Another person micturates on my rug

October 17, 2013 • 11:54 am

Note to newbies: do not do this (it’s an attempted comment):

Mcbart commented on Was Jesus made up by the Romans?  

Dr. Coyne, Perhaps you could like separate your anti-religion rants from the rest of your content. Maybe move them over to an ‘atheist angst’ section or something. I love your blog, but when I visit I gotta scroll thru all the shit to get to the good meat. I don’t know what the above post is about but it’s probably a good candidate for my proposed new section of your blog. You should consider my awesome suggestion. Anyway, I love the non-idealogical stuff. Keep on rockin’, professor! Take care.

Two roolz are being violated here.  First, “Mcbart” is impolite (“anti-religion rants” and “all the shit”).  Second, Professor Ceiling Cat does not take kindly to suggestions about how to run his website, which, by the way, he proffers for free. He doesn’t even get noms in return.

If you feel like Mcbart, either keep it to yourself or, better yet, by all means go to another site that has more “meat”. I don’t need the tsouris.

Not listening copy

107 thoughts on “Another person micturates on my rug”

  1. The religious should live with the fact that people will critise their beliefs, and if those people cannot provide proper rebuttals of these criticisms, I will see it as a sign that the citiques of religion are on the right track.

  2. Micturates! What a great word!

    ‘Anti-religious rants’ indeed. It is the lack of ranting on this site that makes it such a pleasure to visit. Your cool, precise reasoning is the opposite of ranting.

      1. Is that really the etymology of taking the Mick? (I thought it was some kind of slur against the Irish …)

  3. Personally, I read and enjoy all of the posts on your website, even the ones I don’t understand. Although, since becoming a regular reader, my “need to read” book list has gotten out of hand.

    2. Thank you for your most helpful suggestion, which will immediately to impel me to post only about evolution. (NOT!)

      I suggest you go elsewhere; there are plenty of websites that post only about evolution.

      And it’s not a blog.

      1. I am curious, if this is not a blog, what is it?

        Wikipedia: “A blog (a contraction of the words web log)[1] is a discussion or informational site published on the World Wide Web and consisting of discrete entries (“posts”) typically displayed in reverse chronological order (the most recent post appears first).”

        Oxford dictionary: “a personal website or web page on which an individual records opinions, links to other sites, etc. on a regular basis.”

        WEIT surely fits these definitions.

        When I lookup WordPress on Google, the entry for it says “Get a Free Blog Here”.

        Do you object to the term?

          2. There was no insult.

            “Not a blog” has deep history on the WEIT site.

            Disputing the matter is a sure sign of a new-comer.

          4. Skip, your questions about terminology are entirely understandable, and I understood gbjames’ response to you as an insult to you. I think some people spend too much time commenting on blogs and websites and they lose perspective on how to treat people and what is important to respond to.

          5. If that qualifies as insult, I don’t know what to say.

            The first rule of commenting on a web page (or blogs, for that matter) is to take some time to observe and learn the local customs before getting into arguments.

          10. gbjames – Admittedly, it wasn’t an insult akin to “Skip, you’re an idiot”. But rather than replying, “‘Not a blog’ has deep history on the WEIT site,” I get mocked.

            But I do appreciate the lesson.

          11. It is about comment etiquette, Skip.

            Copy/pasting definitions from Wikipedia and the Oxford dictionary in argument with the host of a web site (or a blog if you happen to be on one) that you are a newcomer-to is a violation of basic netiquette, for reasons already mentioned.

            To follow up such a faux pas with complaints of having been insulted is passing strange.

          1. That’s why I asked if the owner had some objection to the term “blog”. I think the vast majority of people who use the Internet would recognize WEIT as being a type of webpage known as a “blog” and I am simply curious as to what Prof. Coyne calls if not that.

          2. I believe that Prof. Coyne, eschewing obfuscation, refers to his web site as a web site.

          3. Why is it obfuscation to recognize that there are various types of websites? My bank’s website is very different from my blog. They’re both websites but organized very different with different purposes.

          5. Jerry just hates the word, no doubt one of the ugliest in the English language, and therefor refuses to own such a thing as a bl*g.

          7. I actually admire Jerry’s tenacity with words he hates. I never liked the word blog or tweet but I just give and use them. There needs to be a forbidden words list with the roolz. 😉

        3. For the love of god, do not start with this. Or end with it either.

          It’s whatever the host wants to call it, even when he is stubbornly wr*ng.

          Gives you something to file your nails against.

          1. I was thinking similar thoughts, it’s like dealing with those “why is the sky blue” type of questions.

          3. Yes? Yes? If it’s something other than that’s the color god wanted it to be, you’re just entirely in the wrong place.

        4. Important suggestion: Do not argue with the proprietor of this website about the way he runs it.

          The best blogs (and websites!) don’t continually focus on just one topic. Here on WEIT, we enjoy postings by JAC on wildlife, cats, food, squirrels, evolution, atheism and religion, and life in Poland, among others.

