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#baio's opinion
georgefairbrother · 8 months
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Remembering British film director and writer Sir Alan Parker CBE, who passed away July 31st, 2020, aged 76.
Born to a working class family in Islington, North London he made his early reputation as a pioneer of creativity in television advertising. He formed a creative partnership with David Puttnam and went on to become one of his generation’s most accomplished film directors.
He directed Jack Rosenthal’s television play, The Evacuees, for the BBC (BAFTA and International Emmy), and his first international cinema success was Bugsy Malone (1976), a musical gangster pastiche featuring a cast of children, including Jodie Foster, Scott Baio, Andrew Paul (The Bill), Bonnie Langford and an uncredited Phil Daniels. He said that he wrote Bugsy Malone out of frustration, as his work was constantly being rejected on the grounds of being 'too parochial'.
He went on to create a commercially successful, diverse and at times controversial body of work, including Midnight Express (written by Oliver Stone: they didn’t get on), Fame, Pink Floyd-The Wall, Mississippi Burning, The Commitments, Evita and Angela's Ashes. His final feature film was The Life of David Gale in 2003.
According to his official website;
"...In all, his films have won nineteen BAFTA awards, ten Golden Globes and ten Oscars...In January 1998, Parker took up his post as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the British Film Institute and in August, 1999 he was appointed first Chairman of the UK Film Council; a position he held for five years...In November, 1995, Parker was awarded with a CBE by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the British film industry and he received a knighthood in 2002. He is also an Officier des Arts et des Lettres, awarded by the French Government..."
He was also fascinating to listen to on the subject of the film industry generally, and gave a number of entertainingly grumpy interviews over the years. In the mid 1980s, his Thames TV documentary, A Turnip Head’s Guide to the British Film Industry, which according to his own website ‘lambasted the British film establishment and film critics’, seemed to upset just about everyone but won the British Press Guild award for the year’s best documentary.
He was interviewed by Warner Brothers executives as a potential director for the first Harry Potter, however during a teleconference (from his kitchen table at home) didn’t seem to express enough interest or gratitude at being asked. When a Warner exec told him that lots of directors would just love to do it, Parker said, 'Well go and ask them, then', and that was the end of that.
In conversation with David Puttnam for a BFI function, Alan Parker explained why he gave up making films, and talked a little about his art and drawing.
"…I’m out of it, I’ve had enough, I think it’s time for someone else to do it. I get more pleasure out of doing my art…I’ve been directing since I was 24, and every day was a battle, every day it was difficult, whether you’re fighting the producer who has opinions that you don’t agree with, the studios or whoever it is, because film, unlike art, pure art, film is hugely expensive, and the moment it gets expensive, you have people you have to serve…I’ve been punching out, all my life…to fight for the work…for our right to make our movie, the way we want to do it, and that’s hugely difficult, because it seems that you’re forever punching out. There comes a time, when you think, I don’t want to do that…I showed (a friend) one of my art works, and he said, who’s your audience here? Because that’s what film people think. I said the audience is me, and that’s all I care about, if someone likes my art, fine, if they don’t, fine…If they don’t like my movies, I want to kill ‘em…"
He was Michael Parkinson's first guest on Desert Island Discs in 1986, (a great interview) and featured once again 14 years later talking to Sue Lawley.
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This day in history
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Tonight (May 2) I’ll be in Portland at the Cedar Hills Powell’s with Andy Baio for my new novel, Red Team Blues.
On May 5, I’ll be at the Books, Inc in Mountain View with Mitch Kapor; and on May 6/7, I’ll be in Berkeley at the Bay Area Bookfest.
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#10yrsago Why “connecting the dots” is the wrong way to think about stopping terrorism https://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/02/opinion/schneier-boston-bombing/index.html
#10yrsago Homemade laser pops 100 balloons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuceDT2R4f4
#10yrsago OpenWorm: an artificial life sim of an earthworm https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2013/05/openworm-artificial-life.html
#10yrsago Running on a long, deep pool of ooblek https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHlAcASsf6U
#10yrsago Jello Biafra and The Guantanamo School Of Medicine’s “White People and the Damage Done” https://memex.craphound.com/2013/05/03/jello-biafra-and-the-guantanamo-school-of-medicines-white-people-and-the-damage-done/
#10yrsago Easy win for publishing: network and systematize PR and marketing https://locusmag.com/2013/05/cory-doctorow-improving-book-publicity-in-the-21st-century/
#5yrsago Mashup Maker: Another entry for the Catalog of Missing Devices https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/05/mashup-maker-another-entry-catalog-missing-devices-eff-supporter
#5yrsago Facebook has repeatedly fired stalker employees, then covered it up https://www.vice.com/en/article/bjp9zv/facebook-employees-look-at-user-data
#5yrsago Oakland passes groundbreaking municipal law requiring citizen oversight of local surveillance https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/05/oakland-passes-strongest-surveillance-oversight-law-in-us/
#1yrago The Democrats’ self-immolating fetish for means-testing https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/03/utopia-of-rules/#in-triplicate
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Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Mountain View, Berkeley, Portland, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, DC, Gaithersburg, Oxford, Hay, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!
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anthonybialy · 9 months
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United Front and Back
A lack of internal criticism sadly isn’t as popular as giving up on printing money.  You never hear liberals condemn any of their own, whether it be failed policies or shady allies.  It’s the only discipline displayed.  I wish talking points fans could be as fervent while running a corporation, as they could create things customers want enough to buy.  Practitioners might be able to run a commercial enterprise if they could balance a payroll the way they ensure creepy unanimity.
Make sure you’re on a side willing to tell dirtbags ostensibly on their side to get lost.  Grudgingly accept their contempt for increasingly unfathomable debt without pretending they’re delightful individuals.
The naturally and delightfully suspicious already loathe politicians on principle.  They hold office, after all.  Foes of compliance scowl at candidates reluctantly backed as the less worse option should get extra scrutiny for verification.  The elected can claim to be undermining the system from the inside.  But they’re still collecting paychecks, which makes their claims of sabotage worth scrutinizing.
Being loathed for the wrong reasons is the abnormal normal from Joe Biden’s defenders who can’t understand why everyone seems so bummed.  Woke purveyors are calmly conditioned to treat anyone not on their team as minions of Hell’s supervisor paired with wannabe residents of Germany at its naughtiest.  Hating everyone and everything else connected to thinking differently is how to spread love.  Issuing welts to the other dodgeball team during gym class is school lesson that sticks.  Sports are icky savage meritocracies.
Democrats don’t grasp what to criticize just to be consistent.  Venomous seething furthers their type of goals.  Focusing on their opinions of individual personalities instead of ideas is a natural outcome in its way.  Mocking Scott Baio’s post-Charles in Charge career is easier than explaining why your money is better spent by Biden.
It’s always disappointing when Republicans halfheartedly copy whatever Democrats endorse lustily, from unfathomable spending and dole pittances to a refusal to criticize anyone tangentially affiliated.  Renounce from within instead of remaining partners with those who aren't.  Trumpology lieutenants show how much they loathe the other faction by acting as stringently.  Sean Hannity’s heart remains broken, while Kimberly Guilfoyle remedied that problem by marrying into her political dream.  All-time sellout Ann Coulter is undefeated in a way.
Some representatives who have backed things I back still shouldn’t be standing in for unfortunate districts.  I would change subway cars if Marjorie Taylor Greene started reading her tweets in mine.  And I wish I could get a restraining order against Matt Gaetz just in case.  Meanwhile, George Santos showed Jon Lovitz predicted the future.
