Definitions by Fearman
atheist
Someone who refuses to bow to the alleged power of any alleged supernatural entity, however great that power is alleged to be. One of a group of people far wiser and more common than they are usually given credit for. Someone who thinks in terms of reason rather than fear. In particular, someone who refuses to let their perfectly natural fear of death overwhelm their reason. Someone who accepts that even if there were a god worth worshipping, which cannot be proved, the divinity would be worth worshipping precisely because it supports or represents such things as justice, truth, love and compassion, which are universal human ideals and are not, contrary to the propaganda, derived from any religion. Someone who accepts that, as guides to the good life, such ideals therefore come before all else. A humanist. Atheists are often accused, by religionists who have found support in postmodernist relativism, that atheism is a religion like any other. If anorexia could be considered a favourite food, these postmodernist types might have a point ... but I'm doubting it.
speciesist
Derogatory term for someone who regards our fellow humans as more worthy of our care and attention than other forms of life, used by the kind of person who wants everyone to be eaten by lions on the Serengheti.
speciesist by Fearman September 5, 2007
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
President of the United States from 1961 to 1963, 35th to take the job. Started the GI ball rolling in Vietnam. Seen as a plaster saint by the left wing just the same, partly because he avoided actually terminating the biosphere over the Cuban Missile Crisis and partly because he had the good sense to get himself shot dead while in office. Shot by Lee Harvey Oswald, a gibbous fanatic on his way to an eldritch rendezvous.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy by Fearman September 3, 2007
musturbation
Self-righteous or ostentatious insistence that the entire Universe will disintegrate if one does not keep oneself busy. In other words (mime jerking hand up and down) you must-must-MUST do the dishes/feed the cat/write more letters. From the writings of M. Scott Peck.
You've been tiling and re-tiling the kitchen wall for the last year. When's the musturbation going to stop?
musturbation by Fearman August 31, 2007
Zaphod Clause
Important precondition for attaining the role of chief of the executive wing of government, not least in the United States. More or less quote/unquote, "You can't become President with an entire brain." From the movie of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Zaphod Clause by Fearman August 31, 2007
organic
1) In chemistry, a term used to describe any molecule held together by a chain of carbon atoms.
2) Used to describe the characteristics of a living system (for example a creature's body or an entire habitat) consisting of smoothly running interacting parts and shaped by the processes of Darwinian evolution.
3) As an analogy in the creative process, used to describe a work such as a novel or movie script made in such a way that the various parts developed as they were written/painted/whatever, one from another, rather than sticking rigidly to a preconceived plan.
4) In popular culture, a term applied in line with the most rabid intentions of New Age pseudoscience, ultimately from the mouths of people who would like to have scientists burned at the stake. Much favoured by people who use chemical as an unqualified snarl word. Artificial fertilisers are decried as poison, despite the fact that they contain the same chemical compounds that plants derive from "natural" fertilisers; if these compounds were real poisons, our biosphere would have been in serious doo-doo long ago. Anything coming from a lab is allegedly ipso facto evil and foul, even if its molecular structure is identical to that of compounds found in Nature. Genetic engineering is seen as the foul left hand of Satan, based on arguments that are about as rational as those for the existence of the fellah downstairs, too. Organic farming is held by its propagandists to be the farming of the future ... and it might be, at least if the human population of the Earth drops by 99 percent. Typical stock in trade arguments from the "organic" movement, as elsewhere in the witchypoo "alternative" movement, consist of appeals to fear, to irrationality and to conspiracy theories about Big Business ... but, such has been the success of the propaganda campaign over the last few decades, nobody seems to subject "organic" produce to the same safety standards. "Organic" production requires far more acreage than conventional farming methods to produce the same yield. It is typically shilled for by celebrities, who after all often have more money than sense and can afford to buy the stuff, and much beloved of fad dieters who don't eat that much anyway. All in all, one of the movements that make one genuinely fearful for the future of our technological civilisation.
2) Used to describe the characteristics of a living system (for example a creature's body or an entire habitat) consisting of smoothly running interacting parts and shaped by the processes of Darwinian evolution.
3) As an analogy in the creative process, used to describe a work such as a novel or movie script made in such a way that the various parts developed as they were written/painted/whatever, one from another, rather than sticking rigidly to a preconceived plan.
4) In popular culture, a term applied in line with the most rabid intentions of New Age pseudoscience, ultimately from the mouths of people who would like to have scientists burned at the stake. Much favoured by people who use chemical as an unqualified snarl word. Artificial fertilisers are decried as poison, despite the fact that they contain the same chemical compounds that plants derive from "natural" fertilisers; if these compounds were real poisons, our biosphere would have been in serious doo-doo long ago. Anything coming from a lab is allegedly ipso facto evil and foul, even if its molecular structure is identical to that of compounds found in Nature. Genetic engineering is seen as the foul left hand of Satan, based on arguments that are about as rational as those for the existence of the fellah downstairs, too. Organic farming is held by its propagandists to be the farming of the future ... and it might be, at least if the human population of the Earth drops by 99 percent. Typical stock in trade arguments from the "organic" movement, as elsewhere in the witchypoo "alternative" movement, consist of appeals to fear, to irrationality and to conspiracy theories about Big Business ... but, such has been the success of the propaganda campaign over the last few decades, nobody seems to subject "organic" produce to the same safety standards. "Organic" production requires far more acreage than conventional farming methods to produce the same yield. It is typically shilled for by celebrities, who after all often have more money than sense and can afford to buy the stuff, and much beloved of fad dieters who don't eat that much anyway. All in all, one of the movements that make one genuinely fearful for the future of our technological civilisation.