In general, no, driving shouldn’t be a thing. It’s dangerous (to participants and bystanders), expensive, dirty (both particulate and carbon emissions), and destructive of urban environments. We should be busting our asses to provide alternatives and our failure to do so is no less shameful than the existence of…

Similarly, I don’t support politicians being raped for their (real or perceived) errors in judgment.

I dunno, Splinter and its sibling sites do some good work and dumbass clickbait like this article help subsidize it. In sum,

NDT’s tweet implies a threat?

The joke, of course, is that NDT is pretending to be upset about a Frozen poster and Crosbie is pretending to be upset about NDT and people in the comments are getting actually upset.

“This obviously unscientific thing is scientifically dubious for this reason” is his opening line to talk about whatever related topic. He’s never actually demanding a retraction or whatever; it’s just a dorky science-teacher patter that, unsurprisingly, makes people on the internet super mad.

If he were serious he’d talk only to me about my favorite topics at my level of sophistication!!!

“Your dad jokes are neither particularly funny to me nor serious engagement with the issues of the day” is just the saddest, strangest stand to take.

I think it’s the opposite of that? Normal people can see that tweet and think “Oh, it’s Neil deGrasse Tyson doing his science pedant schtick” and roll their eyes or chuckle or point out that Frozen might take place in an environment of crushingly high pressure where ice has 4-fold symmetry, according to their…

but which one tho

Because it’s a promotional image, not a technical drawing?

In fact, I think almost no one should be shot as part of politics.

Nah. Politics isn’t criminal justice, and we knew that his situation was politically untenable. He needed to resign for, basically, being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe (probably!) it wasn’t fair, but that’s how it goes.

It may actually help her to have been so thoroughly overlooked this time — it’s almost like she didn’t even run, so she’s not going to get beaten up too badly. Look at Biden: he flamed out so quickly each time he ran that no one remembered by the next one.

I mean, I sympathize with his annoyance at having suffered more consequences than literal serial rapists — that’s super unfair.

Yup yup yup. Although I kinda feel like he’d be making the right call now if he were getting appropriate recognition for making the right call then, so as a practical matter I want his public defenders to switch approaches.

“I was confused about where these allegations against me were coming from, but I did what I thought was best for the movement/the party/Minnesota, which are more important than my Senate career” is a savvier starting point than “I was framed and they treated me so unfairly.”

There was pressure on Bob Menendez, Ralph Northam, Ricky Rossello, etc. to resign and they chose (so far in the last case) not to. Al Franken’s not dumb. He knew he could stick around if he was shameless enough, but he’s a good person so he didn’t. He made a smart and decent choice, he helped the party and the…

For real. Franken was an excellent Senator, he stepped down rather than be made into an attack ad (lookin’ at you, Bob Menendez), and we should just accept that and be grateful/relieved. If all his would-be defenders could focus on his actual political heroism (Politics operates on a different scale, OK?) instead of…

And it’s perfectly possible to like him and think stepping down was the right thing to do — indeed, part of why you should like him.