The all-time example won’t go away.  A longtime Democrat who often acted as such provides equivalence.  Donald Trump leads a dwindling yet annoying faction that claims to adhere to the rulebook.  But nobody ever played his board game.  It’s easy for principled members of his ostensible party to oppose a comeback worse than Subway rehiring Jared because he’s an all-time dirtbag who dreams of again using federal power like a strongman to compensate for not being a strong man.
Persistent fans of the area cast in darkness by the Iron Curtain get deserved heroes.  A more objective analyst might want to point out that, say, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was the sort of bartender who’d complain when she finally got around to serving you a rum and Coke made with vodka and orange juice, Bernie Sanders likes the wrong directional Korea, or Rambo isn’t Richard Blumenthal’s life story any more than Elizabeth Warren tweets from a longhouse.  Lunatic ravers create a quandary when you need their votes.
The concepts are their problem.  Liberals should really be decrying their ideology, what with the way it punishes people for earning and behaving.  There may be kinder ways of reaching equality than making everyone poor.  At least having no money distracts from international chaos spurred by presuming America makes everyone hate us by being mean.
The most zealous fans never criticize their own team.  I didn’t say cheering was healthy.  Rabid followers flaunt unity in the wrong way.  Noticing who’s getting a little Khmer Rouge-y or taking corruption beyond typical cartoonish levels might prevent implementing coerced joy.  Dissent ruins collective dreams.  They may not be yours, but personal identity is presently out of vogue.  Enthusiastic enrollees are not big into deviating from unity.
Defending everyone wearing the same insignia is a byproduct of commitment to delusion.  We cope with a rather zealous show side who feels they’re saving kids from being hunted by bloodthirsty NRA executives, the poor from being dumped out of wheelchairs into snowbanks by heartless health care executives, and the planet itself from greedy capitalists who are in favor of a climate-controlled civilization.  The occasional fundamental fib or personal phoniness means nothing relative to the true cause.
The cultish quality of the hive’s beliefs conforms to communal identity.  Our leviathan’s lovers are not interested in individual achievements, what with punishing success, wishing guns could be prosecuted for crimes, and scoffing at rights confiscated in order to not stop a virus.  The most ardent adherents maintain government can cure all ills, including medical ones.  I double-checked and they’re referring to this government.  Don’t laugh.  Actually, go ahead.
It’s natural in a sick way to conclude politicians who want to impose sweet order must be legends.  Deranged believers don’t distance themselves from purveyors of glorious mandatory cooperation.  Policing one’s own is too reminiscent of law enforcement for Democrats to embrace.
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college-girl199328 · 1 year
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Woody Harrelson divided Saturday Night Live viewers over his monologue as the actor hosted the NBC sketch show for the fifth time.
The True Detective alum took the stage and made remarks calling out mandates over the Covid vaccine.
“The biggest drug cartels in the world get together and buy up all the media and all the politicians and force all the people in the world to stay locked in their homes, and people can only come out if they take the cartel’s drugs and keep taking them over and over,” Harrelson said about an alleged film script he read.
Harrelson’s punchline followed with the host adding, “I threw the script away. I mean, who is willing to believe that crazy idea? Being forced to do drugs? I do that voluntarily all day long.”
The actor ended the joke by saying he didn’t need a mandate to take the drugs the cartels were forcing him to take.
In the past, Harrelson has called out the government and pharmaceutical companies for profiting from the Covid pandemic. Many people on social media assumed his SNL monologue was another one of those instances.
Twitter CEO, Elon Musk, called Harrelson’s monologue an excellent one on social media following the late-night show airing.
In another tweet, Musk congratulated the NBC show tweeting, “So based. Nice work @nbcsnl!”
As the media reported on Harrelson’s monologue, social media users that are conspiracy theorists began to make note of it with Musk responding to a user saying, “Maybe they don’t realize that their propaganda is wrong?”
Another user pointed out the headlines saying Harrelson was spreading anti-vax conspiracies, to which Musk replied with a target emoji.
Although Musk liked Harrelson’s monologue, other users expressed opposing views.
“It’s such an incredibly selfish & privileged position, the anti-vax, anti-lockdown, anti-covid conspiracy one. Woody Harrelson, & those supporting such BS, are only able to do so because they are OK,” a Twitter user shared. “Nobody who has suffered or lost loved ones to Covid talks like that.”
Author and TV writer Lee Goldberg, whose credits include The Glades and Psych, shared his opinion on Twitter.
“Thank you, @nbcsnl, for Woody Harrelson’s insipid anti-vax monologue. Who is going to be the guest host next week, Scott Baio? Rob Schneider? Kevin Sorbo? Maybe invite Kanye back while you’re at it,” he shared.
Comedian and TV writer Ashley Ray also tweeted her view saying, “rant makes it sound like he did it randomly without permission when this definitely sounds like a thing that was written and on cue cards.”
IHeartRadio host Jerry Houston tweeted, “Woody Harrelson ~actually~ admitted to being a drugged out redneck. He said it moments before he spouted his anti-vax message…and yet those folks are now frothing at the mouth like he’s some expert? Wow, okay.”
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wpdariacutnes · 2 years
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🍸🌾🎵🍸🌾🎵🍸🌾🎵🍸🌾🎵🍸🌾🎵🍸
Me: Me frest filings a but "merry sues"
Well rezands canda be like someone says:::
+ or too much play personality like utra/legends cute/edgy/depresion and more only dys player
+or like code megaman a rezan derry say "merry sues" because canda be a too powersfur or more sens a good dochose is too atraktyws a nader males
+or neo palette or Wall pastel corors and play dys a multum time or wirts take pegaze and mix on oc's
🙄🧁🙄🧁🙄🧁🙄🧁🙄🧁🙄🧁🙄🧁🙄🧁🙄🧁
Someone: derry say true a megaman is merry sues a das only romanse a guy and get more
Me: and only dys rezan be okeys a say dys one rezan a so be enoing a someone cherater chraing better dill her
🍸🌾🎵🍸🌾🎵🍸🌾🎵🍸🌾🎵🍸🌾🎵🍸
Me: jezz im neber a rex a be one but more sens edgy katsune a code be type emo like im knows ashly chring be cool But dys oc is wery bit woring you... dys yers a neber a 105 yers old but expleing a sowing ruby staws a her life finks so canda okeys but yeah geg
Someone:
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Me: so sowing more understand dys and supraze self a das Rex is black skin and wery white hear so canda balans dys because is fire type not lie a canda edgy katsune get fire type so canda make obre because blood is fire hmh
Someone:
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Me: more wirts a yelly oc a canda sugar katsune and someone say okey is white or canda wirts prastyr or something bad hello kitty it's not too much just more friendly but I changed that it is not a fly type a im dont understand a get jenny a name a sugar katsune more me is Wilam or sowing me only opinion
Someone: yelly you so dont understand a cherater megaman stop plis ashly sames aaaa cringe aaaa
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Me: so enifing a note down piksher like devanart a riding a down a art or sowing a canda candy baio as art her cherater canda not so terebut but canda bit geg a one rezan
But look cherater is bit emm so pastely?? So white tones?
Someone: a yeah candy expleing wery good but emm why look like dys candy noooo
Me: ploblem is not lesing a candy but dys comunity
Someone: o relly now make a deam lising
Me: okey good look you
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Me: And yeah why the derry has a tail because it's a cover for a bad eretic data cable so
"it's a cable on the lid or something"
🙄🧁🙄🧁🙄🧁🙄🧁🙄🧁🙄🧁🙄🧁🙄🧁🙄🧁
Offical note: 04.08.2022.r
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pointless-letters · 3 years
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Joanie loves Chachi, but Chachi really loves using prisoners as guinea pigs in unethical forced medical research.
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harpersplay · 2 years
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11 16 22 28 for TV asks pls!
