Bio

I blog about science fiction, choral music, and the (occasional) intersection between the two at fredosphere.com. Go there for samples of my music, or buy my songs (including "They're Made Out of Meat" and "Earth Girl") by searching iTunes, Amazon.com, et al. for the keyword "fredosphere" (funny how that works), or by following this link.

I enjoy hearing from Ricochet members anytime; contact me via fred...at...fredosphere...döt...com.


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Fredösphere's Profile

Fredösphere
Name:
Fredösphere
Hometown:
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Joined:
May 24, 2010

Recent Comments

Fredösphere

I wish Lennon had considered all the strife and frustration, the murder, subjugation and suicide, caused by sex in the world, and then written another verse:

Imagine there's no bollocks. . . .

It would be perfectly in keeping with the message of the rest of the song, but somehow I don't see that verse being quite as popular with Lennon's target audience.

Fredösphere

James Of England

Fredösphere: [. . .] Based just on the quotes you show here, the Gov sounds like one of those pathetic inside-the-bubble Republicans for whom the true passion is reserved for denouncing their friends on the right. If that impression is unfair, I'd be delighted to be corrected. Until that happens,I invite everyone here on Ricochet to join me as I spew her out of my mouth.·

She ran on a restrictionist platform in New Mexico. And won. And implemented restrictionism. As a Latina. You simply can't do that if you're interested in avoiding the hate of La Raza. She won't be VP, but she deserves our wholehearted support, not our vomit. · 1 hour ago

In that case, the blame lies with how her quotes were selected to create a wrong impression--something I anticipated when I wrote "Based just on the quotes you show here [. . .]". Stirring up division within the Right is a favorite MSM mischief-making pastime.

Fredösphere
Indaba: She is correct about the main talking points of Republicans being unappealing. That is because Usually these talking points are given in a style that speaks to male brains. The same message needs to be given in a personal story to resonate and stick with women. E.g. "Balancing your home budget and you want the red bicycle and the party dress for your daughter as well as the guitar lessons for your son? There is not enough money so you have to budget. What would happen if you gave your children all of these, but did not budget?" etc. [snip] · 5 minutes ago

Yes . . . but be careful how you phrase it or we'll be right back into "women don't care about throw-weights" territory and your noble efforts will backfire.

Edited on May 15 at 7:07pm
Fredösphere

DrewInWisconsin: 

I hope that after Obama is gone, the incoming White House staff (or whoever manages the website) will remove this politicization of these presidential biographies. · 6 hours ago

I'm sure they'll get right on it . . . as soon as they round up a bunch of "r" keys to get their vandalized computer keyboards back into working order.

Edited on May 15 at 7:08pm
Fredösphere

I would be very sympathetic to the Gov's point of view . . . if there weren't a little thing called "context." The fact is that the Left has it's own very highly developed list of shibboleths, and anyone talking about immigration who doesn't mention that fact, and its role in creating deadlock, is, frankly, a political hack.

There is no other issue, except maybe debt reduction, where the GOP has been so routinely sucker-punched by the bad faith of the other side. Based just on the quotes you show here, the Gov sounds like one of those pathetic inside-the-bubble Republicans for whom the true passion is reserved for denouncing their friends on the right. If that impression is unfair, I'd be delighted to be corrected. Until that happens, I invite everyone here on Ricochet to join me as I spew her out of my mouth.

Edited on May 15 at 5:53pm
Fredösphere

dittoheadadt

'nuff said. · 1 minute ago

Oh . . . my . . . goodness!

Fredösphere

Obama is nuts--or at least, his followers are. We saw it first (first I noticed, anyway) in that insanely embarrassing Great Seal of the Office of the President-Elect that showed up on his podium after the 2008 election. Obviously, the Obama campaign had in it a whole army of graphic designers (and managers) with way too much time on their hands and way too little sense of proportion.

The voters have noticed Obama's feet of clay, but there are true believers within the campaign who still believe the man has world-historical significance. For them, he is The God Who Has Not Yet Failed and watching their missteps is going to be very entertaining.

Fredösphere

Mine is a reference to the term noösphere, promoted by the Jesuit philosopher/nutcase Teilhard de Chardin, who postulated a future where technology would implement Christian escatology. I.e., the internet would be the Second Coming of Christ. This was all spelled out decades ago (although naturally he didn't know about the internet specifically), so as a futurist, he's admired in spite of his blending of science and religion. The term blogosphere is a reference to that as well, but I liked the umlaut (more precisely, the diacritic) so much, I retained it even though it isn't justified in my case.

Fredösphere

Milan, Michigan!? I live in that school district.

I'm amazed that I'm hearing about this only now, via Ricochet.

If they build a fortified wall and draw up articles of secession, I'll let you know.

Fredösphere

For what it's worth, every time James said S E X in his Grandpa Simpson voice, I saw the word in my mind's eye in the Wood font:

image
Fredösphere
John Murdoch: The Asian carp really is an environmental threat--and an economic threat to the recreational fishing industry. I don't know anything about Michigan politics--but here in Pennsylvania, the fishing and sportsmens clubs wield an enormous amount of political power.  · 13 minutes ago

To be clear, I do think this is a legit issue . . . but I found it funny that a US senator with her seniority spends so much of her twitter feed bragging about killing fish.

Fredösphere

A year ago I found myself talking to an elderly man who had escaped from communist Hungary (or was it Romania?) thanks to a relative who had connections in the underground pentecostal movement.

Of course, I asked him what surprised him the most about living in the U.S. The man, who made his living on both sides of the Iron Curtain as a machinist, had an immediate answer. He was amazed that work in the U.S. did not involve oversight by an army of managers, inspectors, and bureaucrats. He asked his new boss how they would make sure that his work was correct, and the boss cheerfully told him that, if he screwed up too many times, they would just fire him.

Simple, straightforward accountability: a thing of beauty.

Fredösphere

And then, there's Buttprints.

Fredösphere

Jonah is very, very lucky to be talking to Piers Morgan. Think how much worse the interview would have gone if someone who wasn't an unbiased centrist was interviewing him.

Fredösphere

Mendel

Joseph Eagar:   I'm surprised she's taking our side on this issue.

Is Huffington really on "our side" on this?

It seems to me that had a hypothetical President McCain snuffed bin Laden, conservatives would be fine if he boasted about it in a campaign ad.

I think it is Obama who is closer to "our side" in this case, and Huffington is playing the stereotypically liberal "no one should ever have to die" role. · 44 minutes ago

Right, I'd attribute this to the left-wing uneasiness with anything having to do with dying and making people sad and big loud kerplooey noises and stuff.

Fredösphere

The Nazis had style, and they didn't mind playing the role of villain. Black leather and skulls fit the part much better than Mao suits.

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