigenous blood in them at all. Nope.

Even in areas where, percentage-wise, the Asia and/or Western Hemisphere descended peoples are significantly present, it's like there are magic blinders that go over the eyes of White and Black people. Not all, in any way, but the blinders kick in for a lot. Too many. And nonblack, nonwhite, people are just discounted from the equation.
 
 
Haus of Mystery
10:34 / 03.08.08
"Beggars can't be choosers"

Yes they can.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
10:56 / 03.08.08
That whole thing about the weather on St Swithin's Day being what it'll be like for the next forty days. St Swithin's Day was fucking lovely here in London, and now it's pissing it down, a scant fortnight later.
 
 
The Idol Rich
09:15 / 04.08.08
Granted that there is of course such a thing as an idea which seems good in theory but which subsequent practice proves to be flawed

In theory there should be no difference between theory and practice but in practice there is.

I hate the saying "the exception that proves the rule" - I have heard various explanations which make sense but in general it is used by somebody who has lost an argument as a spurious attempt to pretend that they haven't.
 
 
luminocity
12:15 / 04.08.08
I always thought this one was 'prove' as in 'test'.
 
 
Axolotl
14:53 / 04.08.08
Not exactly; It comes from the legal principle in which the presence of an exception demonstrates that the rule exists, eg "Entrance free on Sundays" shows the rule that normally you must pay. But basically it's a bit of a mess and used far more often in its incorrect sense than otherwise.
 
 
The Idol Rich
08:13 / 05.08.08
I always thought this one was 'prove' as in 'test'.

It comes from the legal principle in which the presence of an exception demonstrates that the rule exists, eg "Entrance free on Sundays" shows the rule that normally you must pay.

Yeah, those are the two explanations I've heard and they both seem to make sense but regardless of that, as you say, most people misuse it.
 
 
trouble at bill
15:24 / 05.08.08
"Beggars can't be choosers"

Yes they can.

Indeed. I once offered one a sandwich when he asked me for money. He said, "I don't want sandwiches, I want money," and walked off in a huff. I think it's fair to say he was a choosy beggar.
 
 
Liger Null
16:52 / 05.08.08
Who turns down a free sandwich?

Then again, did the sandwich have mayonnaise on it? Mayonnaise is gross.
 
 
dark horse
16:56 / 05.08.08
dude i hate to say it but he probably wanted the money for drugs. it's sad, but that;s why i don't give money to panhandlers a lot of the time...
 
 
The Idol Rich
09:07 / 06.08.08
Indeed. I once offered one a sandwich when he asked me for money. He said, "I don't want sandwiches, I want money," and walked off in a huff. I think it's fair to say he was a choosy beggar.

I think the saying (despite its wording) is intended to convey the idea that beggars ought not to be choosers. Some people might feel that refusing the sandwich showed a lack of gratitude unbecoming in someone who was asking for a gift.

dude i hate to say it but he probably wanted the money for drugs. it's sad, but that;s why i don't give money to panhandlers a lot of the time...

Well, if I give someone money then I feel that it’s their choice what they spend it on, if they want to spend it on drugs then I’m not going to tell them they can’t do that.
 
 
jentacular dreams
12:08 / 06.08.08
Or alcohol. Or rent for a hostel.

I do quite a lot of work with the homeless, and yes, they can be choosy beggars. But then so much of their life is out of their control, having the ability to make a few choices must seem quite important to them. If you get to know your regulars then you can often make goodish judgements on what their vice is, and whether food or money (or socks, they can't get enough socks) would be the best donation.
 
 
8===>Q: alyn
14:19 / 06.08.08
I never understood Billi Holiday when she said, "Mother may have, Father may have, but God bless the child that's got his own." I think I get the gist of the song, but none of the words in it make a lot of sense.
 
 
All Acting Regiment
14:07 / 07.08.08
After 12 hours of gangsta rap I could have knifed someone

By DOTUN ADEBAYO
Radio Five Live presenter

Published: 06 Aug 2008

BACK in the Sixties Diana Ross and The Supremes asked: “Where did our love go?”

Last Sunday I struggled to find it after subjecting myself to a diet of nothing but UK grime music for 12 hours solid.

It was half a day of the most violent lyrics — written by black men about the pain they wanted to inflict on other black men.

After listening to this hybrid of hip-hop and garage music, I wanted to kill someone.

I wouldn’t, of course, because I don’t have a violent nature.

But if I was an aggressive man the first person to step on my foot would probably have got shanked — knifed — as is happening on the streets.

If that’s how it affects a forty-something man like me, what is it doing to your children?

So 44 years after The Supremes asked, “Where did our love go?”, the same poser is hanging heavy over the pop industry.

Parents worry about the music their kids listen to, particularly the lyrics of rap and grime music.

Concern about violence good. Blaming music for it, assuming that there are 'violent' people who will be made to murder by music, no, no, no ...
 
 
The Idol Rich
15:09 / 07.08.08
Ha brilliant. I love the potted history of black music they helpfully include. Some might suggetst it's a slightly selective view choosing to represent our parents' music (soul, ska etc) as harmless and sweet until it all took a turn for the worse when that nasty hip-hop came along. I'm pretty sure that there were some violent songs with sexual content in the black canon before that though - for instance I always thought there was something a little odd about the lyrics to this song by Lord Kitchener (cited as a "good black musician" in the article) although I can't quite put my finger on it...

Dr Kitch
I am not a qualified physician
And I don’t want to give this injection
I am not a qualified physician
And I don’t want to give this injection
Dorothy is begging for trouble
She insist I should give her this needle
But, darling, one thing I want you know
Don’t blame me for where the needle go

I push it in
She pull it out
I push it back
She start to shout
“Dr Kitch, you’re terrible
I can’t stand the size of your needle”

She lied on in such a position
It was difficult to give this injection
She start holding on to the needle
Making me so uncomfortable
I said “Darling can’t you be steady
I’m going to have it done very shortly”
She said “Dr Kitch I am sorry
But the size of the needle frighten me”

I push it in
She pull it out
I push it back
She start to shout
“Dr Kitch, it’s terrible
I can’t stand the size of your needle”

She still wouldn’t lie down quietly
Constantly moving her body
So I slap her in the face with vexation
And I went on giving the injection
She screamed “Doctor stop! I can’t stand the pain!
I don’t think you’re inside the right vain”
I said “It’s your own fault you wouldn’t be told
The needle must be stick in the wrong hole”

I push it in
She pull it out
I push it back
She start to shout
“Dr Kitch, it’s terrible
I can’t stand the size of your needle”

I pull it from that hole and start again
I have the needle now in the right vain
The needle just gone in half a inch
The stupid young lady start to clinch
Suddenly she ???
Doc I can feel the penicillin going in
I said “You little fool what you do
You talk until the needle breaking you”

I push it in
She pull it out
I push it back
She start to shout
“Dr Kitch, it’s terrible
I can’t stand the size of your needle
 
 
Axolotl
16:07 / 07.08.08
And the way it completely ignores the fact that for pretty much every one of those musical genres it cites there was a concurrent media panic about their negative effects on the youth of the day.
 
 
Baroness von Lenska
03:07 / 09.08.08
Black/White World.

Oh man. This is a huge one for me. For entirely semantic reasons...
"The world isn't black and white; everything is shades of grey!"
Which are varying degrees of black and white. Grrrr.
 
  

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