First, you will no doubt be happy to hear that Captain Janeway is not a geocentrist, and neither is theoretical physicist & cosmologist Lawrence Krauss:
… I have no recollection of being interviewed for such a film, and of course had I known of its premise I would have refused. So, either the producers used clips of me that were in the public domain, or they bought them from other production companies that I may have given some rights to distribute my interviews to, or they may have interviewed me under false pretenses, in which case I probably signed some release. I simply don’t know.
Many people have suggested I litigate. But this approach seems to me to be completely wrong because it would elevate the profile of something that shouldn’t even rise to the level of popular discussion. The best thing we can all do when faced by nonsense like that, or equivalent silliness promoted by biblical fundamentalists who claim that science supports a literal interpretation of the Bible, is to ignore it in public forums, and not shine any light on the authors of this trash. As far as this particular film is concerned, one might hope that it has high production value that cost the producers a lot of money. Then, when no one beyond the three people in the country who may somehow have missed the last 500 years of science and history during their education watches the film, we can hope that the whole misbegotten enterprise will bankrupt the production company, or at least severely cramp its style…
There are many, many examples of this kind of criminal revanchism it would be dangerous or impossible to ignore, but let’s not give a babbling loon‘s vanity project more publicity than it deserves.
Dave Weigel, on his serendipitous double-feature viewing of Captain America: the Winter Soldier and the new Erroll Morris documentary:
… In a closing scene, Black Widow justifies the destruction of the program and leaking of every S.H.I.E.L.D. secret in front of a governnent panel. To paraphrase, she argues that the world’s become a dangerous place, and people like her were part of the reason; this is exactly why she can be trusted to keep it safe. It reminded me of a line Rumsfeld used in some of The Unknown Known‘s found footage, a fascinating post-Cold War panel of former defense secretaries. “Who do we want to provide leadership in the world? Somebody else?” The blockbuster, which is supposed to unsettle us, gives assurance that the most venal foreign policy was all the fault of a few identifiable villains. Nazis, no less. It can’t happen again. The Unknown Known assures us that it will.
And for comix readers, also at Slate, Tammy Oler has a nice positive review on how “The Carol Corps and the Kamala Korps Are Changing the Way Marvel Thinks About Female Superheroes”… or, alternatively, “the way readers (and publishers) think about who can be a superhero”.
***********
Apart from the wide world of PopCult, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
Baud
I can’t wait till Mozilla names a geocentrist as their next CEO.
Schlemizel
shitty day at work – I plan on having 2 glasses of wine before dinner tonight.
I feel like Roger Murtaugh, I’m too old for this shit! If the old system was in place I would be retired & drawing the pension I earned
Betty Cracker
I now think of Mulgrew as Red from “Orange Is the New Black” rather than Janeway, but I’m relieved on both scores.
Litlebritdiftrnt
@Baud: My local RWNJ Radio Host was urging his listeners to have nothing to do with Mozilla, claiming as usual “Have these people not read the first amendment?” Which of course begs the question has my local RWNJ Radio Host read the first amendment? As others have pointed out it was not the government that canned the CEO it was their beloved “free market” that looked at his actions and decided that they wanted nothing to do with his bigoted arse because it was bad for business. Funny how that works.
Cacti
To paraphrase, she argues that the world’s become a dangerous place, and people like her were part of the reason; this is exactly why she can be trusted to keep it safe.
Sounds a lot like the justifications offered by a certain political blog’s favorite fugitive.
Also makes me think of a humor article I read recently about the many ways which your favorite superheroes are actually violating the law.
Randy P
I don’t know if anyone on BJ has discovered this ad yet, but I think this is far and away the Best. Internet. Ad. Ever. Also in the running for the Best. Product. Ever.
http://www.poopourri.com/
I saw it as a lead-in ad to a YouTube. Not only did I sit through the entire 2 minutes, but I made my wife watch it (she enjoyed it tolerably well but has forbidden me to ever use “little astronauts” in certain contexts on pain of death) and now here I am doing the advertiser’s work posting it on a public forum.
I almost always mute ads and click through as soon as I’m allowed to. So I’m a little disturbed at my own behavior. But damn that thing is funny.
Cacti
@Litlebritdiftrnt:
My local RWNJ Radio Host was urging his listeners to have nothing to do with Mozilla, claiming as usual “Have these people not read the first amendment?” Which of course begs the question has my local RWNJ Radio Host read the first amendment? As others have pointed out it was not the government that canned the CEO it was their beloved “free market” that looked at his actions and decided that they wanted nothing to do with his bigoted arse because it was bad for business. Funny how that works.
He’s always free to pursue employment with a company whose values are consistent with his own. I’m sure Hobby Lobby or Chick-fil-A could use an IT guy.
