Remember that “the Galaxy” is like Iraq after Sadaam Hussein was deposed, his military disbanded, and his Baathist (proto-fascist) civil service fired, but without the (questionably) steadying presence of the US military. The First Order is like al Qaeada, bringing together those now-jobless soldiers along with crooks…

I was going to say that this was a comparatively mild month in Phoenix, AZ, but then I checked the numbers: 18 of 28 days have been above the historical average. What threw me was a handful of atypical days in the 70s and 80s. Fallible human perceptions.

“Solo” is OK, but it doesn’t measure up to “Rogue One.” “Rogue One” explored new territory (with its communities of non-Jedi force users, for example) and had an earnest intensity that this film mostly lacks. The betrayals at the end of “Solo” were telegraphed well in advance and had relatively little emotional…

“If droids could think, there’d be none of us here, would there?” - Obi-Wan

I once did a pre-publication review of an academic text on immigration that claimed the continent was “empty” before Europeans arrived to put the land to good use. (Blithe racism not the book’s only flaw, and I panned it hard.) I remember a popular book on Los Angeles that opened with something like “Little did the…

This is on the same day that Trump again told police officers that they should be able to brutalize people of color (and anybody else, if they’re careful) with impunity. Kudos to these officers, but the wind seems to be blowing in the opposite direction.

This is the only show I watch on SyFy other than 12 monkeys, which is ending its run fairly soon. They’re doing a pretty terrible job of holding on to lifelong sci-fi fans like me.

It was taken by NASA’s Messenger, the first human-made spaceship to orbit this battered scorching hell.

Huh? There’s no there there.

Who did we see floating in the sea at the end? Was that Lee?

I don’t think Jadis/Anne has any special relationship with the helicopters. I think she’s just seen them before and hopes that if she gets their attention, they’ll save her from her garbage pit.

I would think prices would be going up since all the people with the requisite skills have retired or will retire soon.

Rich people and their lapdogs are fond of opposing luxuries like adequate funding for urban schools and almost any sort of public health measure by saying “You can’t fix the problem by throwing money at it.” This is true if you spend mindlessly, which seems to be the case here — though I can’t say what problem a LOTR…

Why is Rick the problem when Daryl would have done the same thing and Maggie might have as well? I am disgusted at Rick’s behavior, but he’s not alone in his brutality.

A coalition of Egypt, Syria, Jordan invaded after Israeli Jews declared independence, following decades if intermittent and often intense Jewish-Palestinian conflict. This was not something that came out of the blue. Your casualty figure is vastly inflated. Wikipedia says

Not like Lost or The 4400; more like a Terra Nova on a tighter budget. Very predictable; unlikely to last long.

Whether your father watched the original campy TV series of the ‘60s or saw the critically-panned 1998 movie reboot starring Matt LeBlanc, this is not your daddy’s Lost in Space.

He didn’t mention that he only wears them once then tosses them.

Ross’ letter is misleading on numerous counts, but probably the only thing he directly lies about is why he’s doing this. I don’t think this is purely or even primarily an instrumental move. Yes, the citizenship question is likely to reduce the participation of people with marginal immigration statuses. On the other…

Each survey has its own rules with regard to how complete a questionnaire needs to be in order to be counted, but it would be extremely difficult to justify failing to count census questionnaires that merely lacked responses to the citizenship question. (Note that it’s not just one question — it’s one question per…