He said that about Flynn—”it’s resolved itself” meaning he resigned. But these allegations are separate, and he’s going to need to find a new way to weasel out of them.

Ellison will step down from his seat if he’s elected chair.

I don’t think the idea is that there’s any good will to be gained, but that if they obstruct then it’ll hasten the speed with which the Republicans either change the rules (getting rid of the filibuster, etc.) or ignore them all together, which will allow the Republicans to push through even more terrible legislation…

It definitely did promote stereotypes, but it’s worth noting that at the time, gay men were still being stereotyped as predatory child molesters in many parts of the country, so changing that stereotype to flamboyant, mostly asexual arbiters of taste was a step down in terms of harmfulness, even if it wasn’t what we’d…

Yeah, there are fewer female roles. Only 12 percent of films have a female protagonist and only 30 percent of speaking roles go to women.

Jennifer Lawrence talked about this a bit and basically said that when male actors’ agents make overzealous salary demands they’re considered savvy agents who recognize their clients’ value and are often rewarded for it, but that when actresses’ agents make overzealous salary demands, the actresses are deemed…

That’s not how our justice system works. More evidence often comes out as lawyers build their case or as the trial occurs. We have trials so that juries can decide what happened, we don’t allow police officers to decide what happened.

Part of it comes down to the fact that Minnesota’s code of conduct has a different definition of rape than Minnesota law—the code of conduct requires affirmative consent (an explicit yes to each guy who had sex with her) to make this not rape, while the law just requires an absence of a no. So it actually wouldn’t be…

Yeah, if you listen to Paladino’s comments and come to the conclusion that they aren’t racist, I’d be really interested in hearing what you do think is racist. (Note: this is rhetorical; I don’t actually want to hear from you racists.)

I really like live a cappella but can’t stand it when it’s recorded and mixed in a studio—it sucks all the fun out of it. I have a theory that the thing that makes a cappella appealing is that it’s cool to see how we can make combinations of human voices sound kinda like musical instruments, but when you actually…

That car is the epitome of awful, but if the Uber was making a left turn and Teller was making a right turn/going straight, then Teller almost certainly had right of way, no?

I was talking about the cousins.

Would they accept? My family sure wouldn’t if we were in that situation, bu I know that family dynamics aren’t universal.

It sounds fucked-up but it’s pretty normal. The Bush twins had Secret Service agents while they were in college but still flew on regular planes at least part of the time, for example. I’d guess it’s par for the course for most adult children of presidents.

I mean, family dynamics are more complicated than that, no? My sister and brother-in-law have enough money to fly first-class any time we travel together, but they would never do that knowing I can’t, and I would never accept if they tried to buy me a first-class ticket. And we’re close! It would be even less likely…

I don’t think it’s that weird? It says she was traveling with extended family who presumably don’t have as much money as she does. The alternative is being the dick who agrees to travel with your family for Christmas but books first-class seats while the rest of them are stuck in coach because, uh, you can.

I will literally bike twenty blocks out of my way if I can avoid that stupid hill by doing so.

I think we’ve discovered the problem; no need for this course!

As someone who both bikes and drives in Madison, it’s not particularly hard to do either, and if Steve Nass finds it so difficult, he’s probably not qualified to be a legislator.

It’s also worth noting that the university’s code of conduct has a stricter definition of consent than Minnesota law; it requires affirmative consent. So it’s possible that not enough evidence existed (or was given to the police) to pursue the case legally, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t enough evidence to clearly…