ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS CHOSEN ONES. VICTORY WAS ZARDOZ’S! BRUTAL DRIVERS WERE EASILY INTIMIDATED OUT OF THE WAY OF ZARDOZ WHEN CROSSING THE CENTER OF THE FIGURE 8.
HOWEVER, LOSING BRUTAL DRIVERS ARE APPEALING LOSS TO RACE OFFICIAL BRUTALS. ZARDOZ EXPECTS RULING NEXT WEEK. SOMETHING ABOUT VIOLATING RULE #2:
1. All cars must pass inspection before entrance into the pits.
2. Cars must be stock (GM-GM, Ford-Ford, etc.). No headers allowed.
WHEN ZARDOZ FLEW UP TO INSPECTION POINT, INSPECTOR BRUTALS FLED IN TERROR – SO ZARDOZ ASSUMES A PASSED INSPECTION. ZARDOZ IS STOCK (ZARDOZ-ZARDOZ) AND BELIEVES “NO HEADERS” IS UNLAWFULLY DISCRIMINATORY AGAINST LARGE STONE HEADS. ZARDOZ MUST CONSIDER CALLING IN BRUTAL EXTERMINATORS TO CLEANSE THE WEBSTER COUNTY RACING BOARD, IF LOSS ON APPEAL. OR PERHAPS ZARDOZ CAN PERSUADE FRIEND STEVE SMITH TO PAY BOARD A VISIT…
BUT ZARDOZ STILL SHOWS FAVOR TO HIS CHOSEN ONES WITH LINKS:
“Detroit at crossroads 50 years after riots devastated city”.
That sounds like an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the broken windows theory. How’d it turn out?
Fantastic. Detroit is America’s Shangri-la.
They left the windows broken because all the window repair companies moved to the suburbs?
I’m sort of skeptical about Detroit bouncing back. I did have a great night a few months ago playing feather bowling at Cadieux Cafe, though.
Of course they won’t.
They had half a dozen voting centers here in South Florida. This is just one of them. A couple of thousand people there apparently.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/ke8iqs/picture161660888/alternates/FREE_768/09PLEBISCITO_DORAL_CPJ
But since the new constitution is going to happen, this is how it will go.
The “Constituent Assembly” will be packed with Maduro loyalists. The assembly will have the power to call elections… or not. They’ll also have the power to determine who can run for President.
Which means Venezuela will have North Korea style elections, where your choices will be to either vote for Maduro or hand your “no” vote to the nice man in a uniform holding a machine gun.
At least until the military coup happens.
There was a festive atmosphere under the Caribbean sun in most places, with people blasting music, honking car horns, waving Venezuelan flags, and chanting “Yes we can!”
I sympathize with the instinct, but not the example I would want the Venezuelans to follow.
We just got a Venezuelan intern last week. I personally hope the situation there stays shitty so she sticks around for a while.
It seems like all their wimmen are very hot. Or do they only let the very hot ones travel outside their country as some sort of Chamber of Commerce promotion?
2. Cars must be stock (GM-GM, Ford-Ford, etc.). No headers allowed.
I think we need a ruling on a narrowed gaze here.
Ya that was a three lap runup to the punchline…
Hey, YOU go ahead and narrow your gaze at a giant flying stone head that vomits guns and can call enforcers!
What’s the matter Colonel Sanders; chicken?
BGAAK BGAAAK!!
I take this opportunity to say “onomatopoeia.”
Relax the head is run by some dude named Arthur, he’s a push over. It’s pretty much a ‘Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain’ kinda thing, you know like in the Wizard of Oz. Oh… and Spoiler alert.
Zardoz is Professor Click? IKNEWIT,
I don’t think Maduro cares about any vote he doesn’t control. This increasingly looks like it is going to turn into an out right Civil War.
Maybe, but the resistance is fucked unless parts of the military turn or somebody starts supplying them with weapons.
They’re organizing, but they really can’t fight.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article160763494.html
If only there was a giant stone head powered by anti-gravity that could easily fly down there and puke some weapons* out…
*i use that term loosely. Although I would be quite tickled if supplied the resistance with phased plasma rifles
And I believe Chavez and Maduro organized militias loyal to them outside the traditional military structure.
They did. They confiscated weapons from the populace and then handed weapons out to Maduro loyalists.
All true. However, the situation is getting so desperate and the numbers against Maduro so lopsided that a military coup (or outright fighting between the military) is becoming a real possibility. So is the equivalent of a human wave attack by the populace. They are literally flinging bags of their own shit against the cops. Many police units are not allowed to go home for fear they won’t return to duty. Something is going to crack.
George Romero, 1940-2017.
I don’t think zombie George Romero has been spotted yet.
His family probably made sure to put a bullet in his skull after the passed. He’d have wanted it that way.
His zombie movies got successfully worse with every one…
Rip dude. Great filmmaker.
“Basically it’s just a soap opera with a zombie occasionally,” he told the Big Issue. “I always used the zombie as a character for satire or a political criticism, and I find that missing in what’s happening now.”
