Saturday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Saturday, August 6, 2022
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67 comments
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).
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How is it that I have …..
Netflix
Amazon Prime
Apple TV+
Hulu
Peacock
Tubi
HBO
Starz
Epix
Paramount+
YouTubeTV
….and I can’t find anything to watch at 2am Saturday.
How?
@EddieinCA:
Either:
1) too many choices, so it’s not easy to pick one, or none seem appealing compared against each other .
2) Paraphrasing Pink Floyd, you’ve got eleven streaming services of shit on the TV to choose from.
@EddieinCA: How is it I* have none of those but can always find something to watch in the DVD library? đ
*emphasis on the personal pronoun there. My wife recently figured out how to stream thru our inadequate satellite service and now has Disney+, Amazon Prime, and Hulu. Which if she is picking the show I can watch, But she streams them thru her iPad and an old iPhone, neither of which I am capable of operating because touch screens hate, hate, HATE me, and i am far better off staying as far away from them as I can.
@EddieinCA: @Kathy: @OzarkHillbilly:
Well, you can always read.
@CSK: If I’m not doing anything else (which with these summertime highs is more often than not), I read in the afternoons. But after the evening meal, I invariably fall asleep on the couch, which is easier to do if I have something mindless to occupy my brain.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Mindless on TV is like fish in the ocean.
@Kathy: Funnily enough, when I wake up at 1 or 2 AM (which is every night) and my brain kicks into gear (which thankfully only happens every 3rd or 4th night) and I just can’t turn it off, I will get out of bed, put one of the Planet Earth discs in the DVD player and fall back to sleep on the couch to the sound of David Attenburough’s voice while critters frolic about the plains/ice and snow/jungles/deserts/mountains/seas.
Josh Marshall had something to say the other day:
Well said, Josh.
@CSK: I’m not sure exactly why/how, but I am on track to break my personal record for books read this year. A quick glance at the books I’ve read appears to point to a combination of two things, one, I’ve really enjoyed a number of books I’ve picked up this year (that means I read them faster), and two, yeah, there are a few more “easy reads” in there than usual. I love reading.
@EddieinCA: If you’re at all a Neil Gaiman fan, the new The Sandman series on Netflix seems to be getting some very good reviews. I generally enjoy Gaiman’s work, but haven’t read this graphic novel. I thought the Starz adaptation of American Gods was quite good, Good Omens was an excellent adaptation as well. Brilliant casting in both. So, I’ll likely give Sandman a watch.
Anne Heche is in serious trouble:
Assuming it took awhile for them to first realize she was still in the car and who knows how long to get her out, she must have severe burns.
My cousin was burned over 90% of his body when his tractor trailer was hit head on by a drunk driver. He was hauling asphalt and the tanker ruptured and buried him in the cab. He lived for 20 pain filled days before finally dying. His last words to his fiancee were, “Karen, let me die.”
I hope Anne doesn’t have to go thru anything like that.
@Jen:
I know that there are many people who suffered grievously from being locked down/isolated during the pandemic, but it wasn’t terrible for me because I had my books.
I don’t know how people who don’t like to read manage.
@CSK: TV.
Yeah, I don’t need to see that.
Twitter Obliterates Elon Musk’s Excuses for Trying to Kill $44 Billion Deal in Blistering Court Filing
@OzarkHillbilly:
And yet, there are hundreds of thousands folks who are wishy-washy on gun violence and/or assault weapons that really need to see the horror.
@CSK: I actually struggled to read early on in the pandemic. It was weird, I have always been a voracious reader and all of a sudden I couldn’t focus and nothing really interested me. I ended up reading very light reads–fluffy books, the equivalent of rom-coms in book form, it was all I could manage for about 5 months. Eventually I got back to reading what I typically read (mostly literary fiction ~60%, some genre fiction ~10%, and the rest non-fiction, mostly nature and science stuff, like Entangled Life, Life Between Tides, etc.).
My husband’s quip was that I moved to the book version of TV…
@CSK:
As somebody who deals with agoraphobia both successfully and sometimes unsuccessfully, the COVID lock down and required masking felt like a God sent miracle to my malapadtive brain.
I was required to stay home except for necessary outings. I was required to mask up if I needed to venture out.
I cannot express in simple words how liberating the mask order felt to me. It’s fairly rare and most folks thankfully never experience it, but to me, sometimes the thought that others see me and are judging me can be overwhelming and prompts a panic attack or the precursors to that. It sucks.
It is extremely uncomfortable, especially knowing that is all made up in my head, which makes it worse.
Being able to mask up and walk around in public was so refreshing. I was bullet-proof. I was invulnerable. I was not freaked out. These were brand new feelings. I felt freer than I had in years.
@Jen:
Funny, but I too spent a fair amount of time reading lighter things than I usually do. Probably it was a reaction to all the doom-mongering on the news. I needed something light and relatively cheerful.
@de stijl:
I’m very sorry to hear this. But I suppose the fact that you can continue masking, and no one will find it odd, is very helpful to you.
@EddieinCA:
I recommend Midnight Mass which is either on Hulu or Netfix, iirc.
