I thought the lyrics to that song were so awful, it dropped the my rating of the episode by at least half a letter grade on its own.

The ones that were a majority of the votes casts in both the Democratic primary and the General Election.

I recently listened to a Sam Spade radio play called "The Kandy Tooth Caper" (a sequel to The Maltese Falcon, with the return of Gutman and Cairo) where Spade early on call up Philip Marlowe to check up on a story from a client – all "Hi Phil, Sam here!" chumminess. (The show completely ignores the fact that Spade is…

I'm sure there were a number of things that Comey did he didn't like, but what I think it ultimately comes down to is that he has no notion of public duty or higher responsibility. Comey is an underling, so his job is to do his bidding. And when he wouldn't, of course he gets fired.

But that's just the normal ahistorical nature of legend. The troubadours who concocted the Arthurian romances depicted idealized versions of the courts they knew. They were not concerned with portraying the era in which the stories were set realistically. But that doesn't mean they weren't still supposedly set in that…

As a science fiction fan, I guess it's somewhat surprising that I've never seen a full episode of any Star Trek show, watched any of the movies, or experienced any other adaptation.

I'm pretty sure Richard specifically said that the license he granted them would not be time-limited (I forget the word he used; "perpetual"?).

Yeah, I also thought that patent must be very close to expiring. Hooli is clearly one of the first-generation web behemoths (like Google, Yahoo, Amazon, ebay…), and all those companies were incorporated 1994-1998. If, as it sounds, this was a move by Gavin to keep Peter focused just as their startup was getting off…

It's been circulating online for decades. Originally written by one Kent Ashcraft, it was adapted into a President Bartlet rant on The West Wing: https://www.youtube.com/wat…

I don't agree with that dichotomy. There's a lot of room for nuance between "from the moment of conception, a fertilized egg/blastocyst/fetus is a person with full human rights" to "a fetus is merely a medical condition with no inherent value until the moment of birth". You can respect a fetus in early development as…

No, I missed that one. Wow. In the true sense of the word: SAD!

I've said it before, but this is the sort of thing that convinces me that there is something deeply wrong with him on a psychological level. It seems clear that he has no conception of human value outside of these superficial rankings, whether it's approval ratings or TV ratings, "hotness" (ideally established via…

It wouldn't be that hard to argue that sex/love goddesses (in general, I'm not too familiar with Bilquis specifically) tend to embody and serve male conceptions of sexuality and thereby support patriarchal social norms.

I don't agree with the distinction you make between Germanic and Norse gods: They're all named after the local forms of the Germanic gods (German in German, Norse in the Scandinavian languages, Anglo-Saxon in English, etc.). That's why it's "Wednesday" in English (after Woden) but "Onsdag" in Scandinavian (after…

There's a distinction between denotation and connotation (though not always a sharp one). But you are right: if a word develops strong racial associations, that will eventually change the "official" meaning of the word; the subtext will become text.

The outrage would be much worse, and would you be in the comments, telling those people it's unjustified? Maybe, but I'd wager you wouldn't.

I would have just as hard a time taking it seriously.

I greatly prefer both Alien^3 and Alien: Resurrection to Prometheus. Those two have their problems, but Prometheus is just infuriating to me on so many levels (most of which can be summed up by "this is just so fucking stupid!").

Doesn't seem like a huge problem to me. Just come up with another case that keeps Josh in town. What if, for example, Carol Anne Keane is accused of a murder? He'll still be an outsider, though of course less so over time.

I assume the only reason no one has mentioned The Shield is because its status as the greatest finale ever is not in doubt, so we're taking it out of consideration?