Yes, Romero’s trademark horribly subtle and profound political criticism like “I don’t like consumerism”.
I remember vaguely that casting the lead in Night of the Living Dead was done on the basis that he was the best actor for the role, and only after the movie was done they realized it created a (very understated) metaphor about racial relations, particularly at the end.
Not a DJ, but he got beats
Also have beats.
its a really good record.
the last cut is on some sly stone stuff that makes you wonder who was biting who
Local news (ABC in LA) had a segment with my two favorite things: ABC/WashPo polling (americans love Obamacare over the RepPlan 2 to one!! America hates Trump!), and Adam Schiff talking oh-so-seriously about how Trump totally was colluding with Russians.
Schiff was born to be a villain henchman, I think – he does exactly what he’s told, but in this extra smarmy way. Without politics he’d be a car salesman. LA just has the worst congresscritters.
I wonder how many of the people who “love” Obamacare buy policies through the exchanges? Or are even able to?
A lot of these people claiming they want to ‘keep’ Obamacare have no idea that it will combust on its own within the next couple of years. Of course, they can then blame that on the GOP as well, I suppose.
Third possibility (no! couldn’t be!) is that the polls are set up in such a way to ensure O-Care sounds popular. (“Mr. Public, do you prefer Obamacare, which has led to wonderful coverage for so many people, over a Republican plan that will throw 22 million innocent people into a death spiral?”)
I don’t think they have to do anything to achieve this result.
The individual health insurance market is very small. 80% of the public is getting healthcare from Group plans, Medicare or Medicaid; and the individual market is only about half what’s left.
The actual number of people who have direct experience with the ACA will be 1-in-10 or 2-in-10. So unless polls purposely try and target these people 80-90% of respondents’ opinions are basically based on nothing except “Feels” and parroting the editorials they read.
I still can’t figure out why the GOP wants to own this turd burger by slapping their own name on it.
Because opposing the ACA has given them historically large majorities in Congress and even pushed that turd sandwich Trump up to the presidency.
You’d think they would worry about their constituents running out of patience.
I guess it depends on whether their constituents just want them to “do something” or whether they are actually expecting the GOP to repeal.
With any luck, Adam can die chained to a hospital bed like Irwin.
BRUTALS IN ENGLAND HAVE ODD LAWS ON STOPPING CRIMINALS.
Tony Martin could have warned him about that.
Tony Martin got to fuck Cyd Charisse.
I’d heard her name before but didn’t really know what she looked like.
Wow. Way to go Tony Martin!
She’s the one Gene Kelly is dancing with in the fantasy sequence in Singin’ in the Rain.
Town of 9000 people thinks it needs a code compliance officer. Statism ensues.
Minn. city’s renter situation is a new crackdown on an old policy
My dad was Code Enforcement Officer for a town of under a thousand. Of course, he only worked two days a week and handled all the building permits and a lot of shit from the town council.
LOL of course
For all the hyperventilating about bullying, the media always presents those who wish to use the power of the state to bully people they don’t like as something virtuous.
This article was pretty neutral.
I say if this guy can’t afford a proper rental the city should house him in something affordable, call it a “project”.
/sarc
“We should be talking about how we get this veteran into some safe, affordable energy-efficient housing,” Klemm said.
Oh FFS…
Oh, and while we are at it – ups yours, Beth Olness.
I think they would just as happily buy him a one-way bus ticket to Minneapolis.
So Beth is code inspector? Or is she just a bitch? I hope she had to shut off all her social media accounts due to people calling her out.
Looks like she made the posts “public”, but only her friends could post on it (and they’re lauding her for it). Stupid cunt.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10212280849914214&set=a.1251112835753.2038006.1167458906&type=3&theater
(note that the picture is a lie, and that’s not where the guy is living)
This is a post apparently with information from the tenant’s daughter calling the woman out on her bullshit. Also apparently she’s going it to protect her own rental, which totally doesn’t surprise me.
https://www.facebook.com/stephanie.r.schmit/posts/10209961711101192
This is why I don’t live in a city/or town. You get neighbors like Beth.
I see Beth is a graduate of Moorhead’s High School. I feel better about this already. Only a fucking Spud (the mascot of Moorhead and DL’s arch rival) would be so fucking petty as to try to pull this off.
Would you say that Beth Olness drew first blood?
Holy shit! That is my home town.
I’ll have to ask the parents what the fuck is going on there.
I thought from comments you’d made before that it was. I was surprised you hadn’t posted it already.
We visit about 2-3 times a year, but I don’t follow much going on there any more.
My mother is constantly on the beat, letting me who I know died, got married or had kids. Why should I duplicate effort.
It was a great place to grow up. The house in question is about a block away from my buddy’s house where we used to do a lot of underage drinking. I know that neighborhood pretty well. Nothing there is very fancy. All small 2-3 bedroom modest homes. I’m sure that if Beth’s home was in the suburbs of Minneapolis, she’d be in trouble with the city inspectors.
