M.

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:48:06 GMT

Keep meaning to write one of my snarky political posts - sooo much material - but I've been all out of sorts and tired this week. Weirdly, being moody like this makes me *less* likely to mock things. I don't understand my brain. I had been trying to write something anyway, but when I couldn't even work up the energy to give a good mock to this bit of low-hanging fannish fruit, it was time to stop trying to force it. Ah well, maybe tomorrow.

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:12:08 GMT

So, McDonnell won in Virginia (as expected), and Christie won in New Jersey in a squeaker. Expected political media narrative of the week: does the fact that the GOP won two gubernatorial races in an off-year election during an inherited recession mean Obama's presidency IS OVER?? Lots of hilarious overreactions are sure to ensue.

The other two races I'm following are still pretty close, with the gay marriage law in Maine in danger of being struck down (ugh!) and the wingnut in New York's 23rd close to being defeated (hah!). I will probably be up for a while refreshing these pages, because I am lame.

Election 2009...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:28:05 GMT

...happens tomorrow! Interesting races to follow:

1) Maine is voting on a referendum about gay marriage. Maine's an interesting case because it's (I believe?) the first state to institute gay marriage via the legislature rather than a judicial ruling. Whether it can withstand the referendum is an important test because, if the side favoring equality fails, other state legislatures are less likely to take the risk.

2) Virginia and New Jersey are voting for new governors. Virginia's mainly interesting because it's local to me, and it's officially a toss-up state now - though probably McDonnell, the Republican, is going to win (boo, hiss). Entertaining thing about the NJ race: the Republican challenger unwisely decided to swipe a Monty Python sketch, edit in references to his opponent, and air that as a commercial. Without checking with anyone involved. Politicians: DO NOT screw with comedians, seriously. They will cut you.

3) Potentially the most interesting, against all odds: the election in New York's 23rd district to replace their representative, a moderate Republican who was selected by Obama to be Secretary of the Army earlier this year. Another moderate Republican, DeDe Scozzafava, was selected/elected (I'm not entirely sure which) as the official GOP candidate. The winner of this election will only serve for a *year,* as they're just serving out McHugh's term and will have to run again to get reelected to a full term. Pretty boring right?

HA, well. That was when the far right's purity trolls decided to flex their muscles - declaring Scozzafava a "leftist," a Conservative Party candidate named Doug Hoffman entered the race, and every big-name conservative flocked to endorse him, including, eventually, the National Republican Congressional Committee. Activists like Erik Erikson came out with charming statements like this: "We should be magnanimous in victory — and whether Hoffman wins or loses, as long as Dede Scozzafava loses it is a victory — but we should demand accountability, we should demand a reckoning, and we should demand a purge from the party establishment of those people most responsible for the Republican disaster in NY-23." (That "disaster" refers to selecting a so-called leftist - who is, by the way, solidly in the mainstream of New York Republicans - not creating enough interparty squabbling to lose a seat that they could've easily kept. Of course.)

Sure, Hoffman has no grasp of local issues, and doesn't even live in the district. (Check out this link for a picture of the guy, by the way. *Yikes.*) But former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, one of Hoffman's earliest backers, defended him on this by describing local issues as "parochial." That's right - they're trying to win this election with the "your concerns aren't that important" argument. And it might work! Current polling has Hoffman up by 5 points, with a lot of undecideds.

But over the weekend, Scozzafava dropped out of the race and endorsed the Democratic candidate, so no one really knows how this'll shake out. (Add in to this that the turn-out rate for off-year elections is typically absurdly low, so "likely voters" are extra-difficult to determine.) But whatever happens, I would bet on the right's activists declaring victory and planning even more primary challenges against GOP officeholders - if the conservative wins, they've saved the district from the gutless GOP leadership; if he loses, it's because said leadership backed the RINO for too long.

2010's gonna be fucking hilarious, that's for sure.

(Incidentally, how far to the right do you have to be to consider *Newt fucking Gingrich* not conservative enough? Jesus.)

So, that was a long politics post! To make up for it to the many of you who probably do not care, have a funny article about a 70-year-old Washington Post editor beating up a staff writer. ...I think it's funny, anyway!

