Friday’s Forum

FILED UNDER: Open Forum
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    It’s 3 a f’n m! Why am I awake. Ah well. Today I found a piece of grist for the mill.

    The large cast of Amazon’s heavily hyped “Lord of the Rings” prequel series, “The Rings of Power,” includes a group of actors from different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Last week’s premiere has been accompanied by a small but vocal backlash online from viewers angry that the elves, dwarves, harfoots and humans of the series include people of color. Actors on the show have been subjected to harassment and threats.

    WTF, people??? Aren’t there more important things to be angry about? Is this really your best shot?

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/rings-of-power-draws-racist-backlash-and-threats-but-amazon-and-frodo-stand-behind-it/ar-AA11BILM?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=df11f5fb0e18414a98ea4ed95cd08b52#image=AA10wFBl|2

    ETA: Wow, this is disconcerting! It took almost five minutes and 3 page reloads for me to be able to highlight that subject line to paste in into my post.

    5
  2. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker: Why am I awake.

    Why? To keep me company of course.

    I woke up at 3:30. I found “The Courier” in my wife’s movie queue. I didn’t know what to expect but with Benedict Cumberbatch I figured it couldn’t be all bad. It was actually pretty good. Well worth the watching.

    eta: as to “Aren’t there more important things to be angry about?”, no. Nothing is more important than protecting the special place white people hold in society.

    2
  3. OzarkHillbilly says:

    Poorest areas bear brunt of air pollution, US study shows

    Just so I can say, “Feature, not a bug.”

    2
  4. Scott says:

    A Virginia country club made a 9/11-themed menu. It was as awful as you’d imagine

    In case you were wondering when 9/11 was going to become a tacky holiday, that day is today. At least, that was the case for one country club in Virginia that decided to unveil a special menu to commemorate the tragic day.

    Yes, it was an unprecedented terrorist attack that killed thousands of innocent civilians and led to decades of military deployments as part of the sprawling and nebulous Global War on Terror — that’s still going on in some capacity — but also … crab dip.

    The Clubhouse at Aquia Harbor is a country club and golf course in Virginia. And, clearly exercising all manner of rational thought, the business decided to commemorate Sept. 11, 2022 with a 9/11-themed seafood menu.

    If this sounds like a headline from The Onion, it is not, although it is basically bringing to life an actual headline from the parody paper that’s almost a decade old. https://www.theonion.com/new-subway-promotion-to-honor-subtember-11-1819575535

    2
  5. OzarkHillbilly says:

    Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina tied the NL/AL record for most games together by a pitching/catcher battery last night: 324. They’ve got a few more together in them, hopefully into October. And then, that will be it. Yadi retires after this season.

    3
  6. Mikey says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker: One of the most common factors shared by those who are upset about Elves whose skin tone is a couple shades darker than milk is their ignorance of the actual lore and the world Tolkien crafted. Some goober was shitting all over Twitter about the Harfoots, apparently unaware of their place in the ancestral line of Hobbits, and of the fact Tolkien wrote them as darker-skinned.

    But hey, racists gonna racist, and they’ll pitch their stupid fits over whatever presents itself.

    3
  7. kit says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker: And that is a perfect example of teaching Critical Race Theory in our public schools. You’re going to see a lot more of it. The liberals want global power and will do anything, including dividing our country racially, to achieve their goals.

  8. CSK says:

    @Scott:
    Good God. That is trashy.

    2
  9. @kit: Perhaps you misunderstand the story. The backlash is from people who want all the cast to be white. That’s not the result of CRT. That’s the result of, well, racist attitudes and using specific views of fictional materials to exclude persons of color from having acting jobs.

    12
  10. Kathy says:

    @Scott:

    Perhaps schools should teach that is is ok not to monetize certain things.

    3
  11. OzarkHillbilly says:

    The climate crisis has driven the world to the brink of multiple “disastrous” tipping points, according to a major study.

    It shows five dangerous tipping points may already have been passed due to the 1.1C of global heating caused by humanity to date.

    These include the collapse of Greenland’s ice cap, eventually producing a huge sea level rise, the collapse of a key current in the north Atlantic, disrupting rain upon which billions of people depend for food, and an abrupt melting of carbon-rich permafrost.

    At 1.5C of heating, the minimum rise now expected, four of the five tipping points move from being possible to likely, the analysis said. Also at 1.5C, an additional five tipping points become possible, including changes to vast northern forests and the loss of almost all mountain glaciers.

    In total, the researchers found evidence for 16 tipping points, with the final six requiring global heating of at least 2C to be triggered, according to the scientists’ estimations. The tipping points would take effect on timescales varying from a few years to centuries.