My father parks his boat and truck on the lawn in our back yard right along the alley so he doesn’t have to unhook it each night. My neighbors would shit if he tried that.
DL was about 5-6K when I lived there (graduated in ’85).
Hey, they have a city administrator AND a mayor, they probably need a code enforcement officer to bring in revenue for admin salaries.
ZARDOZ, any pictures or video from the race?
The post feature picture looks like the start?
Mad Ps skillz.
That’s a teaser. I’m looking for more.
What about audio?
I remember going on a fishing trip on the Tennessee river near Camden, TN and the only thing we could get on the radio at night were the local dirt track races.
You really haven’t lived until you hear a few hillbillies calling the local races on the radio on a warm summer night.
Chicago: Still Chicago
*note: i read the headline as suggesting that the 9yr old, and the Anti-Violence Activist were actually the same person. I mean, it was weird, but… i mean, i’ve heard crazier shit.
It’s a day for confusing headlines.
ZARDOZ’s competition shown here.
That…that was beautiful, man. But Zardoz was in a figure 8 race – if it was demolition derby, he would have won in about 90 seconds.
I kept looking for the MAGA hats.
“I’m 39“?
my grandfather looked better @75 than that guy
No shit, I just had the same thought.
The rules of Demo Derby – who wins? last man standing, most laps completed in set time, something like that? Just curious what the normal format is.
There are rules?
Last car running is how they do it around these parts.
There are no laps in Demo derby. It is held in, (around here) a rodeo ground. You just smash into everyone else and try to ruin their car. The back up smash is the best angle of attack of course.
When your car’s too fucked up to move anymore you’re out. If you’re too fucked up, you surrender and drop out.
Least that’s what they are in Ontario.
That first headline confused the hell out of me. Before I read the article I couldn’t figure out who had died—I thought some guy who tried to stop a robber then died, and they arrested his dead body for, like, having impeded the cops by stopping the robber or something.
The sad thing is that I could totally see that happening somewhere.
I was actually more surprised that that turned out not to be the case.
It got even more confusing the more i read. The dude who “Fell Ill”/was beaten to death was apparently a jacked-as-fuck, musclebound black dude.
maybe he hit his head, or his friend ran him over w/ his Audi. (the story mentions – equally confusingly – that his partner “mounted the sidewalk” with his car. sexy?)
The #Resistance Takes on The US Women’s Golf Open
And a decisive blow was struck against Trump’s sexist, cisheteropatriarchical hegemony
fuckin fuck tag fail. oops
When was he a sexual predator? Just making a rude joke about women who give themselves to him willingly hardly sounds like the definition of a sexual predator.
There was a President not that long ago who had credible accusations of rape and sexual assault. Yet I never saw a single one of these types of people protest against him.
“Squeeeeeee! Squeeeeeee! Squeeeeeee!”
Ariya Jutanugarn, Moriya Jutanugarn, Thidapa Suwannapura, and Pornanong Phatlum all hail from a country in which a military dictatorship routinely imprisons and/or disappears anyone deemed as threat in service to a monarch who placed his 3rd wife under house arrest and her whole family in prison for the crime of producing an heir with severe autism, and now currently parades around with an entire harem of mistresses and consorts.
But, hey, fuck them, right?
Speaking of Obamacare, I saw a new and novel talking point the other day, which I imagine will be popping up everywhere like Round-Up-resistant dandelions.
“Obamacare is not *imploding* : the insurance companies are all making good money!”
*consumers of health insurance and medical treatment are getting fucked, but a little handwaving will fix that.
by strictly limiting their ACA exposure, and jacking up rates for people in group markets to offset their losses?
I need someone to write a bloody master’s thesis on what the hell is up with the Sonic fandom.
New topic for the Internet Historian?
His recent bit that exposes a ton of corruption in the ‘Balloon Boy’ case is great.
I didn’t even click the link and I guess that it’s all pretty simple. People are masturbating to Sonic and friends.
Yeah it’s weirder than that. BDSM and child porn for example.
So like anything else on the Internet?
PROTIP: Glibertarians porn exists.
How? I was assured – BY YOU – we’d never get the succ!
Fucking links. Now.
Played one of the games once – hated it. Never thought of it again.
The restaurant, or the hedgehog?
Why not both?
by strictly limiting their ACA exposure, and jacking up rates for people in group markets to offset their losses?
Ten bucks is ten bucks.
More about Nathan J Robinson:
***
Now, a bit about the editor: Nathan J. is the man with whom I once tried to smoke a banana. And no, that isn’t a euphemism for fellatio. Inspired by Donovan’s “Mellow Yellow,” we actually tried to light a banana on fire and smoke it. Oh, college… Nathan J. is also the man who authored several children’s books including, “Don’t Let the Pigeon Question the Rules!” “The Mayor of New Orleans Gets Her Way” “The Day the Crayons Organized an Autonomous Workers’ Collective” “Libertarian Island” “California Sojourn” and “The Man Who Accidentally Wore His Cravat to the Gymnasium” as well as penned thoughtful essays for such mainstream publications as The Washington Post and Al Jazeera. He is a lawyer and a PhD student at Harvard. He speaks with a British accent which I am almost certain is fake (as I recall he is from Florida and I heard a rumor that on orientation day when his parents were present, he spoke like an American), but if he has the ability to adopt a British accent for the sake of eccentricity and stick to it, what can’t he accomplish!?
