551. Church exhumes Padre Pio

Comment #138382 by Cartomancer on March 4, 2008 at 8:54 am

Why would tampering with the dead cause catholics any grief at all? Don't these people know a thing about their medieval predecessors and their relic cults? It seems that nary a day went by in the fourteenth century without someone digging up holy bones, holy blood, pieces of the true cross or another head of St. John the Baptist (several churches even claimed to have two of them!).

In fact the entire priesthood must have spent a good portion of their time mucking about elbow-deep in coffins like a bunch of morbid cackling necromancers. The variety and sophistication of reliquaries, transi tombs, charnel houses, phylacteries and ossuaries is simply staggering to a modern culture where the only thing we generally do with dead people is bury them and forget they ever happened. In the later middle ages they even had reliquaries shaped like the body part that was inside, made of gold or crystal to signify impassibility, sometimes even with little glass viewing windows. In eastern europe they even used charnel bones for interior decorating well into the 19th century (Wikipedia the Sedlec Ossuary if you don't believe me!)

They're mad this catholic crew. Stark staring bonkers the lot of them!

552. US Treaty with Tripoli

Comment #138363 by Cartomancer on March 4, 2008 at 8:33 am

Now a gay man with a gun would be a different story.

553. Fleabytes

Comment #138278 by Cartomancer on March 4, 2008 at 6:18 am

Throw down his triton?

What has a Greek sea-nymph got to do with anything, and why is Artful Dodger keeping one? Surely that would be blasphemous for one of his ilk? Unless he's really got this whole son-of-god thing mixed up with that Icthys business...

554. Fleas on the Horizon: In Defense of God

Comment #137984 by Cartomancer on March 3, 2008 at 5:43 pm

Blimey, not since the heady twelfth-century days of Petrus Alfonsi's Dialogue between a Christian a Jew and a Philosopher and Robert of Ketton's Latin Koran for the purpose of refuting the Muslims have we had so many frightened religious people desperate to pretend there is a credible case for their beliefs.

Funny how we only need one or two books to refute religiosity but they need to keep churning the fleas out ad nauseam. I guess that's because, while things like The God Delusion, God is not Great, and even the works of Bertrand Russell make the case in an explicitly confrontational way, pretty much every good book ever published on science, philosophy, history, morality and any other credible academic subject makes the case eloquently too in its own way. Likewise, all works of fiction weigh in as refutations of religion by showing up how much it has in common with them. Even religious books, and even the flea books, have something to contribute - by explicitly showing us how pathetic the case for the defence is and what lengths these mind viruses will make people go to to defend their pathology.

So read a book, ANY book, and you've got a part of the case against religion in your hands already! The only way you can avoid it is to cease reading any more books at all!

555. Fleabytes

Comment #137599 by Cartomancer on March 3, 2008 at 8:38 am

Well people like Lennox and Lane Craig singularly failed to say anything intelligent last time Richard talked to them, so I can't see why they should be allowed back to have another go.

Why should there be any kind of onus on us to give credit to the frothing crackpots who disagree with us? Do historians of the second world war have to invite a holocaust denier to debate with them whenever they give a lecture? Does David Attenborough have to invite a creationist every time he talks about evolution? Do I have to search out someone who believes the twelfth century never happened every time I give a paper on my thesis?

Some topics do admit of reasonable debate from both sides, some do not. Until the claims of religious people have any evidence whatsoever to back them up there is no reason in the world why Dawkins or anyone else need take them seriously.

556. Fleabytes

Comment #137586 by Cartomancer on March 3, 2008 at 8:19 am

Artful Dodger -

What on earth could a religious person contribute to a useful discussion of religion that Richard Dawkins couldn't? Why would anyone want to hear less Dawkins for their money, and adulterate the learning experience with the mind-rotting silliness of theistic drivel? Why not invite a well qualified chef or a gardener to talk instead? At least then we might get some good food and tips on looking after our petunias afterwards.

557. A natural phenomenon

Comment #137444 by Cartomancer on March 2, 2008 at 10:03 pm

All praise be to the one true master of the living world! Praise be to he who is there in the fathomless depths of all creation, who has seen all the teeming multitudes of life, who has girt the earth in his wanderings. He is there at the opening of every flower, the birth and death of every bird, the piling excrement of every bat. He is everywhere and knows all, yet stints not in passing on his matchless wisdom to his followers. He who once walked among us, but now has ascended to the starry firmament and shall be heard only by his voice through the long ages of time. Praise be to he who taught us how to laugh, how to feel joy, how to live alongside our fellow man and fellow beast!