    “The Earth may have left a ‘safe’ climate state beyond 1C global warming,” the researchers concluded, with the whole of human civilisation having developed in temperatures below this level. Passing one tipping point is often likely to help trigger others, producing cascades. But this is still being studied and was not included, meaning the analysis may present the minimum danger.

    Prof Johan Rockström, the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, who was part of the study team, said: “The world is heading towards 2-3C of global warming.

    WASF. Well, not me. I’ll be dead.

    1
  12. @OzarkHillbilly: Don’t worry–the president of my local electrical co-op wrote an editorial in this month’s co-op magazine that the science isn’t settled and that climate change is a refutable proposition based on some graph he googled.

    Sigh.

    8
  13. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @kit: And that is a perfect example of teaching Critical Race Theory in our public schools. You’re going to see a lot more of it. The liberals want global power and will do anything, including dividing our country racially, to achieve their goals.

    First off: CRT is not being taught in the schools, unless you think teaching that black people have the same rights as white people but it wasn’t always that way is CRT. The rest of us call that United States history. Maybe you’ve heard of it?

    2ndly: “The liberals want global power and will do anything,” Go look in the mirror. It was you and your fellow travelers who tried to steal an election and are working day and night to rig the next one. Not us. Unless you think insuring that all Americans are able to exercise their right to vote is “rigging an election.”

    3rd, “including dividing our country racially, to achieve their goals.” Yes dividing the country racially by showing many races working together on a TV show. No, again that is what you and your fellow racist pos travelers want to do and are engaged in efforts to make it happen.

    Lastly, you are an idiot.

    7
  14. Scott says:

    @kit: @Steven L. Taylor: Good grief! I took it as sarcasm or mockery. I just can’t tell anymore.

    3
  15. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Kathy: Bite your tongue! There is nothing that shouldn’t be monetized, and the world belongs to those who can monetize most successfully. There’s probably a way to monetize anniversaries of 9/11; Freedom Flounder and 9-11 Oysters just aren’t the way. (Especially if you’re not actually serving the customers flounder, but sole instead.)

    1
  16. gVOR08 says:

    @Steven L. Taylor: GOPs are constantly complaining about Dem’s divisiveness and identity politics. Dems are really recognizing and trying counter the divisiveness and identity politics of Republicans. Who’s doing identity politics, the guys creating racial gerrymanders or the guys complaining about them? You want to end the divisions? Shut down FOX “News”.

    1
  17. MarkedMan says:

    @Steven L. Taylor: FWIW, I applaud the trend that I first noticed in British TV and has now started to spread to these shores: simply casting actors regardless of the “historical accuracy” of their skin color or disability, and making absolutely zero comment about the fact. We actually don’t want historical accuracy. Who wants to see Queen Elizabeth I pulling a greasy pheasant apart with her hands, or see bad teeth on King Arthur, or pox scars, or bulging tumors? We don’t want to show a genial and sympathetic boss casually slap an employee across the face or a noble knight start spewing blood libel. We don’t want accuracy in even less offensive things. When a courier races a message across Europe in the 13th century, do we have to put our whole story on hold because in reality it would have taken a month or more? Or that ships have to wait for convenient tides, or that there are months when a sailing vessel simply cannot go from point A to point B. In plain fact, creatives want to tell a story in the most effective way possible, not serve as meticulous historical reenactors. The zipper might not have been invented until the 20th century, but it is awful useful in a historical piece when you want the 19th century Lady of the Manor to seductively ease out of dress, rather than call her maid in and have our Handsome Rogue idle by as they spend the next fifteen minutes unbuttoning a hundred buttons and untying dozens of bows and stays and carefully unpinning her wig. Why should melanin or deafness be in a different category?

    7
  18. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Steven L. Taylor: My local electrical co-op used to print the same garbage but in the past couple years they have seen the light and are now singing a different tune. These days it is rare when the monthly *rag* doesn’t have an article on renewables/sustainable/upgrades to our infrastructure to prepare for the coming change.

    ** I actually enjoy reading it. It is a really upbeat read as they highlight local eateries and/or artists/crafts(wo)men in every issue. Their are recipes to try and little bits of Missouri history too. And they stay away from politics. Apparently they care about the DEMs in their neighborhoods too. What a concept!

    2
  19. MarkedMan says:

    @OzarkHillbilly: My wife and I are looking for our retirement home and one criteria is that it be in a place that is significantly above sea level and north of say, VA and east of the Mississippi. Climate change is a big motivator in all that. We can’t be the only ones thinking the same.

    3
  20. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @MarkedMan: rather than call her maid in and have our Handsome Rogue idle by as they spend the next fifteen minutes unbuttoning a hundred buttons and untying dozens of bows and stays and carefully unpinning her wig.