RobertDSC-iPhone 4
I agree. We should all stop talking about Andrew Sullivan.
Calming Influence
This Lawrence Krauss guy is pretty smooth with his dismissals, and his not wanting to litigate is a huge red (as in Commie) flag. I think he’s hiding something.
Trollhattan
Very glad to know that Sungenis isn’t the Sungenis who creates this strip.
http://www.gocomics.com/thenewadventuresofqueenvictoria/
But maybe they can meet, and we can all watch.
Trollhattan
@Litlebritdiftrnt:
It’s so damn hard, choosing which free browser to spend my hard-earned cash on. Are free markets no longer free when the product is…free? HOW CAN I PUNISH MOZILLA AND RETAIN MY FINANCIAL FREEDOMS?
MomSense
Made homemade falafel and raita with salad and pita. Yum. Plan to eat, enjoy a cold beverage and veg with the kids.
Litlebritdiftrnt
@Trollhattan: He He.
The Thin Black Duke
@Randy P: Damn You!
zattarra
I’m not 100% sure Dave Weigel watched the same ending to the Captain America movie I did when he quotes that scene and its meaning. I’m not going to throw out spoilers but he gets the point of the ending and what Black Widow was saying completely backwards.
beth
Holy crap! Anyone see Eric Holder telling Louie Gohmert to basically fuck off? Wow – someone is getting tired of the Republican’s shit. Get ready for the disrepectful angry black man complaints.
boatboy_srq
Is it me, or do the Reichwing media seem unable to tell a story without scamming their backers/talent/distributors/audience?
We’ve had the Walden Chronicles of Narnia excrescences (LWW was fairly close to the book, but PC was far, far afield, turning the tale into a thinly-disguised anti-Catholic rant, and don’t even get me started on VODT), the Passion of the Mel, Ben Stein’s various misguided “documentaries”, the whole Gathering Storm anti-SSM stupidity, the Atlas Shrugged debacle of a feature film, and now this. Noozecorp, at least, makes Reichwing pablum relatively palatable (Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow both had somewhat-believable takes on core Conservatist themes of strong leadership and the wrongheadedness of selected sciences), but these outside-the-mainstream volk like Sungenis seem genetically incapable of producing anything without misleading, deceiving, misquoting or otherwise using everyone associated with their efforts.
boatboy_srq
@beth: Gohmert response is pure “butthurt bigoted wingnut is butthurt.” I’d need an electron microscope to find the violin I’d play.
WaterGirl
@beth: I kind of like seeing Eric Holder pissed!
I mean, who wouldn’t want to smack that disrespectful clown! Eric Holder has had to put up with way too much disrespect because he’s a black man. Just like Obama does.
ruemara
@zattarra: it’s Dave Weigel. Who could be surprised?
WaterGirl
@boatboy_srq: If you used fewer acronyms, I might actually make it past the first couple lines of your comment.
Chris
@boatboy_srq:
How do you figure?
I saw it and I was raised Catholic, but I didn’t see it (it’s entirely possible that I missed it, however, since caricatures of a religion are often so ridiculous as to be unrecognizable). All I saw was that the Telmarines were modeled on the Spaniards (done because the producers wanted to model them on an enemy of England).
Josie
@WaterGirl: It is infuriating to see an ignoramus like Gohmert in a position to rag on an accomplished, intelligent man like Holder. I am embarrassed that a section of Texas has permitted this. Thank FSM he is not my representative. I would simply have to move.
JPL
@beth: He wished him luck with his asparagus. I thought it was kinda cute for Holder to be concerned.
lamh36
@JPL: lol. loved that dig too!
WaterGirl
@JPL: You guys must have seen a longer video clip than I did. Do you have a link?
Betty Cracker
@beth: I did, and it was awesome. In a true merit-based society, Gohmert would be scraping up road kill along I-10. I’m glad Holder made his contempt clear. He could not bestow his derision on a more deserving object.
lamh36
40 Years Ago Today…….715!!!
Hank Aaron Home Run #715
http://youtu.be/8S6KPtpGn9E
MomSense
Dungeons & Dragons & Philosophers from existential comics.
http://existentialcomics.com/comic/23
WaterGirl
@Josie: I have to live with Rodney Davis (R-Winger) as my representative, and if he’s not voted out in November and I have to live with him as my representative again I think my head will explode.
Tonight he’s having a conference call for constituents – with Paul Ryan – so they can promote Paul Ryan’s awesome budget! I tried to sit through one of those before in the hopes that I could ask my question, but it was like listening to a tongue bath – oh, representative davis, you are doing suck a great job sticking it to the black/brown/poor people/women/unemployed.
Sorry for the rant, seeing Gohmert treat Holder so disrespectfully really sets me off.
raven
News Hour had some woman from the Heritage Foundation on and she said we shouldn’t be discussin income inequality because it will make young women nervous!!!!
