How did they not score!?!

Catching up ... I have to say that for zombie killing, I'd think anything you can use from a distance would be best - gives you a second chance if you miss.

I wonder if Pete would be horrified by this plan?

Only when you set fire to the remains.

Have people been following the story of the South Carolina Senate race, with the mystery candidate? Everything I hear about it makes it more surreal.

yeah. Did you see the interview with the guy from CNN. It was so bad that at one point the interviewer said "Are you impaired in any way? This interview has not gone well, so I want to give you the opportunity to explain yourself"

This is just depressing

President Obama's speech on the gulf oil disaster may have gone over the heads of many in his audience, according to an analysis of the 18-minute talk released Wednesday.

Tuesday night's speech from the Oval Office of the White House was written to a 9.8 grade level, said Paul J.J. Payack, president of Global Language Monitor. The Austin, Texas-based company analyzes and catalogues trends in word usage and word choice and their impact on culture.

Though the president used slightly less than four sentences per paragraph, his 19.8 words per sentence "added some difficulty for his target audience," Payack said.

He singled out this sentence from Obama as unfortunate: "That is why just after the rig sank, I assembled a team of our nation's best scientists and engineers to tackle this challenge -- a team led by Dr. Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and our nation's secretary of energy."

10th grade, people. We're not even asking for a GED here! Come on!!!

Salon says that guy's a fraud:

[link]

School officials discourage children from having best friends.

That is all kinds of bananas.

a co-ed sleep-away camp in Phoenicia, N.Y., has started employing “friendship coaches” to work with campers to help every child become friends with everyone else.

I mean, what? And the only explanation is vague stuff about bullying which... surely there's some room between "don't actively try to make other people feel shitty" and "you must like (or pretend to like) everyone you encounter -- but you shouldn't like anyone too much! For the love of god, whatever you do, don't ever have strong feelings about anything!" It seems very Brave New World.

a co-ed sleep-away camp in Phoenicia, N.Y., has started employing “friendship coaches” to work with campers to help every child become friends with everyone else.

this is ridiculous and creates unrealistic expectations. You are not going to be friends with everyone, and telling children this makes them feel like they have failed when someone doesn't want to be their friend, or they don't want to be someone else's friend. The goal should be to make friends and be nice to everyone. A lot of people would be better served in this world if they accepted that not everyone wants to be their best friend; sometimes you have to accept someone just treating you with basic courtesy.

Yeah I have a good friend who hates it when she thinks people don't like her. And I just don't get it. Why would you want everyone to like you? Most people are shit! Their opinions are awful! If they like you there's something wrong with you probably!

Trying to make kids be friends with everyone else is ridiculous. When I was in junior high/high school, I was so glad to have ANYONE talk to me, and it mostly ended up being one person - if a teacher ever dared to try to tell us not to hang out, I would have killed her. Social groups and school is stressful enough with teachers trying to interfere and make everything "more fair".

You're never going to be friends with everyone. If schools feel the need to get all involved in this, they should make sure everyone is friends with SOMEONE.

And really? That sentence is supposed to be giving people problems? Goodness. I feel as though speaking at a 10th grade level should give absolutely no problems to anyone who is not actually below the 10th grade.

Yeah, I wonder how many of the people perpetuating this nonsense are in committed relationships and think that having one "special friend" of their own is problematic.