Logophile's Daily Fix - Overdose

I know, I've once again been lax in my blogging in relation to these posts. Not to fear though, I'll be posting three words today to make up for Sunday and Monday. While I realize this may be somewhat of an overload, even compared to the last double dose, simply think of it as building up your tolerance for bigger doses. If you think this might be too much, you can always just read the first word and then wait a day to come back for the other two. Remember, only you can prevent overdoses.

The first word reminds me of reading pirate tales in my youth. Unfortunately, this grand word has faded from the common lexicon. Perhaps, someday, it will rise again from the ashes of R'lyeh[1]. Without further ado (not that there was much to begin with), that word of ancient epochs is skullduggery! It means:

1. dishonorable proceedings; mean dishonesty or trickery: bribery, graft, and other such skulduggery.
2. an instance of dishonest or deceitful behavior; trick.
Also, skullduggery, sculduggery, scullduggery.

[Origin: 1705–15, Americanism; var. of sculduddery, orig. Scots: fornication, obscenity?]

As you can see, it has many spellings, but my favorite has always been the version that contains a skull.

The next word, another gem long forgotten, is gimcrackery. It means:

1. cheap, showy, useless trifles, ornaments, trinkets, etc.
2. obvious or contrived effects, esp. in art, music, literature, etc.
[Origin: 1770–80; gimcrack + -ery]

Finally, I'll end this triple entry with another interesting word often unheard in conversation, gadabout:

1. a person who moves about restlessly or aimlessly, esp. from one social activity to another.
2. a person who travels often or to many different places, esp. for pleasure.
[Origin: 1810–20; n. use of v. phrase gad about]

Is it possible to use all of these interesting words in one sentence? Lol. It must be, but if you do I doubt anyone will understand you. For instance: Bob, after receiving a gimcrack degree due to the skullduggery of a traveling salesman, decided to become a gadabout, traveling around Europe. Now that didn't sound forced at all right?

Logophile's Daily Fix - Double Dose

I know, I know, I failed to post your daily dose yesterday. However, to make amends, I offer two words today. Try not to overdose.

I begin with a word that though is relatively unknown, is a figure of speech people often employ. The word is litotes, meaning:

–noun, plural -tes. Rhetoric.
understatement, esp. that in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary, as in “not bad at all.”
[Origin: 1650–60; NL Gk lītótés orig., plainness, simplicity, deriv. of lītós plain, small, meager]

The next word, when used in a litotes, describes me fairly accurately. I am not very laconic. The word means:

–adjective
using few words; expressing much in few words; concise: a laconic reply.
[Origin: 1580–90; L Lacōnicus Gk Lakōnikós Laconian, equiv. to Lákōn a Laconian + -ikos -ic]

I know I feel better. After all, this is no small dose. (Lol. That last litotes is horrible, I know.) If I do not throw up an additional post today, I'll see everyone tomorrow for their daily fix.

Construction Update

Well, I think I'm done tinkering with the blog's appearance for now. I'm happy with the new banner, but I'm not entirely thrilled with it. I love the drawing originally done by Simon Brisley of Conan, and wanted to include this "photoshopped" production of it as a dedication to what is probably my favorite fictional character. (I put "photoshopped" in quotations only because it does not seem to have officially entered into a dictionary, which I find surprising considering that it has been around for several years. The Wiki seems to suggest this may be due to the Adobe's resistance to the word being adopted for fear it may undermine their trademark.)

I chose the font I did because I felt it meshed well with the savagery of Conan's figure as depicted in the drawing. However, I realize it makes the word difficult to read. This is why I'm not entirely thrilled with the new banner. That, and I realize there is a lot of black space between the drawing and the title. I realize that banners can be too busy, but I just feel like there is something missing in that dark void. To paraphrase Nietzsche, I stare into the Abyss and it is staring mockingly back at me.

That stated, please let me know what you think of the new look. I'll probably be tinkering with it over the next month or so as I try to figure out what I want. One personal aspiration of mine is to get a scanner and start drawing my own artwork to use in the banners (I am a decent sketch artist and am hoping to learn to use Photoshop to color my work, though I tend to prefer the clean look of pen and ink or the subtlety of pencil).

Logophile's Daily Fix

As I believe I mentioned before, I am afflicted with a passion for words and could be properly labeled with that most horrible of aspersions, logophile. While I admit my own addiction, I am far from the road to recovery and have instead decided to feed my desires by starting this new series of posts. Each day I plan to pick a word that either appeals to me or that I had not previously known or that happens to suit my mood. I will also be willing to accept suggestions; however, please send them via email. Enough with the formalities, lets get to the good stuff.

Today's delicious dose is sesquipedalian, meaning:

ses·qui·pe·da·li·an /ˌsɛskwɪpɪˈdeɪliən, -ˈdeɪlyən/ [ses-kwi-pi-dey-lee-uhn, -deyl-yuhn]
–adjective
1. given to using long words.
2. (of a word) containing many syllables.
–noun
3. a sesquipedalian word.
[Origin: 1605–15; L sésquipedālis measuring a foot and a half]

Something told me this word was appropriate to start this series, partially because it has always been one of my favorites and partially because I have heard it used to describe me. (It was only ever used once though, by my brother - it is not exactly a common word.)