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:21:27 GMT

Confusing-to-me political commentary of the day: here. Andrew Sullivan is a recovering conservative and an interesting blogger that I often agree with and generally find to be a good read. Which is part of why I find that post so odd/vexing.

Keeping pressure on Obama to deliver on his campaign promises on gay rights = definitely a good thing, mind, and I can also see being disappointed that more hasn't been accomplished on this front so far. But it strikes me as singularly odd to complain about the new hate crime bill's inclusion of crimes motivated by hate of sexual orientation (and, as he omits, sexual identity - making this the first national law to include transgender rights) as a "piece of symbolism" while complaining that the president's remarks weren't up on his blog quickly enough and that he failed to use the word gay. That's just so perfectly backwards. Possibly this is motivated by his own opposition to hate crime legislation in general - he maintains his old conservative belief that they're inherently unnecessary - or maybe it's just your standard Boomer pundit's preoccupation with appearance and symbolism as more important than even actual legislative gains.

ANYWAY. Have I mentioned my new tv crush? It's Top Chef's Kevin. He's a freakishly talented cook (he's dominated the competition so far, and it's a pretty talented group), nice to the other contestants, completely drama-free, seemingly good at everything (loves cooking meat, eats vegetarian part of the year, gave up a full scholarship to MIT to go to cooking school, weirdly good at throwing horseshoes) yet not annoying about it. Plus, funny.

Kevin: *talks about how he can eat 150 chicken wings in an hour*
Other contestant: "He didn't get fat by accident."
Kevin: "It's a personal choice."

Basically, he's a magical gnome of awesomeness.

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:06:34 GMT

Truefact for today: if you hear someone describe the health care reform bills as "government-run healthcare," you can safely assume they're not interested in an honest debate so much as in scaring the uninformed. It's meant to call to mind systems like Britain's, where the doctors are employees of the government. What's actually on the table is government-run *health insurance,* a much less dramatic change. And even *that* is really pretty limited. To quote Ezra Klein, one of the Washington Post's few remaining non-hacks, "For the real liberals, the public option was already a compromise from single-payer. For the slightly less radical folks, the public option that's barred from partnering with Medicare to maximize the government's buying power was a compromise down from a Medicare-like insurance plan. For the folks even less radical than that, the public option that states can 'opt out' of is a compromise from the straight public option. Access to the public option will be a political question settled at the state level. It is not a settled matter of national policy."

Of course, even that Joe Lieberman's threatening to filibuster, the fucker, because ""I think a lot of people may think that the public option is free. It's not. It's going to cost the taxpayers and people who have health insurance now, and if it doesn't it's going to add terribly to the national debt..." Which is just bullshit. It's fundamentally not a new entitlement, and will be financed entirely by participants' premiums. I kind of wonder if he's not bluffing - he's coming up for reelection in 2012, and he may want support from the party to run as a Democrat again. And money from the party, of course.

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:46:40 GMT

Depressing story out of Texas - the state executed a man, Cameron Todd Willingham, for killing his three children by setting his house on fire. There was initially evidence of arson, but all the supporting evidence was highly faulty - witnesses who changed their statements to describe him as not caring about his children after he was accused of murder; doctors declaring him a "sociopath" who'd never talked to him and had no expertise in sociopathic behavior, based on the crime he was accused of and the presence of a skull tattoo and an Iron Maiden poster. Even more troublingly, his state-assigned lawyer has publicly stated that he believes his client guilty and seemed to put little effort into his defense. (Quoted from the New Yorker article: "'There were no grounds for reversal, and the verdict was absolutely the right one.' He said of the case, 'Shit, it’s incredible that anyone’s even thinking about it.'"

In January 2004, an expert who consulted on arson cases reviewed the evidence, and was shocked by the hugely faulty conclusions the arson investigators had reached. (Another disturbing quote from the article: "Still, many arson investigators believed that what they did was more an art than a science—a blend of experience and intuition. In 1997, the International Association of Arson Investigators filed a legal brief arguing that arson sleuths should not be bound by a 1993 Supreme Court decision requiring experts who testified at trials to adhere to the scientific method. What arson sleuths did, the brief claimed, was 'less scientific.'")