11. which TV show has the best musical soundtrack, in your opinion? Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - the sheer talent of everyone involved is inspiring. RIP Adam Schlesinger.
16. do you feel like there are any underrated TV show formats? Animated
22. if you could write your own TV show, what would it be like? Character-driven. Character trumps plot for me. If I care about the characters—care, not like, not agree with, not want to fuck, but care —then I'll follow the story being told. Other things: women-focused, zero manpain, zero white feminism, platonic relationships given equal (or more) emphasis than romantic relationships, good music.
28. who would be your dream cameo on your favourite show? Archer keeps giving me cameos I didn't even know I wanted until they happened. So I think I'll say I trust them to continue to do so. And—not my favourite show—but before Kristy Swanson revealed herself to be the Stacey Dash of Scott Baios, I always thought it would have been neat if she'd had a role on BtVS. Especially during the high school seasons.
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randomslasher · 3 years
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music ask game: 27, 23, and 1
Yay thank yoU!!
27: A Song that breaks your heart.
This War is Over by Melissa Etheridge. I think probably because I first saw it in a fan video where a character had died? It's just a very sad song to me.
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23. A song that you think everybody should listen to
This one's hard for me because I'm of the opinion that people should listen to the songs they like, but a song I really like right now and enjoy listening to is Sister of Pearl by Baio!
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1. A song you like with a color in the title
Mr Blue by Catherine Feeny!
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Music Asks!
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stoopsbookstore · 4 years
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Why smut isn't bad.
Here's why smut isn't this horrible, awful thing some people have made it out to be.
Would you rather people be screaming their sexual fantasies during a concert or having a sign that says "[Insert Idol Here], eat my pussy, suck my dick, eat my ass, fill me up," etc., so on and so forth?
Or would you rather all of those thoughts be contained to a website, someone's personal blog or personal Twitter, or Wattpad or Ao3 where tbere is maybe a 5-10% chance an idol will ever find it.
People have thristing, lusting and having fantasies over celebrities for YEARS! My mom would constantly talk how much she loved David Cassidy or Scott Baio when she was 17, 18, 19, 20. She had the posters up, she would kiss them, she would steal magazines and cut out the photos and dream of a life with her celebrities.
It's normal to have sexual thoughts (as long as everything is legal), I was having sexual thoughts of the guy who played Peter Pan on Once Upon a Time, I was 17 and the actor was 19 and I was talking about how bad I'd love for Peter Pan to take me to Neverland and never me leave. Did I ever tweet him that? Hell no. Did I ever DM him on Instagram? Hell no. Did I ever go to a panel and say to his face I wanted fo fuck him? Hell no.
People will shame those who run smut blogs, porn blogs or even talk about sex with idol and be like "UWU UMMM EXCUSE ME UWU THEY WOULD NEVER DO THAT THEYRE PURE PUFFBALLS!" Most idols are between the ages of 18-mid 30s, they are getting fucked, let's be honest.
Sex is something natural, it's something that 90% of us will do at some point in our life. Instead of being ashamed of sexual thoughts or shaming those who voice their sexual thoughts about legal people, keep your opinions to yourself, if someone is thristing over someone underage, then yes call them out.
But as long as they're not tagging artists, sending links to the artists, or going to fansigns with shirts that says "Memebr X tops Member Y" or going to concerts with signs that say "Member Z, please fuck me into next weekend!" and as long as the idol isn't underage, let people thrist, let people lust, let people have fantasies.
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gayeld · 4 years
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Damn this is long
  I’m not sure I have that much patience today.
 I was tagged by @jjclarku and @jenrkao3
 1)  Put your iTunes on shuffle. Give me the first 6 songs that pop up.
How about the top six on my Amazon “Things I like” playlist?
Dream On – Aerosmith
Desire – U2
Beast of Burden – The Rolling Stones (but I’ll take the Better Midler version as well)
A Little Less Conversation – Elvis Presley (JXL radio edit)
Bad at Love – Halsey
New Rules – Dua Lipa
 2)  If you could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be?
George R. R. Martin, so I could steal his laptop.
 3)  Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 23, give me line 17.
There are only two lines on page 23.  The second one is “RUB ME REALLY HARD”.
4)  What do you think about most?
What am I supposed to be doing now?  Okay, probably, Gendrya.
 5)  Ever had a poem or song written about you?
Noooooooooooo!  There’s not even a song with my name in it.  My sister has, like, three.  And it’s not like nothing rhymes with Gayle.  Lots of things rhyme with Gayle.  Mail, male, jail, bail…
 6)  Do you have any strange phobias?
Not that I’m aware of.  I’m slightly claustrophobic, but it has to be a really tight space (like stuck between two other fifth graders in the hollow space of a fallen redwood. Yes, that’s very specific, for a reason.
  7)  What’s your religion?
Gendrya.  Otherwise, I am cult free.
 8)  If you are outside, what are you most likely doing?
Watching my daughter swing.
 9)  Simple but extremely complex. Favorite band?
I’m not entirely sure I have one this week.  The Rolling Stones if I have to pick.
 10) What was the last lie you told?
That I was happy to help someone at work.  I’m not. You’ve been doing this job longer than I have, STOP ASKING ME HOW TO DO IT!
 11) Do you believe in karma?
Love the concept, don’t really believe in it though.
 12) What does your URL mean?
Just my name with two letters swapped.  I wanted something I could remember easily without numbers in it (it was a thing, trying to not have numbers in your email address). I have the same name pretty much everywhere.
 13) What is your greatest weakness; your greatest strength?
They’re the same thing.  I’m genius level smart, it means I catch on quick and lose interest quick and I’m lazy as fuck.
14) Who is your celebrity crush?
Now? I’m not sure I have one.  But I will admit to a highly embarrassing crush on Scott Baio when I was a pre-teen.  I had a jigsaw puzzle of him.
 15) How do you vent your anger?
Depends.  Sometimes I yell, if something is happening right in that moment. Mostly I vent to someone else.  My poor boss knows everyone I dislike at work and every time my sister calls.
 16) Do you have a collection of anything?
Comic books.  I don’t actively collect anymore, because I thought it would be nice to buy a house instead of make a house payment to the comic books shop, but I still have thousands of them.  
  17) Are you happy with the person you’ve become?
More or less.
 18) What’s a sound you hate; sound you love?
Hate: Vacuuming.  I don’t mind it if I’m vacuuming, but I just hate it if someone is vacuuming around me. Especially at work where I can’t get away from it and it takes forever.
Love: Music. My daughter shrieking with laughter when she’s trying to escape being tickled (it cures hiccups and you can’t prove otherwise).
 19) What’s your biggest “what if”?
Probably “What if Reese hadn’t had pentalogy of Cantrell or what if hers had been operable?”  
 20) Do you believe in ghosts? How about aliens?
Ghosts? No. 
Aliens? Yes. But I don’t think they visit us.
21) Stick your right arm out; what do you touch first? Do the same with your left arm.
Right: The Night King. (Seriously, I have the Pop! Vinyl sitting on my desk)
Left: Nothing. But eventually I’d get to a wall if I kept going that way.
 22) Smell the air. What do you smell?
Dirty shoes.
 23) What’s the worst place you have ever been to?
Los Banos.
 24) Most attractive singer/s of your opposite gender?
Jon Bon Jovi.  Long hair or short.
 25) To you, what is the meaning of life?
42.
 26) Do you drive? If so, have you ever crashed?
Yes and yes.
 27) What was the last movie you saw?
Dead Again.
 28) What’s the worst injury you’ve ever had?
Broke my ankle. Snapped my fibula in half.
 29) Do you have any obsessions right now?
No, none at all.  *closing 47 Gendrya pages* Not a single one.
