Saturday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Saturday, February 25, 2023
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47 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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Her only concern is her liability, must be a Republican.
Kings outlast Clippers 176-175 in double overtime
That must of been quite the game.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Donald Trump: “I take no responsibility.”
Realtor: “I have no liability here.”
Birds of a feather.
@CSK: Egzackly.
Newspapers across the country are pulling the “Dilbert” cartoon after a podcast racial rant from creator and author Scott Adams.
Adams said on his his Coffee with Scott Adams online video program that white people should “get the hell away from Black people,” labeling Blacks as a “hate group.”
He’s been dropped by 77 newspapers so far, by the end of today I suspect that he’ll lose a fair amount more. How long before Fox News starts whining about his First Amendment rights being violated?
@senyordave:
I stopped reading Dilbert when Adams endorsed the Cheeto in 2016.
@senyordave: Great, now we’ll hear endless whining by him about the “woke left” canceling him. Because he’s the real victim.
Hemp: the green crop tied down by red tape in the US
An interesting read.
In the post about Google TV, there is this from the excerpt:
I don’t fancy myself a unicorn* — I have my idiosyncrasies of course, but these are balanced by plenty of conventional tastes, interests, etc. On this matter though, I am atypical. Very.**
This is not a point of pride, rather a curiosity. I’m usually delighted to find these in myself. Even more so in others. What are yours?
*false modesty alert!!!
**Question to the grammarians: Is ‘atypical’ an absolute adjective?
The differentiation among candidates is beginning:
No ‘apologists for Putin’: Pence draws contrast with DeSantis on support for Ukraine
My so-called Freedom Caucus congressman, Chip Roy, has been silent on this. I suspect he may be feeling to be between a rock and a hard place with his rabid MAGA supporters on one side and a generally pro-American, pro-military supporters on the other.
@Mimai: We subscribe to Netflix, Prime, Disney+, Apple+, Discovery+, and Hulu.
However, the bills are spread around amongst three households. And I consider Prime to be free because I’m going to pay for Amazon anyway. Daughter pays some college rate (about a dollar) for Hulu. Son#1 pays for Disney+ so they can have the joy of watching Frozen for the 87th time. So basically I pay for 3 service.
@Kathy: Adams has been riding a one-joke pony for years. I dropped him even before his politics came out.
@Kathy: @OzarkHillbilly: @Mr. Prosser:
I never read him.
@Mimai: I guess I am sort of typical at 5+, calling DISH the equivalent of a super streamer. I also get HBOMax and AMC+ purchased through DISH, and Netflix and Hulu billed separately.
@Mimai:
To clarify, I didn’t mean to query on what streaming services people use. Rather, I’m interested in what ways people find themselves to be atypical. I find it incredible that the average household subscribes to 5 services — my household “subscribes” to, well, none. I do have a white picket fence though.
@Mimai:
I would guess most people who have multiple streamers quit their cable or satellite. So I think I am atypical still having both – the DISh is kind of expensive, but I haven’t been able to bring myself to quit access to the DVR with its connected hard drive – a couple of thousand hours of saved content.
@Mimai:
It varies.
Right now HBO Max, Disney+(with Star+, which is FOX), Paramount+ and Netflix.
But.
Disney+/Star+ come with a prime-like service with a local online marketplace called Mercado Libre. I don’t use it much, but between the free shipping and streaming, it’s a good deal. plus it’s less that paying for Disney+ directly would cost.
HBO Max I got on an offer of a lifetime discount. As long as the rate holds, it’s worth it.
Paramount+ staggers Trek series around enough there’s almost always something to watch.
Netflix I got in December to see part 4 of Disenchantment, then I dug around for a while longer, and forgot to cancel it by February. It will be gone by the end of the month.
I except to get Amazon when a new season of The Boys drops, and Apple when season 2 of Severance comes in.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Not if we stop paying attention to him. Supporting freedom of speech does not create an obligation to listen to any of it. For example, I never even knew that Scott Adams has a podcast.
@Mimai: “Is ‘atypical’ an absolute adjective?”
I would say no. It’s possible to be atypical in given categories of behavior/conduct and typical in others.
@Mimai: I subscribe to more than 5 streaming services, but I only pay fees for Hulu. Everything else is advertiser supported. How many people in that guy’s survey are saying that?
@charon: ” but I haven’t been able to bring myself to quit access to the DVR with its connected hard drive – a couple of thousand hours of saved content.” I’d be looking for a way to move all of that to a thumb drive or seeing how much of it I can find on Hulu and Netflix.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
You’re right about “atypical.”
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
@CSK:
I was hoping both of you would chime in. So if I’m understanding correctly, one can be “very atypical” about a given thing?
I’m not talking about a variety of things — across which one might be typical or atypical. I’m talking about a given thing.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
I like an example given in The Big bang Theory by Stewart, before they made his character the pathetic hanger-on. He maintained “wrong” is not an absolute, as Sheldon claimed.
His example: It’s a little wrong to say a tomato is a vegetable. It would be very wrong to say it’s a suspension bridge.
@Mimai:
I’ve never heard nor read the expression “very atypical,” although I see nothing wrong with it. I thought you were asking if the word were like “unique,” in that there are no degrees of uniqueness. Something can be unique, but not “very unique.”