Mike Flannigan who did The Haunting Of Hill House and Bly Manor. One of my new favorite directors.
It’s a short run series self contained. Maybe 8-10 episodes about an hour apiece. Just brilliant in my book. I really enjoyed it.
I’m not religious and was raised vaguely as a Lutheran, so I might be missing some of the Catholic bits, but it’s pretty great and well worth the time investment.
If push comes to shove, you can always watch old episodes of Psych or Monk on Peacock. Easy brain candy.
@Bob@Youngstown: Yeah, but I suspect more than a few would deny the evidence of their own eyes. The only thing that will change their minds is being personally touched by such an event, either by living thru one or by losing a beloved to one. Until that happens, it just won’t be real to them.
@Jen: @CSK: I read a lot of history with fair doses of science and nature, and a smattering of current events. Every now and again tho, I need something lighter and I’ll reach for a Tony Hillerman, Elmore Leonard, George Pelecanos, Richard Russo, etc. I needed a lot more of the lighter fare than usual when I finished Bloodlands.
Until that happens, it just wonât be real to them.
Not even then.
More than once I have read accounts of children killing other children with loaded guns that legal gun owners have left lying around.
The claim that the killing is “God’s will” is made to relieve the adults of responsibility.
@CSK:
I’m having an on-going debate with my therapist about continuing to wear a mask in public.
A mask is really miraculous in my head. I feel powerful, untouchable. Almost normal. It’s all made up in my head, but it feels true. I am way more confident and better able to cope. It’s a dodge. A convenient dodge.
I feel it so strongly that I distrust it. It makes me feel way more confident than I probably should.
But, it works.
@de stijl:
I’m no therapist, but if the mask keeps you comfortable and confident, then by all means keep wearing it. It does you considerable good and absolutely zero harm to anyone else.
@OzarkHillbilly:
I can see why.
@Mister Bluster: In my book, god has a lot to answer for. S/He may be forgiving but I, not so much.
@CSK: It was good, Snyder is a hell of a writer, but lord it was depressing. I’m hanging onto it because I feel like I should read it again (it is a lot to wrap one’s head around) but I’m not sure I ever will.
@Mister Bluster: And almost invariably, the adults who left the guns for children to find aren’t charged because “they’ve been punished enough”.
Allow me an aside and a question. My attitude is that by committing a crime, one volunteers to be the example to deter others from committing said crime. I have several times seen statements, usually by libertarians, that libertarians say deterrence doesn’t work. The only source I’ve found is Nozick who said we couldn’t calculate the exact punishment needed for deterrence. That is not an argument that deterrence doesn’t work. Can anybody cite a libertarian source for a claim that deterrence doesn’t work?
deleted because in the wrong post
@EddieinCA: My problem was that I would come across something that I would want to watch but then couldn’t remember it at the 2am time. So I have taken to putting those future shows in my notes on my phone. It usually only takes an episode or two to decide whether I want to continue it.
Actually, my wife and I abandon more shows than complete them.
I remember one case where it was true. A woman shopping at a grocery store put her purse with the handgun in it in the cart seat next to her toddler. The toddler found it and shot her dead with it. I’m not a believer in karmic justice, but that one could almost change my mind. Almost.
@OzarkHillbilly: I needed a lot more of the lighter fare than usual when I finished Bloodlands.
That book almost made me stop reading for a while. We humans are an often very sorry lot.
Yesterday’s forum had a discussion of memory. Made me think of this recent work.
Politics ruins everything, including your memory
@OzarkHillbilly:
@Kathy:
@Jen:
Ended up watching the first two episodes of “Hacks” on HBO Max. Really good. Looking forward to catching up on all episodes. Really well produced, acted, and shot.
If you’d like a laugh:
http://www.rawstory.com/chorizo-star
@EddieInCA:
Hacks is great all the way through both seasons.
Also recommend:
As We See It. (About 3 autistic characters played by autistic actors.)
Girls Five Evah (sp?) (Silly fun.)
We Are Lady Parts (Muslim women form a punk band.)
The Expanse (if you haven’t already. Best hard sci fi ever.)
Would I Lie To You (Brilliantly funny Brit panel show. Avoid first 2 seasons.)
Star Trek Strange New Worlds. (A throw-back to ST’s combo of philosophy and silliness.)
@CSK:..laugh…
…and sing…
When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie
What is the verb of carpentry?
Carpent? “I am going to carpent today”.
@Mu Yixiao:
“Carpenter” is the verb. i.e. “I am carpentering.”
@Mister Bluster:
Now I’ll have that as an earworm for the rest of the day.
@CSK:..earworm…
Maybe this will help…
Billy Cobham: The Moon Ain’t Made Of Green Cheese
…………….
Total Eclipse was released in 1974.
I saw Billy Cobham at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco when I lived there in 1974-’75. Might have even heard this tune live.
But my memory fades.
Binge watching a lot because itâs too hot and muggy to do much else. Bordertown is an interesting Finnish show. Black Spot is weird and fun. I believe itâs French. Iâm a sucker for Polish tv. Thriving industry there. Anything by Harlan Coben.
European and British tv actors are so much more real. People look like, well, people.Not necessarily unattractive, just wardrobe and makeup take a back seat. Not your typical American casting. Refreshing.