          Just so, the excellent blog “Spike Japan” (sadly, no longer maintained but still online) discusses Japanese topics: national finances; demographics; abandoned railways; decaying towns, schools, and amusement parks; and rust.

          The blog Joe.My.God. discusses marriage equality issues, general gay issues, pop music, life in NYC, the follies of the right wing, etc.

          As Chairman Mao said, let the hundred flowers bloom.

        5. Gosh, this subthread took a nasty turn.

          It is an inside joke. A joke. More or less.

          Dr. C does in fact find the term “blog” ugly, but it is with tongue in cheek that he insists this isn’t one.

          (Or so I gather. I await gentle correction if it is needed.)

          1. I always feel a little naughty when I open up this web page on my iPad, because it is listed under my blog favourites. 🙂

      1. He’s obviously speaking his first name with his indoor voice and then SHOUTING his last name. Why he’s doing that, I can’t say.

  7. It amazes me how rude and crude some people can act. To come into your house and say the curtains and rugs are terrible displays little sensitivity or courtesy. McBart should contemplate his actions when he goes home tonight to his trailer or mother’s basement.

    1. They are super cute, almost to the point of undermining the post since my mind went blank beyond thinking “awwwww kittens” and trying to decide which was the most cute.

  10. Evidently, Mcbart doesn’t see the connection between WEIT and anti-religion. Also, he called it a blog.

  12. WEIT is one of my most favorite sites, if I could only have, say, 5, you would be top of the list. Along with Informed Content. You are preaching to the choir here when it comes to religion, evolution and all – but this choir is given hope by WEIT that maybe reason will prevail someday. And the photos! The insects! The animals! The science! The CATS! I am a dog person but think cats wondrous, too.
    Thank you, Mr Coyne – and keep up the smack-downs of your idiot critics.

    1. Just as a matter of interest, do cats ever listen? Mine have always been keen to demonstrate that they never listen to a word I say.

  14. Dr Coyne, maybe I missed the latest roolz.
    Are all profanities forbidden or only when they are directed at someone?
    Sometimes they seem to be the only apt way to expresss one’s feelings.

    1. “profamity … only way to express one’s feelings”

      Please read Mark Twain’s suggestions. I’m sure they can be found online.

      Also, any time Dr. Coyne is in northwestern Nevada, free noms will be offered.

  15. “unconditional acceptance”

    Sorry. I can’t get behind that idea. I can not accept a very large number of things, including “getting behind” the alleged words of mythological beings simply on the basis of poorly written books.

      1. I hope you don’t mind, but I will respond in spite of your request to ignore the post. By “unconditional acceptance,” I mean accepting you as a person, with your basic worth and integrity intact. I may accept your beliefs, values, feelings, etc., but that doesn’t mean I have to necessarily agree with them.
        This seems to say much the same thing:
        “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
        Aristotle

        By the same token, we should, by following the principle of unconditional acceptance, accept Jerry’s website, blog, or whatever without getting hung up on the name or without trying to confine him to what we believe he should talk about.

  16. I’m trying to understand your viewpoint. However sometimes I think you too sensitive. I’d like to say “Chill, Dude,” but I fear it may be interpreted as rude.

    1. Depends on what boots you’re wearing. No, really.

      Also, I’m pretty sure if you’re wearing a sailor hat with your Jockeys, you can get away with almost anything. But I could be wrong. I almost always am.

    2. You don’t understand why calling a significant percentage of Jerry’s posts “shit” might be considered offensive?

    3. Whenever it’s directed at another person or perhaps Jerry’s book or something similar (e.g. the content of this bl– …, er, website).

      If you said, for example, “I can’t play golf for shit,” I think he would be OK with that — you are criticizing yourself. But I’m sure you could think of an even better way to say the same thing without using profantiy.

  17. What does “unconditional acceptance, service and compassion” even mean ?

    And why would you think these values are good ?

    And speaking of the values of Jesus, how about Matthew 10:21 And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.

    Or 10:35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

    Or 10:37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

    Or Mark 7:10 For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death

    Or Mark 5:13 He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.

    Or Mark 11:12 The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. 14 Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.

    I think we can do quite well without the “values” of Jesus.

    1. Not that simple. There’s always context to consider, just as we need to point out context with creationists distort Darwin and evolution. Cherry picking verses that “prove” a point serve little purpose without placing them within a larger context. Again, I would suggest Ehrman and Crossan to provide a larger context of what Jesus was all about.

      Also, I was a bit bewildered by your comment about “unconditional acceptance and compassion.” Do you see these as negative or harmful values? As merely neutral? Help me out here if you would.

    2. Ashamed as I am to admit it, I tend to skip the cat-oriented posts. I almost missed this one because I assumed the topic would be feline micturation at first.

    3. Amen.

      Cats & Videos & music I skip. I don’t get the problem. What I want to read, I read. The rest I’m ignoring.

      1. Music, boots, noms, cats (except like the deadly cute here!) I skipped.

        Still this -website- provides one of the best readings on evolution and atheist viewpoint (better than PZ’s).

      2. Thank you for telling me what you don’t like. When you go over to your parent’s house at Thanksgiving, do you tell her which courses you’re going to skip because you don’t like them? Or do you judiciously keep silent in the cause of politeness?