@CSK:
Yes, that is exactly what I was asking. Is “atypical” similar to “unique” in this respect?
@Mimai:
No, it isn’t. A group of people within a larger group may be atypical of the ones in the larger group. If 90 out of a 100 are brunettes, and 10 are redheads, the latter are atypical.
@CSK: It’s been decades since I did.
@CSK:
This is a great example. Very clarifying. Thank you!
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Did some googling, found this:
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/copying-dish-archived-movies-on-external-hdd-to-pc.1708960/
So, as I expected, impractical because of formatting/encryption issues.
I have copied a lot to VHS tapes, but that is obviously a sub-optimum solution. And, yeah, most of it is available streaming, but some stuff I’d really want is hard to find or just not available.
@Mimai: I don’t subscribe to any but my wife does. I differentiate because I have no idea how to access any of them, don’t care to learn how, and don’t even know which ones she has. If I’m going to waste what few remaining brain cells I have learning something new, I’ll do so in service of learning something useful.
Crazy ex showed up in the middle of the night last night. We are all safe. He’s been served with a No Trespass order, and if he sticks around the area, they’re gonna serve the protective order on him as soon as the courthouse opens Monday. My old paperwork is too outdated.
Fingers crossed he just leaves. Between the cops, it being -18 (pretty inhospitable weather for a panhandler living in his car), and the pissed off locals, I don’t think he got the welcome he had in mind.
I didn’t get much sleep. Nap time for me.
@Mimai: For my money, yes. And you can call yourself a unicorn if you wish to also. 😉
@Jax:
Hoping for the best…
@CSK: How would you react to a phrase from a narrative of one of my composition students: “The most nondescript of all the nondescript buildings in the industrial park.” Some of my fellow teachers described it as being very atypical of student writing.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
I’d be amused by it. And it does sound atypical of student writing.
@charon:
I still have cable because phone+cable+internet+netflix+HBO Max through Comcast is cheaper than just internet through comcast and netflix and HBO Max seperately
Shit, I was afraid of that. Keeping everything current was always a battle.
Hopefully they are all on your side. In my case, I was always the outsider. I had to fight locals left and right every step of the way.
@OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, they’re on our side. I’m super glad the bartender knew something was off about him and had the de facto bouncer figure out who he was, and as soon as he could possibly sneak away he called me and gave me a head’s up he was headed to the ranch. My oldest daughter was in town, so her and her friends hauled ass out to our turnoff and blocked the road, got there about two minutes before him. He pulled in, saw them, turned around and went back to the bar. I called the cop I had my “safety plan” worked out with, luckily she was on duty, so she met me and we got the No Trespassing order signed, and she served it to him at the bar.
She said nobody’s seen him since he was pumping gas about noon, so we’re assuming he left town.
@Jax:
I hope he stays out of town. FAR out of town.
@CSK: Thanks, meeee tooooooooo!!!!
@Jax: oh man, I’m so sorry you’re going through all this. I hope you have no further troubles with the crazy ex.
@Stormy Dragon: Indeed one of the features of Comcast service is that the more stuff you buy, the lower the aggregate cost is. But just Xfinity Wireless and Internet is less than adding cable even though if I added cable my internet cost itself would be almost nothing. Still, if I wanted/needed HBO or some other premium service buying everything from one provider would make the best deal–at least where I live (my total number of options is very small though).
I am trapped in Las Vegas.
I flew to Berlin to talk to some guys who want to adapt my books and to watch their movie. Which was actually excellent. On the way there, Jet Blue loses my luggage in Boston on a connecting flight. OK, shit happens. On the way back (Boston to LAX) Jet Blue runs out of gas and diverts to Vegas and dumps me at McCarran at 2 AM.
Runs out of gas? I’m sorry, but, WTF? I flee to Aria for what’s left of that night.
Next day can Blue get me home? Nope. Booked up. So, frustrated, I go to JSX, this sort of off-campus regional airline that I love. First attempt to leave Vegas: flooding in LA and after waiting in the JSX hangar for several delays, I decide nah, not today. So I spend an extra night at Aria. Today, second attempt, back to JSX, and still more delays. Turns out the plane that’s supposed to be coming has been hit by lightning*, delay piles on delay and I’m starting to think the flight’s going to be canceled. So, with storms in LA and coming soon to Vegas, I’m spending another night. Bellagio this time because I’m tired of the Aria room service menu.
I blame climate change.
Currently sucking on the neck of the 375 mil bottle of Maker’s in the mini-bar.
*I’m not superstitious but. . .
@Michael Reynolds:
They have penetrated your cover! You are localised and in danger!
Leave Las Vegas by car as soon as possible!
(Don’t forget mescaline for the trip 🙂 )
@Jax:
What an @ss…
Some people. smh.
@Michael Reynolds: Yeah, “struck by lightening” is my line in the sand as well. Years ago I was supposed to fly from STL to Arizona to go house hunting with my ex. Lots of storm delays, we finally get on the flight, take off, and we’re in the air maybe 10-15 minutes when the plane is hit by lightening. We return to STL, and I told my then-fiance there was no way I was getting on another flight that night.