    Not to mention the chastity belt called a “corset.”

  21. MarkedMan says:

    @Scott: I also thought kit was being sarcastic. Haven’t they posted here before? I don’t remember them being a trumper.

  22. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @MarkedMan: If I didn’t know I’ll be dead in the next 10-15 years, I’d be exploring more northerly locations as well. Even if I were to survive longer, we won’t go anywhere anytime soon. I have 3 granddaughters in STL and my wife is very invested in them. We’d be invested in the other 1 (soon to be 2) as well but they are in NOLA. My NOLA son keeps talking about moving and I am sure the day will come but they moved down there so his wife could be with her family. I suspect it will take the direct hit of a hurricane to blow them northwards.

    3
  23. Neil Hudelson says:

    The Ukrainian counter offensive continues to gain momentum. Right now it appears Izyum is at extreme risk of encirclement, and the Russian defenses there are collapsing. Capturing Izyum would break an important supply route linking the north and south, adding days to Russian resupply missions.

    https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1568230262231777280

    4
  24. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @MarkedMan: I do not recall him, If he is being sarcastic, Kit has my apologies and my assurances that I will get my sarcasm meter re-calibrated.

  25. Jon says:

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I suspect it will take the direct hit of a hurricane to blow them northwards.

    We had that pretty much right at a year ago (today is actually the one year anniversary of my power coming back on after Ida) and they didn’t leave then, so … 😉

    1
  26. @Scott:

    Good grief! I took it as sarcasm or mockery. I just can’t tell anymore.

    It is incredibly hard to tell these days, to be sure.

    4
  27. Kathy says:

    @Steven L. Taylor:

    I tend to go over the top when I’m being sarcastic.

    Then, too, you all know me and can likely easily tell.

    1
  28. Flat Earth Luddite says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker:

    I saw the same thing yesterday, but was hoping I’d mistakenly loaded The Onion or Andy Borowitz. Truly, wtf is wrong with people?

    3.30? Wa! For some reason, both of us have been up half the night most of the week. Ugh!

    1
  29. Kathy says:

    So, when did the Buffalo Bills become an NFL team?

    (that’s an example of over the top sarcasm, on two counts)

    2
  30. Kylopod says:

    @Scott: That’s rather like the old story about the Titanic Bat Mitzvah. I don’t mean it was a massive celebration, though in fact it was. I mean it was literally themed on the movie Titanic:

    A 13-year-old girl “obsessed” with “Titanic” got the bat mitzvah of her dreams when a hotel ballroom was transformed into the luxury liner, with 12-foot steaming smokestacks at the buffet table, phosphorescent artificial icebergs and a “steerage” section for the children.

    The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the celebration last Saturday for Lisa Niren was rumored to cost as much as a half-million dollars. Her father, Dr. Neil Niren, would not confirm the price tag, but Bonnie Chirigos, who spent a year planning the gala, said “it was nowhere near that.”

    Noting that his own parents survived the Holocaust, Niren said: “Anyone can go down at any time. We didn’t want to wait to show how much we love one another.”

    Three hundred people came from as far as Canada, Mexico and Argentina to fete Lisa, who is “obsessed” with the Oscar-winning movie, according to her 15-year-old sister, Leslie.

    The piece de resistance was a gigantic photo, 10 feet above the floor, featuring Lisa’s face superimposed over actress Kate Winslet’s body in a famous “Titanic” scene on the prow of the ocean liner. Lisa appeared to have teen heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio smiling over her shoulder.

    The movie played over and over again on a 12-foot screen above a balcony at the Westin William Penn, one of Pittsburgh’s fanciest hotels.

    1
  31. Flat Earth Luddite says:

    Ok, please tell me this is a bad acid flashback. Someone? Please?

    Netflix will debut a “Teletubbies” reboot in November, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

    https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/netflix-teletubbies-reboot-tituss-burgess-1235213235/ – ‘Teletubbies’ Reboot With Tituss Burgess Set at Netflix

    1
  32. Scott says:

    @Flat Earth Luddite: Can’t wait for the controversy over Tinky Winky to revive.

    2
  33. Sleeping Dog says:

    @Kylopod:

    Now imagine what she’ll want for her wedding…

    1
  34. CSK says:

    There was a gang shooting in Memorial Park in Uvalde, Texas. A juvenile is in custody. At least two were injured.

    Haven’t those people suffered enough?

    2
  35. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Jon: No, no they didn’t. And afterwards I bought them a generator. Hmmmm…. Maybe I’m doing this wrong?

    3
  36. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @CSK: It’s Texas. Of course the answer is “No.”

