Month: November 2009
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Sexual Etymology: Fellatio and Cunnilingus
by Jason [Note: today’s words are from Etymonline.com and not Chambers, since Chambers didn’t have these words listed] Today’s words are the technical names for “blow job” (fellatio) and “eating out” (cunnilingus). Fellatio: 1887, from Latin fellatus, pp. of fellare “to suck,” from PIE base *dhe- (see fecund). The sexual partner performing fellatio is a fellator;…
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California Nude Beaches in the News
by Jason Stotts (Picture Source: Wikimedia-Commons) Apparently someone in the California Parks Department has decided that they’ve had enough with nude beaches and are trying to ban nudity on the beaches. This, of course, has the nudist and naturist organizations up in arms trying to prevent this from happening. The USA Today has an article…
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De-Motivational Posters
by Jason Stotts For those looking for some good holiday gifts for the person who has everything, or who just has a good sense of humor, check out Despair.com. They have a large selection of, by far, the funniest posters ever made. For example, Government: Or, the quintessential Objectivist poster: So, check out their site…
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Shermer on Rand
by Jason Stotts The latest op-ed out on Ayn Rand is now by Michael Shermer, Publisher of Skeptic Magazine. His understanding of Rand seems to be better than some of the others and you can tell that he has a personal affinity for Objectivism. Check it out: “The Real Rogue Warrior: Ayn Rand, not Sarah…
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Sexual Etymology: Penis and Vagina
by Jason Stotts In this week’s edition of Sexual Etymology, we’re going to look at the origins of the words “penis” and “vagina.” I think you might be somewhat surprised at what we find. Vagina: (n.) passage from the uterus to the vulva. 1682, New Latin, from Latin vagina (sheath, scabbard) perhaps cognate with Lithuanian vozti…
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Say Justice
by Jason Stotts In case you haven’t seen it yet, Craig Biddle of The Objective Standard has a really nice little essay up about “saying grace” at Thanksgiving dinner called: “Don’t Say Grace, Say Justice.“ One thing I’d like to point out to my more rational readers is that if your family still doesn’t know that…
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Can You Consent to Your Own Murder?
by Jason Stotts Now that we’ve had time for people to think about our last Aporia, let me give my own opinion on the matter. I think that Cogito is fundamentally correct to say that: “you can’t consent to your own murder, just like you can’t consent to your own rape.” This distinction is important,…
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Climategate?
by Jason Stotts The Telegraph (UK) is reporting that a hacker has broken into the computers at Hadley CRU and has taken confidential data that allegedly shows that the team at Hadley doctored the evidence in favor of anthropogenic global warming and tried to keep skeptics from publishing papers to the contrary. I can’t wait…