I played the beta for a while, and got the same feeling- it felt like several of my heroes only fought the Cadence twice before dying of old age, and I couldn't help but keep thinking about how futile their lives must seem- they spend their entire lives training for two battles, and half of them die in one anyway,…

Really? THAT's the alternative, huh? One or the other, huh? Silly me, thinking there was some way I could exist without being a dick.

Or that she wanted her parents to stop teasing her about boys, and thought "I've seen adults shut up when they're called sexist; maybe it will be more effective than squealing 'Mooooo-ooooooom!!! Stoppp iiiiiit!!'"

I actually really love this quote, because it solidifies something that bugs me about these sort of conversations- the idea, apparently accepted by everyone, that the moment people aren't talking about you, you don't exist. It doesn't seem to be any less patronizing than the sort of privilege it purports to attack,…

If she had, I really hope Seinfeld's wife responded "okay, the minute you bring a girlfriend home, I will apologize for that remark. Until then, I am going to continue to tease you about boys relentlessly."

You're right! I think all reasonable people can agree that there's only one proper reading of any holy text, and anyone who comes up with a different interpretation is a liar actively practicing self-deception, and their opinion needs to be expunged!

That's ridiculous. Obviously you should love being a big bald guy because you can cosplay as Judge Holden.

You see it as being a weak leader, I see it as being the personification of Tywin's advice to Tommen around the beginning of Season 4, and the main thing that stops him from being a more brutal version of Edmure Tully (or a less brutal version of Joffrey). Obviously Tywin didn't use advisors as much and relied on his…

No, but it's been around in rabbinic glosses for quite some time. It's the "failed Messiah" reading of the TANAKH, where nearly every miracle by God, benevolent or otherwise, is basically "shit, shit, you guys fucked up again, maybe the next generation will get it right."

It would be hilarious if that happens.
"Okay, Stannis just named me his heir. Cut her head off!"
"Wait! I just looked in my flames and saw Jon Snow die! You need me alive to resurrect him!"
"Excuse me, Your Grace. My name is Thoros, I've secretly been part of your army this whole time. Anyway, I can totally resurrect…

Jon's body is preserved in the ice and he spends the first few episodes wolfed-out until Melisandre gets back to Castle Black.

Stannis's good decisions in the book are the decisions he makes in which advisers to hire (people who share his sense of strict justice and have access to specialized information he does not possess), and when to follow their advice (almost always).

The longer people like you can keep that narrative going, the happier those of us who have discovered Denver will be.

Dammit, this had to be the night Ryan Adams is playing Red Rocks. See you guys at the next Science Friction, I guess.

Movie-title dilution has been happening forever. The early-90s Nic Cage screwball comedy It Could Happen to You was changed to that from the much more memorable (if also more literal) Cop Gives Waitress $1000000 Tip! I actually thought Let's Be Cops was one of the few movie titles that showed some character- it's a…

Do the cliches of buddy-cop movies really require subversion? What would that even look like? Training Day? I went into The Heat wanting to see Bullock and McCarthy do their own version of Riggs and Murtaugh, and I'd say I got my money's worth. The action setpieces weren't as impressive, but the comedy was better, so…

Counterpoint: Bridesmaids and The Heat, while not written by McCarthy, are funnier than Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore and rely on McCarthy's comic persona to be that funny.

I think that's probably the Seinfeld quote this news item deserved.

I'm not bigoted, I just don't think that James Bond should fuck sheep and refuse to pay his bills on time.

Name of the movie: Paula3