558. The Giant Tortoise's Tale

Comment #137438 by Cartomancer on March 2, 2008 at 9:31 pm

I like this game!

So... Sodom and Gomorrah can be explained by a massive build-up of super-powerful queer-pattern immoralitons in the earth's mantle (naturally downward-moving - they go for the bottom), causing seizmic instability and the eventual breakdown of crust integrity. The resulting outpouring of trapped immorality as a pyroclastic flow would have vapourised the bodily fluids of those close by, leading to instant calcification in Lot's wife when she turned to look back. Residual airborne immoralitons spread across a wide area would then have contaminated the thoughts of Lot's daughters (lower body mass, so more susceptible) convincing them to drug-rape their own father.

A similar, though less pronounced Pentapolis Event, in San Francisco in 1989, can probably be explained in the same way. And maybe I should own up for the tremors in the eastern and central counties of England a few days back too...

559. Fleabytes

Comment #137115 by Cartomancer on March 2, 2008 at 11:19 am

If by the calibre of his foes a man is known, however, then Richard really isn't trying hard enough...

560. US Treaty with Tripoli

Comment #137051 by Cartomancer on March 2, 2008 at 8:30 am

AtheistJon,

The point about politeness and civility is crucial. I can see why your statement "I think homosexuality is disgusting" was met with such disapproval - if you phrased it like that then what did you expect? I am assuming that what you meant to say was "I have a visceral response to homosexual acts, I wouldn't want to engage in them, but I am fine with other people doing them." That's getting across the socially conditioned dislike in a measured way without admitting that you are a great big homophobe who has an irrational hatred of gay people.

Civilised conversation is so much easier if people actually think about the way they phrase their points beforehand, and try to modify those statements which are not only offensive but those which are easily misconstrued as offensive.

Similarly, this site is not entirely about forging an atheist political lobby with unified goals. It is, in the spirit of Richard Dawkins, about debate, intellectual engagement and the pursuit of the truth. If people have political disagreements and wish to express disdain for the political theories of others here then why should they not, as long as they do it within the accepted bounds of civility?

561. A God blog

Comment #136871 by Cartomancer on March 1, 2008 at 10:51 pm

Well well, maybe I spoke too soon over on the Fleabytes thread about Telegraph opinion pieces...

562. Fleabytes

Comment #136758 by Cartomancer on March 1, 2008 at 4:35 pm

Bravo Corylus. I felt exactly the same but thought it really wasn't worth the effort - complaining about patriarchal backwardness in telegraph opinion pieces is like complaining about catholicism in the Vatican. I'm glad someone has put things to rights though.

563. Fleabytes

Comment #136746 by Cartomancer on March 1, 2008 at 4:19 pm

I really don't know what Leftow's answer to that would be. I only listen to his modern theology lectures for some light relief (and because he sounds far too much like Kermit the Frog for me to keep a straight face). His Aquinas lectures are the only ones I really pay serious attention to.

564. Fleabytes

Comment #136730 by Cartomancer on March 1, 2008 at 4:11 pm

Oh, Leftow is perfectly willing to entertain the notion that God is not "above" the universe but more an intrinsic part of said universe (which just happens to be the part responsible for creating it). Notions of being "above" everything are suspiciously neoplatonic to most modern theologians.

565. Fleabytes

Comment #136720 by Cartomancer on March 1, 2008 at 4:03 pm

Brian Leftow, the famous (well, in theological circles anyway) Oxford Theologian does work on ideas of omnipotence. Last time I heard him speak on the subject he seemed to use the term "omnipotent" to mean "as powerful as it is possible to be given the constraints of the universe" rather than "able to do anything at all". Redefined like that it is possible to have a meaningful, highly technical, and rather pointless discussion on the precise powers that "omnipotence" would grant you.

566. Berlin gallery in Islam art row

Comment #136660 by Cartomancer on March 1, 2008 at 2:26 pm

The concensus among medieval theologians, following Peter Lombard's discussion in Sentences (Dist. XLIV, Cap. 251 (1) - De aetate et statura resurgentium) was that everyone would be resurrected at the age of 32 - precisely half the allotted standard human lifespan and the age at which Jesus was crucified.

567. Fleabytes

Comment #136651 by Cartomancer on March 1, 2008 at 2:20 pm

Happy sex life? I'd settle for any sort of sex life...