  37. OzarkHillbilly says:

    One autumn day in 2011, an investigator from our state’s department of children and families knocked on our door. At the time we lived in a conservative state in the American south. Someone had made an anonymous complaint accusing us of child abuse for allowing our child to have a girlhood. A lawyer told us that, in this state with decades of Republican-appointed judges, we were at risk of losing custody of our transgender daughter.

    The investigator’s visit felt like a bizarre clerical error; our four kids were thriving and we were well-liked in our community. The investigator ultimately found us to be good parents doing what was best for our child. However, it had become urgently clear that we would have to leave the deep south and move to a place where our youngest daughter, who had recently transitioned to she/her pronouns and a nickname, would have basic rights to equal education, housing, healthcare and, as she grew up, employment.

    Our map of the United States included about 13 states where there were laws likely to pass or already in place that would allow us to live as a family fully protected by law. It was a shock to have our country suddenly shrink, almost overnight. My husband and I are white, able-bodied, cis-gender, and straight; we’d taken for granted that each and every part of the United States was available to us. That was over. We were still Americans, but the terms of our supposed agreement with our own country had changed.

    We couldn’t have predicted that what happened to us would has now become an explicit rightwing political strategy. Earlier this year, the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, issued an executive order directing the state’s department of family and protective services to investigate parents who support their transgender children, threatening to wrench apart families like ours, in a state that is home to almost 29 million people.

    The whole is worth a read. Not too long either.

    5
  38. Scott says:

    @CSK: The latest:

    Two juveniles being treated in San Antonio hospitals after shooting at Uvalde Memorial Park

    Police in Uvalde asked the public to avoid the area of Uvalde Memorial Park after two people were shot early Thursday evening.

    Uvalde Police said two teens are being treated at San Antonio hospitals after sustaining injuries, and four suspects “are being questioned in regards to the shooting.” An official with Sen. Roland Gutierrez’s office told KENS 5 that “it doesn’t appear an assault rifle was used.”

    The two victims are in stable condition, Police Chief Daniel Rodriguez told KENS 5.

    It is almost comforting that it was just an everyday gang shooting.

    1
  39. CSK says:

    @Scott:
    Geez, what a relief an assault rifle wasn’t used. Just a regular old gun.

    1
  40. Jay L Gischer says:

    In order for an apology to be successful and allow the parties involved to go forward in good faith it is necessary for the apologizer to allow the injured party to describe in length their injury. Perhaps repeating themselves. This is painful.

    We’re sort of in the midst of doing an analogous thing with Black Americans, who actually feel it’s now worthwhile to describe how certain things have gone/are going.

    One, as a white American, could look at this and say, “Well, I endorse that program, so I will do my part by (first and foremost) listening.”

    Or one, as a white American, could reject the premise with the notion “I didn’t do anything wrong, or at least I had nothing to do with all those terrible things. So why do I have to listen to this stuff that is so painful and awful and blaming?”

    Which is why those in the later paragraph see it as divisive. It does take work. It is hard. It’s worth it.

    3
  41. Thomm says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker: guess you didn’t catch the 2977 reference. And does anyone else see the resemble to a waffle house menu in presentation.

    1
  42. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Jay L Gischer: “I didn’t do anything wrong, or at least I had nothing to do with all those terrible things. So why do I have to listen to this stuff that is so painful and awful and blaming?”

    If one is past a certain age, it is very hard to say that without being totally blinkered to reality. I know my whiteness brought me direct benefits on a number of occasions that rightfully belonged to other black men and did nothing about it one way or the other. I told myself, “This is just the way things are.”

    That made me complicit.

    2
  43. Mikey says:

    OzarkHillbilly:

    Earlier this year, the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, issued an executive order directing the state’s department of family and protective services to investigate parents who support their transgender children, threatening to wrench apart families like ours, in a state that is home to almost 29 million people.

    As writer Adam Serwer put it, in a sentence that will always be true of conservatives: The Cruelty is the Point.

    5
  44. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Mikey: Yep.

  45. CSK says:

    @Mikey:
    I think Serwer made it clear that it’s Trump and his supporters who relish cruelty, not conservatives in general.

    I recall reading that article when it was first published. It’s excellent.

    2
  46. JohnSF says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker:
    @Mikey:
    @kit:
    As you friendly neighbourhood Tolkien uber-geek, let me say there is zero reason from Tolkien’s writings to get balky about dark skinned elves or dwarves.

    Elves are written as having multiple ancestors from the “Awakening”; similarly the “Seven Fathers” (and one assumes, Six Mothers – not seven for a reason 🙂 ) of the Dwarves.
    None are specified as to skin tone.

