(1) I’m not sure I understand your point here. Best at what? There are many metrics for measuring how countries stack up. By many metrics, the U.S. is not on the top. (See the two articles I linked to).

There are several answers to this question:

We can be friends, and I apologize for making assumptions. I liked Ninja Scroll, but strangely enough I didn’t stick with me the way Akira did. I think the crazy objectification of pretty much all the female characters (except maybe the gunpowder demon, can’t remember her name), coupled with the odd sort of homophobia…

I’m sorry if you’re taking it that way, and I’m sure you know your stuff, but I think you’re wrong about this particular point, and brought out some arguments for my case. I apologize if my tone was too “instructor”-y.

OMG... that would have been awkward. Was there a second date? I remember that movie and that scene.

The stupid thing about all this was how avoidable it was. It wasn’t like Gal Godot was an A-list actor before Wonder Woman (she was in all of 10 minutes of BvS). But they got someone who nailed the look, put in the work, and made the part come alive.

This is not true, but it’s not something a white American would necessarily recognize right away. The manga and anime is stylized (to differing degrees by different artists and media), but anyone who’s familiar with the many Japanese artwork styles employed over the years/decades of GiTS could see that Kusanagi is not…

I stayed with a good friend of mine and his dad (who was an older dad) when I was 15 or 16. We went to the videostore (this was in ‘85 or ‘86, so yes, I’m that old), and I’d seen Repo Man about a dozen times by then, so I thought given Steve’s humor he’d dig it.... and then came the most uncomfortable 45 minutes of…

Sometimes this works - many states have film industry incentives (encouraging local productions or Hollywood companies shooting locally). The outright tax credit or cash sent to the production company is, sometimes, made up for by an increase in taxable economic activity at the local level - gas, tolls, payroll,…

Yeah, people have no clue, nor do they want to (which is worse).

When I tell people that it takes 18-36 months, multiple interviews, and screenings/checks by over 17 federal agencies before a refugee who JUST FLED A FUCKING WAR can come here (chances are from a country we’ve been bombing or otherwise fucking with) -…

Why are white people so quick to get up in their feelings? Hello, this article is not calling out you, Mr. individual white man. (I am a white man, and I know not to take this stuff personally unless I’ve done some this stuff).

I’ve seen PLENTY of asshat behavior on the part of white men on the subway to justify a…

Now you sound like Simon Pegg in Hot Fuzz.

That’s not quite fair... Carey’s short story (the basis for the book) was published in 2013, the novel in 2014. Last of Us came out in ‘13 or ‘14. In both cases the videogame creators and Carey were thinking about the “fungus among us/zombie ant” trope probably at the same time, maybe even years earlier.

I found the fights believable - these aren’t trained soldiers, they’re kids who are pummeling each other clumsily, which is what I saw onscreen. Even the kid with the bat doesn’t really know what he’s doing, just hoping to scare the shit out of the others kids with his ‘hey I’ve got a bat’ thing.

Come on, doesn’t that sound more exciting on a business card than “accountant?”

Well, screw you guys. As a 47-year old, I disapprove of this post.

Granddad, why did you stop talking to your brothers? Grandma, why were you so mean to my mother when she was a kid? Tell me again how you’re both not racists when you talk about “those people?” Why did you and grandma keep trying to have kids after all those miscarriages? Grandma, where did you go the last time you…

Of course, there is the possibility that this is how we come to find out Nicki Minaj is the patent holder of new cloning technology.

And, like all new technologies, the first thing people do with it is use it to bone (well, that and kill people. Let’s hope she doesn’t kill us all).

You can’t bring up BS without bringing up HRC. They were in competition during the primary, and they’re still (either directly or through their base) pushing different agendas within the DNC and left politics in general. And while none of us thought of him as a savior (like I said, politicians always have to be…

I agree with a lot of what you said (and most of the list above, except for Sanders), but I also think it’s more complicated than that. Many people have known for a long time that America sucks. Just nobody wanted to listen to us about it.

I and many of my friends in academia and secondary ed and the arts have been…