How does anyone get so much so wrong? I'm reminded of Iran's president Ahmadinejad (aka <Ah'm a Dinner Jacket>). Same beard, same penchant for denial, same aggression. Same faith-based rhetoric while picking fights with the genuinely religious. Same lust to expand.

I'd be concerned if ceegee showed any sign of considering his demands, as that would be a strong indication that they have parted with sanity as well, but since they seem to be made of tougher stuff, there's nothing to worry about. :)

Just what I was thinking, too. :D And worse, none of us seem to hate <Ohio> like all atheists should hate a proper Christian - you know where to look for the correct example!

But enough AJology already. There are more interesting things happening in the world ...

From the World Cup official site:
<Polgar was dressed in a sporty way for the first game against Svidler. Before she used to come in an official outfit and on high hills>

Sigh. She's a *woman*, talk about her pretty dresses.

And her 'high hills'. Sounds like an Almodovar movie remade by Herzog.

Gee, I'd LOVE to see a supertournament with all the participants in Starfleet uniform! Sounds great. :D

It measures your pulse rate while firing photon torpedoes.

Then it says "I'm a doctor, not an accountant".

Meanwhile - because I'm reminded of some of the reaction to Judit Polgar's run - I must quote the very wonderful Victoria Coren, columnist and poker player.

Writing in the Observer about those strange geeks who see a woman on a TV quiz show and make abusive nutterweb comments - spiced up with pornographic images - she writes:

<"There he is, the unlikely University Challenge fan: half engaged by listing asteroids named after gods in chronological order, half shouting: 'Look! A girl! One of those people without penises! I have to quickly find a picture of one and put it next to her face! Now look! A girl and a nearby penis! They don't have their own, you know!'>

<"How odd. You'd think anyone interested enough to sit through questions about Mahler and quantum mechanics might have come to terms with the miracle of gender difference by now.">

I love that tone, probably because it reminds me of myself in supercilious mode. There's even a logic to this -- her father, Alan Coren, was one of my heroes as editor of Punch magazine in the 1970s.

<Picture, in your mind, an internet hate campaigner. I'm assuming that he's hunched over a keyboard, in a stained pair of tracksuit trousers, fragrant with beer and a faint uric tang.

He's panting slightly from excitement at his own naughtiness as, having logged into a blog or forum under an anonymous name, he is busy typing YOUR A FAT BITCH and DIE SUCKA in relation to work colleagues, ex-girlfriends and people he's seen on TV who, despite the optimistic vocative case, will never read it.>

One teragram is a trillion grams, or a metric megatonne.

Add 't' and you get <tetragram>, the original four-letter word.

The spurts of flame that ripple periodically through CG occur because the place is so small. We're a minority, a trifle compared to the mega-networking sites with real flame wars.

Here, it's more like village backbiting. The key to village life is a kind of restrained tolerance - you don't go nuclear simply because you disagree with somebody. You quietly ignore them, to keep the peace (and gain credit in the community).

Sometimes an incomer, newb, or blow-in moves to the village and tries to impose their version of order. So somebody burns their house down.

Source: 'Obscure Ways to get arrested in 25 states', from <Forbidden Knowledge> by Michael Powell, 2007.

Yes, I *would* have a book with a name like that. And I consult it at this precipitous moment (ie, it's raining) when the very legality of CG has been questioned.

<Florida women can be fined for falling asleep under a hair dryer, and in Miami it is illegal for anyone to imitate an animal.

In Arkansas, it is illegal to mispronounce 'Arkansas'.

Alaskans are forbidden from pushing a live moose from an airplane, waking a bear to take a picture, or taking a kangaroo (even willingly) into a barber shop.

In Indiana, hotel sheets must be exactly 99 inches long and 81 inches wide.

A woman in Kentucky must get her husband's permission before buying a hat, and anyone who has been drinking is 'sober' until he or she 'cannot hold onto the ground'.

In Mississippi, it is illegal to teach others the meaning of polygamy.>

Are *dictionaries* subversive literature in Mississippi? That would explain a few things. Mississippi people - it means "the custom of marriage to more than one person at a time". Oops, did I just break US law?

<The law in Missouri precludes the installation of bathtubs with four legs resembling animal paws in Kansas City, or the rescuing of women who are in their nightgowns by firemen in St Louis.>

Um, is that the women's nightgowns or the firemen's nightgowns? "You're wearing my nightgown, Mabel, I gotta let you burn".

<Maine prohibits leaving an airplane during a flight, leaving your Christmas decorations up too long, or walking down the street with your shoelaces untied.>

Hmm. Not much relevant to chess websites here. The closest I can find is:

<In Florida, sex with a porcupine (unless you are a porcupine) is prohibited.>

Bearing in mind Ballard's Rule ("The Vietnam War allowed the United States to enter into a relationship with the rest of the world generally characterized by the term 'love'") it could be argued that certain porcupines have been coming on to hedgehogs, aardvarks, aasvogels, doctors, cacti, prickly pears, donkeys, and other non-porcupines.