Very good read. I had a great mental image of the place.

Well, my wife is mixed and sort of a caramel color but she identifies as black; from her point of view she says: "If I can walk down the street and someone might yell (expletive) at me then I'm black."

When it was invite only people were clamoring to get in. Folks were begging for invites. It had what can only be described as explosive growth within the first couple of weeks. Then it petered out. This is all fact.

Yeah, I do think you nailed a point well. It does seem to be trying too hard. I think that is where some of the weaker episodes come from.

I am a little hopeful things are improving over time. Take racism. It's out there but it is less now than it was 20 years ago, which was better than 40 years ago. 20 years from now a lot of old bigots will be dead. Some of them will have passed on that bigotry but not 100%. We'll have less bigots overall.

Yeah, the fact that you are comparing a subscription vs. a free service makes this a really meaningless comparison.

Agreed, that assumes that populations do not remain isolated. I'm hopeful that the trend towards isolationist culture goes away little by little each year and that inter-racial and inter-cultural marriages will help build bridges over time.

I think there is a whole generation of stupid that pretty much needs to grow old and die off before we can progress at all as a culture.

Yeah. I need to walk through WalMart and reacquaint myself with "people" before I say something like that again.

Wow. And I thought it was bad here in Florida....

Yeah, I was looking forward to them skewering the whole Honey Boo Boo thing but it was not really all that funny this time. I was mildly amused at James Cameron diving and his boat crew up top being absolutely sick of him. That's about it.

Yeah, I am getting really tired of my friends "Liking" Samsung and Amazon in the middle of my fucking news feed.

All a matter of taste. From my point of view they have some great episodes and some real stinkers. Just like last year. And the year before. And the year before, ad nauseum. But like I said, matter of personal taste. It just doesn't appeal to you lately.

It is pretty funny that someone thinks that this would actually sway voters.

They did a show about that sort of growing apathy last season.

It's hit and miss. When it's not funny it's stupid, but when it hits the mark it's awesome. I think the South Park guys are the most effective satirists out there today.

Interest piqued...

The other way to end it, albeit in a long term, is interracial parenthood. The more we socially accept interracial couples (full disclosure; I'm half of one of those couples) and the more children we have the more blurred the lines will become.

Bruce Sterling has this in Islands in the Net; they developed a skin cream that changed your skin tone to whatever you wanted it to be.

Fuck you Apple. Fuck you for making me cough up $100 more in replacement cables and adapters.