When is the last time you felt like a superhero, even for the briefest of moments?
Note: Answer this as seriously or unseriously as you'd like. Could be that you pulled a stranger out of the path of a bus; could be that you impressed your kid by "magically" turning the stoplight green; could be a breakthrough at a physical therapy session; could be an impressive bit of multitasking. Anything that made you feel like your best self.
Question of the Day
Headline of the Day
Totally Trenchant Headline of the Day, care of ABC News: "Monica Lewinsky's Former Rabbi to Deliver Benediction After Bill Clinton Speaks at DNC."
Are there members of the MSM who still wonder why we think they're largely a joke? Because they shouldn't.
Good Luck
[Content Note: Faked injury; coercion. Previously: Liss on "Your Underdog Lovelorn Romantic May Be My Rapist" and Shaker sbvds on "The Obligation of Happily Ever After."]
So, y'all know how much I hate public proposals, right? I haaaaaaaaaaaate them. I hate them as much as I love Jesus appearing on a piece of toast.
I hate them for a slew of reasons, but mostly because they are inherently coercive. Even if the person (woman, usually) being publicly proposed to would have said yes under any circumstances, the context of a public audience when being asked to make a profoundly intimate decision, no less an audience who urgently sides with only one potential response, necessarily creates an imbalance that subverts meaningful consent.
Pressure and consent are mutually exclusive concepts.
So I hate public proposals.
And I hate this one most of all the hated public proposals about which I've ever had the displeasure of reading:
This man wanted to see if his girlfriend really did love him to death, so he faked the moment he "died" in a horrific car crash – and then got up to pop the question.All of this? Gross. Super gross. And yet I still haven't even gotten to the grossest part!
Alexey Bykov hired a movie director, stuntmen, make-up artists, and even a script writer to stage the bogus motor smash.
The 30-year-old then planned for girlfriend Irena Kolokov to meet him at the crash site so she would be convinced he was dead.
Irena said: "We'd arranged to meet at a certain place but when I arrived there were mangled cars everywhere, ambulances, smoke, and carnage. Then when I saw Alexey covered in blood lying in the road, a paramedic told me he was dead and I just broke down in tears."
But then "dead" Alexey climbed to his feet and proposed to Irena – still covered in fake blood.
Irena said: "I was so cross I almost killed him again, but for real this time."
Luckily for Alexey, she saw the joke, said yes – and the couple were married last week.
Alexey, from Omsk, Russia, said: "I wanted her to realise how empty her life would be without me and how life would have no meaning without me."A decent person does not actively want hir partner to have no life, no meaningful pursuit, outside of their relationship. That is the foundation of chronic abuse, in which a person (woman, usually) is increasingly isolated in order to reduce hir life to an infinitesimally tight orbit around hir abuser.
It is possible, of course, that Alexey was "joking," in which case he was merely having a laugh at the idea of ruining his wife's life through cruel subjugation, after an emotionally manipulative marriage proposal. What a catch.
Quote of the Day
Now, the fact that a lot of Americans are still opposed not simply to the presidency of Barack Obama but to the idea of the presidency of Barack Obama is not something that Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, or in fact any Democratic speechmaker will talk about at the convention. But it's indisputable, and it accounts for the almost fantastic nature of what many Americans think of both the president and the First Lady. To be sure, they're politically vulnerable on merit; but they're also vulnerable because even, after their four years in office, a weirdly unvarying percentage of America does not accept them as Americans. It is prejudice, pure and simple, and it manifests itself less in polling results than it does in a political discourse warped by whispers and suspicions kept sub rosa.—Tom Junod. Go read the whole thing here.
And so it was hard to say what Michelle Obama had to do on Tuesday night, because so much of what she had to do tonight was something outside the realm of polite speech. Republican commentators spoke almost winsomely of Ann Romney's need to humanize Mitt Romney; but no Democratic commentator could speak of the necessity of "Americanizing" Barack Obama without indulging the worst instincts of the American electorate. So what Michelle Obama did, quite simply, was engage the best...
So maybe Michelle Obama was supposed to humanize her husband on Tuesday night, in her big speech. Maybe she was even supposed to humanize herself. But she wound up doing something very different, and something far more rare, and something that not only answered the people who insist that she is not like them but also had to shame them: She was simply human, and so as American as any of us could hope or dare to be.
[H/T to Jessica. See also: Irin Carmon's "Michelle Obama: Beyond mom-in-chief."]