    As to Hobbits, Tolkien explicitly refers to the Harfoots as being “browner of skin”.
    And, IMO, given his academic background, almost certainly had in mind some (since discarded) ideas in the prehistoric anthropology of Britain of the pre-Celtic “Little Dark People”.
    That term may also be familiar to those of you who have read Rosemary Sutcliffe’s novels of ancient Britain (and if you haven’t, you damn well should, ASAP).

    Although, the Numenoreans, if they get included, definitely should be “white” with some very significant, definite exceptions.
    (I shall be annoyed if they do tell the “tale of Numenor” and leave this out)
    Those being the Druath, whose description by Tolkien shouts “sorta Polynesian!”; the “Fourth House”.
    Who left Numenor when it started on the road to becoming an empire.
    The other “Three Houses”, Beorians, Hadorians, Haladrim, are pretty explicitly pasty of persuasion.

    And I seem to recall (this may be a mistaken memory; it’s 20 odd years since I read the relevant stuff in the Letters etc) that Tolkien referred to the Numenoreans coming to conceive of themselves as racially superior (in moral terms) to the men of Middle Earth, as being part of their corruption and road to destruction.

    And IIRC when he was writing sketches for his abortive “time travel” novel he toyed with writing something from the point of view of a boy of the coastlands of Middle Earth whose homeland was being occupied by Numenoreans.

    Also the Numenorean Emperor Ar-Pharazon; the one man who could make Sauron and all the Nazgul soil their underwear.

    Anyway, if you going to cause bodily harm to the writers of Rings of Power,oit shouldbe for a good reason.
    Namely, completely wrecking the whole story of Galadriel; and even more, the story of her brother Finrod, which in turn screws the Silmarillion, should they ever decide to film that.
    Grrr!
    “Ah well,” saith the scriptwriter, “sufficient unto the day be the retconning thereof.”

  47. JohnSF says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker:
    @Mikey:
    @kit:
    As you friendly neighbourhood Tolkien uber-geek, let me say there is zero reason from Tolkien’s writings to get balky about dark skinned elves or dwarves.

    Elves are written as having multiple ancestors from the “Awakening”; similarly the “Seven Fathers” (and one assumes, Six Mothers – not seven for a reason 🙂 ) of the Dwarves.
    None are specified as to skin tone.

    As to Hobbits, Tolkien explicitly refers to the Harfoots as being “browner of skin”.
    And, IMO, given his academic background, almost certainly had in mind some (since discarded) ideas in the prehistoric anthropology of Britain of the pre-Celtic “Little Dark People”.
    That term may also be familiar to those of you who have read Rosemary Sutcliffe’s novels of ancient Britain (and if you haven’t, you damn well should, ASAP).

    Although, the Numenoreans, if they get included, definitely should be “white” with some very significant, definite exceptions.
    (I shall be annoyed if they do tell the “tale of Numenor” and leave this out)
    Those being the Druath, whose description by Tolkien shouts “sorta Polynesian!”; the “Fourth House”.
    Who left Numenor when it started on the road to becoming an empire.
    The other “Three Houses”, Beorians, Hadorians, Haladrim, are pretty explicitly pasty of persuasion.

    And I seem to recall (this may be a mistaken memory; it’s 20 odd years since I read the relevant stuff in the Letters etc) that Tolkien referred to the Numenoreans coming to conceive of themselves as racially superior (in moral terms) to the men of Middle Earth, as being part of their corruption and road to destruction.

    And IIRC when he was writing sketches for his abortive “time travel” novel he toyed with writing something from the point of view of a boy of the coastlands of Middle Earth whose homeland was being occupied by Numenoreans.

    Also, worth getting on film the Numenorean Emperor Ar-Pharazon; the one man who could make Sauron and all the Nazgul soil their underwear.

    Anyway, if you going to cause bodily harm to the writers of Rings of Power,oit shouldbe for a good reason.
    Namely, completely wrecking the whole story of Galadriel; and even more, the story of her brother Finrod, which in turn screws the Silmarillion, should they ever decide to film that.
    Grrr!
    “Ah well,” saith the scriptwriter, “sufficient unto the day be the retconning thereof.”

    1
  48. JohnSF says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker:
    @Mikey:
    @kit:
    As you friendly neighbourhood Tolkien uber-geek, let me say there is zero reason from Tolkien’s writings to get balky about dark skinned elves or dwarves.

    Elves are written as having multiple ancestors from the “Awakening”; similarly the “Seven Fathers” (and one assumes, Six Mothers – not seven for a reason 🙂 ) of the Dwarves.
    None are specified as to skin tone.

