Revenge of the Science Fiction Writers!
Here’s a quick rule of thumb: Don’t annoy science fiction writers. These are people who destroy entire planets before lunch. Think of what they’ll do to you.
Words to live by. And this is before you know how good Jim MacDonald is with a weapon.
This from the discussion of Publish America and some science fiction writers response to it.
…but I didn’t really see how bad it had gotten until last night’s episode.
The snap of earlier episodes is gone, the Sorkin writing is truly missed here. Where old episodes made you feel smart and never talked down to you, last night’s episode was pedantic and self-congratulatory, and logic and internal consistency went straight out the window.
And did they have to get the guy back from that lousy episode of 24 two years ago? He’s horrible, and he looks even worse now than he did then. I’m amazed this guy got re-hired to play any kind of role which requires face time on camera.
But the rest of the supporting characters weren’t much better. Their performaces were completely unmotivated, with actions like “stand up and applaud” delivered with no believable conviction at all, like they were just following stage directions.
Kee-ripes. I can’t wait to see what TwoP has to say about this.
Just in time for the first new issue of GrimJack to come out in… it has been thirteen years, hasn’t it?
See you over there. Save me a chair at Munden’s.
Telegraph | News | ‘If you don’t take a job as a prostitute, we can stop your benefits’
A 25-year-old waitress who turned down a job providing “sexual services” at a brothel in Berlin faces possible cuts to her unemployment benefit under laws introduced this year.
Prostitution was legalised in Germany just over two years ago and brothel owners — who must pay tax and employee health insurance — were granted access to official databases of jobseekers.
The waitress, an unemployed information technology professional, had said that she was willing to work in a bar at night and had worked in a cafe.
She received a letter from the job centre telling her that an employer was interested in her “profile” and that she should ring them. Only on doing so did the woman, who has not been identified for legal reasons, realise that she was calling a brothel.
Under Germany’s welfare reforms, any woman under 55 who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take an available job — including in the sex industry — or lose her unemployment benefit. Last month German unemployment rose for the 11th consecutive month to 4.5 million, taking the number out of work to its highest since reunification in 1990.
The government had considered making brothels an exception on moral grounds, but decided that it would be too difficult to distinguish them from bars. As a result, job centres must treat employers looking for a prostitute in the same way as those looking for a dental nurse….
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From BAGnewsNotes, in a post called Our Gang:
Yesterday, I saw an image from Iraq that really struck me.
It was a stencil — almost like a gang insignia — on the wall of a petrol station that had just been raided by U.S. soldiers. The symbol was a skull with the the number “24” inscribed in it.
Us.Yimg.Com P Ap 20050125 Capt.Mac10301251028.Iraq Mosul Mac103
Having looked at a good number of newswire photographs, I’ve started to recognize the work of particular photographers and even some outfits in which they’ve been embedded. In this case, I won’t mention the infantry unit that conducted this raid, but the caption identified it as having a “24” in it.
Here’s the photo, AP Photo/Jim MacMillan:
Here’s the problem: That skull is the icon of a certain Marvel character, the Punisher.
We have an infantry unit in Iraq that has taken the icon of someone who doesn’t hand out justice, but punishment. Not, say, Captain America or Superman. Although, to be fair, Cap’s shield probably looks too much like a target to these guys.
American Prospect Online – Liberal Agenda
What does liberalism stand for?
Anybody who’s ever had to raise money knows the meaning of the phrase “elevator pitch”: You’re in an elevator with a potential moneybags, and you have, say, seven floors to tell him why he should write you a check.
Well, we all know the basic outline of conservatism’s elevator pitch: “We believe in freedom and liberty, and we’re for low taxes, less government, traditional values, and a strong national defense.” But what is liberalism’s? We at the Prospect have, among us, attended or sat on about eleventy hundred panels since the election at which someone invariably says something like the following: “We know what conservatives stand for. But what do we stand for?”
No one in Washington seems to know. So we turn to you. Give us liberalism’s elevator pitch.
We want you to submit a single sentence of no more than 30 words.
Here’s mine:
Society’s point is to be less cutthroat than nature. Not just for rich or poor, men or women, young or old, white or black, majority or minority… but for all.
Certainly better than the screeches put up here…
34-year-old systems engineer “Ray Digerati” enjoys fixing computers. And having sex. So he combined the two.
How long have you been a tech-support manwhore?
A few months. This really attractive friend was having trouble connecting to the Internet, and the idea popped into my head: “Wow, it would be nice if I could get sex for this.” I placed an ad on Craigslist that read, “WILL FIX COMPUTERS FOR SEXUAL FAVORS.” The response has been overwhelming.
This scam actually works?
Yeah. Most of the calls I get are for spyware removal and viruses. One girl didn’t even wait for me to finish the virus scan– she just grabbed me and gave me a b.j.
This one seems right up his alley.