***
http://thederrickj.com/3454
The story of Nahtan J?
Ha, it’s that sociology PhD fuck from a couple days ago. It’s like the story of the most successful man to ever have chromosomal damage.
He’s gonna be to Derpy what Jessica Valenti was to Sargon.
Refresh my memory?
He writes a bunch of derpy, anti-libertarian articles for major media. Derpetologist posted one here a couple days ago.
Ah, I found it on an After Dark post that I missed.
Could Government-Mandated Kidney Donation be a Good Thing?
By Nathan Robinson
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-robinson/could-governmentmandated-_b_6585126.html
Well that was fun. So he wants someone to hold a gun to your head, while a surgeon cuts out your kidney? Does he have the balls to hold the gun or the scalpel himself?
No, he’s the ideas man, who believes in a well-organized society. There’ll be a Gun Dude, all trained and licenced by the government. Likewise Scalpel Dude.
Ideas Dude will modestly sit in the background, not expecting to be remembered for his contribution but pleasantly surprised when a street is named after him. Doesn’t even have to be a major one. A small park will do, really.
I wonder how he will react when gun and scalpel dude comes for his flesh.
Hail ZARDOZ!
Searching for “Zardoz tribute video” returns multiple YouTube hits – this has made my day.
That’s listenable.
Libertarian Island: A scathing critique of a miserable philosophy
by Nathan J Robinson
https://www.amazon.com/Libertarian-Island-Nathan-J-Robinson/dp/0692434054#reader_0692434054
You know, for kids!
Fucking hell, that’s not a parody. That’s a thing. A real thing that someone wrote and was proud of. That someone somewhere bought and went “right on!”
I’ve never been happier not to have any booze in the house!
“Our hero takes a coconut, bashes the Libartarian’s brains in, and takes the candy bars for hims- er, to share.”
It’s good when they start worrying about what we might do.
Stop Eviscerating the Harvard Professor Who Threatened to Sue a Chinese Restaurant Over $4. He Has a Point.
By Nathan J. Robinson
https://newrepublic.com/article/120558/ben-edelman-harvard-prof-angry-over-4-overcharge-has-point
Would he change his mind if I told him Ayn Rand would be in agreement (well, maybe she’d say that they guy is being silly, but definitely not in the wrong)?
None of this means that Ben Edelman did not behave like a jerk
Seems they’re in complete agreement.
(well, maybe she’d say that they guy is being silly, but definitely not in the wrong)?
Uh, she once wrote a long, meandering rant about loaning 25 bucks to her niece. I mean, it was 25 bucks in 1949, but still.
As someone who has been on the wrong end of “lending” money, she is abso-fucking-lutely in the right here.
Inflation calculator says that’s $257 in today’s money – certainly not an easy lend! And she offers to extend the loan, provided terms and conditions are settled upon.
***
My interests are in criminal law, political theory, socialist history, architecture, prisons, and rhythm and blues music. You can befriend me on Facebook and Twitter or email me at nathan.james.robinson@gmail.com.
***
I’ve been meaning to add to the Derponomicon.
[tents fingers]
Any suggestions on what I should say to him?
“Since you don’t believe in property rights, would you mind if I came over and helped myself to the contents of your residence?”
Why is it always the wormy, weak little cretins that think they have even a chance in the societies he proposes?
Perhaps you could start with the claim that “Pretty Much Anyone Who Says They Can’t Pay $15 An Hour is a Lying Swine“
Ahhh I remember this one. God what a cunt.
his argument includes gems like this
“”….Except maybe in the most remote areas, then, or among teenagers working their first jobs, paying people less than $15 an hour inflicts hardship”
Fact = the largest blocs of people earning min-wage are a combination of “teens” (19-under = 25% min wage earners) and “temporary labor” (for whom the work is not the prime source of income – 60%)
the average family income of people earning minimum wage is “$65,900 per year” – well above the average, which is due to the fact that a large number of earners are simply earning min-wage on the side and aren’t the breadwinners.
He’s flatly wrong; what he describes as outliers are the core of min-wage earners. And the people who pay them are often seasonal and small businesses who are rapidly being put out of business due to high regulatory impact.
I liked his totally original argument that minimum-wage workers can’t afford to live in the most expensive cities in America.
i’m sure next on the list of things that would blow his mind would be discovering why “Rent Control” not only hasn’t actually prevented these cities from being so expensive, its one of the prime culprits
Why don’t people eat Hagfish? Basically, the article says, “Yeah, it looks gross, but your mouth doesn’t have eyes.”
Because it goes in one end and comes out of your chest?
And they’re all over the road.
