February 2010
29 posts
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Really?
stevespillman:
Is this something everyone knows? Because I am flabbergasted.
Get ready.
Men who have had sex with any man since 1977 are restricted from donating blood in the United States. Even safe sex. Even if they can prove that they don’t have HIV/AIDS, or any other STDs. You can lie, or you can not donate. It’s like Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, but for SAVING LIVES.
This all because I read an...
January 2010
73 posts
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WatchThis is a tough episode of Nip/Tuck to pick a clip from, because it is finally back to its COMPLETELY CRAZY form. In this episode, a character brags that he has a job as a barista and his job is secure because he’s dating his manager (you guys coffee shops do not take sexual harassment seriously).
But that was not the craziest moment of the episode. This episode also included a storyline...
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“Paul Rudd: I want to know about Jon Hamm.
Jon Hamm: Fine. I am an open book.
...”
– From the time Paul Rudd Interviewed Jon Hamm in Interview Magazine. I literally don’t understand how it’s possible that I didn’t know this article existed until 5 minutes ago. It’s times like these that thank my lucky stars I have a blog where I can write about the joy...
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Congratulations Film Forager for her appearance on... →
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WatchHey everyone, welcome to a new feature I decided to invent this week. It’s called The Most Politically Despicable 24 Moment of the Week. I am doing this to find a way to justify that I have watched every season of 24 to date. So here we go.
In this clip, Jack Bauer (namesake of every child I will ever have) assures a former FBI (CIA?) agent that her decision to cut a dude’s thumb off...
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Warning: Completely Horrifying →
This is an article about a nine-year-old boy named Ali Kinani who was murdered by Blackwater in Nisour Square.
I feel like I should say something else, provide some kind of comment, but everything I think of sounds too glib. A father saw his child’s brain fall out. What can I say about that?
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“According to one Hollywood agency’s stats so far this year, 33 comedy...”
– Hate to link to the Finke, but this is worth knowing about.
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“The “I forgot Obama was black” sentiment allows the speaker the...”
– -Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote such a great post on Chris Matthews’ chosen expression last night.
I seriously recommend everyone read this. In addition to being fucking fantastic, it mentions The Wire. And ladies who like football. OKAY EVERYONE IS HAPPY NOW THANK YOU TA-NEHISI COATES.
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WatchTry to put yourself in Chris Matthews’ position for just a second here. Since around August, 2006, you have not been able to do a single activity - eat a sandwich, converse with your guests, eat a sandwich with your guests - without the voice in your head repeating the same phrase over and over again: “Barack Obama is black. Barack Obama is black.” You can’t mention this to...
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Just. Fucking. Do it. →
Think Before You Click Or Speak
theabyssgazesalso:
So, there is the Facebook slacktivism group out there called “Making Drug Tests required to Get Welfare.”
The idea being that in these tough economic times it would be best to cut government aid to people with drug problems. Let me break it down on why that’s not a sound plan.
First I would like to submit into evidence the 4th amendment of the Constitution.
“The right of...
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Angelina Jolie Is Constantly Yelling About How... →
“Us Weekly has a room full of hungry editors who are paid one bite of licorice for every nauseating circumlocution they come up with, the magazine uses no fewer than 4 different ways of saying “New Orleans” in their short article, including, “The Big Easy” (obviously), “the southern town” (that one only deserves half a bite of licorice), “the...
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Spencer Pratt says something that isn't terrible;... →
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Trust Women
So I’ve been exhorted by both NARAL and Muffin to Blog for Choice today. In honor of Dr. Tiller’s memory, I’m gonna relate the story of the first late-term abortion I ever heard about.
I was nine or ten, and though I aware of the existence of these procedures, I’d never heard of someone who’d had one. Then, one day, I was hanging out with a friend of mine, and his...
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Attention: This was the original problem. This is... →
Wanted: Camera
silverscreens:
In about an hour, I am going to an audition. What? The shy hobbit who would rather go through life never speaking words out loud is auditioning for something?
HA
Silly rabbit.
Muffin and I have set up an audition for our current project, meaning people will be auditioning for us! The power is very surreal. It is like the cool kids in high school are finally bowing down to the...
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Trust Women
Today’s Blog for Choice Day, and we would be remiss if we didn’t post about abortion rights today (uh must be any day of the week). This year’s theme is Trust Women, in memory of Dr. Tiller.