    As to Hobbits, Tolkien explicitly refers to the Harfoots as being “browner of skin”.
    And, IMO, given his academic background, almost certainly had in mind some (since discarded) ideas in the prehistoric anthropology of Britain of the pre-Celtic “Little Dark People”.
    That term may also be familiar to those of you who have read Rosemary Sutcliffe’s novels of ancient Britain (and if you haven’t, you damn well should, ASAP).

    Although, the Numenoreans, if they get included, definitely should be “white” with some very significant, definite exceptions.
    (I shall be annoyed if they do tell the “tale of Numenor” and leave this out)
    Those being the Druath, whose description by Tolkien shouts “sorta Polynesian!”; the “Fourth House”.
    Who left Numenor when it started on the road to becoming an empire.
    The other “Three Houses”, Beorians, Hadorians, Haladrim, are pretty explicitly pasty of persuasion.

    And I seem to recall (this may be a mistaken memory; it’s 20 odd years since I read the relevant stuff in the Letters etc) that Tolkien referred to the Numenoreans coming to conceive of themselves as racially superior (in moral terms) to the men of Middle Earth, as being part of their corruption and road to destruction.

    And IIRC when he was writing sketches for his abortive “time travel” novel he toyed with writing something from the point of view of a boy of the coastlands of Middle Earth whose homeland was being occupied by Numenoreans.

    Also, worth getting on film the Numenorean Emperor Ar-Pharazon; the one man who could make Sauron and all the Nazgul soil their underwear.

    Anyway, if you going to cause bodily harm to the writers of Rings of Power,oit shouldbe for a good reason.
    Namely, completely wrecking the whole story of Galadriel; and even more, the story of her brother Finrod, which in turn screws the Silmarillion, should they ever decide to film that.
    Grrr!
    “Ah well,” saith the scriptwriter, “sufficient unto the day be the retconning thereof.”

    2
  49. Flat Earth Luddite says:

    @Sleeping Dog:
    That’s one reason I don’t shoot weddings. Only thing worse than bridzilla is multiple mothers-in-law, IMO.

    1
  50. Sleeping Dog says:

    @Flat Earth Luddite:

    I can imagine. I have a number of musician friends and none will play wedding, the only exception being if either the bride or groom are already friends with members of the band. It all gets too weird.

    There is a reason that particular photographers and musicians make wedding a career, they can alternately tune out the noise or summon enough authority to stifle the demands.

    1
  51. CSK says:

    @Flat Earth Luddite:
    I recall when Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson were married, suddenly some brides wanted a fanfare when they emerged from the church. A cop acquaintance of mine whose daughter’s wedding was upcoming staggered into the office one morning and exclaimed: “Jesus, now she wants trumpets.”

    1
  52. Kathy says:

    Question: if you have a piece of beef that’s too big for what you want to cook, what’s the better option:

    1) Cut off the excess and freeze it.
    2) Cook the whole thing and freeze the excess.

  53. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Steven L. Taylor: True, but I saw after reading his comment that I needed my [CRT Trigger Warning] label just the same.

  54. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @OzarkHillbilly: “k teaching that black people have the same rights as white people but it wasn’t always that way is CRT.”

    Of course it’s CRT. The whole lie about blacks having the same rights? What else are ya gonna call it? 😉

  55. CSK says:

    @Kathy:
    I’d cut off the excess and freeze it before cooking.

    1
  56. @CSK: I second that.

    1
  57. Just nutha ignint cracker says:
  58. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @CSK: Makes ALL the difference, indeedie doo.

  59. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Thomm: It’s not that I didn’t catch it (though I wouldn’t have without reading the article as my experience of that event was pretty visceral and short), I just didn’t choose that one. Don’t have Waffle Houses in my part of the US, so it would be a hard notice for me.

    (There was a Waffle House in Spokane, but it wasn’t part of the national chain.)

  60. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @CSK: @Steven L. Taylor: As a lover of leftovers, I would say it depends on the size of the meat If what you’ve got is 2-3 times what you can eat in one sitting, cook it all and freeze the left overs. Meals ready to eat.

    If however, it’s a 10lb brisket or…. What a minute, lets make it a roast… Cook up only what you can eat.

  61. Just nutha ignint cracker says:
  62. JohnSF says:

    @Kathy:
    I’d incline to (1) freeze excess in advance.
    BUT it depends crucially on what you are doing with it.
    Roasting whole, definitely freeze the excess uncooked.
    Chopping or mincing for, say, casserole/stew, chili, ragu bolognaise, or similar, then freezing the result may be better.

    Ready to hand ragu or chili is never a bad idea.

  63. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Kathy: I prefer cook the whole thing and freeze the excess so I have something for another day that only needs heating up.

    1
  64. CSK says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker:
    Yeah, something like that.

