Sarah Et Cetera

You didn’t think The Beast was funny? French Minister of the Internet my ass? Well. I thought it was hilarious and you all are a bunch of philistines. You all are a bunch of savages from Chile.

Here. Read these articles, savages:

• A long ass article called In Defense of Teasing.
  

  The centrality of teasing in our social evolution is suggested by just how pervasive teasing is in the animal world. Younger monkeys pull the tails of older monkeys. African hunting dogs jump all over one another, much like pad-slapping, joking football players moments before kickoff. In every corner of the world, human adults play peekaboo games to stir a sulking child, children (as early as age 1) mimic nearby adults and teenagers prod one another to gauge romantic interest. In rejecting teasing, we may be losing something vital and necessary to our identity as the most playful of species.

  It’s well written, thought provoking piece. I suffered my fair share of teasing. Fat kid and all that and I still remember very clearly the first time someone ever really, publicly made fun of me for being fat (Brian Sheaky, first grade, noon recess in the snow, and I suspect it was because I was kicking his ass at dodgeball). And it taught me good life skills. It taught me some bad ones, too. I’ve talked about my ability to completely dehumanize people who use certain insults. I’m not proud of that. But all in all, I think teasing teaches critical thinking and probably does a lot more for self-esteem than telling everybody they’re the specialest of snowflakes all the time.

• The 10 Worst [Global] Warming Predictions, from Australia. Turns out that there’s data coming in and it doesn’t exactly match up with what the Goracle and AGP alarmists promised. In fact, much of the time, it’s the opposite. We’ll be hotter? It’s actually colder. Seas will rise? They’re not. Ice will melt away? Thicker than it has been in years. More and more folk are starting to suspect that the actual sun might have some effect on the climate. I know, right? People are starting to refer to Global Warming as a religion and I think they’re onto something. Having seen An Inconvenient Truth live and in person, I’ve got to say it was rhetorically indistinguishable from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.
• Just in time for Christmas: How to Eat a Burrito.