How “How I Met Your Mother” Did a Multi-Season Story Arc Better than Most Shows

Posted on April 8, 2014 by wellsdc

It took me a little while to figure out why people were so pissed about the finale of How I Met Your Mother, but I think I get it now, and I agree. Major spoilers ahead.

The entire nine-year run of the show, as it turns out, was misdirection. I rather like misdirection in a story up to a point, as do (I think) most people. I don’t know exactly where that point is, but it is more than safe to say that the point beyond which misdirection stops being enjoyable occurs well before the nine-year mark.

(If you are still reading, I will assume you are okay with spoilers, so here goes.) Continue reading →

I Hope This Helps, Mr. Koch

Posted on April 8, 2014 by wellsdc

Charles Koch has a sad.

He wants us to know that he only wants what is best for us, even if we can’t always see it or understand it at first. (He’s even asking his employees to help him get the word out about what a great guy he really is!)

But we just keep on giving him a hard time, and it’s making him glum. Since I hate to see anyone in a bad mood, especially plutocratic oligarchs, consider this: people often root for the villain as much as, if not more than, the hero. Consider the Bond films. People remember who played Bond, of course, and they may have strong opinions about who did it best (although any answer besides Sean Connery is wrong). They also remember the best villains, and the actors who played them.

The Bond films wouldn’t be the same if we didn’t have Gert Fröbe’s Goldfinger, Donald Pleasance’s and Charles Gray’s Blofeld (sorry, Telly Savalas and all those other people, but Pleasance and Grey were better), Christopher Lee’s Scaramanga, or Christopher Walken’s Zorin, just to name a few.

And, while such a position is obviously beneath you, let’s not forget the henchmen, particularly Robert Shaw’s Grant, Harold Sakata’s Oddjob, Bruce Glover and Putter Smith’s Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd, Hervé Villechaize’s Nick Nack, Grace Jones’ May Day, and Famke Janssen’s Xenia Onatopp. A special place of honor is reserved, of course, for Richard Kiel’s Jaws.

I hope that makes you feel better, Mr. Koch. I mean, you already seem to see us as caricatures of oligarchic underlings, so you might as well complete your own transformation into a caricature of evil.

What I’m Reading, April 7, 2014

Posted on April 7, 2014 by wellsdc

Scientifically Illiterate Congressmen Are Resigning the World to Ruin, Brian Merchant, Vice, April 3, 2014

That is the right word; buffoon. These men are not necessarily or wholly unintelligent. They can be charming, or funny, and are often good at writing speeches. They have no lack of talent. But each is, as Merriam-Webster’s instructs us, “a ludicrous figure.” They are “gross and usually ill-educated,” at least concerning the subject matter over which they govern, as per the definition. And these buffoons have their feet jammed in the doorway to the halls of power at what is perhaps the worst possible juncture in history.

Because they believe they know science better than scientists—ludicrous—they vote against any action to repair the damage being done to the carbon-saturated climate at all. They, along with scores of their fellow Republicans, have banded together to form what may be the most uniquely scientifically ignorant cliques in international governance. As Ronald Brownstein wrote in a 2010 piece for the National Journal, “It is difficult to identify another major political party in any democracy as thoroughly dismissive of climate science as is the GOP here.” They comprise the Congressional Science Committee that doesn’t get science, and they are determining our policies. Or blocking them.

Rep. Steve King Warns Patriotic DREAMers: ‘We Have A Bus For You To Tijuana’, karoli, Crooks and Liars, April 4, 2014

Rep. Steve King is letting all his hate hang out now, unabashedly and unapologetically. If you came to the US illegally with your parents when you were too young to know better but now want to volunteer for the military, King thinks you should go straight back to the country your parents left.

Rand Paul Would Reward Tax Evasion, Xenophon, Breitbart Unmasked, April 3, 2014

[F]or the rest of us who cannot use accounting tricks with Swiss subsidiaries, it is a great big middle finger. Taxes are for the little people, not big corporations or the friends of Republican senators. If you tell Rand Paul that the tax burden has shifted too much from corporations to individuals in the last 30 years, or that offshore tax shelters play an outsize role in the squeeze on the middle class, Rand Paul will tell you that it is just the way things are supposed to be, and that we should give awards to the companies that best represent his vision of a libertarian future.

The Right-Wing Media Might Just Have Terrible Reading Comprehension

Posted on April 7, 2014 by wellsdc

By Kurykh (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons A putative class action lawsuit in Nevada alleges negligence and other claims against the private contractor hired to create the state’s health insurance exchange. At least two plaintiffs found themselves without insurance coverage, despite paying premiums since last fall. Their attorney says around forty more people have contacted him with similar complaints, and as many as 10,500 could have been affected.

As the people involved in the suit have repeatedly made clear, the lawsuit is about the alleged negligence, etc., of a private contractor, not about the Affordable Care Act (“ACA,” also known as Obamacare). Has that stopped the right-wing media from calling this a lawsuit over Obamacare? Do you even need to ask that question? More on that later.