  65. JohnSF says:

    Why in heck did my Tolkien nerdery get posted twice?
    One Edit to rule them all,
    One Edit to confuse them,
    One Edit to fail to work,
    And in the darkness annoy them.

    5
  66. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @JohnSF: Don’t be messing with the edit function. You don’t want to piss it off.

    1
  67. OzarkHillbilly says:

    The Michigan Supreme Court ordered Thursday that a citizen-initiative ballot measure seeking to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution be added to the November ballot.
    The court’s 5-2 ruling was issued the day before Michigan’s ballot needs to be finalized on Friday.
    The order directs the Board of State Canvassers to certify the Reproductive Freedom for All petition as sufficient and eligible for placement on the ballot. This comes after the board had deadlocked on a 2-2 party-line vote on whether to certify the ballot initiative last week, leading Reproductive Freedom for All to ask the Supreme Court to intervene.

    The board officially certified the ballot measure for the November ballot on Friday. The motion to certify passed 4-0.

    Board Chair Anthony Daunt said there was “never any doubt in my mind,” that when the court ruled, they would be following the order.

    “We have this process for a reason, it’s adversarial,” the Republican chair said. “I think that’s right and that’s okay and that’s what we’re here for, we got this clarity.”
    The measure will appear on the ballot as Proposal 3, which would establish an “individual right to reproductive freedom, including right to make and carry out all decisions about pregnancy.”

    2
  68. JohnSF says:

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    We loves the edit function, we do, my preciousss.
    We want’s it, we must have it, give to uss.

    4
  69. Kathy says:

    To all who replied, I’m cooking shredded beef in green salsa.

    I can freeze the plain shredded beef, or a portion of the beef and salsa mix (I tend to favor freezing the latter if I cook the whole thing).

    1
  70. JohnSF says:

    @Kathy:
    Stumps me.
    Outside my repertoire.
    Depends on how well salsa freezes, maybe?
    Or shredded beef, for that matter.
    I’d suspect it might get a bit too mushy; but never done it.
    Pork, yes; lamb, yes; beef nope (brisket I presume?)

    Suspect I’d go back to default: freeze raw.

  71. JohnSF says:

    re. @Neil Hudelson:
    I’ve not generally followed the details of the daily war, much of the time, more looking at the larger picture, which has been only slowly evolved IMO (basically Russia outmatched since March)

    But just caught up on this, after some messages from friends.
    Bloody! Hell!
    Quote that sums it up:

    Russia’s Kharkiv Oblast disaster will be studied as one of the most spectacular fuckups in military history.

    And though Kharhiv is catching the headlines also:
    – on the Kherson salient n.w. of the Dipro, Ukraine is also continuing to both pulverise the rear and infiltrate the front of Russian positions
    – some Russian attempts at counter-attacks on the mid Donbas front have been hammered
    – some evidence of Ukrainian operations developing in the area between Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk
    This could, might, maybe, turn into debacle for Russia on an Ardennes 1940 scale; there may be 50,000 or more(!) Russian troops cut off on the wrong side of the Dnipro and in the developing Izyum “pocket”.
    And even more: Ukraine has already cut heavy supply routes to trans-Dnipro.
    May now be in position to do the same over a large section of NE; and possibly centre of the southern salient; and to cripple Russian support for its recent central Donbas gains.
    This is remarkable.
    What in hell was Russia doing with defensive line in the NW that it should collapse like this???

    1
  72. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @JohnSF: I don’t know Kathy’s taste in beef, but brisket smokes and grills well enough so that I’d look more toward chuck or short ribs for shredded beef.

    Unless she’s talking about machine shredded beef, in which case I’m too far over my skis to know what people use. I’m more a pulled pork and the like guy.

  73. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker: But I can’t imagine getting a good result from (re?)freezing raw shredded beef, but Kathy probably knows that it works if it does.

  74. Kathy says:

    @JohnSF:
    @Just nutha ignint cracker:

    Cuts of beef are wildly different here. Add that I mostly don’t know what part of the cow the cuts come from, well, we may as well not bother.

    Salsa freezes well. I’ve frozen lots of dishes, often when I make too much of one, and almost all fare well. The exception are cooked potatoes. After thawing and reheating, they wind up like potato-flavored sponges. Some where I’ve used tomato sauce kind of de-emulsify after thawing, but can be fixed by stirring. Meatloaf tends to come off the freezer just fine.

  75. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @JohnSF: What in hell was Russia doing with defensive line in the NW that it should collapse like this???

    I read that they took a whole lot of troops from there to reinforce their position around Kherson. Not that it did them any good.

    1
  76. JohnSF says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker:
    I’m more roast pork loin, or shoulder, or belly, with crackling.
    MUST. HAVE. CRACKLING!

