Non-reigning royal families and those that rule very small states still marry other people of royal descent. Most recently, I think, was the marriage between the heiress presumptive of Monaco to the pretender to the throne of Hannover in 1999. Although she previously married and had kids with some lowborn but wealthy…

Well this is a late response that few people will see, but I meant campaigning for election, not politicking in general. There's this notion in the US that governing is something you squeeze in between elections, not the other way around. We have federal elections ever 2 years, and state elections on odd years in some…

I dunno, maybe the idea would be to have her spend a couple years in the peaceful church, turn her, and then have her have a "change of heart" and join JROTC or the Young Republicans or some such. Her actions at such a young age won't affect her clearance-wise. Or maybe it's all coincidental.

I dunno, that's pretty realistic. In real life that's how it goes, a super elite dude can be killed by some untrained schmuck or a random accident or whatever.

An important difference, for me at least, is that they aren't in it for themselves at all. Walter White did what he did to satisfy some bullshit psychological need. The Jennings do their work on behalf of their country, which actually is in mortal peril. It's horrible that Phil shot an innocent Afghan waiter in the…

Meh, her incompetence was always overblown. Oh, she wore a scarf the wrong way. Big deal, Phillip. She ran everything smoothly enough, and didn't compromise the Jennings even in the face of death.

I don't think it's really, "those bastards, how could they do that??" so much as straight-up fear for themselves and their families, and sadness at the loss of their friends. They don't even know who did it, so there's no one to project hate and blame onto. Although they're selectively outraged about other things,…

I don't agree with you per se, but I really appreciate you adding to the discussion in such a well-reasoned and thoughtful manner.

Lester is like a sadder, slimier Sarah Manning in his ability to squirm out of seemingly homeless situations. (Credit goes to Benevenstanciano for making this observation last week, but it's even more on-point this week.)

Yeah, Sonia seems to be conflating all of the commonwealth realms with the United Kingdom, which is super inaccurate. Nobody in America conflates Australia and Jamaica with England.

My favorite "royal news" site has both European and Middle Eastern monarchs. So they'll be tabloid articles about Danish and British royals going to pointless ceremonies, intermixed with serious political articles about high-level government ministers from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States.

Yeah, I agree it's overly reductive to reduce things to either comedy or drama. But there's no need to do that; just call it a science fiction romance or something and call it a day.

I saw Her by Spike Jonze. It was heartfelt, heartbreaking, unsettling, and just amazing overall. One of the best films of 2013, without a doubt. The sci-fi elements were well-realized, even if they weren't the point of the film. It seems like most "man and machine" relationships have involved an android body or a…

I was able to guess this final Jeopardy clue, because I remembered that Daily Show clip that centers on Rice being unmarried.(1) And then my thought process was, "wow, I really don't know any mid 19th century Secretaries of State at all. Wait Buchanan was a bachelor and was really experienced when he became president,…

The military didn't torture anyone in Zero Dark Thirty, that was all the CIA.

iZombie sounds pretty awful, but if it's produced by Rob Thomas and a bunch of other Veronica Mars people then I might have to check it out.

It's a Canada question, but it's also a 19th Century British monarchy question. I didn't watch this episode, but I knew who Victoria's father was and figured out the answer from there pretty fast in this recap.

Didn't Elizabeth also mention that she went to see him? That would've been a pretty harrowing experience.

Presumably he was tearing through Kate's house looking for something on Phil and Liz, he found something on Jared and tracked him down. And Kate knew there was Jared-related stuff in her house, which is why she wrote down the warning to extract him.

Larrick says he's from Petersburg county, when there is no such place. Petersburg is an independent city, and therefore not in any county. So he's not quite perfect.