 30) Ever had a rumor spread about you?
Not that I’m aware of.
 31) Do you tend to hold grudges against people who have done you wrong?
Only if I’m related to them.  Last time I saw my biological father he was having a hissy fit and said that if I didn’t let him take a picture of me with his two youngest kids he was never going to speak to me again.  I asked for it in writing.
 32) What is your astrological sign?
Libra!
 33) What’s the last thing you purchased?
Nightgown for my daughter online.
 34) Love or lust?
Lust.
35) In a relationship?
Absolutely not.
 36) How many relationships have you had?
Three?  Four? Just enough to know I really prefer to be single.
 37) What is your secret weapon to get someone to like you?
No idea.  I wish I knew so I could turn it off.
 38) Where is your best friend?
At home trying to figure out how to get her grown daughter to move out and take her boyfriend and kids with her.  
 39) What were you doing last night at 12 AM?
Sleeping.
 40) Are you the kind of friend you would want to have as a friend?
Hell no.
 41) You are walking down the street on your way to work. There is a dog drowning in the canal on the side of the street. Your boss has told you if you are late one more time you get fired. What do you do?
BWAHUAHA!  It would take an act of God to fire me.  What kind of dog is it?
 42) You are at the doctor’s office and she has just informed you that you have approximately one month to live. a) Do you tell anyone/everyone you are going to die? b) What do you do with your remaining days? c) Would you be afraid?
a)  Yes.  My daughter doesn’t handle surprises at all. I’d need to prepare her as much as possible.
b)  Spend as much time with the kids as they can stand (and/or break into George’s house and steal his laptop).
c)  Depends on what I’m dying of. But probably more sad than anything else.  
 43) What’s a song that always makes you happy when you hear it?
Only the Good Die Young.
 44) In your opinion, what makes a great relationship?
Distance.  
 45) How can I win your heart?
Send me chocolate.  From a distance.
 46) Can insanity bring on more creativity?
Bring on more?  No.  
 47) What is the single best decision you have made in your life so far?
 Adopting my daughter.
 48) What would you want to be written on your tombstone?
Not here.  Go do something fun.
 49) Give me the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “heart.”
Well, now it’s attack-ack-ack-ack, you oughta know by now...
  50) Basic question; what’s your favorite color/colors?
Green. The shade may vary, but it’s always been green.
 51) What is your current desktop picture?
Gendry looking at Arya’s scars.
 52) If you could press a button and make anyone in the world instantaneously explode, who would it be?
The current president.
 53) What would be a question you’d be afraid to tell the truth on?
I’m drawing a complete blank on this.  Maybe if one of the kids wanted to find my sister. I’d really, really rather they stay as far from her as possible.
 54) You accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what’s even cooler is that they endow you with the super-power of your choice! What is that power?
Invisibility.  So much fun to be had… I mean good. So much GOOD to do. Yeah, that’s it.
 55) You can re-live any point of time in your life. The time-span can only be a half-hour, though. What half-hour of your past would you like to experience again?
Pretty much any half-hour when my daughter was still little enough to carry everywhere.  
 56) You can erase any horrible experience from your past. What will it be?
Pentalogy of Cantrell.
 57) You have the opportunity to sleep with the music-celebrity of your choice. Who would it be?
Umm, a young9ish) David Lee Roth? With the long hair.
  58) You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere. You have to depart right now. Where are you gonna go?
Ireland.
  59) Ever been on a plane?
Yes.
 60) Give me your top 5 hottest celebrities.
George Clooney
Angelina Jolie
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
Chris Hemsworth
Paul Michael Glaser - Always
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theliterateape · 2 years
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RNC WORKSHOP ON LEGITIMATE POLITICAL DISCOURSE
by Joe Janes
  True Patriots! 
Join us next weekend for our first ever workshop on
Legitimate Political Discourse!
 As Americans, it is our duty to speak up when we disagree.
It’s called FREEDOM OF SPEECH!*
Actions speak louder than words and we at the RNC speak very loudly. 
In this workshop,
we’ll cover such topics as…
RED, WHITE, AND BLUE MAKE-UP – Application, Touch-Up, and Removal from Office
WASTE NOT, WANT NOT – What and when to eat to best prepare for some meaty graffiti. Free burritos and coffee will be served. We’ll also cover what to do when nature just isn’t returning your calls. Hint: Rubbing your butt on things is a great way to own the libs.
SOVENIRS! – Some call it looting, we call it keepsakes. U.S. Soldiers took dinnerware with Nazi insignias from Adolph Hitler. You can certainly pocket Nancy Pelosi’s Garfield coffee mug or a podium. 
BODY ARMOR – It’s a sad state of affairs that police will often respond to legitimate political violence with actual violence. We’ll cover the best types of body armor to absorb impact. Also, which ones are easy to conceal under buffalo skin or flags.
GALLOWS & NOOSES – Building solid functional gallows is key to getting your point across to stubborn democrats and republican vice-presidents. We have partnered with Home Depot to walk us through constructing sturdy gallows with properly tied nooses. They will also give attendees 30% off coupons for your next purchase of lumber and rope. 
 PERSUASIVE ARGUMENTS - An important part of discourse is presenting and supporting your point-of-view. We will cover how to shout opinions like, “The election was stolen!”, “Hilary’s emails!”, and “Scott Baio is right!”
…and much, much more!
 We at the RNC believe that it is every Republican Americans right to fight for the overturning of an election they don’t agree with, regardless of how “verified” the results may be. New election laws are  helpful, but still may not be enough if people vote. 
The cost of the weekend is $500.
$600 if you wear a mask.
 *After Sunday’s closing speech by Steve Bannon, you’re invited to stick around for our monthly book burning and weenie roast! 
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worldnewsinpictures · 2 years
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Dean Cain is the Scott Baio of Adam Baldwins. That's funny, because I always thought of him as the Rob Schneider of Jon Voights.... Got an opinion about this? See what others are saying.... See MORE -> https://worldnewsinpictures.com/dean-cain #DeanCain #DeanCainScott #AdamBaldwins #AdamBaldwinsThats #Schneider #SchneiderJon #SchneiderJonVoights #SeeSee #SeeSeeMORE #Baldwins
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Pluralistic: 18 Mar 2020 (Ethopia's Jack Ma infatuation, Charter's infect-the-world plan, Trumpist firefighters dismiss covid, Flatter Me, aviation bailouts need strings attached, the only way through is together, ventilator sharing, explainers, patents vs respirators, covid stimulus, DIY TP, 1665 plague orders+
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Today's links
Ethiopian factory sports Jack Ma quotes: Global trade currents are shifting fast.
Charter orders all workers to keep showing up: Even the 15% of its workforce who could work from home.
MAGA firefighters dismiss coronavirus as Democrat hoax: And/or a Chinese bioweapon.
Flatter Me, a compliments card game: Kickstarting now.
American Airlines blew billions, now it wants a bailout: Socializing losses, privatizing gains.
John Green's mutual aid manifesto: The only way through is together.
How to split a single ventilator for four patients: Peer-reviewed simulations.
Bigoted Republican Congressjerk votes against coronavirus relief because it might cover same-sex partnerships: Rep Andy Biggs wants to send us all to meet Jesus.
Epidemiology and public health in 14 minutes: An epidemiologist and an sf writer make an outstanding science communications team.
3D printed ventilator hero got a patent threat: Human rights vs property rights.
If nothing is for sale, how will covid stimulus work? Can you fix a supply shock with stimulus?
How to make your own toilet paper: A craft for your isolated kiddos.
