In This Week’s Show, episode 221, Dunning wipes up the Schmit’s with Islam rolled papers and Kruger’s dog shits in Japan’s headphones.

Now, grab a beer and help us test the god hypothesis — because, while Attar (the Arabian god of war and antelopes) hasn’t struck us down yet, we are trying his

patience!

Shea’s Life Lesson

This week I learned that after all this time the Titanic’s pools are still filled.

Jenn’s Actual Lesson

Did you know that pronghorns are neither antelopes nor deer? It is the sole surviving member of an ancient family dating back 20 million years. The pronghorn is the only animal in the world with branched horns (not antlers) and the only animal in the world to shed its horns, as if they were antlers.

But before we get to all that, let’s have a beer!

This Week’s Beer

Beer – Pineapple Mana from Maui Brewing Co.

Donated by: Steve-E

BA Link: http://bit.ly/2BLXHcC

BA Rating: 3.54

Style: American Pale Wheat Ale

ABV: 5.5

Aaron: 6

Jenn: 4

Shea: 9

Steve: 7

This Week’s Show

Round Table Discussion

New patron fatgirlballet!

Thanks to Dave for getting the Hemingway trout recipe to us. It involves bacon, but sadly no whiskey or shotguns.

Fresh cleaned trout (I cut the heads off, I hate to have my food stare back at me)

Season with salt and pepper inside and out

Roll the outside in cornmeal

Wrap the seasoned and cornmealled trout with 2 or 3 strips (rashers if you are Canadian)

Fry in a bit of bacon fat until the bacon is cooked.

Thin strips of bacon works best if you like your bacon more crispy than chewy.

If you try it please let me know what you think.

Also, Dave has been to Gillette Wy., and yes, Gillette is where dreams go to die.

Headlines

Shocking new info-NOT!

“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wise people so full of doubts.” – Bertrand Russell

The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias where people believe that they are smarter and more capable than they actually are, meaning that some low skill people lack the ability to recognize their own incompetence leading them to overestimate their own capabilities. This often leads to what I call, “talking out of your ass.”

The reason I’m going on about this is a recent study in the journal Nature which found that extreme opponents of genetically modified food know the least about genetic engineering, but think they know the most. The lead author of the study, Phil Fernbach, said, “Extreme views often stem from people feeling they understand complex topics better than they do.” Fernbach said that the results, while “perverse,” are “consistent with previous research on the psychology of extremism.”

In the study, they asked participants how much they oppose genetic modification of food, and over 90% of the people had some level of opposition. They were then asked to rate their knowledge of genetic modification via a short test of true-false questions, the results of which led the study’s authors to say, “As extremity of opposition to GM foods increased, objective knowledge of science and genetics decreased, but self-assessed knowledge increased. They went on to say: Those with the strongest anti-consensus views are the most in need of education, but also the least likely to be receptive to learning; overconfidence about one’s knowledge is associated with decreased openness to new information.” His team’s findings held across education levels, and for people on both sides of the political aisle.

Just for the record, the World Health Organization said, “GM foods currently available on the international market have passed safety assessments and are not likely to present risks for human health. In addition, no effects on human health have been shown as a result of the consumption of such foods by general population in the countries where they have been approved.”

http://bit.ly/2WxIW73

http://bit.ly/2RxnQ50

The dog days are numbered

Recently an employee of B.W.Y Canine in Pembrokeshire, Wales, has had to move regions as a large bounty has been brought down on his head. Scamp, a springer spaniel, is wanted by a criminal gang because of his superior snout. Stuart Phillips, Scamps owner, runs B.W.Y Canine where his company trains elite “K9” sniffer dogs to root out everything from drugs to human bodies.

“We had to stop working in one part of the country last year, because there was a £25,000 bounty put on his head,” Phillips said in a statement. “It was believed to be linked to an organized crime group and the relevant authorities were informed.” He added he has experienced death threats and vandalism to his vehicle. it is believed that Scamp has found some six million pounds worth of tobacco products, that’s close to 8 million dollars in real money.