        1. I like everything. I read every post. WEIT is my favorite click. Please keep up the great work! 🙂

    1. Speaking entirely personally, I think it’s a very good thing when the resources of the English vocabulary are exploited to good effect. To say “micturate” instead of “urinate” is good, to say it instead of “piss” is even better.

      1. The hell you say.

        Micturate has something to do with peeing?

        I thought it was about chewing.

        Yes. It’s another expensive English Education degree down the drain. Please don’t tell anyone.

        1. You’re thinking of masticate, but I’m sure you knew that. I once heard that the British phrase “taking the mickey” was based on a shortening of micturate (as in “taking the piss”) but it may be apocryphal.

          2. Yes, masticate.

            Oh, Martha Stewart once told her studio audience to macerate (pronunced mass-er-ate) their fruits, and they all cracked up… they thought she had said something else.

          3. A judge supposedly once told the defendant to stop masticating on which the defendant hurriedly pulled his hands out of his trouser pockets…

    1. Your name puts me in mind of Jim Thompson.
      Who is that, you may say.
      For those who have never heard of him, he was an American serving in Thailand in WW2.
      He went back after the war and got their silk industry going again.
      He disappeared is the jungle one day and was never seen again.
      In Bangkok, there is Jim Thompsons house, which is a popular tourist attraction.
      When I went, on the corner of the street was a tuk tuk driver who told us it was closed.
      This is a common scam in Thailand.
      We knew of the scam but decided to play along, and started wailing and gnashing teeth about how sad we were it was closed.
      The driver looked at us as if we were crazy (very true).
      If you like noms Dr Coyne, Thailand is noms heaven.
      I am going again next Friday and have a long list of street food places to go to.
      Also going to a wedding which should be interesting.

  22. He’s no loss.

    Anytime you’re in Melbourne (Australia not Florida) I’d be honoured to take you out for dinner Jerry. It’s the least I can do after all your years of service to reality, and all the pleasure I’ve had from your website. Melbourne has some of the best food in the world (no exaggeration) and I’d love nothing more than to share it with you. It’s a long way to come for dinner though, so if there’s going to be another Global Atheist Convention maybe you might like to attend.

      1. The link told me nothing about a what is a burek, so I googled. Halfway through reading the recipe, I had to let my belt out a notch or two. I’d eat burek.

        1. Yeah, the link was to Three Brothers, a unique an superlative, old time, rustic, and wonderful little place in Bay View (a neighborhood in Milwaukee). They have many excellent dishes. Since I’m vegetarian I have the cheese or spinach burek. One will fill two people. And my meat eating friends have many more choices that they tell me are great. And I believe them.

          Speaking of dishes. The dishes (plates) are a hodgepodge of old stuff. Few of them are like others. One of the atmospheric things I love about the place.

          Cash or check only. No credit cards taken.

      2. Well, Albuquerque is only 10,000 miles south of Chicago.

        Can’t recommend the food so much (oy, I’m transplanted here from Los Angeles. Please, Albuquerque natives, don’t kill me) but I make the world’s most proper Martini, and I’m an expert in cactus.

        Why is this not the best dinner appropriate resume?

    2. Well, I live just south of the Queensland border so I’m closer.
      Not that the difference is much compared to the total distance from Chicago.

  24. I would like to remind Prof Ceiling Cat that there is a box of Weetabix waiting for him with the Oxford Univeristy Atheists, Secularists, and Humanists Society (OxASH). He merely has to come talk to us 🙂

    2. I have sad news for you: Canadian-made Weetabix is available in the US. I’ve seen it at Trader Joe’s in California.

      However, I remember when the Weetabix sold in Canada ceased being an import from the UK and changed to domestic manufacture. The taste changed, and not for the better; my guess is that the Canadian version doesn’t have enough malt in it. So a box of the Real Thing does have merit as a reward.

      Still, it’s just about the old cold cereal that approximates “whole grain”, and it has very little sugar in it. I eat it often.

  25. Some people’s entitlement is breathtaking! Anyway, I have now gathered ‘tsouris’ to my collection – thank you!

  27. I physically cringe when I read these suggestions then follow it with a very audible, “oh noes”. 🙂

  28. Has the whole world gone crazy? Am I the only one around here who gives a shit about the rules? Mark it zero!

  29. Perhaps we could have a litter tray at the entrance to the website?! 🙂 Cats are pretty careful about where they micturate it seems to me – unlike people.

  31. Happy to see some fellow Aussies here. If there’s ever a meet-up, I’d appreciate being invited. That’s all I wanted to say. Oh, and I loved the kittens.

    PM

    In Heidelberg Heights,
    Melbourne, Australia

  32. I’m with you. Its your site, run it the way you want. Dissenters can make their own sites. The amount of time you must spend on this site, based on the quality of the material, amazes me. I couldn’t imagine doing my job and doing what you do on this site, even if I had time to work on during the work day. I’ve seen very late posts and posts too early to fathom. When do you sleep?

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