"Offensive?" Really? You would be offended by this?

I think you might be giving them too much credit.  They're rich and powerful guys who want more money and power.  The Republican party is designed to protect the wealthy, and thus gives them the most direct path to turn their money into political power.

Q: Why did the Russian chicken cross the road?
A: To drop polonium in a dissident's drink on the other side.

What?

Who's speaking German? @avclub-e2684ea2157a2423b7463536886837b2:disqus was just saying that nine reasonable discussions can occur on this topic and typo-ed.

"The View"

I like Bourdain, but it was hard not to feel like I was losing a bit of respect for him for doing this (I probably lost about as much respect for myself for watching it though).  For a while it looked like he was going to show us how edgy he was by simply not choosing anyone for his team, which would have been…

I haven't decided where I fall on this issue, but now I'm stuck imagining just how insufferable a Nerd Galt's Gulch would be.

Depends what you're looking for: podcasts IME run the gamut from structured interviews to just sort of hanging around with a host and a guest.

Is Catherine Zeta Jones playing Carmen Sandiego in this?

Huh, every time I see the trailer, I'm reminded of the short-lived 90's crime-drama "The Hat Squad."

Yay Backlash! Fuck that thing other people like!  Wake Up Sheeple!

If they're waiting for a week without a mass shooting to release this thing, it's going to be on the shelf for a long time.

Jon has a white wolf, Robb is Tony's father.

The PBS station in my town just replayed all of I, Claudius, and damn it is slow: "Stammer stammer, murder murder murder," and repeat for the next 6 hours or until you run out of cast members.

That was Larry Flynt, which is surprising because Doctor Clarkson had told him he'd never walk again . . .

I'd agree if it were pretty much any of the aristocratic twits (ie Lady Sibyl) making that "principled' stand - it's easy to convince yourself you don't need something you've never had to do without - but Matthew is supposed to be middle class.  I don't believe that he'd have that much trouble overcoming his scruples…

Matthew's "I won't take this mind-boggling amount of cash because of … reasons" stand struck me as infuriatingly ridiculous.

I think spoiler-free.  I was assuming that they'd write Matthew out of the series by having him die in his marriage bed, victim #2 of Lady Mary's Death Snatch.

This is one of those pulp-sourced movies from the nineties (like The Shadow, The Rocketeer, The Phantom, and, if we're honest, Batman) that looked great, and had some good ideas, but just never came together in a satisfying way.  I still like them, but I wanted to love them.