My experience is that Asians will eat anything that won’t kill you. So they must be safe to eat. Also, oysters. Who was the first brave person to eat one of those? They must have been starving. Don’t get me wrong, I love oysters on the half shell. But they aren’t pretty.
I used to feed my ethnic-Chinese ex things like gristly bone scraps that I was done with at meals. He would polish off the bones and break them open to get at anything inside.
Why not? If it tastes good. My wife thinks Cinnabon is the most disgusting thing she’s ever seen.
You’re scaring me.
I’ve worked with a lot of nursing staff who immigrated from sub-Saharan Africa. It has been common to see them ask for the leftover bones after the nurses pitched in on a bucket of chicken, then watch as they cracked the bones and sucked the marrow out from the inside. All the time shaking their heads about how wasteful Americans are.
It’s like with feijoada, ‘somente os partes nobres!’. Don’t be putting no guts or disgusting stuff in my bean soup!
I remember visiting Korea during “eel season” with my wife. Every restaurant would prop their front door open with a 5 gallon bucket of live eels. They would all be trying to leap out of the bucket and escape.
I’m not a picky eater, but it was funny watching my wife who is deathly afraid of eels, be the one who insisted on eating a fuck ton of them while we were there.
BTW, they are tasty, but I still would rather eat a jumbo perch if given the chance.
Did you have the perch when you were at Cadieux Cafe? It looked good on that link you posted about the feather bowling.
I didn’t, but one of the guys I was with did and said it was great.
I usually end up catching enough jumbo perch every year on a few different ice fishing trips, so I don’t need to buy it in a restaurant.
Trying all my web resources. Any HVAC people in here? AC doesn’t seem to be working properly. Have a guy coming tomorrow, but it would be nice to be able to sleep tonight. Outside unit and indoor unit appear to be working, however the cool air isn’t blowing out very hard.
“HVAC”
One percenter!
Obvious question, is your filter incredibly dirty?
There are several possibilities. Wont go into defrost, bad board, one phase burnt, bad fuse, blower going out, really dirty coil. Just to name a few. Bout have to start checking stuff witha meter to find out
I recently had the same issue. I was a couple lbs low on Freon. Got it topped off and it solved the problem. Fairly inexpensive service call. Ymmv.
“SOUTH AMERICAN BRUTALS MIGHT HAVE HARDER TIME MOVING AROUND CONTINENT?”
I don’t get it. Why wouldn’t any country in South America that still has some semblance of an economy not want to be invaded by Paraguayans, Bolivians, and Venezuelans? Has the EU not shown them they way? At least they’ve gotten lucky that Muslim immigrants don’t like it there because they don’t have enough free shit to give away.
Question for any of you who might know about British TV: with all the commotion over the new Doctor Who casting, I went to Wikipedia to check how long the gap between the old show and the new(er) one had been. (Basically, someone was yelling that it took 54 years for them to cast a female doctor, but I thought, “Wasn’t that show off the air for, like, 20-some years? So not really?) In looking at the Wikipedia article, it says:
I knew that in the U.K. what Americans call seasons, they call series, but the fact that Wiki called the original run of the show “seasons” and the new run “series” confused me. Did they used to use the word “season” in England? And if so, why the change? I tried googling but couldn’t find anything, so I’m not really sure what the deal is on that Wiki article.
Disclaimer: I do not watch Doctor Who. But, dear god, have I been hearing about it today. (Also, good grief, it ran 26 seasons and then they felt the need to reboot it?)
They’re using the term rather broadly on the list I’m looking at, but typically the difference is based on the length of the show in the U.K. A ‘season’ is something that has something like 20+ episodes, whereas a series is the more traditionally smaller amount of episodes (i.e. something like the IT Crowd only has 6 episodes a series).
(Also, good grief, it ran 26 seasons and then they felt the need to reboot it?)
It’s one of the few things the BBC produces that actually makes money. The other thing was Top Gear and they royally cocked that up. EastEnders might do ok.
I believe the terminology has changed over the years in the U.K. from seasons to series. Possibly also some flexibility for when a new series could be produced/aired vs annual seasons.
Doctor Who as a money maker didn’t take off until at least the 90’s, after John Nathan Turner crashed the series into the ground, production costs were sunk, sales of VHS/DVD/licensing started to rise, and later money from BBCAmerica.
And it’s sad to see how much stuff BBCAmerica has that’s not BBC at all (Star Trek, I’m talking to you).
(Also, good grief, it ran 26 seasons and then they felt the need to reboot it?)
My theory is that, if you look at the date spread, a critical mass of people at BBC who grew up watching Doctor Who was able to convince the management to give it another shot. It’d be like if Marvel died in 1990s bankruptcy, someone would have restarted Spider-man.
And it’s technically (yeah, yeah) not a reboot, but a continuation – there were Who radio dramas and books produced in the interim that I think are canonical. Including the initial reboot attempt that didn’t fly, but still counts.
