And Paula Abdul did the choreography for the dancing girls!

Know what I love about Rockwell? The hands. Artists always talk about how hard it is to draw hands. Rockwell, that dude could draw hands, and he knew it. He drew hands in this picture, through the doorway, when there was absolutely no need to, because he could. And if you look at a bunch of his pictures, he doesn’t just draw hands, he draws hands doing complicated things, making complex gestures, gripping fiddly little objects, he draws old people with wrinkled skin and funky joints on their hands… he was goddamn good at drawing hands and he was not shy about showing off his hand-drawing talent.

People calling him an illustrator and not an artist are just jealous of his hands.

Edit:

Hands:

(Assuming that “no consequence” also means that I won’t die on the trip…)

• Witness the Tunguska impact.

• See a Beatles show when they were just some small time dudes playing in a crummy club.

• Visit the Great Exhibition of 1851 and go inside the Crystal Palace

Or if you’re in for a trashy good time, The Running Man starring Arnold Schwarzenegger!

“Sewing dissent against Sauron”

I think we can all agree that, as a team, collectively, the Istari did a great job!

–Saruman the White

I voted Uncommitted in the primary so that Biden and the Democrats would get a count of how many people took the issue seriously. Primaries are a great place for message votes.

I also donated, volunteered, and voted for the Biden and then Harris campaigns, and didn’t hold back any support in public. I had no illusions about how bad it would (now will) be with Trump in the Whitehouse.

Trump Admin: Cap interest rates at 10%, but also we repeal the thirteenth amendment.

Democrats: No! What is wrong with you?!

Republicans: DEMONRATS WON’T WORK WITH US TO CAP INTEREST RATES AND ALSO THEY DRINK SMOOTHIES MADE OF BABIES!

Republican Voting Base: [Thunderous applause. 90% voter turnout. 99% voter loyalty.]

Everyone Else: I dunno, both parties seem the same. [Sub-50% voter turnout. Interfactional backstabbing intensifies.]

The Wyoming Rule would only increase the size of the house to 574, still a totally manageable number.

There was a Tom Clancy novel, either Sum of All Fears or Red Storm Rising, where the president and cabinet were a bunch of stupid fuckups that kept on making bad decisions taking us closer to World War 3.

Put on some halfway decent headphones and try out the virtual barbershop.

There are people who, disturbed by “big government” today and its tendency to curb the advantages they might gain if their competitiveness were allowed free flow, demand “less govern- ment.” Alas, there is no such thing as less government, merely changes in government. If the libertarians had their way, the distant bureaucracy would vanish and the local bully would be in charge. Personally, I prefer the distant bureaucracy, which may not find me, over the local bully, who certainly will. And all historical precedent shows a change to localism to be for the worse.

—Isaac Asimov, Nice Guys Finish First, collected in The Sun Shines Bright, 1981

I love SOHKN MILINE!

It was a hostile takeover. One of the original founders tried to prevent it from happening.

“I tried to find out who was playing Baldur’s Gate 3, but all I found was this worthless pile of sexual abuse evidence!” [Throws cardboard box into incinerator]

Mirrored:

No, I took it

Person A: I like the Star Wars prequels!

Me: That’s your right.

PA: They’re my favorite Star Wars!

Me: You’re allowed to like whatever you want.

PA: They’re better than the original trilogy!

Me: [Through gritted teeth] There’s no such thing as objectively good or bad media so…

PA: Anakin is a tragic hero!

Me: Okay so…

We need never be afraid of the vote of informed Americans. It is only the ignorant voter we have to fear, ignorant politically, no matter how fine his house or how expensive his schooling. Such people have never experienced democracy; they have merely enjoyed its benefits. It is hard to explain what democracy is; it is necessary to participate in it to understand it.

—Robert A. Heinlein, Take Back Your Government

Unfortunately, there seems to be an awful lot of ignorance out there today.

I wish 10 Republicans would eat racist for lunch, because then we’d be down to 9 Republicans!