I think that's the problem here. Two wrongs don't make a right, but there isn't anything right in this situation. This is the fragility of the authority of the law. When it doesn't serve the interests of people, why would they support it? If women are routinely denied justice by the courts, why should they keep…

Wouldn't say that I disagree. It's great to go out and have fun talking about something that really excited you, but it can have the unfortunate side effect of setting up expectations that simply won't be fulfilled for people who aren't as into it as you.

The problem is that Dr. Luke is probably never going to face a criminal trial over this. There will never be a day in court where it's all proven and justice prevails, you know? If one has to wait for that to make a decision about somebody, one will often be waiting forever. At this point, if I understand…

Think of it from Kesha's perspective, though. An outpouring of support is likely a real salve to her. I hate online harassment (and I'm not fond of Twitter in general) but a quick tweet saying that someone out there believes you can help give you the strength to face another shitty day.

It's a pie-in-the-sky dream, but I'd like to know if it's possible to reform contract law in such a way as to prevent brutal contracts like this from being enforceable. I know that there are things you can't legally agree to do in a contract (no waiver will save the owner of an underground gladiator ring). Maybe…

Max is a ronin. The plots are never really "about" him. He's the wanderer archetype, the outside influence that topples horrible circumstances and lets new things grow in their place. He doesn't stay anywhere, so his stories are always about getting into things that other people are doing. It's the outsider as…

OK, so I liked TFA well enough when I saw it (and can't fairly judge the movie as a whole, as I missed a couple of scenes due to the person I was working with needing a few breaks), but "care" is an interesting word to apply to that development process in my mind. I don't question it, but I think that said care was…

A friend of mine listens to tons of audiobooks, but doesn't read many print books. He suggested that he be called a tapeworm.

The best way that I've found to look at the Mad Max movies is to consider the first one as the birth of a mythological figure and the subsequent ones as additional myths that have no particular order to them. Max is created and wanders the Dreamtime forever all in one eternal moment outside of time.

The only real answer is "because they have different tastes", but that's bound to be unsatisfying. I loved it because it has almost everything that I like in an action movie performed at a high level, but I was surprised at how well-loved it became in general. Who knew that people were waiting for desert barbarians?

I'm going to guess that he took a running slide into ZZZ's shins.

David Duchovny sort of seems like the star version of everybody's one friend who's tons of fun but lives on a slightly different plane of reality from everybody else. Like, I can totally imagine him walking off the set of something, hopping into some random person's car, asking them if they want to get breakfast in…

Salo?

Counterpoint: his buildings. Liberace would look at Trump's towers and think "geez, man, tone it down a bit."

You're just saying that because you want to try a Devil's Dictionary.

The box office shows that people like the characters and the movies that they're in, yeah, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they like the comics.

That's exactly it. The music industry as we know it is just a bubble. It's large enough at this point to have encompassed a lifetime or two, but it's ultimately no more permanent than, I dunno, the beaver fur trade turned out to be. People will be making music, however, as long as there are people. I'm not at all…

I was trying to imply something like that, though I don't think I made it clear enough. Basically, this is an argument where a resolution is not possible because it doesn't currently exist. There's no way in the current legal system to uphold the principle of "guilt beyond a shadow of a doubt" without rapists being…

Ha! Mine was a guy I actually knew in real life. He was a leader of the church youth group, so naturally he taught me that being a witty, slightly jerkish hedonist English major was obviously the best way to live. I read a lot of good books and eventually wasted a lot of money pursuing a completely useless degree. …

Foucault's Pendulum was recommended to me by one of my poorly-chosen role models when I was a very young adolescent. That may actually have been the perfect age to read it, as it made me fairly resistant to certain strains of bullshit thereafter. Having read it maybe four times, I can't stop smiling whenever someone…