Daily Dose of Cute
Zelly in the window. She was only chasing flies, but let's pretend she was dreaming of a better world.
In The News
[Content note: Misogyny, violence, homophobia]
The Democratic National Convention opened last night. I hear it went swimmingly. Seriously. Everyone on Twitter says it was awesome, especially Mrs. Obama's speech.
Of course, there was also a lot of terrible things on Twitter. For example:
CNN contributor Erick Erickson had this to say:
He later apologized.First night of the Vagina Monologues in Charlotte going as expected.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) September 5, 2012
Today marks the 35th anniversary of Voyager 1's launch into outer space.
A transgender inmate in Massachusetts has won the right to have the state pay for her gender-reassignment surgery, after a US District Judge agreed that the surgery was medically necessary
Deathfat Update: "People can be obese yet physically healthy and fit and at no greater risk of heart disease or cancer than normal weight people, say researchers."
Jay-Z joined Pearl Jam on stage for a rendition of "99 Problems" at a Philadelphia music festival over the weekend. Sad face.
Deathfat Update 2: New York City cut so many calories from its school lunch menus that it often served children fewer calories than required by the federal government.
Four Marines from Southern California's Camp Pendleton were arrested early Sunday morning after they beat a gay man after taunting him with homophobic slurs inside the Silver Fox bar in Long Beach. They may be charged with a hate crime.
Downtown Abbey fans! Some stuff about the music which I assume is very old timey.
Michael Clarke Duncan: "Don't you put that evil on me, Ricky Bobby!"
Quebec's separatist Parti Quebecois won a narrow victory yesterday. Their celebration was cut short by a shooting that left at least one person dead.
Flula explains why he thinks Breaking Bad is great. "Ooh, magic."
I think I've found a movie even worse than Atlas Shurgged (typo, and it stays): Last Ounce of Courage is about the evils of the separation of church and state, in a thought-provoking (nope) drama about the war on Christmas, I guess? In theaters September 14.
Do you have Grooveshark? If so, why aren't you listening to Betty Davis right now? Seriously. She is fucking amazing.
Beloved Community: The WSCADV Conference
Next week, the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence (WSCADV) is having its annual conference in Yakima, the theme of which this year is Beloved Community.
To my great excitement, I will be speaking at the conference, which includes a line-up of amazing speakers, including Victoria Ybanez, the Executive Director of Red Wind Consulting, and Emily May of Hollaback!, among others.
I will be giving an address, "More: Building and Defending Beloved Community," and Misty and I will be giving a workshop on "The Technology of Beloved Community."
Our conference coordinator has graciously offered a day rate for Wednesday's plenary, at which I'm speaking, if there are any Shakers who want to attend.
If you're interested, please send an email to wscadv–at–wscadv–dot–org.
For more information, visit WSCADV's website.
Also! Check out their blog: Can You Relate? I can relate!
Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by yoghurt.
Recommended Reading:
Nate: The Simple Case for Why Obama Is the Favorite
Helen: Trans Delegates: 13
Andy: Zach Wahls to Speak at Democratic National Convention Thursday Night
crunktastic: At the Risk of Sounding Angry: On Melissa Harris-Perry's Eloquent Rage
David: Defriended Over a Wedding, a Straight Man Gains Perspective [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of homophobia and Christian Supremacy.]
Jody: Will the Paralympics Change Attitudes to Disability? [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of ableism.]
Fannie: Gay Man Covertly Attends NOM Conference [Content Note: Homophobia.]
Kate: Chicago Police Department Adopts Transgender Policy [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of the harassment and transphobia that necessitated the policy, as well as problems with the policy.]
Arturo: Quoted: Michael Clarke Duncan (1957-2012) on Achieving His Dream
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
Top Five
Here is your topic: Top Five Favorite Superheroes. Go!
Please feel welcome to share stories about why your Top Five picks are what they are, though a straight-up list is fine, too. Please refrain from negatively auditing other people's lists, because judgment discourages participation.
First Lady Michelle Obama at the DNC
Last night, First Lady Michelle Obama gave her address to the Democratic National Convention. Her speech was so popular on social media that tweets about the address peaked at 28,003 per minute, which was almost double Mitt Romney's peak of 14,289 per minute.
Below is video of the address. A transcript is available here.
And here is the ridiculously adorbz picture from the official White House photo stream of President Barack Obama and their daughters, Malia and Sasha, in the the Treaty Room of the White House, watching the First Lady take the stage last night:
In other DNC news...