568. Fleabytes

Comment #136608 by Cartomancer on March 1, 2008 at 1:45 pm

Riley did it for me in the trouser department I'm afraid. All the others, no stirrings at all..

569. Fleabytes

Comment #136603 by Cartomancer on March 1, 2008 at 1:41 pm

Can Robertson really blame us for veering off topic? His book really isn't interesting or important enough to sustain even three or four posts - beyond the necessary and delightful task of congratulating Paula for her thorough evisceration of his trite little scribblings that is.

And no evidence that he has taken my cartomantic prognostications seriously either. So disappointing. I mean what do you have to do to get noticed by the church these days?

570. Fleabytes

Comment #136573 by Cartomancer on March 1, 2008 at 12:43 pm

Holy Spirit eh? Is there a carbonated non-alcoholic version that I might be able to try?

571. Fleabytes

Comment #136545 by Cartomancer on March 1, 2008 at 11:41 am

Right. I've had a little think about this. It seems that people like our beloved Reverend Robertson are quite categorically unwilling to take heed of rational arguments that don't involve some kind of supernatural fairy nonsense. To this end I have decided that I shall bridge the gap and engage him on his own terms, and what better method for doing so than a good old tarot reading. I've got my deck in front of me now... give it a quick shuffle... Latin incantation to protect me against malicious spirits and we're away.

I have dealt you five cards Robertson, in the standard five-card horseshoe spread I generally use. The purpose of this inquiry shall be to determine whether religion is a good thing or not. I like to use a significator card in all my readings, and for you I have selected the Magician, though I have inversed him to indicate lies, trickery, deceit and dishonesty rather than his usual connotations of guile, wit, cleverness and dexterity. I hope you're sitting comfortably...

The first card, representing the past and its influence on the problem at hand, is the Hierophant or High Priest, and it is inversed. Fittingly enough it is also known as the Pope to many christian cartomancers. It represents rational inquiry, reasoned thinking, rational knowledge and teaching - it is the card of educators, thinkers and mentors and has a particularly masculine aspect. The inversed position indicates some kind of problem or hurdle to the rational inquiry, perhaps unknown problems or unrevealed information that might skew conclusions. Maybe some kind of unrecognised bias or lack of teaching ability? Intriguing...

The second card, representing the present, is the Ten of Coins - a card signifying wealth, material abundance and a life of ease. How fitting given your choice of monetary miracles to illustrate your feeble point. I don't think it takes phenomenal interpretative skill to work out what that one could mean in this context, though I might have a chat with some US megachurch pastor at his private palace some time to clarify things.

The third card, the apex card, signifies the most important factor governing the inquiry. I have drawn Mundus, the World card, for you. This card is the final and some say the most important of all the Major Arcana cards in the deck, and indicates the completion of one cycle or age of the world and the beginning of another. At the apex it is particularly powerful, and indicates a massive paradigm shift or change in opinion and circumstance. It, like Sol, the sun card, cannot truly be inversed, since its meaning does not easily admit to simple positive or negative interpretation.

The fourth card is the advice card, and indicates what the querent should do in this particular situation. The card I have for you is the Ace of Wands - a card that signifies the beginning of a new work, endeavour or enterprise. Go on Robertson, try something new, you might like it!

The final card is the outcome card, which shows some aspect of the overall answer to the query. It has come up as Fatuus, the Fool, the unnumbered card. This usually signifies some degree of freedom from normal social strictures, invulnerability, dynamism and a carefree nature - which is what you could have if you abandoned your frankly silly beliefs in god and came over to our side of the fence. I prefer to see it as a very good indication of what you are at present and what you will remain should you persist with your godbothering inanities.

That cleared it up for you in a language you can cope with? I won't even ask you to cross my palm with silver this time - I don't want any money that has been near your odious little house of prejudice and I'd probably end up with twenty-nine more pieces than I'm used to at any rate...

572. Fleabytes

Comment #136523 by Cartomancer on March 1, 2008 at 11:01 am

Sorry mate! Atheism in mentioned in the Old Testament....

573. Fleabytes

Comment #136518 by Cartomancer on March 1, 2008 at 10:56 am

I have not "met" Richard in real life in the sense that I have actually spoken to him. I live in hope though. I have, however, often seen him around Oxford on his bicycle and in that capacity he seems just as debonair and charming as he does in media interviews. I was tempted to wave and grin like a besotted idiot but he'd probably think I was insane and tip off the authorities.

