the Republican Party/conservative movement has done a very good job of convincing people that they don't need unions and unions are evil, etc. Why? Because unions used to be the traditional fundraising destination for the Democratic Party. Elections really do have consequences. A recent example was when VW USA…

youse are going up in the tower? I don't think so...

the Joey Ramone version is also very enjoyable, but yeah, the original is amazing.

You know, that's a good point. I think it's been assumed up to now that the reason they didn't want the movie released was because it depicted Kim being assassinated (although is he really?) but more likely it was because it showed the country as the ruthless dictatorship that it is, which they wouldn't want their…

I don't think that's hypocritical at all, because I think the threats against Anita, for example, were specific enough to be taken seriously, and we certainly have a historical precedent of mass shootings to be concerned about them (in other words, they happen every week) but the threats against cinemas I thought were…

I think it's totally their MO. South Korean intelligence has been reporting that NK has one of the largest, highly trained cyber warfare units in the world, and they are directly under the command of Kim. Also, some of the malware they used was traced back to attacks on South Korea in previous years that was known to…

Just out of curiosity, why do you think it wasn't NK?

It's funny, I was reading the comments on a related article over at Jezebel last night, and the reactions there were very different. Mostly: this was a stupid movie anyway, so who cares? But also a lot of: I don't believe NK did this, more likely it was a Sony publicity stunt. I had to point out to people that even…

I don't think they would go that far for marketing though, because they have the Feds investigating the hack now, and they could get into serious trouble for falsely claiming they were hacked just for a marketing stunt. As someone who works in IT, I'm telling you this hack has really freaked people out, and also it…

I wouldn't be surprised to see some kind of Anon retaliation for this, because this is exactly the sort of thing Anonymous doesn't like.

the part I don't understand is did the theaters really think anything was going to happen? Oh, they might hack into our network and turn the heat off or the popcorn machine. What, North Koreans were going to drop in from parachutes to every cinema showing the movie and go all Rambo?

the Interview was obviously a comedy, too. The only one who didn't get the joke apparently was Kim Jong-Un.

Ah, wedding planning. To be honest, my Mrs. and I had a lot of fun planning ours. Sure, there were stressful moments, but overall it was great. We did the whole thing on a budget of about half of what everyone else we talked to spent, and we did fun things to make it more personal, for example, I did all the music…

I can't cook for people like that. Sorry, but you have to be willing to try new things. I'm Italian, saying no onions or garlic is basically like saying you don't want to eat anything.

Isn't this the fish from Scandanavia that's soaked in lye? I asked my friends from Denmark about it, and they recommended avoiding it.

Agreed. My local dairy does an egg nog so good, I nearly fell to the ground the first time I tasted it. Also: Mr. Bungle album cover! Bravo.

I'm with you on this. I can eat a candy cane or two every Christmas, not a ton of them, but one or two. Candy corn I have no interest in, and circus peanuts, I can eat maybe three of them and I'm right for a few years.

I gotta say, I believe that both the homemade cranberry sauce (which I make) and the fake stuff in the can have their place. In fact, when I cook for Thanksgiving, I generally have both on the table, because I know most people are expecting the canned stuff.

I experience this sort of thing when I cook for my wife's mother and stepfather. He's very into traditional, boring, bland food, thinks no food should ever be spicy, etc. Her mother is more polite about it, will try just about anything we cook and will say she enjoys it, but sometimes I'm not sure. For example, if you…

That sounds horrible. I would say that I certainly heard more than a few casually racist comments when I was in Oz, but nowhere the shockingly hateful things I hear here in the States now. And I know it's not excusable for any kind of racism, but I somehow feel like old men sitting around the pub bitching about Asians…