Hopefully that will satiate you till the morrow.

Undergoing construction . . . .

As anyone who has read this blog before can tell, I'm currently tampering with the appearance of the blog. I'm doing this for two reasons largely: first, as an attempt to rearrange the aesthetics of the blog into something more representative of my personal tastes; and two, to rekindle my own interest in blogging.

I have been meaning to post more often but have continually been postponing blogging for numerous reasons. However, I've decided that blogging is important enough to me that it merits setting aside a designated time for each day. I'm hoping that I can write a mixed batch of posts, some daily items that will hopefully go into effect either tomorrow or Friday, as well as some bi-weekly or weekly items. I'll probably just be messing around with aesthetics, formating, etc., for the rest of the day so there probably won't be anything of substance until tomorrow. Hopefully I'll see you then.

P.S. Oh, and the title is a reference to the days when Geocities was a popular host for personal websites and everyone who just starting their page would always post the "under construction" gif.




Update: I was wondering if anyone out there could help me figure out how to stretch an image to ensure it covered the entire length of the blog behind the title? Any help would be greatly appreciated (unfortunately that appreciation only extends to words of gratitude as opposed to any real action).

Update II: Construction will probably continue throughout the weekend, though I will attempt to occasionally post as I establish a usual routine for the blog.

Local yokels and 30 seconds of fame.

Just a short post, I read this tidbit in "30 Seconds" today:

Air America, the Democratic radio station, is going to begin airing an hour program a day on atheism. Apparently with Democrats "In God We Trust" is not your motto. And what's with the number one hypocrite in the country, Hillary Clinton, using 9-11 footage in her campaign ad? After all, it was this hypocrite that criticized George Bush for using 9-11 ads in his campaign. Certainly Hillary should use it. After all Bill Clinton was responsible. For the four and a half years while it was being thought out by bin Laden, Bill and Hillary did nothing to stop it. So, yeah, I guess Hillary is connected to 9-11 in a bigger way than you Democrats would like her to be. Thank you.
Bloomsburg man

Of course, I felt compelled to respond. Unfortunately, due to the 700 character limit for submissions, I was only only able to actually address the first part of the post. Here's my response:

10.16 Bloom man, simply because a radio station airs a program does not mean every democrat is an atheist, that’s a hasty generalization – a logical fallacy. “In God We Trust,” which became the motto in ’56 due to xenophobic McCarthyism, should be considered a violation of the Establishment clause and an insult to the Framers, who originally used the phrase, “E Pluribus Unum.” The ’56 phrase did not appear on money until after the Civil War. The patriotic stance is to support the Constitution and condemn the ’56 phrase. Were Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, and Madison alive today, they would not be viable candidates because of their religious beliefs.

The radio station, Air America, recently added Freethought Radio to their line-up. Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, from the Freedom From Religious Foundation (FFRF), created the show. This is the same organization that was involved in Hein v. FFRF. I applaud them for their tireless defense of the Establishment Clause as well as their efforts to spread accurate information about atheism to the public (we aren't baby-eating monsters, some of us aren't anyway).

Local Yokels and 30 seconds of fame.

Let me begin by apologizing for my long absence from the blog, unfortunately life has kept me particularly busy lately. However, I have not been completely absent from the blogosphere. I've been arguing with anthropogenic global warming "skeptics" over at The Volokh Conspiracy - Harry Eagar has proven to be particularly resistant to things like peer-reviewed articles, quotes from scientists he supposedly respects, and evidence in general.

I've also been responding to my favorite hometown forum, "30 Seconds." I have had a few more exchanges with Benton Renaissance man, Bob Runyon. I will probably publish these when I publish the third and hopefully final installment of "Runyon's expertise, does it know no bounds." I'm hoping to put that up later this week.

This installment of "Local yokels . . ." focuses on another area hero though, on one brave man not afraid to stand up to the overwhelming forces of the homosexual agenda by crying foul whenever there covert agents undermine morality and decency. Meet PanAmerican Man! I present, from the Sept. 29, 2007 ed. of The Press Enterprise, his initial broadside against the homosexual agenda:

According to a recent coulumn by Maggie Gallagher, a Methodist organization in New Jersy has lost its real estate tax exemption because it refuses to allow homosexual marriages on its property. This action is based upon the absurd idea that one's free choice of sexual behavior equates with racial discrimination. One's race is genetically determined, one's sexual behavior is not; i.e., celibacy and abstinance. It should be obvious that homofascists and their enlightened allies are working to secularize American society by undermining the separation of church and state and religious freedom. What next? Will Catholic and Orthodox churches be forced to ordain female lesbian priests?

PanAmerican man was attempting to discuss this case. I know, he seems to have left some material facts out of his version. Here's my response, posted several days later (though I unfortunately forgot what day it was actually printed):

9.29 PanAmerican man fails to tell the whole story while reciting his homophobic rant. The Methodist organization lost their tax exempt status for a property on the boardwalk that they held out to the public to rent for events, usually weddings. The church is not losing tax exempt status, only the pavilion. The organization retains the right to refuse to allow unions at their church, and they do not have to officiate the civil union. However, to see the inherit bigotry in the church’s position, simply replace lesbian with black and have the church use the same argument that some Christians used to defend slavery during the civil war. Sexual orientation, like race, is a biologically determined, immutable characteristic. Distorted half truths are as bad as outright lies.