I still haven't forgiven him for stealing all my ideas in The God Delusion though. I invented atheism! honest...

574. US Treaty with Tripoli

Comment #136504 by Cartomancer on March 1, 2008 at 10:47 am

It's that pact with Satan himself that does it Frankus. My powers of verbal expression increase markedly in direct proportion to how much I procrastinate and how little work I get done on my doctoral thesis.

575. US Treaty with Tripoli

Comment #136486 by Cartomancer on March 1, 2008 at 10:06 am

Scooter,

There is a difference between analysing our own actions from our own perspective and simply claiming, by fiat, that our opinions are right and everyone else is stupid. We may well think that everybody else is wrong, and we have recourse to reasoned debate to point that out, but politeness is not about refusing to put our opinions to others, it is about putting them in a non-confrontational way that facilitates further debate. Arrogant assertions of one's own greatness do not do this.

Humility may well have been picked up on by religious types for their own ends, like all great human universals are, but it has its roots in the kind of face-saving behaviour we see all around us in the animal kingdom. It is a helpful and necessary part of human discourse.

My conclusion that everyone has dangerous tendencies that need regulating is not a projection of my own personal self-examination but based on historical and scientific evidence. Political theory has always been about limiting man's more dangerous excesses, and evolutionary biology and psychology demonstrate that we exhibit behaviours such as anger, lust and self interest which are very difficult to control through personal willpower alone. You might think that society would be better off if everyone learned to control themselves, but I don't think that is either likely or indeed biologically possible. As such I see state control in the worst circumstances as the best remedy. This is a political disagreement we have.

And you return to the insults when you say I am incapable of self-examination. I would hazard a guess that I examine my own situation rather more than most, and my conclusion that there are aspects of my behaviour which I cannot regulate easily stems from this. I understand the concepts of responsibility and accountability fine well - I just do not have such a simplistic and abstract notion of them as you do. My picture of the world is more subtle and nuanced, because I know that these two things alone are not the be all and end all of human behaviour. Trying to reduce the world to this scheme seems to me to be ignoring vast numbers of other factors.

My comment about the Charlton Heston awards in post 203 was in response to your tasteless comments in post 202 about being glad that more liberals would die in the nasty red-in-tooth-and-claw world that you clearly want to live in. That is a very unpleasant thing to say, bordering on the downright nasty. If you come on here swaggering about like that then it is not at all surprising if you are gently rebuked with mild humour like mine. In fact your post 205 indicates that you took it in the spirit in which it was intended. That you proceed to spout this level of bile and vitriol at me and others afterwards is very telling. Again I repeat - mild insults and chiding are a perfectly fine part of robust civil debate, but there is a line which can be crossed into rudeness, personal vendetta, ad hominem and worse. Since your posts have consistently thrown nothing but insults at me, and not even mild-mannered ones, I think you have crossed that line.

I apologise for my failure to predict that you would respond to me thus. Previously I have considered you a somewhat wayward member of this site - rather confrontational and obsessed by your own philosophy of freedom and responsibility, but nevertheless an atheist, a decent human being, and one of the good guys. I have thus been willing to overlook our disagreements and let you be. I might still write this off as just a bad day. Nevertheless, I am beginning to find it very difficult to hold a civil conversation with you, and whatever the reasons behind this I have decided that it is not going to be very helpful to either of us if I keep trying.

576. US Treaty with Tripoli

Comment #136477 by Cartomancer on March 1, 2008 at 9:42 am

Actually, Scooter, yes, I do have a tremendous lack of self esteem. If that was intended as an insult then it didn't work - it was merely a statement of fact. Whether or not I have anything intelligent to say I leave for others to judge, for to assume that I naturally have all the right answers and anyone who disagrees with me is therefore ill or stupid would be an overweening arrogance of biblical proportions.

And this has no bearing on your crashing incivility and lack of personal humility. I note yet again that your response has no content to it but personal insults and conceited smugness. If you want to get on with people and talk to them on a sensible, polite, grown-up level then I suggest you drop the childish pretensions to your own greatness and start being civil for a change.

577. US Treaty with Tripoli

Comment #136473 by Cartomancer on March 1, 2008 at 9:32 am

Well, cringe away. The opinions of anyone who has to crassly talk up their own intelligence with phrases like "I always have good points to make" are not worth my time. It is up to others to judge the quality of our contributions, never ourselves, and I find such posturing the very height of arrogance. Were I given to such speculations I might well wonder whether there is some deep-seated insecurity lurking behind your comments that provokes you to act with this sort of confrontational bombast.