PsiFighter37
Philosophical question: if a grown child around my age (late 20s) doesn’t have enough money to cover much beyond their basic needs, how obligated should the parents feel to help them out? Something my fiancee and I have talked about from time to time should we have kids in the future who end up in this situation, but curious to see what others think.
boatboy_srq
@Chris: No, the Telmarines were modeled on Catholic Spaniards to be foes of the TRUE RELIGION of Narnia. Lewis’ Telmarines were descended from (unspecified) pirates, wrecked at sea on an island (presumably, from the language of the book, modeled loosely on the Bounty mutineers.). The people he described are NOT represented in the film. Add to that the various trappings of FundiEvangelism (the simplified practices, the “honest” and “uncorrupted” followers, the austerity of observances, and of course the No Drinking and No Dancing [where were Bacchus and Silenus, who freed the good people of Beaversdam and threw down the bridge?]) and you get No Xtianity But Ours. You don’t need a rosary on every breast, monks in brown robes chanting Gregorian tunes or bejeweled cardinals quoting in Latin from gilded Bibles to present all the totems of 16th-century Spain on a mission to claim the whole of the new world for God and the Pope: strong accents, daggers in dark alleys, quaint armor and renaissance-era siege engines do quite well at that.
I spent eight years as my Catholic school’s token Protestant, and four years amongst Southern Baptists undergrad. The dogwhistle is more camouflaged here than in some other works, but there’s enough to make any Fundie see the connections.
@WaterGirl: Perhaps it’s just my revulsion at what wingnuts can do to a piece of work, but having to write out The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in the same sentence with the BLEEPers who made the films of those books was a bit much the first time through.
WaterGirl
@raven: I’m pretty sure talking about income inequality makes some people nervous, but I doubt that it’s young women. I’m pretty sure that young people, including young women, are already plenty aware that they are getting screwed.
Josie
@WaterGirl: I understand completely. I am lucky to be in south Texas where the representatives are actually reasonable and fairly progressive. I can’t imagine having to listen to and look at someone like Gohmert on a regular basis.
raven
@lamh36:
A Boy, His Granddad and the Monumental Courage of Henry Aaron
From the Bitter Southerner.
JPL
@WaterGirl: Just type Holder and asparagus on google and hit news. There are several news items. It was at the end so not as clear but it is still there.
also.. it’s worth doing just to see the results
Josie
@PsiFighter37: If my grown children are working hard and doing their best to keep their heads above water (and they are), I want to help them all I can as long as it doesn’t endanger my ability to pay my bills. I live on teacher retirement plus a small part time job, so I don’t have a lot, but I can help with groceries and offer a place to live temporarily, if needed.
Howard Beale IV
Now where’s Michio Kaku’s comedown?
Mnemosyne
I am no longer preparing to go all Florida Woman on my co-worker, because another co-worker had the fabulous idea that I should turn my desk 90 degrees to face the other wall, which would give me a new space to put the bulletin board that was subjected to harsh criticism, so all is joy and jollity once again. Except for the part where I have to go through all of the excess crap in my office and get rid of as much of it as possible so I can have the furniture moved. Ugh.
Mnemosyne
@PsiFighter37:
It depends on the reason why. If said child is still working their way through graduate school or is trying to break into their dream career, then it may be justified. If they’re just dicking around, maybe not. Case-by-case basis, IMO. If, say, your child in their late 20s was in a serious car accident, lost their job, and had a hard time finding another one, would you say, Hey, sorry, you should have been out on your own by now, so no help from us?
jeffreyw
Practicing my spaghetti carbonara chops.
Villago Delenda Est
Noisemax headline:
Al Sharpton Denies Being a Rat
While Noisemax denies being anything close to a legitimate news organization.
WaterGirl
@JPL: Found a longer video, thanks. So much disrespect for Holder. I was glad to see him push back.
Mnemosyne
@jeffreyw:
You forgot the peas. :-)
Villago Delenda Est
@PsiFighter37: Well, the parents could always sell some of their wedding gift stock to provide the kid with a loan (say 50 grand) to start up his own business!
gussie
@PsiFighter37: My parents helped me out in my 20s, and it made a huge difference. Middle-class privilege is a powerful thing. I’ll pay it forward in ten years, when my kid is as clueless and idiotic as I was.
lamh36
@raven: wow thanks. very good link
SatanicPanic
@PsiFighter37: I plan on helping my child for as long and as much as I am able to and whatever the circumstances are, unless I feel like I don’t want to anymore. Not gonna let other people guilt trip me into doing otherwise.
NeenerNeener
@Randy P: I got some from Amazon last week. The stuff actually works.