Yep, Russell Davies was a huge Doctor Who nerd as a kid and basically pitched it when he was in the BBC’s good graces. And it’s clearly a ‘reboot’, as in they definitely started out trying to define it as separate from the old series as much as they could. You definitely see that in the first season, which is rife with early 2000s edginess. The ‘cool’ Doctor in his leather jacket (this is not a shot at the actor who did great) abducting the working class girl, all the dumb political commentary about things like the Iraq War, all the gay characters, etc.
It’s not a reboot because they showed the older doctors in various flashbacks, sketches, etc. several times.
Meh I frame it in the context of a ‘soft reboot’ a la the Force Awakens. Keep a lot of the old canon and throw out what you think doesn’t work. They killed off all the Time Lords for a reason.
I guess, but redefining the character to fit the current zeitgeist has been part of the franchise for the longest time.
I mean, Third Doctor was very strongly influenced by The Avengers and Bond franchise, with his cool cars and hip suits and military buddies he was going on missions for.
I noticed that too. I just assumed they were being trendy in following the British practice with the new run.
I am just glad that we have things like long running and beloved TV shows that we can use as a tool to signal how virtuous we are.
Meh. As probably the biggest fan of the series on this board, I’m fine with it. The new showrunner was going to cast someone he’s worked with, and that meant Broadchurch (awesome show). And he couldn’t re-cast David Tennant, so…
I stopped watching when they cast the old dude as Doctor Who…though it’s on Prime atm so I might catch up again at some point.
I would just think that within the storyline, gender is a big deal. I mean the dude is haunted by the death of his wife and children, seems weird to now cast him as a woman.
Old dude.. so gave up on it in Nov 1963?
Ha! No way, I saw the old episodes no thanks, barely made it through season 1 of the reboot. Talking about the most recent geriatric patient.
Yes, I’m sure the constant whining of social justice warriors to get a woman and a petty victory had absolutely nothing to do with the decision.
Female Master was unbearable, so this is not a good sign.
Missy was fucking awesome.
Bill, however, with her “I’M GAY, DID YOU KNOW THAT I’M GAY?” every fucking episode, on the other hand…
Nope, John Simms was awesome, brilliant balance of goofiness and intense madness. Missy was like an annoying child demanding attention.
Bill, however, with her “I’M GAY, DID YOU KNOW THAT I’M GAY?” every fucking episode, on the other hand…
That is pretty much every gay character in Doctor Who. It kind of worked for Harkness though because Barrowman is charismatic.
Captain Jack wasn’t gay. Captain Jack would fuck anything sentient.
Sounds like a wink and a nod at Captain Kirk.
She was better than the previous Master, that’s for sure.
I only watched one episode this year, did not care for the new companion at all.
Hey, with a chick doctor do we get male companions now?? Unless they keep the current one oh god I don’t want to think about where they’re going to go with that.
Yes, Adric Jr.
Traditionally, companions were there to make sure dads are also watching, so…maybe? But more likely she’ll still have some young piece of totty with her.
Known homosexual Matthew Waterhouse might raise his eyebrows at that.
For jesse and other kilt fanciers, new incarnation of Jimmy?
It is weird seeing male companions in the old run that aren’t just a door mat to their girl-power females.
I only know Chibnall as the writer of some of the hackier Torchwood and Who episodes. I dunno, maybe he can bring some fun back after Moffat’s tediously overwrought stuff.
Oh, and I forgot the obligatory statement: if they have the balls to make FemDoctor based on Margaret Thatcher, I’ll watch every episode twice and buy $100 worth of merchandise.
Uhhh…
I know, I know. But, think what a character we would have if the Doctor was forceful, determined, eloquent and more interested in helping people learn how to solve their problems than fixing them every time so they become dependent on him.
Plus, no one would expect it! Internet would break in half etc! But yes, I think my time and my $100 are safe.
Yeah, she was the Trump of her day. More than Reagan even.
She was hated, but, unlike Trump, no one called her stupid, or uneducated, or vulgar. Those really were more of Reagan tropes.
But hell, was she hated! And, unlike Reagan, that hatred only matured as she grew older and less relevant.
Well Pan, if you don’t already know this, past Republican leaders are treated very well by the mainstream press. It’s their device for condemning whoever the current Republican nominee or president is. And it is positively galling that just four years prior, they were calling that guy RacistSexistBigotHomophobe and you’re a Deplorable for pointing it out.
Anyone following the Bakari Henderson death? Bunch of Eastern Europeans (Serbians) beat the hell out of him after a bar fight in Greece. The story has blown up because his friends were all white, but none of them came to help him when the mob went after him. Here’s a quick breakdown.
If Serbs are involved, I’d at least take a second look at it as a contributing factor…
he story has blown up because his friends were all white, but none of them came to help him when the mob went after him.
Nine dudes isn’t a mob, but I don’t blame the friends, that’s a lot of fuckers, some of whom are probably roided up to the gills. Unless there was at least a parity of numbers, bro code doesn’t demand them jumping in.