And you misunderstand me if you think my concern for the wellbeing of mankind is some kind of patronising disdain for "the great unwashed". I consider myself, and everyone else, an intrinsic part of that great unwashed, and I have come to the conclusion that we all have destructive tendencies that would be better off regulated by societal authority. Your wittering and whining about accountability and personal responsibility are just so much hot air to most people - an abstract, dogmatic certainty that the human mind is a purely rational decision maker and never affected by the instinctive, irrational and unproductive behaviours it evolved with.

I am willing to entertain your pet philosophy with civility if some civility is offered back in return, but given your quick resort to insults and unpleasantness I am forced to conclude that you are simply out to pick fights and beat your own chest. In such circumstances I fail to see how constructive dialogue is possible.

578. US Treaty with Tripoli

Comment #136468 by Cartomancer on March 1, 2008 at 9:13 am

As I have said before, I do not drive, drink, smoke or carry weaponry around with me in public - even my beloved fork-firing antique crossbow Cecil.

Anything apart from the ill-concieved personal insults to contribute yet?

Next...

579. US Treaty with Tripoli

Comment #136462 by Cartomancer on March 1, 2008 at 9:06 am

Actually, Scooter, I think you existed for quite a while before I did. And I'm trying to see something more than a crudely-fashioned insult in there somewhere, but I guess my powers of observation aren't what they used to be...

580. US Treaty with Tripoli

Comment #136461 by Cartomancer on March 1, 2008 at 9:04 am

Oh, come on Steve, that's not quite fair. Scooter might have some crazy ideas about society but he's certainly no wooter.

Unless there's some kind of Jekyll and Hyde thing going on there. Come to think of it I can't recall a thread where I've seen both of them at work at once...

581. US Treaty with Tripoli

Comment #136456 by Cartomancer on March 1, 2008 at 8:59 am

Eww, I feel dirty, Scooter wants me for his side...

I take that as a compliment from you Scooter. Liberalism and Socialism are compliments over here. I aspire to both wholeheartedly.

582. US Treaty with Tripoli

Comment #136450 by Cartomancer on March 1, 2008 at 8:55 am

But Sharon, you're a liberal fascist! You're bound to say that!

583. US Treaty with Tripoli

Comment #136446 by Cartomancer on March 1, 2008 at 8:43 am

And the winner of the 2008 Charlton Heston Award for Self-aggrandizing Macho Posturing is...

584. Berlin gallery in Islam art row

Comment #136443 by Cartomancer on March 1, 2008 at 8:30 am

I think Rowan Atkinson said it best - The right to offend is infinitely more important than anyone's right not to be offended.

And we all know that the Kaa'Ba was originally a pre-Islamic shrine anyway, which the Mahometans took over for their own use. I think I read somewhere that it was originally consecrated to the Arab god Hubal and filled with 360 small idols representing the days of the year as well as the piece of black meteorite they currently worship. Oh how the priests of Hubal would be fuming at the iconoclasm of the place these days, with that ridiculously gaudy Masjid al-Haram built around their star shrine...

Still, I like the implication of the poster "touch the stupid stone and be filled with all the transcendental stupidity of Islam".

585. US Treaty with Tripoli

Comment #136442 by Cartomancer on March 1, 2008 at 8:27 am

And a wonderful, if somewhat belated, step in the right direction they are too!

586. US Treaty with Tripoli

Comment #136440 by Cartomancer on March 1, 2008 at 7:59 am

Funnily enough I rather like delegating responsibility for my health and safety to those far better equipped and trained to protect it than I am. I wish the state would take far more initiative to protect people from themselves and from each other. Life is so much more enjoyable when you don't have to worry about that sort of thing yourself and can get on with the fun stuff, like exploring the world, reading books, hobbies, talking to interesting people and shouting down pernicious godbotherers in the street.

587. Fleabytes

Comment #136248 by Cartomancer on February 29, 2008 at 3:11 pm

Awww, aren't we allowed a little RichardDawkins.net Friday night love-in from time to time?

588. Fleabytes

Comment #136245 by Cartomancer on February 29, 2008 at 3:08 pm

Oh pshaw! I can't take any credit for saying intelligent things on this particular thread.