Honestly, I don’t have a lot to say on the subject. It’s not a challenging concept that every person (ladies too) deserves equal rights under the law, and that on a bigger level...
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WatchGirls, girls, girls! There’s plenty Slater to go around! Just don’t tell Preppy!
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Wednesdays continue to be good news days, dammit. →
Here is some good news about public transit. You’re welcome.
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Wednesdays are good news days. →
New York City is going to absorb its Department of Juvenile Justice into the Administration for Children’s Services, which is supposed to lead to less juvenile incarceration. That is very good. I vote yes.
Because Wednesdays are good news days, I’m going to focus on this. I am not going to talk about Haiti’s 6.1 aftershock, or how some congressional Democrats have decided that...
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Are women not funny when the sun sets? →
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“I know this sounds pat, but if artists are faced with an unusual number of...”
– Sorry to quote the last line of an article to you, but the whole article’s worth reading, and this particular line strongly resonates with me. I would highly recommend reading it.
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Supermajority, more like superma-BORE-ity →
Let’s celebrate what looks like a pretty bleak election in Massachusetts by reminding ourselves of ways to get shit done, filibuster be damned. Options range from the avoidant (the ever-popular reconciliation route) to the downright Gordian knot-esque. My favorite is in the latter category: “Reid can order the Senate sergeant-at-arms to physically drag Senators to the floor and prevent...
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“Now the search engine is the search engine — or more likely, any number of...”
– The New York Times publishes another of these aggravatingly stupid articles. The internet! Twitter! Things have changed! For better? For worse? Facebook!
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Spy Vs. Spy Vs. Spy →
This TMZ article is cracking me up. Conan’s people are gunning for NBC head Jeff Zucker, probably because know he’s bleeding a bit in the water. Also likely because he’s conducted himself in ways most unbecoming these last couple weeks. And, you know, most of his career.
Anyway, they’re complaining that Zucker’s been “nasty, arrogant and threatening.” An...
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Experts Mull U.S. Role in Haiti After Cameras... →
The military aspect of the US’s response to the crisis in Haiti is something that has me moderately worried, especially after reading this article describing the diplomatic kerfuffles over the US military essentially taking over Haiti’s airport. It’s possible that some of the diplomats in the article are just irritated the US got there first and are playing Monday morning...
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“Anytime we claim that one cultural form is more authentic than another, we are...”
– My mom emailed me this article to read, and it’s really good. It deals with Judaism, and also A Serious Man. Thanks, my mom! Also, it is from The Forward, which use to be published exclusively in Yiddish, so when we refer to it I call it Der Forvertz and my grandma gets a big kick out of that....
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“Obama sees himself as such a huge change that he can be cautious about other...”
– Maureen Dowd occasionally knows what’s what.
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WatchOkay, so not a lot happened on this week’s Nip/Tuck (other than a lady intentionally crashing her car with Christian Troy in it). It was mostly like a stage version of Nip/Tuck, where there were five characters and everybody switched partners and so forth. It was a little less engaging than it sounds, so I wanted to share this little ridiculous tidbit. This woman is married to this...
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NBC cannot avoid acting a fool, always →
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“On Thursday night Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, led a...”
– The New York Times on the curious disconnect between Haiti reportage and Haiti aid.
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Nikki Finke's round-up of today's late night war... →
Apparently Zucker is telling everyone NBCU will try to keep Conan off the air for the rest of the original term of his contract.
Which is fascinating, since non-compete clauses are void in the state of California. So I’m a little interested in how forcing him to stay off the air would work.
The same sex marriage debate
theabyssgazesalso:
Since I heard that Prop 8 was being challenged, I have been brewing a biting point-by-point commentary with lots of soucres from both sides of the arguement. It was an ever growing monstrosity on how the Prop 8 defenders were ignoring the fact that not every marriage does or should produce children, and how they were mixing religious morality with non-seclular law, and… Well...
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WatchAnd Pat Robertson feels like helping out, too.
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WatchRush Limbaugh, being a racist douchebag (no surprise here, obvs). It’s also worth noting that I care so much less about motivation than about actual presidential humanitarian action. Please recall the previous president, who did not care at all about black people (or credibility with them), and let them die in New Orleans.
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“NBC executives continued Tuesday to work toward a financial settlement, though...”
– From Bill Carter’s latest update on the Late Night Wars. My reaction: Really? They’re impatient with Conan calling them out on their incompetence? Really? Hilarious.