There is also a unit conversion error.   -79 C is -110 F.

When Korra aired, I was kind of annoyed at the Korra-Asami love story, because it felt so tacked on.  There were very few hints, and all of the hints could easily be construed as a normal friendship.  It felt like ham-handed storytelling for a show that was almost always anything but ham-handed.  At the time, pointing…

Congresscritters (and their spouses) shouldn’t be allowed to own stock at all.  Don’t like it?  Don’t run for Congress.

Then, it is not a martini.

I know you speak truth about many white people not wanting to live in black neighborhoods, but it makes me rather sad. I like being around people with different histories, because I can learn more.  It may be that more and more people will come around to the idea that living in racially and culturally mixed…

Like most reading this article, I was born after busing came and went. I remember some discussion of the policy when I was a kid. My mom (who is very much pro-desegregation) mentioned something about issues with young students spending way too much time in their bus commutes being a real problem. The idea was that…

(Standard caveat: as a decent human being, I will support whomever the Democratic Party nominates in the general election.)

Sure, she can.  She can testify to the grand jury, something she should do anyway.  Do we really want to protect Wikileaks?  They’re part of the whole worldwide push against democracy.

Some policy ideas can be good when you’re using them to stand out, but it can go wrong. In 2008, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama furiously debated over whether there should be an individual mandate in the Romney-esque health care plan. At points, it seemed like the only policy point that mattered between the two…

I think that’s about right.  Conservatism is supposed to mean preservation of the status quo, maintenance of institutions, and gradual change by observing what appears to work.  None of those things exist in contemporary conservatism in the U.S.  They’re all “centrist.”  I think we are better off describing the modern…

When did the standard tip become 20%?  Since I was a kid, it’s been 15%.  Anything higher was gratitude for excellent service.

I wonder if activated charcoal might also absorb vitamins and minerals from one’s meal as well.

That was worrying me about Eleven’s arc in Season 2.  I get that she is dealing with things no one prepared her for, but the built-in angry jealousy she had for Max seemed like something that could make her character unlikable if taken too far.

I thought it was good (but not great.) I liked the twist, and I wouldn’t call the movie “muddled” at all; the story was very clear. One of the interesting things about the movie is that it flipped the origin story. Instead of a normal person discovering her superpowers and becoming a hero, there is a superhero…

And Captain America occasionally quits his position when the country veers too far into some sort of evil.  (Or when he failed in some way.)

People being racist towards others are valid targets of scorn.  People wanting to celebrate their fandom regardless of race are not.  Just as it is cruel and unfair for anyone to target black cosplayers for race-based abuse or even quiet disapproval, it is unhelpful to target white people who want to display their…

I think there are plenty of reasons to be concerned about the lack of fair due process in a lot of these cases but that the lawsuit is based on gender discrimination kind of damns it.  One should be trying to prove one’s innocence, not crying about the school discriminating against men in these cases.  I strongly…

Obviously, these people are racist, but the term is more local than necessarily racist. I grew up in a non-racist household in an area with almost no Asian people.  The word people used around there was “Oriental.” I didn’t learn it had any pejorative issues until I left for college.

Now, let’s just encourage everyone to tilt at the troll’s strawmen, just to mix a few metaphors.

I feel like gymnastics is much more akin to performance art than it is sports.  (It looks more like ballet than rugby or tennis.)  If you think I’m insulting the activity, please consider whether you think athletes are more worthy of praise than artists.