And That's All She Wrote

This pretty much sums up what I think about the entire Donald Trump circus (about which I've purposefully posted almost nothing). 

Arguably one of the few things worse than Trump in all this is the media.  GOOD LORD.

Snarky Irish Cafe 1, Humorless Vegans 0

*gigglesnort*

A Contrarian's View on Star Wars Hype

I guess it does take some nerve to come right out and say this smack in the middle of the hype over the latest Star Wars trailer:

"... allow me the heresy of suggesting that all this craziness is over a movie. A movie that no one has yet seen. A movie based on another movie that was a great deal of fun 38 years ago and certainly stands as a major event in modern pop history, with or without the sequels, but that was — you may now ready the rocks for stoning — hardly a great work of cinema."

The writer then posits "the Footie Pajama Theory," which even though it does make sense, can't help but seem a little ... what's the word? ah, yes, condescending ... because of its very name.

Well, everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion about Star Wars and everything else.  I'm going to allow myself the hope that the new movie is better than the abominable prequels and their most egregious error.  I'm hoping that when the new movie premieres we can all have a little fun along the way.  I'll leave you with this:

Iowahawk on Critics

I was going to say something about all those haters using the Fourth of July to bash America, but Iowahawk is so much better at commentary:

The United States of America - where our harshest critics refuse to leave.
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) July 4, 2014

The World Cup Is Here! Get Yer Hate On, Sports Fans!

For your amusement, you get not one but two haters' guides to the World Cup, both hilarious in their intentionally hyperbolic hatred and gross national stereotyping.  Here you go:

• Hater 1
• Hater 2

Obviously the caveat is that if you are easily offended, don't bother.  Then again, if you were easily offended, you wouldn't be reading this blog, right?

By the way, I think my favorite insult from the haters' guides is this:

Colombia: Oh hey, how'd you guys get in? DRUGS.  You're not fooling anyone here, Colombia.  When a rich guy moves in next door and I never see him commute or he runs a shop that appears to have no customers but he lives like a rich man anyway, I suspect drugs.  And that is how you got here.  We all know that FIFA chooses its host countries and tourney entrants by demanding briefcases full of bearer bonds and bondage hookers and DRUGS.  So many drugs. Enough drugs to make your eyes bleed.  That's how you bought your way in.

You know why it's so funny?  Because it's riffing on the widely known fact that FIFA is laughably, obviously corrupt.

Haters Gonna Hate, Plus Your Quote of the Day

Hey, remember the Reading Rainbow Kickstarter campaign? 14,000 more people have joined since my post, and everyone's getting really pumped! 

So of course this must bring out the haters.  Now usually I wouldn't bother linking to their stuff, but I can't resist noting this ignorant, misleading, borderline slanderous, and egregiously terrible (and terribly written) nonsense that appeared in the WaPo because - for once in Internet history - the comments are worth reading.

Hey, if you're going to dump on Reading Rainbow, you better get ready for pushback from Reading Rainbow fans who - because they love reading - will be able to write some articulate, truly sharp zingers in response.

My favorite comment is also my pick for the quote of the day:

Stephen4315/28/2014 7:44 PM EDT 

Levar could spend my pledge on cocaine & hookers for all I care. The guy helped teach me a lifelong love of reading, and I owe him back for that.   

However, I really don't expect he'll spend it all on cocaine & hookers. I expect that given the amount of time he's pledged to record video messages and to visit school assemblies for elementary school kids, he'll be doing exactly what he said he'll do. I hope he makes a profit. I hope he makes a billion dollars teaching kids to love reading. I hope this kicks off a gold-rush/tech-boom/real-estate-bubble where people are getting rich teaching kids worthwhile and mind expanding activities.  

Either way, our pledge is getting us an autographed copy of his new children's book which I intend to read to our first child, due this fall. I'm happy knowing Reading Rainbow will exist in his world.

LOLympics: Trouser Trouble

Honestly, I love these guys with their crazy outfits.  I think it's wonderfully fun. So do a lot of other folks, and the colorful patterned outfits of the Norwegian men's curling team have become celebrities in their own right.  See, for instance, a daily tracker of the different patterns!

So fugly it's fabulous.

So, inevitably, there will be haters.  Apparently now the haters are squeaking complaints demanding to know if the pants are legal to wear under the terms of the IOC and the World Curling Federation.  Neither organization has really responded, but the Norwegians did, and this made me laugh out loud.  The team, in response to the kerfuffle about their pants, posted this photo:

Don't like our colorful trousers?  Fine, we won't wear them.

Kudos, guys!  That's world-class sass right there, especially the fellow at the far right.  

The only way this could be better is if the undies had the same loud, colorful patterns as the actual competition outfits, but I don't think the guys had enough time to arrange custom undies.  Hey! How about this for an idea: make a Norwegian Men's Curling Team CALENDAR?

PS: I found the pants in a form I would wear in warmer weather.  Cute, no?

150 Years Ago Lincoln Gave the Gettysburg Address ... and One Reporter Hated It

Here's the text of the famous address ... and the tale of the reporter who hated it.

Oops, I Did It Again

The guy who inflicted Rebecca Black's gobsmackingly horrendous "Friday" song on the world has done it again.  This time it's even worse.  It's an unbelievably awful song about Chinese food.  Nope, if you want a song about Chinese food that's actually good and charming and not racially insulting, go here instead. 

Only Ben Affleck Can Bring This Riven Nation Together

GOOD LORD, PEOPLE.  Warner Brothers announces that it cast Ben Affleck as Batman for the Superman sequel, and the Internet explodes with the rage of a thousand suns.  Apparently Ben Affleck is the only thing that can bring this deeply divided nation together ... by uniting almost everyone in their conviction that This Is The Worst Casting Decision EVAR.