Plague precautions from 1665: No feasting, but you can tipple in a bar until 9PM.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading
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Ethiopian factory sports Jack Ma quotes (permalink)
This pic was taken by researchers from Caribou Data at a textiles factory in Ethiopia. Every curtain on every window bore silk-screened quotes from Jack Ma's book (the name of the factory has been redacted to preserve the owner's privacy).
The researchers told me that 72 hours after Alibaba moved into Rwanda, every coffee farmer using the platform had sold out of their inventory.
It's a potent and visually arresting reminder of how global trade currents are shifting.
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Charter orders all workers to keep showing up (permalink)
My local monopoly ISP is Charter. They're terrible in every single way. What's more, my city, Burbank, owns 100GB fiber that runs under my home's foundation slab, but I can't access it because of Charter's deal with the city. In addition to delivering slow-as-molasses connectivity at nosebleed prices (and relentlessly advertising upsells, dozens every week, print and digital), the company is also forcing all workers to show up in person during the pandemic – even those who could work from home.
They basically forced Nick Wheeler, an engineer who complained about this, to resign, calling his short, measured complaint about the policy "irresponsible," accusing him of "inciting fear."
https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/16/charter-coronavirus-work-home/
Charter gives its workers a single annual week's worth of sick-leave. Workers have to use that leave time if they are worried about contracting or transmitting coronavirus. Medical advice for coronavirus infections is to self-isolate for two weeks, though.
Even other telcos (AT&T, Comcast) are asking workers to work from home. Charter CEO Tom Rutledge has doubled down on his infect-the-world policy, because "While back office and management functions can be performed remotely, they are more effective from the office."
Charter is a tremendous beneficiary of public largesse. It gets access to our rights-of-way, something they couldn't hope to afford at market rates. It received billions in tax-cuts (which it squandered on stock buybacks). The company got Net Neutrality dismantled, and is given monopolies wherever it operates.
This largesse is predicated on the idea that Charter views itself as a steward and can be trusted with monopoly self-regulation. If you had any doubt that the company can't be trusted to pour piss out of a boot with instructions printed on the heel, this should dispel it forever.
What I'm saying is, if you ever have a Charter exec in your home, count the spoons before you let him leave.
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MAGA firefighters dismiss coronavirus as Democrat hoax (permalink)
"IAFF Union Firefighters for Trump" is a 27,000 member Facebook group of first responders who split from their union over its endorsement of Biden; Trump himself has endorsed the group.
Today, it is full of firefighters and EMTs who say that coronavirus is no big deal.
Some of the group's members are posting evidence to the contrary from their working experience, talking about the devastation they're witnessing firsthand. Their colleagues reply with poop emojis and "Trump2020."
https://www.propublica.org/article/facebook-firefighters-corona#179168
The group is infected with the conspiracy theory that coronvirus is a panic cooked up by Democrats to discredit Trump, or that it's a Chinese bioweapon, an idea that Trump and his Congressional and Senate supporters have tacitly (or explicitly) endorsed.
This is especially worrying as EMTs and firefighters are at high risk of contracting coronovirus. If they don't take the risk seriously, they could spread it to vulnerable people, or reduce emergency capacity while they are quarantined (they also risk their own health).
Group founder Kelly Hallman told Propublica that "There's never been this much hoopla given to the other things. They're doing it to crash the economy and make Trump look bad…If you had to point a finger at why the leftist media and the left in general has a smile on their face about this, it's the Dow. My wife and kids are scared, believing what they're seeing on TV. I'm telling them it's not as bad as the media makes out."
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Flatter Me, a compliments card game (permalink)
Flatter Me is Ami Baio's latest kickstarted card-game: "a two-player game for all ages with 250 unique compliments to play with friends, family, and partners."
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/amibaio/flatter-me-a-compliment-battle-card-game
Its creator Ami Baio specialises in games that turn on kindness and connection; her last project was "You Don't Know Me."
https://youthinkyouknowme.cards/
A $20 pledge gets you one Flatter Me deck, $35 gets a two-pack. The cards are also designed to be given as gifts: "given to friends who need a boost, tucked into cards or gift bags, or left for friends to find."
Baio is seeking $12k in pre-orders and is delivers in Oct.
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American Airlines blew billions, now it wants a bailout (permalink)
Since 2014, American Airlines has accumulated a $30B debt. It did so while paying its shareholders $15B through stock buybacks, and while raising prices on fliers, nickel-and-diming on bag charges and other extras. Now its industry group – whose members spent 96% of their free cash-flow on buybacks – is seeking a $50B coronavirus bailout, with no strings attached. That's 300% more than the industry got after 9/11.
This is shareholder capitalism working as intended. As Matt Levine writes, "it is optimized to extract money for shareholders when things go well and minimize the amount of shareholder money that is at risk when things go very wrong."
http://link.mail.bloombergbusiness.com/join/4wm/moneystuff-signup
But as Tim Wu writes, bailouts should come with strings attached. The airlines engineered this situation for themselves. If we let them socialized their losses and privatize their gains (again), they'll do it again (again).
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/16/opinion/airlines-bailout.html
"Change fees should be capped at $50 and baggage fees tied to some ratio of costs. The change fees don't just irritate; they are a drag on the broader economy, making the transport system less flexible and discouraging otherwise efficient changes to travel plans."
"We should end the airlines' pursuit of smaller and smaller seats, which are not only uncomfortable and even physically harmful, but also foster in-flight rage and make the job of flight attendants nigh unbearable."
"Finally, we have allowed too much common ownership, permitting large shareholders to take a stake in each of the major airlines, creating incentives to collude instead of compete."
As Naomi Klein has reminded us, the Shock Doctrine (can) cut both ways: the Great Depression catalyzed transformative change and the New Deal. Let's not permit this disaster be seized by the people responsible for it.
https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/17/pluralistic-17-mar-2020/#disaster-socialism
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John Green's mutual aid manifesto (permalink)
This video from John Green is a tonic: a reminder that humanity has a shared destiny and that cooperation is the human condition. and that mutual aid is key.
"The only way out is through, and the only way through is together."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh23nwxpfe8
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How to split a single ventilator for four patients (permalink)
In 2008, Greg Neyman and Charlene Babcock Irvin published "A Single Ventilator for Multiple Simulated Patients to Meet Disaster Surge" in the peer-reviewed Society for Academic Emergency Medicine journal.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1197/j.aem.2006.05.009
In this video, Dr Babcock demonstrates how to split a single ventilator to safely and effectively treat up to four patients.
As she points out, there have been no studies of this, but it has been (temporarily) used successfully in the field.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uClq978oohY
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Bigoted Republican Congressjerk votes against coronavirus relief because it might cover same-sex partnerships (permalink)
You may not get paid leave during the coronavirus crisis in part because Rep Andy Biggs (R-AZ) voted against it because his homophobia was more salient than his empathy.
https://theintercept.com/2020/03/17/coronavirus-stimulus-bill-andy-biggs/
He claimed (wrongly) that this was novel federal legislation in that it included domestic partnerships.
He was objecting to the provision of assistance to family members, including "biological, foster, or adopted child, a stepchild, a child of a domestic partner."
As Lee Fang writes, "The exact same legislative text around domestic partnerships and committed relationships is found in several bills in Congress, including paid sick leave legislation proposed as far back as 2015."
Biggs also lied and said that he objected to coronavirus relief because it would repeal the Hyde Amendment ("Two provisions that have nothing to do with the coronavirus are basically thrown into this thing. That's par for the course for the left").
The bill does not repeal the Hyde Amendment.
The Republican Party, folks. The party of death and poverty and tragedy and hate. Remember that in November.