Annie-Rose Strasser: Deval Patrick: "It Is Time for Democrats to Grow a Backbone"
Related to above link: Whooooooooooooops!
Zack Ford: Democratic Convention Speakers Celebrate LGBT People and Equality
Taegan Goddard: Democrats Use Kennedy to Slam Romney
Shannon Travis: DNC Secretly Scheduled Guests: Actresses Johansson, Portman, Washington
Greg Sargent: Repealing Obamacare Would Take Health Care Away From People
Stacy Lihn's speech, quoted at previous link, can be viewed here.
Eric Dolan: Senator Durbin Blasts Fox News: God Is Not a Franchise of the Republican Party
Oh look, it’s time to talk about gamer culture and rape culture again.
by Shakesville Moderator Scott Madin. Cross-posted at Fineness & Accuracy.
[Content Note: Rape culture; sexual assault; harassment; misogyny; objectification.]
I guess I don't need to elaborate here on how I feel these days about Penny Arcade and their bicoastal, twice-yearly paean to conspicuous consumption, PAX Prime/PAX East. They represent some of the worst of gamer culture, they gleefully profit from misogyny and rape jokes, and their convention (increasingly, it seems) disregards its own "no booth babes" rule, making women feel less welcome and encouraging (presumed male) attendees to see all women, booth babe, cosplayer, developer, PR, or "regular" attendee, as sexualized objects there for men's pleasure.
It's distressing, then, but hardly surprising to hear that, at a party thrown by Mojang's Markus "Notch" Persson, noted fedora enthusiast, indie-game-scene darling, and creator of the wildly successful Minecraft, a female game blogger seeking some relative solitude in a corner was accosted, harassed, and sexually assaulted by a male party-goer. Understandably upset, she fled the party, and when her friends sought out security, they were greeted with shrugs.
Some salient points:
- The party was paid for by Persson himself, not by Mojang. It's not entirely clear to what extent he organized it, and to what extent the party venue handled those details.
- The party took place during PAX Prime, but was not an official PAX event, nor was it at the PAX venue. However, as it was a party thrown during PAX by a video game celebrity; it's reasonable to assume that the majority of attendees were PAX-goers.
- A notable exception: some attendees, distinguished (according to Ky, the blogger who was assaulted) by red wristbands, were women hired from a modeling agency.
- Lydia Winters, Minecraft's "Director of Fun" commented on Ky's blog post clarifying that Persson, not Mojang, had thrown the party and that the models were hired by "the production company" to "have more girls there to up the girl to guy ratio. It's a pretty typical club procedure." (Winters confirmed via twitter that it was in fact her who posted that comment.)
- It's not clear, then whether hiring the models was in fact Persson's idea, or whether he knew about/approved it. (One would imagine that, if planning were left to the venue or some other third party, given that Persson was paying, he'd at least have been asked to sign off on the expenses.)
- Persson himself, about three hours ago, tweeted:
Some asshole did something totally unacceptable at my party, and a security guard shrugged it off. Very upset. It's being dug into.
— Markus Persson (@notch) September 4, 2012
- In an update at the top of her post, Ky emphasizes that she doesn't feel PAX or Mojang is responsible in any way for what happened, and that in her view "The ONLY person who should be held accountable for what happened is the asshole himself." She also states, "Also this post isn't about nerd or gamer culture or blaming those cultures at all, this could happen in any community, at any party, to anyone."
First: Ky is obviously the final authority on her own experience, and just as obviously the man who attacked her is the only one who bears direct (let alone legal) responsibility for that crime.
Nonetheless, perhaps predictably, I disagree that this incident has nothing to do with PAX or with nerd/gamer culture. There is too much evidence, commonly discussed in this space, that cultural and environmental factors make predators feel they're free to operate in a given situation — and that make bystanders more likely to shrug, to see the warning signs of predatory behavior as "normal".
It's certainly true that things like this can and do happen "in any community, at any party, to anyone" — rape culture is endemic, and no subcultural niche is entirely free of it. However, gamer culture — fueled by Nice Guy (often shading into MRA) bitterness over high-school bullying and lack of "success" with girls (an historical injustice elevated to mythic proportions in nerdism) — clings to especially overt misogyny and objectification. One need only look at the vitriolic response to Liss' criticism of Fat Princess, Anita Sarkeesian's proposed (now underway) "Tropes vs. Women in Video Games" video series, the myriad examples at Fat, Ugly, or Slutty?, or of course the Dickwolves debacle, to see this in action.