His friends may have not even known what was happening until it was too late, but that isn’t stopping some people from making hay off the idea that whites can’t be trusted, even if they’re your “friends”.
Look, straff, segregation is the new hotness. Get woke!
Depends on if Bakari had a bottle.
Depends on the guy. If he is your buddy, you do need to step in and help out. On the other hand, if he is a complete asshole (and has been acting like one at the bar) you are under no obligation (unless you think you should give the asshole a head’s up that he is on his own).
I was on a business trip in Texas once with a guy who was a complete jerk. He was a little guy who had gone to West Point. Huge chip on his shoulder at all times. Anyhow he started some shit with some local cowboys (we were in the boonies). One of the cowboys told us that we should put a leash on our boy. We very publicly told them that he was not “our boy” and we were there to have a peaceful drink. The cowboy’s eyes lit up and about 10 minutes later they put a fairly good beat down on our jerk when he ran his mouth off.
When we got back, we got a lot of free beer from other employees for telling the story about why our asshole came back with two massive black eyes and a lot of bruises. The favorite part from everyone was when we got to the part when the local deputy showed up (of course our asshole called them) and NO witnesses could be found to corroborate his story.
You need to try, but if there’s only a few of you and there’s 9 guys beating your friend down… sorry, self-preservation beats out the bro code. PZ’s right; if there’s parity of numbers, then you go in.
I’m also assuming they made it clear this isn’t just a “punch him twice, he stays put, we’re done” affair, but that they went in hard, and if he dies, he dies.
I’m with Jimbo on this. In my younger days I would’ve thrown down with them if my friend was getting beat as long as no weapons were involved. Getting beat up usually isn’t that bad. Having grown up with 4 brothers, I’ve been punched in the face a million times. At my age now, I’d do whatever I could to help him out. Those Serbs looked like they were crazed, so I don’t even know what that would be.
My calculus has changed on this since becoming a father. The whole, “I’ve got a family!” argument really does mean something; if I were to die in some stupid bar fight or whatever I’ve got enough insurance for my wife to buy the house, bury me, and sock some money away for emergencies, but then the household income gets cut in half, her parental burden (not insignificant when you consider how it impacts her ability to work) doubles, and pretty much everything goes at least a little bit to shit.
When I was young and dumb, I’d have said that you stand next to your boys 100% of the time, fuck the odds. Willing to die for a friend is what makes friendship mean something. Now that I’m old and dumb, I still believe that, but I also believe that those friends have an obligation not to put me in situations like that. This is why I spend time with other people who are at least moderately responsible parents interested primarily in having a quiet drink on a patio and being in bed by midnight.
Opening scene of the new Game of Thrones season was fucking spectacular. Not going to post spoilers.
oh snap. its on hbonow as well, looks like I know how my next hour is going.
Holy shit, just watched it myself, that was epic.
Really? I thought it was the worst episode yet.
I think it was the opening scene that was the focus here. The rest of the episode was more of a “get people to places where interesting things will happen later”
You mean the opening scene where a character uses a skill they never actually learned? Sure, the character saw it done, and even used it before, but fled before they actually learned how to do it. But now they just know how, cuz…
OK, so this is basically, “we want to do nothing, but all that fire and damage looks bad, so let’s propose something stupid so we can say we tried but outcry stopped us”, right?
Germany apes Minority Report
Or you could arrest them when they start shit, unmask them, send them on trial and jail them/fine them.
Or you could arrest them when they start shit, unmask them, send them on trial and jail them/fine them.
Tends to not work out that way. They arrested over a thousand people at the G20 riots in Toronto and only around fifty of them were ever charged with anything. Riots are fucking messy. Despite the entirely legitimate libertarian views of police currently I have no problem with them breaking down groups at the first sign of riotous assembly.
Yes, that too! But ffs, let the bastards congregate before you start busting them!
The very thought that you know who is going to riot, so you’ll ban them, but you can’t prove that they DID riot once it’s done… uggggh!
And honestly, I’m almost at “Maxims and open pits” with those fuckers at this point – but AFTER they do shit.
Seth Bullock had the right of it, overall peaceful behaviour is something to ignore, a more violent and murderous incident is to be resolved with cold, hard steel.
The greatest modern hypocrisy of the West is to go after idiots who post things on the internet or have dogs are are vaguely threatening while failing to challenge organized, violent attempts at responding to some political conference.
that’s basically right – they have to pretend that any “solutions” are draconian, and therefore so undesirable to be impossible.
they ignore the obvious things that would create effective deterrence because these rioters are politically useful to them.
Yeah, if “cultural preservers” (or whatever they’re called) from all over Europe congregated in a city to burn and loot immigrant neighborhoods, I bet that wouldn’t be met with “but what can we do?” shrug…
Why, it’s Old Man Winters, the guy from the haunted amusement park!
This was not an intentional P Brooks-ing
here’s my draft email to Nathan J Robinson:
***
I have read many of your articles. It is very disappointing to see someone who spent so many years in school churn out one empty-headed opinion after another.