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Epidemiology and public health in 14 minutes (permalink)
Epidemiologist Dr. Ross Kauffman and sf writer Tobias Buckell teamed up to produce this short video explaining the costs of a runaway coronavirus epidemic to explain the need for drastic measures to their local Ohio town council.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqgINxGQB5w
It's a spectacular piece of science communications: grave without being alarmist, calm and measured, informative and plainspoken. It's a really important piece of video and I hope you'll watch it.
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3D printed ventilator hero got a patent threat (permalink)
Remember the heartwarming story of the Italian makers who volunteered to fix their hospital's busted ventilators with 3D printed parts that they designed and produced on the spot?
https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/16/tiktoks-secrets/#3dp-breathfree
It turns out that these makers weren't just saving lives, they were also taking a legal risk. That's because when they asked the manufacturer for help with the project, the manufacturer countered by threatening to sue them for patent infringement.
https://it.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-manca-la-valvola-per-uno-strumento-di-rianimazione-e-noi-la-stampiamo-in-3d-accade-nellospedale-di-chiari-brescia/
The part they printed cost them 1 euro, while replacing the system would cost a reported EUR10,000.
In a heartfelt, and soul-searching post, one of the people behind the project says he won't try to distribute the files he created.
https://www.facebook.com/Ing.Cristian.Fracassi/posts/10222339428782713
I can't help but wonder if he's hoping to mollify the corporation whose threats he ignored to help save lives.
Postscript: If you're pondering the issues of open source/homebrew respirator design, check out this excellent thread on the material constraints and challenges of med-tech.
https://twitter.com/turzaak/status/1239544498553860096
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If nothing is for sale, how will covid stimulus work? (permalink)
I'm a believer in Modern Monetary Theory and the idea that state deficit spending is not intrinsically inflationary – only when the state is trying to procure things the private sector wants, so they get into a bidding war.
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/4/16/18251646/modern-monetary-theory-new-moment-explained
In theory, the covid contraction is a great candidate for MMT stimulus. If people are stockpiling cash and thus eliminating their discretionary spending (40% of US GDP!), then the state can procure the discretionary items without triggering inflation.
Or there could be a hybrid, such as distributing vouchers to the public, redeemable for discretionary purchases – instead of bailing out aviation, we could buy people plane tickets, for example.
But that runs into a big problem: there's another reason people aren't making discretionary purchases, which is that those goods and services aren't available (manufacture has been disrupted by social distancing) or aren't safe (flying is incompatible with social distancing).
In this case, it seems to me that stimulus spending runs the risk of being inflationary (when everyone tries to redeem their plane ticket vouchers at once) or useless (people throw away their vouchers). Stimulus + supply shock = ??
That's not to rule out stimulus altogether, but it does suggest that the stimulus needs to be targeted, especially considering the size of the bailout that Wall Street is bandying about: trillions, in a matter of days.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-coronavirus-calls-for-wartime-economic-thinking
The GOP is calling for a $1,000/person bailout, but as @yvessmith says, this isn't much when it comes to the immediate expenses that affected people need to cover, like rent, mortgage, and, of course, treating covid-related illness without insurance.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2020/03/why-sending-1000-checks-to-everyone-wont-solve-the-coronavirus
Maybe, instead, help to cover mortgage and rent, along with anti-eviction/foreclosure rules; help with utilities, expanded food aid, and swift Medicare for All. Then, once the crisis is passed, a big stimulus package – for people, not banks – that gets us buying stuff again?
TBH, I don't know. It's weird to feel skeptical of stimulus, given how valuable demand-side relief would have been over the past decade+. Obviously we don't want another 2008 plute bonanza giveaway, but we also don't want to inject ever more money to chase ever-fewer goods.
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How to make your own toilet paper (permalink)
Making toilet paper at home is a pretty on-the-nose craft to try with your covid-isolated kiddos. You need newsprint, leaves/grass (as a cellulosic binder) and baby oil.
https://www.ehow.com/how_4514690_make-toilet-paper.html
Soak the paper until ink is mostly gone, slowly boil with leaves/grass, simmer 1h, bring to boil for 30m, adding water and skimming foam. Remove, ladle out excess water. Mix 4tbsps of baby oil in with pulp. Scoop pulp onto a towel, press with a rolling pin.
Gently beat out lumps with a rubber mallet, add another towel on top. Cover with a board and add weights. Wait 30m. Flip over, remove towel and leave to dry in sun. Cut into strips and use (sparingly).
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Plague precautions from 1665 (permalink)
ORDERS CONCEIVED AND PUBLISHED BY THE LORD MAYOR AND ALDERMEN OF THE CITY OF LONDON CONCERNING THE INFECTION OF THE PLAGUE, 1665
https://brucesterling.tumblr.com/post/612917764072636416/orders-conceived-and-published-by-the-lord-mayor
Every parish needs examiners. Refuse duty and you go to prison: "persons of good sort and credit chosen and appointed by the alderman, his deputy, and common council of every ward, by the name of examiners, to continue in that office the space of two months at least."
Examiners must "inquire and learn from time to time what houses in every parish be visited, and what persons be sick, and of what diseases…[I]f they find any person sick of the infection, to give order to the constable that the house be shut up."
Infected homs get 24/7 surveillance two watchmen: "these watchmen have a special care that no person go in or out of such infected houses whereof they have the charge, upon pain of severe punishment."
They'll also get you groceries and lock up your shop.
Women "of honest reputation" are appointed by physicians as "searchers" to inspect the dead and determine cause of death. Searchers are helped by newly appointed "able and discreet chirurgeons," charged with ensuring that "a true report made of the disease."
Nurse-keepers have to be quarantined for 28 days after their patients die.
If plague is found in a house, the whole household is locked in for 28 days. Prior to sequestration, their personal effects have to be aired, treated with fire, and then perfumed. Anyone known to have visited a plague house is locked down for 28 days, along with their household, with the same airing, flaming and perfuming business.
Plague-dead may only be buried after sunset and before sunrise, with no mourners in attendance. No sermons or eulogies allowed. Graves must be 6 feet deep. All funerals are banned. Personal effects of the plague-dead must be destroyed, not given away or sold.
Public notice: "Every house visited be marked with a red cross of a foot long in the middle of the door.. and with these usual printed words… 'Lord, have mercy upon us,' to be set close over the same cross, there to continue until lawful opening of the same house."
Cab drivers can continue as normal, but if they carry someone thought to have plague they have to retire their hackney-coaches for 5-6 days and give them a thorough airing.
[[I sense that this may be a weak spot in the whole plan]]
There's also new sanitation rules requiring regular sweepings and rakings of "filth" from the streets, with all the human waste being dumped far from the city and not in local gardens. Smelly or rotten food-sales are banned.
Cops are charged with sweeping up and punishing beggars, who are banned from the streets.
No live entertainment: "all plays, bear-baitings, games, singing of ballads, buckler-play, or such-like causes of assemblies of people be utterly prohibited."
All restaurants are closed. Feasting is banned.
Bars are OK, but under suspicion, and must close by 9PM. The rule covers "tippling in taverns, ale-houses, coffee-houses, and cellars."