Bob In Portland
Just came back from oysters and beer with my woman at Burnside Brewing. Now I’m listening to “Ain’t That A Shame” by that guy from The Damned. Not that “Ain’t That A Shame”. Another one.
Has anyone else in the world seen “Rake” with Greg Kinnear? Fox calls it a drama but it’s a hilarious comedy. They’ve been moving it around into different time slots which is usually a telltale sign that it’s floundering in the ratings, which is too bad. Kinnear plays such a decadent scumbag. Great for network television.
Now I’m listening to “Hey Sandy” by Polaris. It was the theme song for “Mike and Mike”. At the beginning of each episode they’d play it on Mike and Mike’s lawn.
the Conster
@PsiFighter37:
Nothing is worse for your kids than not letting them experience the real world consequences of the choices they made. This pampered kid thing is the biggest failure of my boomer generation.
Another Holocene Human
@Randy P: This product is real. I was at a friend’s house in the Tampa area last year and not only did she have some in the guest bathroom, later she confided that she had purchased an entire case of the stuff.
Does it work? I have no idea.
Bob In Portland
This is how it starts.
You bought it. Enjoy it.
Another Holocene Human
@zattarra: Yeah, I thought the scene was actually a nod at Edward Snowden except that watching the movie we know the ones doing the leaking are more akin to the people who report to the director of the CIA, not a CIA contractor.
Fortunately the movie didn’t go full Snowden or I might have gotten pissed.
“It was Nazis all along” was a little bit cheap, though. The point is that fascism and authoritarianism are within human nature and human potential, so Nazism never really dies, even if you kill all the Nazis … so using literal undead Nazis and followers saying “Hail Hydra” instead of real RW codewords like “culture of life” and “racial realism” is kinda, idk, lame.
But this movie was way more like the real Cap than the first, crappy CA movie.
One quibble: I’m not sure I’m comfortable with the whole Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes slash subplot. Especially Bucky’s hair. The emo-metal look is a bridge too far for me.
Bob In Portland
Ignore what Robert Parry writes. After all he wrote about Iran-contra and October Surprise and we know better than to look there, right?
Another Holocene Human
@Chris:
Did not see this movie but did see the one about Elizabeth and it kind of bothers me how Spaniards are portrayed as subhuman dark monsters with dark smudged eyes and vampire-pale skin, like not only does everyone look like the dead Christ in a Goya painting but they’re all supposed to be evil and sinister, as opposed to the red-cheeked, blond, cheery Britons who save civilization and freedom once again. Doesn’t anybody get tired of that shit?
raven
@lamh36: That is a really good online magazine. I never knew about folks eating dirt and that article was quite an education.
Bob In Portland
“Strange Town” by The Jam.
Randy P
@NeenerNeener: @Another Holocene Human: Oh, I didn’t doubt that it’s real. Not much, anyway.
The question I have, given the price and the fact that apparently you’re supposed to use it before you go, as a preemptive measure is: Do you (a) use it every time, thus costing yourself big bucks, or (b) try to anticipate when you might, ahem, be especially in need of some extra de-odorizing firepower?
Mnemosyne
@the Conster:
I “chose” to graduate college in 1993 in the middle of a recession so bad that the graduates were holding up signs that said Will Work for Food. The aerospace industry was in the midst of collapsing. I was trying to get into journalism and copy editing right when all of the local magazines folded thanks to the recession.
So I guess my parents should have let me starve because, hey, I should have planned better than to graduate during a recession.
Han
Thanks for the spoiler alert.
PurpleGirl
@the Conster: So when I was out on short-term disability (at about 40% of salary) my parents should have let me be evicted for not paying the rent…
Chris
@Another Holocene Human:
I liked it fine. After Iron Man gave us three Military Industrial Complex Corrupt Corporate Executive villains in a row (granted, the middle one was kind of a tool outplayed by his hired gun), I was ready for something pulpier than another neocon asshole.
Also like the fact that they’re sticking with the original version of HYDRA (the Marvel version of the ODESSA) rather than what it was eventually retconned as (another Ancient Conspiracy/Secret Society which secretly caused not only Hitler but basically everything bad in history). Because honestly, if you’re going for “The Ultimate Evil Organization of Evil,” you really can’t do better than Nazis.
Ian
@boatboy_srq:
I never got that take on Independence day. A black guy and a jewish scientist save the world after the U.S. military falls apart. The white neocon secretary of defense gets fired. A drunken single man at the head of a mixed race family saves the day.
Cheesey? You fucking betcha. Just never struck me as a right wing meme.
Edit- And the Day after tomorrow, may it rot in hell, is about global warming. And we illegally invade Mexico.
Tehanu
@zattarra:
You’re not the only one who noticed that. It’s Snowden, not Rumsfeld, she reminded me of.