The one about mandatory kidney donation was particularly absurd. You really think the govt should be harvesting organs? That is somehow morally superior to letting people sell them?
What happens in this scenario of yours if the people resist having the organs harvested? You think they won’t try to fight back? People in this country took up arms over a tax on *whiskey*.
Do you like being coerced? No? Then why do you spend so much time fantasizing about coercing other people? It is neither healthy nor a good use of time.
If you actually care about human well-being, you should be fighting socialism tooth and nail, because it has caused more suffering than any idea in history.
Right now in socialist Venezuela, people are poor and starving because of the idiotic policies of their central planners. Oil-rich Venezuela should be one of the richest countries on earth, but it never will be as long as socialists are running it.
All the policies you advocate, such as minimum wage, progressive taxes, price controls, etc bring nothing but misery everywhere they are tried.
And yet I saw you in a video with a bust of Marx on the table next to you. You disabled the video’s comments. You want to rearrange the world, but you don’t have the guts to face criticism? Pathetic. And that fake British accent does not make you sound smarter.
You want robust, intellectual debate? Reply to this email.
Here’s some food for thought: http://johnhospers.com/Articles/JusticeVsSocialJustice.pdf
***
“What happens in this scenario of yours if the people resist having the organs harvested? You think they won’t try to fight back? People in this country took up arms over a tax on *whiskey*.”
I thought this was a particularly well-made point.
I should add that the tax was 9 cents per gallon.
I was thinking of linking to this video instead of the justice vs social justice essay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90SdmjuCAqw
How about this classic, courtesy of Doctor Who discussion above?
or maybe this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwH3Xr6uyG0
For a decade I’ve been working on a story where ‘liberalism’ wins and they get the world they want, the only holdout is the Republic of Texas (in the story a libertopia) but I’ve bounced back and forth on making the rest of the world soviet style, or their dreams come true; and then when the story moves to libertopia finding out the free world is several hundred years ahead technologically.
Yes, but of course, nine cents then in modern currency is equivalent today to over $5,400.
Can’t tell if joking.
$1 in 1790 is about $26 today, so 9 cents then is about $2.
I must not have made much of a snarkers impression when we hung out in person if it’s that hard to tell if I’m joking. Yes, that was my attempt at being risible.
I do always find grossly overstated numbers funny for some reason. Like when someone says along the lines of, “You know how old Goldie Hawn is now? She’s one-hundred and three.”
At that rate she’ll be 150 in 20 years. *Hansen projection*
Hey, I feel for you.
My general attitude when stuck in awkward conversations is to just kind of play the fool, and toss out a few bon mots when I think of them. If nothing else, it gets me out out of the kitchen into the cocktail parties.
he’s not a brit?
Guy who knew him in college said he’s from Florida.
***
Now, a bit about the editor: Nathan J. is the man with whom I once tried to smoke a banana. And no, that isn’t a euphemism for fellatio. Inspired by Donovan’s “Mellow Yellow,” we actually tried to light a banana on fire and smoke it. Oh, college… Nathan J. is also the man who authored several children’s books including, “Don’t Let the Pigeon Question the Rules!” “The Mayor of New Orleans Gets Her Way” “The Day the Crayons Organized an Autonomous Workers’ Collective” “Libertarian Island” “California Sojourn” and “The Man Who Accidentally Wore His Cravat to the Gymnasium” as well as penned thoughtful essays for such mainstream publications as The Washington Post and Al Jazeera. He is a lawyer and a PhD student at Harvard. He speaks with a British accent which I am almost certain is fake (as I recall he is from Florida and I heard a rumor that on orientation day when his parents were present, he spoke like an American), but if he has the ability to adopt a British accent for the sake of eccentricity and stick to it, what can’t he accomplish!?
***
http://thederrickj.com/3454
Does NJR actually refer to Current Affairs product as “libertarian socialist”… or anarchist? the writing seems, if anything, bog-standard lefty pablum
My only thought is that you’re probably wasting your time writing NJR.
better would be to take one of his pieces and do an autopsy of how retarded it is, and harangue his readers with it until they’re forced to try and respond.
i doubt he’ll ever respond to you. people like him are only interested in “left vs. leftier” arguments, and only with people higher up the intellectual-food-chain.
they do it as a game to remind each other how smart they are and to provide their viewers the impression that this is the “sensible range of opinion”. they don’t mix with proles like you.
No reference to Chinese prisoner organ harvesting/sales? I haz a sad.
Damn. I was just watching Space: 1999 last night.
One of my short-list favorites is Crimes and Misdemeanors, and Landau was great in it.
Landau is a pretty good slimy villain in North by Northwest.
Love in that movie when Cary Grant is hanging off the edge of Mount Rushmore by one hand — his other hand holding a dangling Eva Marie Saint — and Landau comes up and starts to grind his shoe on his fingertips. And then — the sound of a shot — and Landau curls forward and plummets to his death under the carving of George Washington. Great stuff.
I also thought Landau was terrific as Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood.
Yep. Classic!
One of my favorite moments in movie history.