I've been thinking that how we learn concepts isn't as important as how we apply and make use of those concepts.

I used to be a gamer.  In combat gaming we have this concept of two types of damage - instant or "burst" damage and damage over time, which is not as concentrated but which is more sustainable.

I had a conversation with someone today about woolen overcoats.  "Why do you not like wool overcoats?" I asked.

"Well," she answered, "they aren't practical.  They aren't great for rain or snow, yet they generally are late autumn or winter clothing.  They do look good, but cleaning them is often a pain."

"Aha," I thought.  "They aren't sustainable."

Fun fact: tacking on too many descriptors makes you ridiculous, not awesome.

We have a word for that: incoherent.

This was pretty succinct:

Is the US having other countries detain US citizens?

Sadly, there's no lack of idiots who haven't grasped that what society stigmatizes isn't necessarily wrong.

In the same vein as My Girlfriend the President and Obama-kun to Hillary-chan, Japanese writers have produced yet another satirical take on Obama's political style.  It seems that the simplicity of "Yes We Can" presents an irresistible target.  From Sora no Otoshimono:

It ends with a deliberate parody of Obama, displaying him in the style of Nazi Germany.  The imposing, Fuhrer-esque face of Obama is plastered on walls, and passing citizens salute him and repeat the mantra, "Yes we can!"

This is 'No Russian' set to music.  It depicts, in graphic fashion, the slaughter of civilians at an airport by terrorists with automatic weapons.

Be warned that my disclaimer was made for entries like these.

Thanks to reallifedemo for pointing this video out.

It is worth noting that the successful man (Rivers Cuomo) is possessed of the confidence and poise that the others lack.

He succeeds because unlike others, he begins by deceiving the girl.  He is quick-witted and self-assured, which pleases her, even though his deception is easily seen through.  She responds to him as a fellow creature of illusion.  Notably, she doesn't even see the men left injured in her wake until he notices them.

The argument will be advanced, of course, that the men who injured themselves chasing after her took it upon themselves.  Perhaps, but it is irrelevant because either way, to her they are nonpersons, and that is portrayed as the important factor.

And yet this is love, is it not?  In the monogamous paradigm there can be only one victor.  Sympathy - or identification - with the losers is almost unheard of.  Hollywood gives us scores of examples of men abandoning society, abandoning their fellow man, in pursuit of happiness, as embodied by consummating a relationship.  Is Weezer challenging the paradigm, or merely challenging us to be aware of the mutilations it leaves in its wake?

"Their South Asian and white genetic backgrounds ... put their children in potential harm's way."

Sounds almost like something you'd expect to see on a white supremacist site, but it's actually from the LA Times.  Nor is this alone: it comes mere months after the Republican party website posted an image with the caption, "Miscegenation is a crime against American values," and after a Louisiana judge refused to issue a marriage license for an interracial couple, citing increased difficulty for such relationships.

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