    As for beef, if mincing (grinding in Americanese) I only do that with braising steak (chuck I think for you folks) for making ragu, chili, steak hache, or burgers.
    Steak hache is great if you like fillet steak (ish), but don’t like the price.
    Classic French bistro recipe, with bearnaise, frites, and salad.
    Hmm, just decided whats for dinner tomorrow!
    🙂

  77. JohnSF says:

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Yes. But even so, this is quite remarkable.
    Where the hell is their rapid response air power?
    Theatre artillery?
    When the other way around, Ukrainians managed to fight them to a standstill repeatedly on the Donbas Line, or else to pull back to secondary or tertiary positions while delaying.
    Even the French army in 1940 could say, OK we were hit where no one could expect it or see the Wehrmacht coming.
    This is just incredible, epic, f@ckuppery!

    2
  78. JohnSF says:

    And this is truly incredible.
    There are currently 55,000 Russian troops on the Vostok Exercises in the far east with China.
    Vladdy boy: “See, Xi! Much powah!”
    Xi: “Yep. Great. Brilliant.”
    *aside to aide*
    “Fifty percent minimum haircut on the oil. And get me von der Leyen on speed dial!”

    1
  79. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @JohnSF: Where the hell is their rapid response air power?

    I read something about that too. I don’t recall the particulars but it was a combination of on the ground and burnt to a crisp and on the ground to keep from being burnt to a crisp. The meaning being that the Ukrainians have very good anti aircraft defenses that the RUS just can’t quite figure out how to get around.

    Sorry I can’t be more specific.

    ETA As far as Theatre artillery, I am sure you have also read that RUS is now getting shells from N Korea. Pretty sure they aren’t getting the good stuff from NK.

    ETA2:Ukrainians managed to fight them…

    The Ukrainians have the benefit of western intelligence. Over the years I haven’t had much good to say about WI but in this case it sure seems to be superior to whatever the GBU is offering up.

    1
  80. Beth says:

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    ETA As far as Theatre artillery, I am sure you have also read that RUS is now getting shells from N Korea. Pretty sure they aren’t getting the good stuff from NK.

    Random theory with no evidence. Could Russian artillery found out they are getting NK shells are are refusing/too afraid to use them do to quality concerns?

    The Ukrainians have the benefit of western intelligence. Over the years I haven’t had much good to say about WI but in this case it sure seems to be superior to whatever the GBU is offering up.

    This makes sense to me in that a lot of Western intelligence is/was directed at what the Russians/Europeans are doing. Lots of practice there.

    1
  81. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @JohnSF: FWIW, Chuck Pfarrer is one of the people I follow on Ukraine, and lately he’s a first look most days.

    1
  82. JohnSF says:

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Where the hell is their rapid response air power?

    In some ways that’s a rhetorical question.
    There have been indications for some time about issues; and also about what’s been supplied from the West (StarStreak baby! Also, suspicion that Rapier may be butting in).
    Plus German, Norwegian, and French stuff.
    Hell, basically every country inn Europe is joining the f’Russia pile on.
    But; you’d expect a full-on line breach to call in whatever they had and: “Go forth to die for Vlad and country!”
    Nope.
    It really is a total, head-to-toe, grade A, no holds barred, no cliche left unused, pooch poking. Cambodian temple sculpture.

    2
  83. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @OzarkHillbilly: Over the years I haven’t had much good to say about WI

    I want to clarify that my criticism of western Intel is mostly concerning the absolute clusterpucks that were Afghanistan and Iraq. How much was Intel and how much was the Bush admin cherry picking and using pretzel logic? I don’t pretend to know. From what I’ve read I think it was far more the latter but have heard little from those on the intel side to back up my intuitions.

    1
  84. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @JohnSF: Yeah, I expect the # of RUS willing to die for the glorification of dear leader is rapidly dwindling at this point.

  85. Jax says:

    @Kathy: Resident expert on what cuts of beef come from which part of the cow, and the best way to cook them, at your service. 😛

    I think you can freeze an extra half of a roast you bought from the store if you think you bought too much for one sitting, but it’s also just as easy to cook the whole dang thing with seasonings, if you are looking for an easy addition to another meal you might want to cook later. I have many packages of seasoned, cooked roast beef depending on whether I want a stew, tacos, or beef and noodles.

    1
  86. Flat Earth Luddite says:

    @Jax:
    At Casa Luddite, SWMBO & daughter like to do garlic steak bites and invite Cracker & neighbors over. Leftovers feed us for days, aus juice cooks down to gravy. When I can, I’ll do a pot roast, ditto. Often I’ll score a pork roast, leftovers wind up in soup pot. Green salsa? I’m so there!

    2