“The public are not fully aware of what illegal tobacco is linked to,” he added. “They are not just buying cheap cigarettes and cheap hand rolling tobacco. It has knock on effects with other criminality. Illegal tobacco is linked to drugs, to firearms, it’s linked to people trafficking and child sexual exploitation.” http://bit.ly/2WyfUUT

Dum Dums Offended

Offended by our patron’s greatness! If you wanna be great, visit http://patreon.com/w4w now and you’ll hear what we have to say about holy three-ply!

Great Britain’s M&S Stores (Marks and Spencer) have been selling a three-ply toilet paper that’s infused with Aloe Vera for several years now. While Aloe Vera doesn’t pass scientific muster as as a medicine, it is often used to soothe the skin, so putting it in butt paper seems a reasonable thing to do. The reason I’m talking about it now, is that recently a muslim man posted a video on youtube where he shows this kind of pricy shit wipe ($3.30 per 4-roll package) has what he says is the name Allah (in arabic) imprinted on all of the sheets. As a result, he implores muslims to not buy the product and even boycott the whole retail chain.

As usual, this is stupid religious pseudo-persecution. What the bum-cleaner actually has imprinted on the sheets are a depiction of aloe vera leaves. Nobody at M&S is actually using this particular anus scrub to denigrate the muslim religion, though shit like this shows it is ripe for just that. This reminds me of the bullshit satanic panic in the 80’s where the Proctor and Gamble logo of the man on the moon was said to be a satanic symbol and there was much gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair with calls for boycotts of the company’s products. I remember my parents getting into that horseshit but thinking it was silly.

If one really wants to wipe their nethers with some music roll that’s made to be offensive, there are a plenty of options. I have a roll of Trump toity paper at home, and there is paper available that is actually printed with a depiction of Mohammed saying, “My SHIT be upon him!” that one can buy.

http://bit.ly/2WAJtoX

This Week’s Stories

Japan’s Shitty Bill

I’m going to drop with some of the humor and character this week for my second half, sorry in advance. I’m sure we’ll find a joke or two in this somewhere…

You wouldn’t have to be a long time listener to know that I’ve got a bit of a thing for Japan. Like, I suspect, a big chunk of my generation I grew up on and still very much enjoy anime, video games, manga, ramen (the good kind mind you), sushi, ninja battles, Godzilla, even weird blurry porn – see there’s one of those jokes!

But really, I think when most people think about Japan they have generally progressive thoughts: universal healthcare that includes sex-reassignment surgeries, environmentally friendly policies – except for whales and dolphins, fuck them apparently, high-tech trains, low crime rates, high standards for education and work ethic, stoic resilience in the face of tremendous adversity, and yeah – fucking weird sex stuff. It’s that last one I think that played a bit of a roll in my shock to learn about Japan’s very not progressive LGBTQ+ policies and attitudes.

One of the pod-groups I’m in showed up on my feed this week with a story about Japan’s supreme court ruling this week on some trans issues. A few listeners will likely have read my bewildered, rage-dump, reaction. Fair warning, I’m gonna reuse some of those jokes and points.

Takakito Usui (I really hope I’ve pronounced his name correctly, I promise I tried ~Aaron), a trans man, sued the government in 2004 for the right to update his gender identity without having undergone bottom surgery, a requirement of Law 111 of 2003. He lost. The four-judge panel unanimously agreed that the law was constitutional.

“The essential thing should not be whether you have had an operation or not, but how you want to live as an individual,” Usui said.

So what does one need to do to have one’s gender officially recognized?

There are five answers.

1. Be single. Because fuck you, that’s why.

2. Be childless, or all your children need to be over 20. Because won’t someone please think of them.

3. Have had bottom reassignment surgery. Because sex, gender, and genitalia are the holy trinity of willful ignorance. The law specifically says a person needs to be “endowed with genitalia that closely resembles the physical form of an alternative gender.”

undergo a psychiatric evaluation to receive a diagnosis of “Gender Identity Disorder” (GID) And finally, be sterilized.

So, even amount a list of shitty, bigotry driven horseshit, that last one stands out eh.

The court ruled that the government had a vested interest in limiting societal “confusion” and “abrupt changes.” They stressed that sterilization is the purpose of the law, since there may be “problems” in parent-child relationships if transgender people could have children. The law requires applicants to “permanently lack functioning gonads” before they can be legally recognized, which amounts to forced sterilization.

The first point seems to be “we’re confused by people we see” which has nothing to do with having kids and, medically speaking, is none of anyone else’s fucking business.