[[Again, this seems like a weak spot]]
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This day in history (permalink)
#15yrsago Andre Norton, RIP https://web.archive.org/web/20050318045717/http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/books/03/17/obit.norton.ap/index.html
#15yrsago Orrin Hatch is head of new IP subcommitee https://www.technewsworld.com/story/41548.html
#10yrsago Is the UK record industry arrogant or stupid? https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/mar/18/digital-economy-bill-calculated-loss
#10yrsago Entertainment industry sours on term "pirate" — too sexy https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2010/03/piracy-sounds-too-sexy-say-rightsholders/
#10yrsago YouTube: Viacom secretly posted its videos even as they sued us for not taking down Viacom videos https://youtube.googleblog.com/2010/03/broadcast-yourself.html
#10yrsago Michael Lewis's THE BIG SHORT, visiting the econopocalypse through the lens of LIAR'S POKER https://boingboing.net/2010/03/18/michael-lewiss-the-b.html
#5yrsago Insider view of the cash-for-gold ripoff https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/swindle-fraud/we-buy-broken-gold
#5yrsago Terry Pratchett's advice to booksellers https://www.thebookseller.com/blogs/advice-booksellers
#1yrago Facebook's year-old "improvements" to the newsfeed have elevated enraging Fox News posts to the service's dominant form https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/03/one-year-in-facebooks-big-algorithm-change-has-spurred-an-angry-fox-news-dominated-and-very-engaged-news-feed/
#1yrago Electronic Health Records: a murderous, publicly subsidized, $13B/year grift by way of shitty software https://khn.org/news/death-by-a-thousand-clicks/
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Colophon (permalink)
Today's top sources: Mitch Wagner (http://mitchwagner.com/blog/), Kottke (https://kottke.org), Laurent Stanevich (https://twitter.com/LairBob), Naked Capitalism (https://www.nakedcapitalism.com), Slashdot (https://slashdot.org).
Currently writing: I've just finished rewrites on a short story, "The Canadian Miracle," for MIT Tech Review. It's a story set in the world of my next novel, "The Lost Cause," a post-GND novel about truth and reconciliation. I've also just completed "Baby Twitter," a piece of design fiction also set in The Lost Cause's prehistory, for a British think-tank. I'm getting geared up to start work on the novel next.
Currently reading: Just started Lauren Beukes's forthcoming Afterland: it's Y the Last Man plus plus, and two chapters in, it's amazeballs. Last month, I finished Andrea Bernstein's "American Oligarchs"; it's a magnificent history of the Kushner and Trump families, showing how they cheated, stole and lied their way into power. I'm getting really into Anna Weiner's memoir about tech, "Uncanny Valley." I just loaded Matt Stoller's "Goliath" onto my underwater MP3 player and I'm listening to it as I swim laps.
Latest podcast: The Masque of the Red Death and Punch Brothers Punch https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/03/16/the-masque-of-the-red-death-and-punch-brothers-punch/
Upcoming books: "Poesy the Monster Slayer" (Jul 2020), a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Pre-order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627?utm_source=socialmedia&utm_medium=socialpost&utm_term=na-poesycorypreorder&utm_content=na-preorder-buynow&utm_campaign=9781626723627
(we're having a launch for it in Burbank on July 11 at Dark Delicacies and you can get me AND Poesy to sign it and Dark Del will ship it to the monster kids in your life in time for the release date).
"Attack Surface": The third Little Brother book, Oct 20, 2020. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250757531
"Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new introduction by Edward Snowden: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583
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your-dietician · 3 years
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Richard Marx has many great 'Stories to Tell' — and one big Twitter controversy he'd like to clear up
New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/entertainment/richard-marx-has-many-great-stories-to-tell-and-one-big-twitter-controversy-hed-like-to-clear-up/
Richard Marx has many great 'Stories to Tell' — and one big Twitter controversy he'd like to clear up
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When superstar singer-songwriter Richard Marx began work on his new autobiography, Stories to Tell, he knew it wouldn’t be a racy, sex/drugs/rock ‘n’ roll tell-all like Motley Crüe’s The Dirt or Pamela Des Barres’s I’m With the Band. “I’ve always been a very private person. I’ve never been in the tabloids. I’ve never been that kind of celebrity, if you will,” he explains to Yahoo Entertainment. In fact, Marx never expected to write his memoirs at all, but after playing VH1 Storytellers-style acoustic shows about a decade ago, he realized, “I have great stories. I’ve had some really crazy, funny s*** happen to me.”
Those tales, which cover Marx’s early days apprenticing for Lionel Richie to his work with Kenny Rogers, Madonna, Barbra Streisand, NSYNC, Olivia Newton-John, Keith Urban, Luther Vandross, and many others, comprise Stories to Tell: A Memoir, which comes out July 6 and hit No. 1 on Amazon’s bestsellers list the day it went up for preorder. “I chose [stories] that were either compelling or funny or self-deprecating or whatever,” says Marx. “There’ll be stories I’ll tell you about my life that I wouldn’t necessarily, you know, write on Twitter or whatever.”
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The cover for Richard Marx’s autobiography ‘Stories to Tell: A Memoir.’ (Photo: Simon & Schuster)
Marx is big into the self-deprecation thing. The funniest line in Stories to Tell is when he says the upside to undergoing double hip-replacement surgery was that “Richard Marx” and “hip” could finally be used in the same sentence, for instance. And his Twitter page is a delight, a compelling read in its own right — his famous tweet about going to the dentist because he felt like hearing some of his own music is but one RT-worthy example of his snark. Marx owns his squareness, but ironically, his posts have, intentionally or not, made the public realize that he’s a pretty cool dude.
The perpetually unbothered Marx also gets very political on social media. And one since-deleted tweet in particular, when he wrote — “If I ever meet Rand Paul’s neighbor I’m going to hug him and buy him as many drinks as he can consume” (a reference to a 2017 incident when Paul was assaulted by his neighbor, Rene Boucher) — made headlines in May 2021, after the Kentucky senator outrageously cited Marx’s tweet as the reason he’d received a suspicious package at his home. It was a rare moment when Marx actually was in the tabloids, and he uses his Yahoo interview to clarify that situation.
Story continues
“I mean, it seems pretty obvious. I made a quip. Let’s start with this: Do I, would I, ever really endorse and support physical violence against someone? I can’t think of a circumstance,” Marx stresses. “I made a quip, which I likened to you hear about some raging assh*** who’s just constantly an assh*** getting his ass handed to him — and you might go, ‘He kind of asked for it,’ or, you know, ‘He kind of had that coming.’ Show me a person who’s never, ever thought of that in regards to anyone, and I’ll show you a liar, right? To me, what I quipped was nothing more than that. Stupid me — Rand Paul used that to his advantage. He went on Fox News and pathologically, as he always does, lied about what I tweeted, what I said. He actually claimed that I incited violence against him, that I was the reason he got a suspicious package of powder the next day in the mail. I thought, if I did that, [U.S. Postmaster General] Louis DeJoy should get a raise. If you can get a piece of mail to somebody overnight now, then I’ve been misinformed.
“I made a joke. And you know, the people who rallied to [Paul’s] defense are the same people who defended, or had nothing to say, when Trump retweeted someone saying, ‘The only good Democrat as a dead Democrat,’ or never had a problem with Donald Trump at a rally saying, ‘Knock the hell out of ‘em, I’ll pay the legal fees; go beat up protestors exercising their First Amendment rights.’ So, these people who were supporting Rand Paul and attacking me are just the typical ultimate hypocrites, and they’re full of s***. So, that’s my comment about that.”
Marx actually prefers not to use the adjective “political” when describing his non-partisan social media stance. “I am definitely opinionated, and I definitely find it next to impossible not to respond to what I consider to be blatant ignorance or bigotry or certainly racism. I guess the word ‘political’ is the easiest one to use, but I don’t know that it’s the most accurate, because I’m not on Twitter or in any other part of my life espousing policy or opinions about much other than proper treatment of everyone — and especially when it comes to elected officials,” he clarifies. 