QFT.
I’d go with “prostituting.” I sold my body for monetary compensation.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Well, carpenters do do a lot of…banging.
Sorry.
@EddieinCA:
Have Door Dash deliver some decent Weed, that should do it.
You know, back when I was a college student, we didn’t have Door Dash.
@Mister Bluster:
Best alternate version, with story.
Robert Zamora was a (quite good) footballer.
When playing for Brighton against Fulham, IIRC, he took a penalty, mis-kicked and absolutely skied it into the stands.
Subsequently, whenever Brighton played Fulham, the Fulham fans sang:
@CSK:
Nailed it.
đ
@CSK: Touche. Well turned, very well turned.
@JohnSF: And here you come to finish it off.
@JohnSF:
Good one, John.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Carpenters always finish their…work.
@CSK: Only finish carpenters finish the job tho.
@al Ameda:
Weed is the one thing in my house of which we are never short. Ever.
I get down to 50 edibles, four cartridges, or 1/4 of flower, I’m at the weed shop. They know me by name there.
@CSK:
Wow. There is so much wrong with that reply. The English teacher in me is cringing so hard I think I may have sprained something.
@OzarkHillbilly:
That only applies if you’re doing it for someone else (been there, done that–for a few decades). I’m working on the house and making stuff to sell.
@Mu Yixiao:
I have a Ph.D. in English. I’ve taught English at Tufts and Harvard. But you can look up “carpenter” if you care to verify it.
@Mu Yixiao: I did it for someone else for 35+ years. The only times I did it for me was when I was working on my own houses. I hope to start making stuff to sell this winter (assuming my shop expansion gets completed once the summer’s high temps relent) but that just means I am prostituting my body with piece work. I really don’t know for how long I will be able to do it. I have osteo arthritis to varying degrees in my hands, shoulders, neck, lower back, hips, and knees. At this point in time, pain is just a thing I have to live with. The only question is, how much can I take.
The only thing I care about now, is shaving a couple years off my wife’s retirement age.
@EddieinCA: One thing that I find is that too many choices can inhibit my decision-making mechanisms and processes. There’s something about large numbers of choices that seems daunting to me, kind of a mirror image of FOMO–fear of making “the WRONG choice.”
@EddieInCA:
That is one remarkable difference in Britain.
You can still get seriously arrested for possession of cannabis.
Maximum sentence, 5 years for simple possession.
And markedly more likely if you are of a non-white persuasion.
IIRC c. 25% arrests are categorised other than white, who are 13% of the population.
It’s stupid, and almost everyone knows it, including the police.
The only major groups that don’t are the pensioner base of the Conservative party, and the Tory/tabloid press, who are in a symbiotic relationship with that base.
The Tory tabloids are to the UK what Fox News is to the US.
@OzarkHillbilly: Touch screens hate me, too. And as the tremor worsens, keyboards are starting to also. đ
Anyway, never mind the carpenters. What about the walrus?
@OzarkHillbilly: According to the article I read yesterday, the structure that caught was the second one she struck. Earlier, she had rammed a parking structure (IIRC) at an apartment building before driving off to hit the second structure. The report that I read also indicated that her injuries were serious enough so that they were unable to obtain samples for BAC. (Don’t know how that works, but I assume that it probably has to do with not increasing the trauma of an already critical-condition patient.)
@OzarkHillbilly: I don’t think you should blame God for other people blaming him for the horrible stuff that the people who are blaming God in the first place are doing. But you can if you wish to.
@CSK: Just going by the picture, it seems to be a reasonable enough mistake, though.
@Mu Yixiao:
Take the word of the Internet. It knows everything and never lies. đ
@CSK: I don’t have a PhD in English, so I had to look it up. Seeing it made sense though. There are a significant number of /er/ or /or/ names of practitioners where the title is also the verb (“doctor” and “to doctor” comes to mind). It makes sense.
@EddieinCA:
No interest in watching Prey on Hulu? Itâs actually quite entertaining. Amber Midthunder should be offered a lot more roles, and will have the time to step into another role now that Roswell New Mexico on the CW is ending.
@Michael Reynolds: And a handful more:
Blackbird — true story of a convicted drug dealer going undercover in prison to get a confession from a serial killer. Brilliant performances by Taron Egerton (man, I’d forgotten how charismatic he can be) and the guy who played Richard Jewell in the movie. Written by Dennis Lehane.
Rehearsals — Israeli comedy-drama about a writer/director couple who break up both professionally and personally… and then land their play at a big theater.
Paper Girls — The Hollywood Reporter complained because it was too much about the lives and emotions of its tween girl protagonists and not enough about the world-ending sci-fi plot. Kind of tells you all you need to know about both the show and the Hollywood Reporter critics…
@becca: “Anything by Harlan Coben.”
Those Coben shows make me nuts. When he started writing big standalone thrillers (as opposed to his series books) he would come up with a huge hook, and then follow it to a stunning and believable conclusion. As years have gone by, he seems to have decided that the hook alone is enough, and so his stories get dumber and dumber in their desperate need to find explanations for all the cool questions he’s come up with.