PAX encourages and revels in these attitudes — reflecting the views (so far as one can surmise from their actions) of its founders and their core fanbase — but it certainly doesn't start with PAX, or with Penny Arcade. Society's misogyny has always been an element of nerd culture, and nerd culture's tendency to be self-referential, insular, and distrustful of "outsiders", makes it self-reinforcing. Critics, whether from without or within the subculture, are almost invariably dismissed out-of-hand as "not understanding", not being "real gamers". And people growing up in gamer culture — especially young men — have spent a decade, or two, or three, absorbing these attitudes with very little real challenge to them.
So inasmuch as gamer culture is tainted by rape culture, and PAX is one of the purer expressions of contemporary gamer culture, yes, this is about PAX. This is about the kinds of people who felt welcome at PAX, and what they thought they could get away with. It's about the constant presence of "booth babes" at gaming conventions, and the still abysmal representation of women in mainstream games. It's about the kind of people who think it's reasonable to "up the girl to guy ratio" by hiring models to attend a party, because they think their (presumed male, presumed heterosexual) attendees neither possess nor need to be encouraged to develop any social skills, and thus are and will remain repulsive to women not paid to tolerate them. (There are, of course, far too many problems with this to unpack in a single blog post.) And it's about what all this, taken together, in constant dosage over many years, teaches people who didn't even notice they were being instructed: women are decorative objects, there for men's enjoyment; they have no significant interests of their own; they are not skilled; they are not peers; if they are not attractive to men they are failures; they are merely things for men to desire and despise. (If you think I'm overstating, now would be a good time to go look again at those links a couple paragraphs up.)
Now, almost everyone — even in the comments section of her blog post, a rarity here on the interwebs — has reacted to Ky's story with horror and disgust. But almost everyone (including Ky herself) has directed that horror and disgust solely at the individual assailant. It's easy in this case, because "grabbing a stranger's hand and putting it on your penis" is behavior (in point of fact, a crime) even most MRAs will recognize as beyond the pale. Oh, that one guy did something really unacceptable! He's terrible, nothing more to see here. But given what we know about sexual harassment and assault, it's highly likely that he harassed more than one person that night, and furthermore that he wasn't the only one who did. How many of the models paid to be there put up with harassment and perhaps assault? How many female party-goers were harassed by sexist male nerds who thought harassing the models was "part of their job" (nope!) and extrapolated from there that it was an acceptable way to behave toward any women at that party (again, nope!)? Rape culture teaches men that they're entitled to sexual gratification from women, whether visual, verbal, or physical; hiring models to "mingle" with partygoers declares the same thing explicitly.
Ky's assailant is the only case from that party, that we know of, where someone decided he was entitled not only to sexual gratification but to enforce his claim to that gratification with violence — and make no mistake, all sexual assault is violence — and that makes him a relatively egregious example. But that doesn't make him an isolated, unconnected, free-floating Bad Person whose worldview, impulses, and actions come from nowhere and cannot be interrogated. His attitudes came from somewhere, and for every person like him who physically sexually assaults someone, there are dozens or hundreds who hold basically the same views, absorbed from basically the same sources, who "only" harass and intimidate and make gamer culture hostile to everyone who isn't heterosexual, cisgender, white, able-bodied, and male.
Finally, here's the kicker. If past incidents in gamer culture are any indicator (Dickwolves, Fat Princess, Duke Nukem Forever, Resident Evil 5, the Borderlands 2 "Girlfriend Mode" controversy, and countless others) there will be no lasting consequences. A few more people will be alienated from gamer culture, but the majority of gamers will brush it off, and continue to support the institutions that promote these attitudes. The gaming press — even the smart, progressive gaming press — will write about Penny Arcade and PAX and Gearbox and Mojang to talk about their press releases and upcoming games, and will not mention the kinds of things that happen under their various auspices. No lasting opprobrium will attach to any of their names, and the culture will not change. People, even smart, thoughtful, progressive people who understand rape culture and how it works, and work tirelessly to break down race, gender, and sexuality barriers in gamer culture, will keep attending PAX and buying games produced by developers with toxic, misogynist studio cultures. The overwhelming sense will be that yeah, that stuff was bad, but that's all in the past. Like the security guard in Ky's story: "Okay? What do you expect me to do?"