“For instance, I’m 57. I started voting as soon as I could. So I guess my first presidential vote was in ’84, and it was for Ronald Reagan. I have voted for Republican politicians in my life. I’ve definitely voted more for Democrats, but I’m a registered Independent. I’m not a Democrat. Also, as much as I find the current GOP to be the most distorted, vile, awful group of people I’ve ever seen in my lifetime in terms of politics, I’m also no fan of anyone in the Democratic party. None. Joe Biden would not have been my… maybe 20 years ago, I would have been like, ‘Yeah, Joe Biden might be a really good president.’ And don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled that he won this election. But he would not have been my choice to be the president of United States. The screwed-up thing is I can’t necessarily point to anyone I would say should be, on either side of the aisle. I think they’re all, to a degree, different forms of reprehensible and mercenary.”
Marx says, “In a span of an hour, if I were to look through my mentions, I’ll find 50 people calling me every name,” but he balks at the argument that pop stars shouldn’t express their opinions. “It’s interesting, because when I get into a thing on Twitter, especially when you have people on the far right who say things like ‘shut up and sing’ and ‘nobody cares about the opinions of celebrities,’ these are the same people who voted for Donald Trump and follow Scott Baio, you know what I mean?” he chuckles. “So, that kind of tells you right there with the kind of mental decision-making we’re dealing with. … I feel like I can’t be on the [Twitter] platform and see something that is so outrageous and awful and not respond to it.”
Watch Yahoo Entertainment’s full, extended Richard Marx interview below, in which he tells stories about Luther Vandross, Vixen, Barbra Streisand, and more:
There are plenty of people who follow Marx online who are now well aware of his frankness and hipness — but unless they read Stories to Tell, they still may not be familiar with the simply stunning breadth of his discography. Sure, he has scored 14 of his own Billboard top 20 hits, including nine that made the top 10 and three that went to No. 1, and was the first male solo artist to have four singles from a debut album make the top three on the Billboard Hot 100. But has always been an in-demand songwriter for other artists as well. However, as Marx himself notes, many people don’t even know that he co-penned Luther Vandross’s signature song “Dance With My Father” — despite the fact that he accepted the Song of the Year honor for that single, and performed it with Celine Dion, at the 2004 Grammy Awards when the ailing Vandross was unable to attend. Hits written or co-written by Marx have topped the charts in four different decades and in almost every genre (“Not polka, though,” he quips), but there’s one more thing he’d still like to accomplish.
“I’ve gotten to work with amazing people, and hope to continue to. But the one thing that has eluded me in my career… Vixen, for example, I wrote and produced their breakthrough song [“Edge of a Broken Heart”]. I wrote co-wrote and produced Josh Groban’s first single, ‘To Where You Are.’ So, I’ve worked with brand-new artists who broke out — but I didn’t discover them,” says Marx. “That’s probably something that I would like before I really call it quits: to discover a talent, bring them to light and launch them, and then just wish them well, whether I work with them or not. … I’d like to be able to have some artists say, ‘Yeah, it was Richard Marx who started my career.’ That would be nice.”
Early in his autobiography, Marx details how Lionel Richie played that role in his own life — when Richie randomly heard the then-teenage Marx’s demo tape and was so impressed that he reached out and encouraged Marx to move to Los Angeles to pursue music professionally. But one sweet Richie story, which Marx shares with Yahoo Entertainment during our interview, actually didn’t make the book.
“A year and a half or two years ago, two summers ago, I went with Barbara Streisand to London and she asked if I wanted to be part of the opening act slot for her concert in Hyde Park. Lionel Richie was one of the support acts, and I’d hoped to run into him. I think I had texted him on the way to London and we were going to try to get together, but it was chaotic. I closed my show. And by the time I got back to my hotel, there was a text from Lionel,” Marx recalls fondly, putting his hand on his heart. “He was staying somewhere else. He texted me and he said, ‘I’m sitting on my balcony of my hotel room, listening to you sing “Right Here Waiting” and hearing thousands and thousands of people singing it even louder than you are. And I can’t tell you how proud I am.’ And I remember texting him back and saying, ‘It’s because of you, man.’”
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— Video produced by Jen Kucsak, edited by Jimmie Rhee
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johnmaiolo · 5 years
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Ladies and Gentleman, Dignity has Left the Building
The Wallowing of Conrad Black
Why I ask myself, is Conrad Black heartily endorsing Donald Trump? Black has never been a man to suffer fools easily, and yet Trump is not so much an ordinary fool as he is an idiot’s apprentice.  He does not read books, he is barely literate, unable to spell at even a grade school level and is breathtakingly ignorant.  He is advised by the likes of Roger Stone, and believes that Alex Jones (who says Michelle Obama is a man, that Sandy Hook was a hoax and that jet contrails are turning frogs gay) is a “journalist” worthy of granting interviews to.  
Yes, Mr. Black has gotten down in the mud with the clodhoppers, joining the ranks of intellectuals such as Scott Baio (whom he has retweeted), Ted Nugent, Kid Rock and the entire cast of The Beverly Hillbillies.
There is also that messy business about being a misogynist.  Trump has been accused of rape several times, boasted about sexually assaulting women and says of them, and I quote, “You have to treat ‘em like shit.” In fact, there are dozens of examples of Trump denigrating women in ways that are so vulgar as to be positively vomit-inducing.
Then there’s the whole racist thing, the examples of which are endless.  You will recall his refusal to condemn the very face of hate in America, former KKK grand poohbah, David Duke.  Trump also appointed honest-to-God Nazis to the White House, including Sebastian Gorka who wore a Nazi medallion to the inaugural ball. And while the world condemned Trump’s defense of the Nazis who were at the Charlottesville demonstration, Mr. Black took another tact.  He defended him in an opinion piece entitled Who Was Really at Fault in Charlottesville, stating, “Almost everything about the Charlottesville riot was disgraceful except the conduct of the president.”
Oh, I almost forgot about treason.  Virtually everyone in Trump’s inner circle had secret meetings with Russians during the election campaign and some of them are in deep shit and may well be jailed as traitors. American intelligence has confirmed that Russia interfered with the American election, helping Trump in the process.  To attempt to deny this fact now is simply laughable.  
One hardly knows where to begin, or indeed, where to stop.  Trump has been sued thousands of times, literally thousands, and was recently ordered to pay a $25 million settlement for defrauding 6,000 former students of his phony university. He made the size of his penis an issue on the campaign trail.  He is a serial liar who repeats preposterous claims that are so easily proven to be false that once again, it is laughable.  Did I mention that he has already taken the world to brink of nuclear war?  
Last but hardly least, politicians and journalists are raising alarm bells about Mr. Trump’s mental health.  To put it bluntly, many believe he is insane, incapable of discerning between reality and his own fantasies.  Virtually every time Mr. Trump speaks now, respected journalists from around the world question his grip on reality.  
So why then, would the formerly high falutin’ Mr. Black endorse a barely literate, misogynistic, racist, fool?  A fraud, who is the laughing stock of the entire world, a man whose sanity is seriously in question and one whose staff is being investigated for treason?  
Some have speculated that he is looking for a presidential pardon for his obstruction of justice conviction.  If so, what value would there be in that?  It appears that Trump is prepared to pardon anyone, including himself; so how would a pardon clear Black’s name, except perhaps in his own mind?  I would argue that by endorsing such a deranged racist, Black will only further erode his reputation.  Not only will his criminal conviction never be forgotten, but he will also be remembered as pretty much the only intellectual who backed the worst president in American history, one who is a blatant racist, a buffoon and quite possibly, a traitor.  No, by wallowing with the hillbillies, Mr. Black has done something I never could have imagined he would even contemplate.  If it is a pardon he is after, then he has sold his dignity for a long shot at a something that would be as meaningless as anything else Donald Trump has ever said or done, for his presidency is truly a tale told by idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.  Conrad Black could have sailed off into the sunset with a modicum of dignity, but that is no longer possible.  Ladies and gentlemen, dignity has left the building.
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