There’s a real Warren Jeffs vibe coming from this guy – except that, unlike Jeffs, Cohen can’t answer impromptu questions without looking like an even bigger idiot than usual. And I suspect, based on Cohen’s not recognizing the statistics he published in his own book, that this guy has a ghost-writer as well.

On a related note, Ted Haggard appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s show yesterday to talk about the gay prostitute-‘n-meth scandal. He’s even glibber than before.

Winfrey actually lobbed a few hard-balls at Haggard, asking blunt questions for which he provided evasive answers. Viewers did learn a few key things from the exchange, however:

* Haggard is, like, totally not gay; he just likes to think about and participate in man-on-man buttsex sometimes. (He admits to “having same-sex attraction issues” but he’s 110% het, bay-bee!)

* His sexuality can’t be put in a box.

* He never used meth. He simply bought some.

* When Haggard is backed into a corner, he lies. A lot.

* He sorta, kinda thinks same-sex attraction is innate, but that people can choose to abstain.

* He’s a dynamo in bed, so his wife never knew he had a problem with getting high and fucking male prostitutes.

* His wife is, like, totally not a sanctimonious douche with a martyrdom complex.

* His (former) church had the power to expel him from the state where he lived, and he didn’t return until the elders gave him permission to come back.

* He’d never so much as interviewed for a job – not once in his entire life – until after he had to hit the pavement in search of real work when his church gig crashed and burned.

Right now, all I’m getting from it is that if you’re going to have gay sex, one of you needs to turn around.

OMFG. That was teh awesome.

Right now, all I’m getting from it is that if you’re going to have gay sex, one of you needs to turn around.

For a long time I was pretty sure I didn’t believe in love at first sight. My opinion has changed. ^_^

I can’t think of any magnet for which that wouldn’t be appropriate—they are all dipoles. And now I’m reminded of throwing paper clips at the NMR machine in school. They stick out at right angles to the tangent of the surface… Um, with slightly less nerd: they stick out vertically because the field put out by the NMR’s superconducting electromagnet is so strong it turns anything containing metallic iron or nickel that comes close to it into an instant magnet itself; the far end of the now-magnetized paper clips is the opposite pole from the end sticking to the NMR and is trying hard to get away. It’s one of my favorite memories, and I should thank you for that also.

kaninchen, I match your nerd and raise you—a right angle to a tangent would make it parallel to the original surface, because “at right angle to” and “tangential” mean the same thing, bringing it around 180 degrees instead of 90.

Oh, crap, you’re right! I’ve been doing that wrong for years. How about “at right angles to the first derivative of the function that describes the surface of the NMR dewar at that point?”