That seems like a harsh way to close, but I don't know what else to say. A lot of people have been patient and polite about this for a great many years, and the results have been rather underwhelming. Nerd culture resists change, and perceives efforts to bring change as attacks, no matter how moderate, no matter how careful the phrasing. I think the best hope is to work to make explicit what it is the pillars of the subculture support: to label their behavior indelibly as sexism, and to finally attach some modicum of shame to behaviors that should always have been seen as shameful. Challenge harmful structures, don't support them. Don't let praise for misogynist companies and institutions go unquestioned. make all but the most committedly sexist nerds uncomfortable voicing their boy's-club attitudes, and make it socially unacceptable for the majority to associate with the hardcore misogynists.
Love. This.
A local artist named "O" shows off his lithographs featuring first lady Michelle Obama for sale at the site of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina September 2, 2012. REUTERS/Rick Wilking [via]
lol your values
[Content Note: Homophobia; violent imagery.]
Proving once again that conservative bigots are beyond parody, this Campaign for American Values (lulz) advert, entitled "New Morning" (lulz), is pretty much exactly what a commercial I designed to mock the hell out of the American Family Values Children Christian Liberty Freedom Patriot Association Foundation Organization would look like:
Sad piano music. Inside the kitchen of a quiet suburban home, a middle-aged white woman, conventionally attractive but not too attractive, is reading the paper and looking concerned. Her middle-aged, average-looking, white husband walks in to get her some coffee.Oh god. Everything about this. I can't even imagine how frightened and ignorant and mean you'd have to be to take this ad seriously.
Husband: Hey, honey. How are you?
Wife: Fine...I guess.
Husband: What's going on?
Wife: Well, Obama is trying to force gay marriage on this country. That's not the change I voted for. Marriage is between a man and a woman.
Husband: [shaking his head and looking concerned] That's not the change I voted for, either.
Wife: What can we do?
Husband: We can vote for someone with values!
The music lifts. Over an image of the husband and wife sitting in their living room with three kids, looking much happier now that they've decided to vote for SOMEONE WITH VALUES, a female voiceover says: "The Campaign for American Values PAC is responsible for the content of this advertising." Text Onscreen: VOTE ROMNEY/RYAN.
I'm so sorry, people who take this ad seriously. Your lives are terrible. That makes me sad. Not quite as sad as your bigotry makes me, though!
Anyway, a word on that whole voting for someone with values thing...
As it happens, I'm a values voter: I deeply value autonomy and consent. I deeply value bodily autonomy and consent. I deeply value equality and justice for marginalized people. I deeply value marriage equality. I deeply value stem cell research. I deeply value the separation of church and state. I deeply value science being taught in schools. I deeply value universal healthcare. I deeply value a robust social safety net.
I value lots of other things, too, all of which make me a person without values, as far as the conservative base is concerned.
Despite their reflexive and compulsive intoning of the word "values" during every election year, as if it's a magical incantation that can be uttered only by those who understand its complex truth, it doesn't really mean anything, in and of itself. It's an ethically neutral word. Everyone has values. What matters is not that you have values, but what values you have. Joseph Stalin valued killing people. Jeffrey Dahmer valued eating people. George Bush valued torturing people. I value not killing people, not eating them, and not torturing them. See? Everyone has values.
And, you know, I have faith, too. Not religious faith, but that isn't the only kind. I have faith in my fellow humans—and I'm not so sure that particular brand of faith should be so easily disregarded, because, quite frankly, it's a hell of a lot harder than having faith in a god, at least in my experience. The god to whom I was introduced as a child was never deliberately evil or unkind; that god may have been mysterious, but he had a plan—and you knew that everything made sense according to his plan, even if it was inexplicable to you. And there was a reward for having faith in that god. Faith in him was your ticket to eternity in heaven. Faith in him, as far as the reasons he offered, was simple.
Humans, on the other hand, the troublesome shits, conspire not only to test but to betray your faith at every opportunity. Too often evil and unkind, they mostly can't even be bothered to provide a decent reason for their ill behavior. They're unpredictable, nonsensical, irrational, and unreasonable, and there's no promise of a reward for having faith in them. Sometimes, in fact, you get nothing but spit in your eye in exchange for your trust. For your faith.
