“Even stipulating that America is a nation of immigrants, and that the persecution of immigrants is an insult to our history wherever it occurs in this land, it must still be said that launching a violent government purge of immigrants is even more ludicrously monstrous when it happens in New Orleans. In New Orleans! A city that for centuries has collected drifters from Europe and dreamers from the Caribbean and schemers from Central America and prisoners from Africa, and has molded all of their descendants into a culture unmatched anywhere else in this plastic country. A city with its own city-sized Vietnamese population. A city that built a statue in Crescent Park to honor the Latino workers who rebuilt it after Hurricane Katrina. You want to bring a bunch of white racist clods in clownish tactical gear to run the immigrants out of New Orleans? The city of gumbo metaphors? You villains. You dirty dogs.”
And here’s your 2025 list of Gifts for People You Hate. I must say, I kind of love the screaming goat pillowcase.
“Golden Girls came to be after a 1984 network promo skit for Miami Vice tickled executives, featuring older female characters from Remington Steele and Night Court getting confused and calling it “Miami Nice.” The idea of a series about older women in Miami was born, and as wild as it seems, none of it would have happened without Miami Vice.”
“For as long as they remain in the minority in the House and Senate, there is little Democrats can do about the national humiliation that is Bove’s continued presence within the federal judiciary. Should they retake the House and Senate next fall, though, they would earn the power to conduct meaningful oversight of Bove, up to and including impeaching him and removing him from office. At this point, the question is no longer whether Democrats should do so; the question is which grounds for impeachment and removal Democrats should list first.”
“I’ve said this before and I will say it again: I ask “AI” things about me all the time, because I know what the actual answer is, and “AI” will consistently and confidently get those things wrong. If I can’t trust it to get right the things I know, I cannot trust it to get right the things I do not know.”
“During the year-end holiday season, the suicide rate declines, U.S. health statistics show. The month of December typically has the year’s lowest average daily suicide rate. And yet each year at this time, some news publications repeat the persistent but incorrect belief that suicides rise around the holidays.”
“Trump’s Secret Pardon-for-Profit Racket”.
The Disney-OpenAI deal is a mess. And it’s probably going to get worse before it gets better.
“Once again showcasing the limitations of a computer’s ability to follow the simple plot of a television show based on a long-running video game series, Prime Video has pulled its AI-generated recaps of Fallout‘s first season”.
“I think one of the most wonderful things about stop-motion is the physicality and tactility of the medium, and the Rankin/Bass animation style embraces this beautifully.”
RIP, Rob and Michele Reiner; Michele was a photographer and producer, while Rob was an actor and director who made some of the most beloved movies ever, including This Is Spinal Tap, The Princess Bride, Stand By Me, When Harry Met Sally, and A Few Good Men. Just an awful, devastating loss.
“In death, Rob Reiner, an accomplished actor and filmmaker and a passionate progressive advocate, landed one last blow on Donald Trump and showed us how small and indecent a man the president is.”
“It’s not a full-scale rebuke of Trump by any means. But after years of hearing Republican members of Congress insist “I haven’t seen the tweet” to avoid commenting on the president’s latest post, the proactive engagement is notable.”
“Rob Reiner was a capital-M Mensch.”
“There’s a Reason Women Aren’t Swooning Over AI Like Men Are”.
RIP, Anthony Geary, eight-time Daytime Emmy-winning actor best known as Luke Spencer on General Hospital.
RIP, Joe Ely, Texas singer and songwriter who collaborated with The Clash and won a Grammy for Best Mexican-American Album in 1999 as part of the supergroup Los Super Seven.
“Direct navigation — the act of visiting a website by manually typing a domain name in a web browser — has never been riskier: A new study finds the vast majority of “parked” domains — mostly expired or dormant domain names, or common misspellings of popular websites — are now configured to redirect visitors to sites that foist scams and malware.”
RIP, Manny Guerra, producer and musician who helped shape the sound of Tejano music and worked on Selena’s recordings throughout her career.
“The Erika Kirk and Candace Owens feud is tearing MAGA apart“. Cue those tiny violins.
“The end of 20th-century white evangelicalism“.
“Could taking the NBA Cup global help the tournament live up to its lofty ambitions?”
A comprehensive list of times that Trump promised to produce and pass a health care bill, on which we are still waiting.
“In news that will send shock waves across the entertainment industry, the Oscars ceremony — which has aired on ABC since 1976 — will be moving to YouTube starting in 2029 and will be broadcast by the streamer through at least 2033″.
RIP, Gil Gerard, actor best known for Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.
Happy 25th blogiversary, Mark Evanier!
To borrow from Robin Williams, don’t get your chatbot stoned. It’s not that high on the food chain to begin with.
Please enjoy the 2025 Hater’s Guide to the Williams Sonoma Catalog.
RIP, Peter Arnett, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who covered the Vietnam and Iraq wars for the Associated Press and CNN.
“Faculty are leaving Austin’s anti-woke university over ideological differences”. That’s the University of Austin, and yes you should be pointing and laughing.
RIP, Greg Biffle, former NASCAR driver who was later feted for flying hundreds of rescue and aid flights into the area of North Carolina impacted by Hurricane Helene. He, his wife and two children, and three other people were killed when the airplane they were on crashed.
RIP, May Britt, Swedish actor and the second wife of Sammy Davis, Jr.
“The strange case of Leavitt’s filler is an extreme, and perhaps unintentional, example of the sinister parallel between the political party currently limiting the bodily autonomy of women, trans people, and nonbinary people, and the self-regulation of the women tasked with selling that toxic agenda.”
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