The expert, Dr. Gerald Hurst, quickly wrote up a report on his conclusions, as Willingham was set to be executed only weeks after he began looking at the case. A copy of his report was sent to the Board of Pardons and Paroles, who denied the request for clemency; there was no record of anyone taking note of the new evidence or responding to it. A member of the board defended this by saying "We get all kinds of reports, but we don’t have the mechanisms to vet them." Willingham was executed in February of 2004.

After years of continued attention and inquiry into the scientific flaws of the prosecution's case, Texas established a commission to address forensic science errors in the justice system. An expert hired by the commission excoriated the arson investigators, and there was some speculation that Texas could officially acknowledge that it had put an innocent person to death. That didn't happen - Governor Perry, under whose watch the man was executed, replaced members of the commission before they could issue their report.

If you want to *really* depress yourself today, watch an interview with Willingham's defense attorney, who still thinks his client was an unambiguously bad guy who got a fair trial.

tales of new media

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:29:41 GMT

To promote his new book, Newt Gingrich is using a few Twitter accounts to put on a "twitternactment" (HIS WORD) of the Battle of Trenton.

Yes, really. TWITTERNACTMENT.

Check out George Washington's Twitter page if you want to follow this inanity.

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:23:35 GMT

Ahaha, NEW FAVORITE YouTube video. I've mentioned my shameful Merlin love, right? In addition to the insanely obvious slash, the two female leads are entirely fabulous (and also, femslashy). But if I didn't already love them, the fact that the actresses *slash Arthur and Merlin on the DVD commentary* would definitely do it.

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:12:21 GMT

House thoughts, in brief:

-Oh Wilson, you sad adorable heap of patheticness, I love you the most. (But you know, show, when this plotline of Wilson moving on from Amber and him and House getting past it would've been even better? Um, LAST SEASON, before slotting Wilson back in like nothing had happened so he could play official H/Cuddy!shipper. I know, you had important things to get to like alienating every major media critic in existence.) (...that came off more bitter than I actually am; I'm mostly just pretty bemused that it's suddenly a plotpoint again after it disappeared for no reason for so long. It's hilariously blatantly arbitrary.)

-The House/Wilson stuff, in general, was pretty great - they both want to talk to each other about their ongoing individual issues, but House can't get over his self-consciousness and Wilson's been burned by House on this kind of thing before. Baby steps, I guess - maybe in ten years, they'll be somewhere vaguely in the neighborhood of functional. Possibly.

-Everyone else was awesome too - ohh, self-possessed!Cuddy, I'm so glad you're back, pls don't leave when the real shippy stuff starts! She's so much more fun when she's not quite so desperate for House's approval, and her relationship with House is back to charmingly snarky instead of painful to watch. Chase continued to be tormented, Foreman continued his unexpected streak of non-dickishness, and Cam again didn't have much to do beyond deal with the patient and wonder wtf was up with Chase, but she did that well.

-The parkour thing in the beginning struck me as kind of lame, honestly, though. Possibly this was because the Office's take on it aired so recently, and its whole point was that it was a played-out internet fad that Michael (naturally) embraced.

-Next episode, in three weeks, looks pretty awesome. Two comments:
i. Judging by this screencap, House and Wilson may be sharing a room. That's clearly two beds in the background!
ii. This shot was shown when House's "you're putting your career on the line!" was dubbed in. Pls don't be about Wilson euthanizing his terminal patients, show!

Also new: Venture Brothers! It was pretty fantastic, though it's hard to recommend to new viewers as the latest episode would just be completely incomprehensible unless you're familiar with some past ones. Most looking forward to seeing Orpheus's ex-wife, because anything Orpheus-related is pretty much guaranteed to be amazing.

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:58:24 GMT

Political news of the day: RedState is naturally very peeved at Senator Snowe for being the lone Republican on the finance committee to back Baucus's health reform bill, and in protest they're sending her...rock salt. Because it melts snow, okay, I get that. But how is it a good idea as a protest to send her something *incredibly useful* to her as a resident of Maine? Right before winter? Ohh, RedState. If someone in Florida ticks you off, you should *totally* mail them lots of suntan lotion. That'll show 'em!

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:11:51 GMT

So, now that House's creative team are more engaged with fandom on Twitter, there should be a pool on when some fan will mention her srs shipping of the actors. ...ahaha who am I kidding, it's probably already happened and just getting ignored.