The state of Nevada hired Xerox to create the state’s health insurance exchange, Nevada Health Link, in accordance with the ACA. A glitch caused some people who signed up through the state exchange to not actually have insurance. The lead plaintiff signed up in November and made his first premium payment on November 21. When he needed triple-bypass surgery in January, however, the insurer Health Plan of Nevada (HPN) had no record of him. The exchange and Xerox had allegedly been sending his payments to Nevada Health CO-OP, a different insurer. Neither insurer had a record of coverage, so the man ended up incurring over $400,000 in medical bills for himself. (On the plus side, he wasn’t left to die.) Continue reading →

Monday Morning Cute: Behold the Bee-ver

Posted on April 7, 2014 by wellsdc

Today we have something that is both cute and punny.

Via imgur.com

I was hesitant to do a Google image search for “beaver,” let alone “cute beaver,” but I’m pretty sure Google knows more about what I’m looking for than I do at this point, so either that is already an entirely SFW search, or it took the liberty of filtering out the Urban Dictionary-approved results (you know what I mean.) So anyway, here are some more cute beavers: Continue reading →

An MRA Gets Burned

Posted on April 6, 2014 by wellsdc

If you think, as this guy apparently does, that our society “panders to women’s every whim,” and if you express that view in public, you might get burned for it, as happened here:

"Society already panders to women’s every whim". I’m guessing no woman has ever pandered to any of your whims

Click to embiggen.

Sometimes a reasoned debate just isn’t in the cards. That applies to about 98% of what MRA’s say, as far as I’m concerned. (The remaining 2% mostly relate to food and other necessities of daily survival.) I’ll just let Liz Lemon close this out:

I’M MISSISSIPPI, B!TCH!!!

Posted on April 5, 2014 by wellsdc

Several states with Republican-led legislatures have passed laws in recent months that purport to expand the range of things people in those states can do while pretending that it’s due to their religion. This is presumably because the Republican base has reached a point of no return, and it is only a matter of time before they are clamoring for the actual flesh of those they deem unworthy.

The good news is that the Republican Party is still also the party of rich people, and money still talks. This led Kansas and Arizona to kill their bills.

Continue reading →

Sorry to Disappoint, but Chupacabras Still Don’t Exist (UPDATED)

Posted on April 5, 2014 by wellsdc

You know that thing in south Texas that people think is a chupacabra?

It’s a raccoon with a hair-loss problem.

If you don’t believe me, take a look at this beast:

Via Huffington Post

That’s not the chupacabra’s dad, nor is it any other mysterious or mythical creature. That’s what a bear looks like under all that fur.

"Lounging spectacled bear" by Tambako the Jaguar [CC BY-ND 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/)], via Flickr

A raccoon looks just about as unfamiliar without all the hair. Or fur. I’m not sure which mammals have what. Continue reading →

What I’m Reading, April 4, 2014

Posted on April 4, 2014 by wellsdc

By Djembayz (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons If You Criticize Wealthy Donors, You’re Basically Hitler, David Weigel, Slate, April 3, 2014

The Charles Koch standard is problematic if you think (like I think) that campaign donations should be uncapped but totally disclosed. That, according to the donors (though not McCutcheon himself), leads to character assassination. Donors have a First Amendment right to give money, but their opponents flout that right when they criticize them. Why? That’s an excellent question.

Self-Regulation Means No Regulation: Five Lessons We Should Have Learned from Agent Orange, PR Newswire, April 2, 2014

Economic crises. Foodborne disease outbreaks. Oil and chemical spills. According to Peter Sills, each is the natural result of the widespread demonization of a tool our government should wield more often. Regulation.

***

Many politicians and industries push for self-regulation, and Sills says that might actually work in a perfect world. But in the real world, he insists, it won’t—and here are five reasons why:

If a hard, unpleasant task is optional, then most companies won’t do it (especially if it will cost them money). Consider Wyeth Pharmaceuticals’ refusal to change the label requirements on Phenergan even though it knew the method suggested could lead to infection and amputation. Wyeth finally made the change after being sued by a patient who had lost most of her arm.

“Sometimes, for the safety of the public, it is necessary for the government to force companies into performing unpleasant tasks,” says Sills.

Photo credit: By Djembayz (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

Cryptic Philosopher

Subtle, with a Hint of Whimsy

Monthly Archives: April 2014

How “How I Met Your Mother” Did a Multi-Season Story Arc Better than Most Shows

I Hope This Helps, Mr. Koch

What I’m Reading, April 7, 2014

The Right-Wing Media Might Just Have Terrible Reading Comprehension

Monday Morning Cute: Behold the Bee-ver

An MRA Gets Burned

I’M MISSISSIPPI, B!TCH!!!

Sorry to Disappoint, but Chupacabras Still Don’t Exist (UPDATED)

What I’m Reading, April 4, 2014