You know what would be fun? If we all got pregnant after midterms.

[Hostile_Dialect]

@Malacandra

RNATB didn’t actually admit to making shit up for fun since everyone else was, which he subsequently admitted to

Really? What, exactly, does “completely groundless speculation” mean to you? Is it something different from “making shit up for fun”? I don’t see the distinction.

@Malacandra

Now you can lose the scare-quotes and deign to address my other “points”, child. 'Cos, you know, serious debating doesn’t consist of harping on one error by the opponent and ignoring everything else he says. But of course you’d know that.

Nor does it consist of belittling personal attacks, but your other “points” are rendered impotent by the fact that RNATB did indeed tell us that (s?)he was making shit up for fun all along.

[Malacandra]

@Hostile Dialect

Really? What, exactly, does “completely groundless speculation” mean to you? Is it something different from “making shit up for fun”? I don’t see the distinction.

Do you not? Well, your inability to see one doesn’t mean there isn’t one. You see, I could parse “completely groundless speculation” as “No facts here, but let’s run this up the flagpole and see if it sounds plausible” - and that’s exactly how I did read it.

@Hostile Dialect

Nor does it consist of belittling personal attacks,

Hypocrite.

Your first response to me was to imply that my opinions were worthless and I need therapy, and you continued along those lines. “You have a serious problem, and need help”. “I hope you get over all this bitterness somehow”. “You’re… foaming at the mouth”. Now all of a sudden you’re all about rising loftily above the level of belittling personal attacks? :rolleyes:

@Hostile Dialect

but your other “points” are rendered impotent by the fact that RNATB did indeed tell us that (s?)he was making shit up for fun all along.

No, they’re not, because my other points (scare-quoting after you’ve been asked not to is sorta rude, Mr Manners) are with you, and are to do with your unfitness to assess my need for professional help.

Now had you said “Um, I think you’ve been whooshed, Mal”, you might have had a case, but telling me that I have a serious problem, and need help, is at least as much of an overreaction on your part as mine was to RNATB’s obvious joke. :dubious:

[Little_Nemo]

They still have Tourism, although not as much as Rockport or other nearby towns. And tourism won’t support those fish factories of Gorton’s and Mrs. Paul’s

But does Rockport have slutty teenage schoolgirls?

[samclem]

@Little Nemo

But does Rockport have slutty teenage schoolgirls?

Assuming you’re saying that the teenagers in the OP are “slutty teenage schoolgirls,” then you’d be hard-presssed to supply evidence. But, maybe that wasn’t what you meant.

[Beware_of_Doug]

@EJsGirl

Wow. Just… wow.

When I was in high school (graduated in 1985), we had no visibly pregnant girls in our HS, nor did any mysteriously go to visit a great-aunt during the year (at least none that I knew of, and that item of gossip would have been all over town). I know of one girl who was pregnant senior year, and she had an early abortion as she knew she’d made a huge mistake already and wasn’t about to compound it.

Not only would it have been somewhat shameful to come up pregnant, but worse (at least to a teenager), it would have been incredibly lame. “You stupid bitch, haven’t you even HEARD of the pill? Or a condom? What an idiot.” :rolleyes: sez the kidz.

YMMV, of course.

Most definitely. I’m guessing your school, or your town, hadn’t been dominated by generations of Irish Catholic tradition. Some of these kids might have considered contraception to be no less reprehensible than teenage single motherhood - maybe even more so.

[astro]

<Ed Wynn voice>Oh my goodness me, what a surprise!</Ed Wynn Voice>

Mayor: No support for claims of pregnancy pact

Pact not confirmed
Kirk says Sullivan has told officials in this hard-luck New England fishing town that he can’t remember his source of information.

“The high school principal is the one who initially said it, and no one else has said it,” Kirk said. "None of the counselors at the school, none of the teachers who know these children and none of the families have spoken about it.

“So, my position is that it has not been confirmed,” she said.

The Associated Press could not immediately locate a home phone number for Sullivan. A message was left Sunday at the principal’s office.

[Princhester]

Yep, astro wins the thread. And by the third post, no less.

Another story: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110ap_pregnancy_pact.html

Good call, astro

[samclem]

@Princhester

Yep, astro wins the thread. And by the third post, no less.

Another story: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110ap_pregnancy_pact.html

Good call, astro

That last story you quoted allows as how this could be either/or. Some of the persons they interviewed didn’t rule out the pact theory.

[Princhester]

Some persons don’t rule out 9/11 conspiracy theories either. So what? There’s no evidence. It’s just a classic bullshit moral panic story, though a mild one.

[muttrox]

Another article on it.
http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/?last_story=/mwt/broadsheet/2008/06/24/pact_controversy/

I’d still like to see if their due dates match up. Pregancy is nine months, giving an annual number of pregnancies doesn’t say much to me.

[Hostile_Dialect]

@Malacandra

You see, I could parse “completely groundless speculation” as “No facts here, but let’s run this up the flagpole and see if it sounds plausible” - and that’s exactly how I did read it.

An interesting point. If, at the time RNATB posted the piece of speculation, it was equally plausible that he was running it up the flagpole as that he was making shit up for fun, why assume that he was running it up the flagpole? Do you not see the misanthropic consequences of assuming things like that?

@Malacandra

Hypocrite.

I’ll give you that one. I’m as guilty as you are in that department. My sincere apologies.

@Malacandra

No, they’re not, because my other points (scare-quoting after you’ve been asked not to is sorta rude, Mr Manners) are with you, and are to do with your unfitness to assess my need for professional help.

Now had you said “Um, I think you’ve been whooshed, Mal”, you might have had a case, but telling me that I have a serious problem, and need help, is at least as much of an overreaction on your part as mine was to RNATB’s obvious joke.

Well, after a five-day vacation in gorgeous, green Minnesota, where the walleyes are laughing at me as they tell stories of my drunken ineptitude, I have completely forgotten what the points we’re getting so agitated about even were. I’m too lazy to scroll back up and find them, so I’ll just address this bit.

I don’t think there was a whoosh, but I also don’t think I overstated my case, considering your recent history of finding misandry behind every tree. On the other hand, my amateur diagnosis does seem rude in hindsight.