I tend to spend any interaction between the producers of any material with a fandom and the fans themselves with my hand over my eyes, waiting for the inevitable contact embarrassment to come through, so I'm pretty dubious of this interactivity trend. Two things creeping me out most right now: people asking House director Greg Yaitanes approximately 10 million times for the unedited footage of Cuddy's striptease from "House's Head," and people questioning Katie Jacobs's *daughter* about what ships she likes (this was an H/W person, ugh) and what her relationship with Lisa Edelstein is like. WHY.

All things considered I should probably be relieved there are fewer H/W fans on Twitter, or I'm sure the same kind of weird lack of boundaries would be showing up from there too.

(I have a weird fascinated/repulsed relationship with fandom, what can I say?)

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 03:29:15 GMT

A great new moment in campaign advertising, from Georgia's Republican gubernatorial primary. It's...indescribable.

Though what makes it go from funny to f'ing hilarious was a Wonkette commenter's comparison to the "the nozzle" scene from Venture Brothers. This commercial's repeated "...the RAT" moments makes it eerily similar.

Incidentally, apparently Venture Brothers is returning tomorrow, WUT. This is such a weirdly short break between seasons for that show.

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:20:54 GMT

Okay, last post today about the GOP's fail!site, I promise - I just want to say that I frigging love the internet. Plug any URL into the box in that link and instantly Steele-ify it!

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:28:23 GMT

The new site by the RNC is such a trainwreck, AHAHAHA. I will be coming back to laugh at this ALL WEEK! A tiny dancing Michael Steele pops up! He has a blog actually called What Up! Its "Future Leaders" page had a 404 error! They list the Iraq War as one of their achievements, and misspell Iraq! It's a smorgasbord of delicious fail.

ETA: And now Steele is saying "it's not even really a web site," AMAZING.

ETA 2: HOLY SHIT THEIR RONALD REAGAN PAGE REFERS TO HIM AS "RONALDUS MAGNUS." They are trying to kill me by making me choke on my laughter.

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:26:58 GMT

House thoughts: A bit uneven, and House manipulating things to get Thirteen to stay didn't really make any sense, but not a bad episode. I like it better than the last time they did this subplot - "The Jerk" - anyway. (Srsly, though, it's exactly the same - someone cancels an important appointment for one of House's minions, House makes everyone believe it wasn't him, minion spends some time trying to figure out who did it and at one point someone goes to Wilson suspecting him of doing it to help House, and in the end it turns out House did it because he didn't want the minion to leave. Plus, it's an extended goodbye for a character that'll be back in a few episodes. Thirteen truly is the new Foreman.)

I was surprised how comfortable/relaxed the Wilson and Thirteen scene was, considering it was the first one they've had alone together, and how annoyed she was when she thought it was House. This just supports my personal fanon that Wilson and Amber had her over for a threesome sometime between "Don't Ever Change" when everyone found out she was a bisexual and "No More Mr. Nice Guy" when House started to pay attention to their relationship again. (Wilson was, in the end, too nervous to go through with it, though.)

As to the House sleeping on the couch bit, WORKAROUND: Wilson refused to put out because he was annoyed about House's stock speculating on info gained at his dying patient's bedside, and House decamped to the couch in protest. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I'm intrigued by how they're writing Cuddy this season - seemingly in response to the criticism thatlast season she was unpleasantly dependent on House's opinion/treatment of her, she's taken a more cautious approach to him so far this year. I imagine that's supposed to signify that she's trying to move on from her House fixation, though LE still plays it wistful/conflicted. So, liking how they're playing it so far - hope the lack of repetitive, unbelievable swings of emotion for both of them continues once they actively start playing with the shippy stuff again, but, not super-optimistic about that.

I like reading comments from non-fannish sources sometimes, and there's a trend I like in reactions so far this season:

Sepinwall: "Two episodes into our return to Princeton Plainboro Teaching Hospital, I still find I don't care about any parts of the show that don't involve House and/or Wilson."

AV Club commenters:

"At this point, I'd rather just muck the entire cast (except Robert Sean Leonard, that guy is awesome) and have Hugh Laurie play all their parts."

"Gimme a show with just House, Wilson, and hallucinatory CTB. I would eat that shit up."