The difference between faith in a god and faith in humankind is like the difference between dropping money in the canister of a Recognizable Charity bell-ringer and placing money directly in the hand of someone in need. Your Recognizable Charity donation goes to someone you don't know, whom you'll never see, and, although you're not sure how it all works, you trust that your money will help in a productive way. It's an easy trust—the Recognizable Charity's been there a long time, and they've got a good reputation, and they promise you something for your effort.
On the other hand, giving the money directly to someone in need requires having faith in the person to whom you're giving it, respecting hir ability to make the best decisions for hirself, letting go of any expectation for how that money will be spent. You may hope that zie won't, say, put it on a horse, despite being hungry, because the temptation of gambling is stronger than hir will to nourish hir body. You may hope that zie buys hirself a sandwich, or mittens, or a pint, but you must respect that your hope is a projection, and have faith in hir self-determination. It's a harder trust—and it's not tax deductible, either.
The two aren't mutually exclusive, of course. There are plenty of people who have faith in a god(s) and faith in humankind. But there are a lot of people who only have faith in a god, because their religion tells them humans aren't worth having faith in.
Those tend to be the people who want to legislate morality, because they don't trust people to make good decisions, because they don't even trust themselves. And those are the people who are most often called the "values voters" and to whose religious beliefs the word "faith" has come to refer.
It's a terrible thing that the people who have the least faith in their fellow humans have commandeered the term, because, on this earth, humans are the only ones who can feed the hungry, clothe the poor, provide healthcare to the sick, guarantee equality and freedom.
Those of us who have faith in each other value decidedly earthy humanness, with all its flaws and foibles. That doesn't sound particularly inspiring; there are no hymns, no psalms, no Hallelujah chorus for having faith in other people.
But maybe there should be.
Because there are the times when they surprise you, when your faith pays off, makes you grin until you are certain your face will crack, or your eyes well with tears, at the wonder of how much overwhelming goodness can be found in we hairless apes. It provides a reward the beautiful magnitude of which is only bestowed because of the risk that things could have—maybe should have—gone so horribly wrong.
It's not typical that your faith in people is remunerated by your expectations being exceeded, when they amaze you with the depth of their decency, and its rarity makes such optimism, such faith, difficult. And makes it a faith worth courting, too, even if our values seem a bit grotty and earthbound.
[Via; previously.]
Two Facts
1. David Brooks is still inexplicably being employed by the New York Times to write a garbage column that sounds like it's written for imaginary people in a town called Dodoville.
2. David Brooks actually starts his New York Times column this week with the line: "Why did God put Barack Obama on this earth?"
Shut up. Shutupshutupshutup. Shut up.
In The News
[Content note: homophobia, racism.]
A bunch of stuff happened this weekend. Here is a tiny bit of it:
Everyone is talking about Paul Ryan's Secret Service code name. Not so much about his non-stop lying. Weird, that.
The Justice Department announced that it would not pursue criminal charges against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio or his office.
Oscar-nominated actor Michael Clarke Duncan has died.
Oh, Bocephus: "We've got a Muslim for a President who hates cowboys, hates cowgirls, hates fishing, hates farming, loves gays, and we hate him!" — Hank Williams, Jr.
More than 100,000 Syrians fled their country in August, the highest monthly figure since the conflict began in March 2011.
Here is a picture of a fox, a kitten and a dog snuggled together.
The Oogieloves in the BIG Balloon Adventure had the worst opening weekend of all time. Whoops! Buck up, Oogieloves, Atlas Shrugged II is still on its way!
Speaking of. Here's a trailer for the trailer of Atlas Shrugged II: The Squeakquel. "Try pouring a ton of steel without rigid principles." Whut?
Hey, The Great War nerds! Here is a preview of season three of Downtown Abbey!
Mondo Guerra, fashion designer, cutie pie, and Project Runway contestant, will speak at the U.S. Conference on AIDS later this month.
Did you want to see Liberace and Phyllis Diller performing a duet? Okay.
Daily Dose of Cute
The furry residents of Shakes Manor have been worried about me. Particularly when I come from a testing facility, they all want to be on me—something about the smell, I guess. This was the scene when I walked out of the bathroom the other day after getting home: All of them waiting for me, prepared for maximum cuddles.
So many adorbz wee faces. I don't even know what to do with how sweet they are. Except, of course, for thank them constantly for being so lovely.
Breaking Bad Open Thread
Tainted by blue meth!
Sunday night's episode (and last week's, since I missed it!) will be discussed in spoileriffic detail, so if you don't want any spoilers, please retreat to the water closet with your favorite book of poetry.