OK, this is kind of funny in a way, but it's also kind of ridiculous.  (Let's look at two explosions of rage about casting, shall we?  Example of the first and the current howling.)  AFFLECK HASN'T EVEN FILMED A SINGLE FRAME AS BATMAN.  EVERYBODY CALM DOWN ALREADY, GEEZ.

I thought Man of Steel with Henry Cavill was pretty good, and as far as I'm concerned, Affleck's well and truly resurrected himself with Gone Baby Gone, The Town, and - lest we all forget - Argo. OK, so he's a better director than he is an actor, but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.  And if I'm wrong, I'll just root for Superman to kick his butt all over Gotham.

But if you want to have fun hating Affleck today, go ahead.  I've linked to an old but still hilarious skit from Jimmy Kimmel.

Cheerios and Interracial Families

I totally didn't understand the controversy.  It's an adorable ad.  The family in it had a black dad and a white mom.  SO WHAT?  But apparently some jerks got their undies in a bunch about it online.  So here's the backlash to the backlash: the reminder that hey, interracial families exist.  Thank you: this has been your public service announcement.  In fact, a whole bunch of my friends have married someone of another race and are raising gorgeous interracial families.  Love should be color-blind.  Shall we also bring up the related topic of interracial adoptions?  Don't be a hater, man.

Life Imitates Conan

Nope, not Conan O'Brien the comedian.  Conan the Barbarian.

Or, to quote Glee's Sue Sylvester, "Your resentment is delicious."  Perhaps this should be on our lunch menu.

Nerd News: Political Correctness Claims Another Victim

Johns Hopkins does itself no favors:

Neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson stepped down Wednesday as commencement speaker at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine after complaints from students about controversial comments concerning same-sex marriage. 

The withdrawal came less than a week after medical school Dean Paul B. Rothman chastised Carson for his comments and met with graduating students concerned that the famed physician was an inappropriate commencement speaker.

Pathetic.  So one of the most celebrated neurosurgeons in the country and the winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom is "inappropriate" for the graduation of a medical school because of his opinions about an utterly unrelated topic?  (He has apologized.)  I assume his speech at graduation would have been about ... errr ... the practice of medicine?  

Haters gonna hate.  Keep being awesome, Dr. Carson!

A Woman of Consequence

A historian looks at the legacy of the Iron Lady.  Oh, and she was right about the euro too.  How about this for our quote of the day:

The reaction to Margaret Thatcher’s death is painfully predictable. 

The right is honoring her service in standing up to socialism and communism at home and abroad, while the left is vilifying her for standing up to socialism and communism at home and abroad.

As someone else said, Maggie Thatcher p*ssed off all the right people, and I think that is a honorable epitaph indeed.  Anyway, look at this, this, this, and this:

Ave atque Vale: Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013)

The lady's not for turning.  Farewell to a remarkable woman and the UK's first female PM.  Love her or hate her, there was no ignoring her.  

UPDATE 1: Oh, and on social media, the haters are coming out of the woodwork now and literally rejoicing.  Stuff like that doesn't make you look good, haters.

UPDATE 2: Meryl Streep, stay classy!

Movie Madness: Dumbest Apocalypse Scenarios On Film

It's the end of the world as we know it ... and I feel fiiiiiiiine!

Monday Therapy: "Twilight"'s Ultimate Hater

La Parisienne and I hate Twilight, and we are pleased that we not alone. Still, one does wonder if the entire Twilight experience has driven Robert Pattinson mad.

Haters Gonna Hate on Social Media

What an ugly, hateful display.  I'm glad to see someone of their own party call them out for it.  Thank you, Ms. Goldstein, for being a decent human being and calling on others to be likewise regardless of political party.  Anyway, courtesy and good manners never go out of style, no matter what side of the aisle you are!

Sign of the Apocalypse: Tom Friedman and I Actually Agree on Something

As for Friedman, even a stopped clock is right twice a day, so this must be one of those times?  He tells the violent embassy-storming mobs to take a long hard look in the mirror.

Quote of the Day: Yelling "Fire" In a Global Theater?

From this piece in Foreign Policy:

First, there is a fundamental disagreement between what the United States views as a basic right and what many Muslims living in Arab states view as a basic right. Where Americans prioritize freedom of speech as a value to be cherished and upheld no matter the circumstance, the Arab world sees sanctity of religion as a value that cannot be violated in any instance. While this is not new, the explosion in communications technology and the resulting dissemination of information, no matter how obscure or trivial, pushes this divergence of worldviews to the forefront. 

Five years ago, nobody in the United States, let alone in Egypt or Libya, would have heard of "Sam Bacile," and not more than a handful of people would have seen any part of the infamous film. Now, however, anyone with a laptop can create an abhorrent masterpiece and ensure that it is viewed by millions of people the world over. The entire planet has become, in the words of Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer, a "crowded theater" on the brink of stampede.

Writer Michael Koplow concludes that embassy riots aren't going to stop any time soon because every little stupid thing produced by fringe idiots is so easily publicized to an inflammatory audience.  By the way, if you're not following his blog Ottomans and Zionists, you should.  

OK, I should add that we're talking here about communications technology and not so much about censorship or self-censorship.  For the record, I'm a free speech absolutist of the Voltaire school.  In the end, I'm with the late Hitchens, who declared that he was not willing to live his life under the veto of the most easily offended.

UPDATE 1: Maybe the "yelling fire in a theater" analogy is flawed?  (See #3.)

UPDATE 2: Lest we forget, in the end, the moral agency and final responsibility rest with the rioters. I'm not calling them "protesters" because there's a clear difference between peacefully standing with a placard expressing opposition to policy and storming another nation's sovereign territory with intent to destroy property and harm people.