In his response, published in Oct. 14, 2007 ed. of "30 Seconds," PanAmerican Man took umbrage with my argument that homosexuality was biologically determined and uses that infallible source of knowledge to rebut me, Francis Collins.

Atheotatus: Where do you get your information? According to Francis Collins, PhD, MD, MPH, head of the Human Genome Project, the heritability factor for homosexuality is only 20 percent. The heritability factor for race is 100 percent: that is, a male and female of the Caucasian race will have Caucasian children, not Black or Asian. Understand? Also, the term homophobia is deceptive. Emperical research shows that persons with anti-homosexual attitudes do not show the clinical signs of phobias in general, and rather than being dysfunctional, are highly functional individuals (Sexual Orientation: Science, Education, and Policy, under sexual prejudice). Does name-calling substitute for fact?

I know, he's got Francis Collins! What am I going to do? How do I ever respond? Well, I'll post the response I sent in today - this should be published in the next week or so:

PanAmerican: Collins' conclusion is based on one study, ignoring other studies. The majority of scientists conclude that sexual orientation is caused by prenatal factors, making biology determinative. I suggest perusing PubMed (Behavioral Neuroscience, vol. 121, issue 5 has a nice article)? While homophobes can be highly functional, the only study on topic shows that homophobes tend to have repressed homosexual tendencies. Simply think of Haggard, Allen, Craig, and DiFatta and remember Shakespeare, "[thou] doth protest too much, methinks." I called your rant "homophobic," not you. I notice you aren't addressing the facts of Methodist case.

This could probably do with a little explication. I'm sure everyone is curious about what specific study Collin's used and what studies he's ignored and what study I'm citing that argues that homophobes express repressed homosexual tendencies. However, I think I'll save the exploration of the relevant material for a longer, more detailed post on the current state of research into the biology of homosexuality (may be coming out either this weekend or sometime later?). I will post a few of the studies at the end though. However, I will note that the study Collins relies on was preceded by another study by the same researchers that found over a 50% rate of heritability. Well Collins is a scientist of some note, he continually fails to take into account all the relevant evidence when attempting to confirm his own faith-based beliefs.

Back to PanAmerican Man, he apparently felt it was necessary to write two "30 Second" entries to respond to me, and here is the second one which was published Oct. 15:

Atheotatous ("the most atheist one") recently stated that "sexual orientation, like race, is a biologically determined immutable characteristic," but fails to cite any study that identifies a specific homosexual gene. Can anyone cite any study that proves that any complex form of human behavior, e.g., sexual behavior, is genetically determined? Why is it that identical twins, with identical DNA, are not always of the same "sexual orientation"? Archives of Sexual Behavior, Oct. '03: "...the author (Robert Spitzer, M.D. and homosexual advocate) became convinced of the possibility of change in some gay men and lesbians." If some politically incorrect truths are inconvenient, too bad.

He knows what my name means! I'm so honored, he must have shown enough interest to Google the word! Here's the response I submitted:

PanAmerican: Plenty of studies are available on PubMed, but citing them in “30 Seconds” would eliminate space for comment. Human behavior is directly impacted by brain physiology. Remember the case of Phineas Gage or how chemical imbalances can lead to severe depression, etc. About twins, one should remember that identical genetic material does not lead to identical physiology. Fine details, such as fingerprints, can differ and some studies have used the number of finger ridges as a predictability factor of homosexuality. Also, there are some limitations to using twins to determine genetic factors due to the large number of uncontrolled variables. If some truths are politically or religiously inconvenient, that’s too bad.

I'll touch on Robert Spitzer in my future post on homosexuality; however, if you are eager you can see what the APA thought of his paper on changing sexual orientation at the Wiki.

Some articles of interest:

Adams, Henry E. & Lester W. Wright, Jr., Is homophobia associated with homosexual arousal?, 105 J. of Abnormal Psychol. 440 (1996).

Abrams, Michael, Born Gay?, 28 Discover 58 (2007).

Bodo, Cristian & Emilie F. Rissman, Androgen receptor is essential for sexual differentiation of responses to olfactory cues in mice, 25 European J. of Neuroscience 2182 (2007).

Sven Bocklandt et al., Extreme skewing of X chromosome inactivation in mothers of homosexual men, 118 Human Genetics 691 (2006)

Keller, Julia C., Straight Talk About the Gay Gene, 16 Science & Spirit 21 (2005).

Murphy, Timothy F., The search for the gay gene, 330 BMJ 1033 (2005).

Hershberger, Scott L. & Nancy L. Segal, The Cognitive, Behavioral, and Personality Profiles of a Male Monozygotic Triplet Set Discordant for Sexual Orientation, 33 Archives of Sexual Behavior 497 (2004).

Brian S. Mustanski et al., A genomewide scan of male sexual orientation, 116 Human Genetics 272 (2005).