Still, I agree entirely - if it is by the calibre of his admirers that a man shall be known then Richard Dawkins is certainly one of the finest people to grace our modern age.

589. Fleabytes

Comment #136228 by Cartomancer on February 29, 2008 at 2:40 pm

There is very good evidence for the existence of goblins actually. I can think of no other way to account for the food in the Wadham college refectory at lunchtime...

590. US Treaty with Tripoli

Comment #136220 by Cartomancer on February 29, 2008 at 2:31 pm

Al-Rawandi,

I did not assume that you approved of the National Guard, or of state militias in general. When the subject was state militias you brought up the National Guard yourself, so I don't think I can be held too culpable for thinking that you meant it as an example of one.

My point was merely that the second amendment of the US Constitution is a piece of historical legislation that has now become an anachronism. As such it should either be repealed because it is pointless and unworkable or left to glide slowly into obsolescence like so many other laws across the world that are still on the statute books. Unfortunately the degree to which the constitution of the United States is unthinkingly fetishised by so many US citizens makes the first option very difficult and the second very unlikely, especially given the common misunderstanding that it grants a carte blanche for possession of weaponry.

I think this is one big disadvantage of having a single-document constitution like the states, rather than having a shifting constitution contained in the body of case law and government legislation as a whole. In England defunct laws are ignored and disregarded all the time with little fuss - as those among us who own crossbows and have a post-midnight animus against the Welsh know all too well...

591. US Treaty with Tripoli

Comment #136191 by Cartomancer on February 29, 2008 at 2:05 pm

So... I might be missing something here, but what does the practice of recruiting troops for the army at state rather than country level have to do with a personal right to own weaponry? Are the National Guard responsible for acquiring their own equipment? Is that how they got so "well armed"? Moreover, how is the National Guard going to prevent the tyranny of the federal government while they're half a world away in Iraq, save by writing strongly worded letters home?

592. US Treaty with Tripoli

Comment #136178 by Cartomancer on February 29, 2008 at 1:54 pm

In retrospect, perhaps giving my prized antique crossbow a name was an unwise decision...

593. US Treaty with Tripoli

Comment #136175 by Cartomancer on February 29, 2008 at 1:51 pm

But surely no citizen militia, however well-trained, could withstand the armies of a modern totalitarian state such as your putative American central government might become? Hasn't the rule about forming state militias become superfluous? Surely they would simply devolve into guerilla separatists and end up bloodily wiped out by the well-armed stormtroopers of the Central Tyranny? Hasn't this phase of our military history well and truly passed by now?

594. US Treaty with Tripoli

Comment #136142 by Cartomancer on February 29, 2008 at 1:29 pm

CROSSBOW! NOT TROUSER FURNITURE!!!!!

595. US Treaty with Tripoli

Comment #136132 by Cartomancer on February 29, 2008 at 1:21 pm

I have just gone red with embarassment. Cecil is a crossbow, that's all he is, a CROSSBOW - a fairly nice silver-inlaid sixteenth century arbalest actually - and in no way should he be construed as a euphemism for my genital endowment. I will admit that mention of my "physical proportions" in the context of my outlandish party clothes might have got some people thinking along the wrong lines there, and in retrospect it was probably a less than ideal choice of wording...

So, to recap - CROSSBOW. NOT TROUSER FURNITURE.

Thank you all.

596. US Treaty with Tripoli

Comment #136114 by Cartomancer on February 29, 2008 at 1:16 pm

Apologies most gracefully accepted Alexander.

597. Fleabytes

Comment #136100 by Cartomancer on February 29, 2008 at 1:12 pm

As an added incentive I'll even do my special somersaulting "evidence dance" when we get some good evidence for the existence of god. It's something to see, really it is...

598. Fleabytes

Comment #136077 by Cartomancer on February 29, 2008 at 1:02 pm

Oh no Paula, of course not. For that I've got just the outfit, as everyone over on the Treaty of Tripoli thread can attest with a shudder...

599. US Treaty with Tripoli

Comment #136073 by Cartomancer on February 29, 2008 at 1:00 pm

I only wear the thigh boots and get Cecil out on special occasions. I wouldn't want anyone to think that I habitually stalk the streets of Oxford in revealing fetish attire with a fork-firing crossbow...

600. Fleabytes

Comment #136068 by Cartomancer on February 29, 2008 at 12:57 pm

Hey, Paula, no fair! I spend most of my life wearing mass-produced polycotton tracksuits made in China!