As for “abrupt” changes, wouldn’t most life changes fall into that category?

A marriage, buying a house or car, adopting a child or pet, or signing up for a cell phone, are abrupt in that they’re all done with the stroke of a pen, not prolonged ceremonies, testing, etc.

One doesn’t “dip a toe” into buying a house or getting married. “I only want to buy the bathroom, just to see how it feels. I’m gradually buying this house.” “My wife’s left hand – which I’ve wed to ease the transition into full-fledged marriage – and I would like to adopt a child’s haircut, you know, to make sure we don’t confuse anyone by suddenly having an entire child.”

Death is abrupt and so far as I can tell it’s still legal to die in Japan… for example, by suicide because your government is systematically dehumanizing you and violating your bodily autonomy…

Point two is essentially an old gay-parents stereotype a la “who’s the ‘real’ dad,” to which the answer is “both of them, fuck off!” Are we really worried about a kid pluralizing “dad” or “mom” wrecking them for life? Also, parents like most humans, typically have names their kids could use if all else fails… ?

And the final point seems to be “unless your kids are old enough to move out, the aforementioned pronoun/name confusion will be over 9000!”

This is terrible, shitty, enraging, bigoted horseshit and I have to admit I’m surprised it’s coming from Japan and not Kentucky.

In 2013, the UN special rapporteur on torture noted that transgender people being “required to undergo often unwanted sterilization surgeries as a prerequisite to enjoy legal recognition of their preferred gender” was a human rights violation. According to a survey by the Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology, the number of GID patients who have had treatment at medical institutions in the country totaled 22,435 by the end of 2015.

Next Week’s Beer

Beer – Half Pipe Sour Pale Ale by Tallgrass Brewing Co.

Donated By: Steve E for Shea

UT Link: http://bit.ly/2Wr03r0

UnTapped Rating: 3.57

Style: Sour Pale Ale

ABV: 5%

Faith In Humanity Restored

Because we are still in the worst timeline, let’s make this a 2fer!

It appears the government workers have a least a temporary reprieve from the world’s biggest temper tantrum. But, as usual, terrible events often bring out the best in decent people. Here are a couple of my favorite ‘let’s get together and help out our fellow man’ stories from this past week.

http://bit.ly/2RrTMH

There is a small island off the coast of Savannah called Tybee, which shares the same county as the city itself, Chatham County. There are 6 Coast Guard units stationed throughout the entire county and, as with the rest of the military branches in our country, they have been without pay since the end of last year.

Well, the kind people of Tybee Island (population 3,127 as of 2018) have raised over $20,000 in gift cards for the unpaid workers. So far, residents have donated gift cards to stores like Walmart, Kroger, Publix and anywhere these furloughed USCG service members can buy gas and food.

http://bit.ly/2WsH5At

Still in the south and still a sweet story, let’s move slightly north to Knoxville, TN and Yassin’s Falafel House, a restaurant voted last year as ‘The Nicest Place in America’. It also happens to be owned and operated by refugees.

Yassin Terou, a Syrian refugee, has owned and operated the restaurant for 5yrs. A quick story demonstrating how amazing Yassin is: Just before Christmas in 2017 the city of Knoxville was holding a rally and vigil called “welcome the stranger” a Christian call to treat friends, neighbors, strangers and even enemies with love and compassion. No surprise, as this is American and Tennessee, man in the crowd draped in an American flag was yelling at anyone who would listen that immigrants were preventing him from getting a job. When it was Terou’s turn to speak at the rally, he invited the man up on stage so they could hold the flag high together. When the man refused, Terou went into the crowd to find him so he could introduce himself and offer to buy him dinner so they could talk. He also offered the man a job.

“I always do that,” Terou told Reader’s Digest, “I always invite anyone who hates us to the store. I want them to know us more. When you break bread, you break hate.”

So, of course, this wonderful man is also using his restaurant to pitch in for the furloughed worked. They’ve been offering free meals for federal workers since December. The community is also chipping in and donating money to Yassin’s Falafel house to cover the cost the restaurant is incurring.

“Government employees are our brothers and sisters and they are not going be alone during the longest shutdown and we can’t be the nicest place in America if we leave them alone,” the restaurant wrote on Facebook.

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