"And yes, more Wilson = better show."

"I'd like a Murder She Wrote format with House and Wilson in a van, solving medical mysteries from town to town."

"This episode was definite step up from last weeks but I'm so bored with the soap opera theatrics that I just want a fun episode where maybe House and Wilson expose an evil faith healer (Clancy Brown) at sinister carnival."

"I think they've got some weird audience sampling data that makes them think their audience cares about the cast's relationships (whether it be Foreman / 13 or House / Cuddy). People just want to see House being a magnificent bastard, Wilson getting in one-liners at House's expense, and a decent medical mystery."

"I was saying last night that I would prefer if they just made it into House and Wilson: Hetero Life Partners. House could spend most of the episodes cooking and baking and be brought in for epiphany-based consults at Princeton- Plainsboro at the end. If they include the recipes, it's win win win."

"I was trying to introduce my ex-girlfriend to House a season or two ago, and, having never seen an episode, she asked me while we were watching if House and Wilson were gay. I told her yes just to mess with her, but for the rest of the episode, the evidence just kept piling up."

"And finally, there was Wilson, and I straight-up love James Wilson, M.D., so for me that's a point in the plus column all by itself."

"That's cool man, everybody's gay for Wilson..."

"Still not as funny as the telanovella gag from a couple of seasons back, but I do like Wilson's gimmick as the only character on the show (outside House, of course) who actually pays attention to the outside world."

"I loved that little scene where House and Wilson yell at the nature documentary. Nice shot that shows why and how they are friends."

"As for Wilson, the more you get acquainted with a really good friend, the freer you become to behave in silly, sarcastic and advice-prone manner towards them. I love the intimacy and goofiness between the two."

So, see - consensus, writers!! Get working on one of those ideas! *g*

Also, two funny Wonkette links of the day: achievements in web design, and ripping apart a Peggy Noonan column that I honestly had difficultly distinguishing from their parodies of the things. The latter is entertaining because the column starts out with "who needs the Nobel Peace Prize anyway, it's so devalued" and continues with something to the effect of "...and it's a *travesty* that Ronald Reagan never got one." Heh.

The rare double-double-down

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:21:35 GMT

So, okay, I mentioned earlier that the hardcore conservatives are all fulminating about Obama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, right? After a few hours of this, the DNC in its infinite ability to take something that could be to their political advantage and absolutely crush it, put out a statement basically saying "hey Republicans are just like the Taliban and Hamas now." At which point I thought, o for fuck's sake, guys.

That could've been the end of it, but instead Rush Limbaugh *double* doubles-down on the OTT anti reaction: "Folks, do you realize something has happened here that we all agree with the Taliban and Iran about and that is he doesn't deserve the award. Now that's hilarious, that I'm on the same side of something with the Taliban, and that we all are on the same side as the Taliban." ...EVEN I'M A LITTLE SHOCKED BY THAT.

Unrelatedly, to keep my post count today from becoming *truly* excessive, I wanted to add this in here: this actual picture of the Governator's breakfast is the funniest thing I've seen all. day.

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:34:30 GMT

Huh, apparently Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize? No one was expecting that. A little premature - one of Wonkette's commenters summed it up well: "This year’s Nobel Peace Prize subtitle: Jesus Effin Christ, That Last Guy Was An Asshole!" - but, good for him. It should be entertaining watching the right-wing explode, particularly so soon after their celebrating Chicago not getting the Olympics as a sign that the world at large didn't like him anymore. Thanks Norway - this is some high, high quality trolling.

Political post of the day...

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:41:13 GMT

going from least to most insane.

First, just a hilariously awkward image from Pakistan. I would be wary of that Ronald McDonald statue too.

Second, not insane so much as offensive - today, Al Franken's amendment withholding contracts from companies that "restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court" passed, with 68 votes in favor and *30* votes against. The specific company that triggered the amendment is Halliburton/KBR, in whose employ many women have suffered awful treatment and been denied redress. It's excellent that it passed, but really - 30 Senators voted against it? They are, you guessed it, all Republicans. Sen. Sessions of Alabama set the tone, calling it "a political attack directed at Halliburton." It doesn't count as a political attack if it uniformly punishes - through *lack of direct government funding,* mind, not preventing from pursuing other legal business opportunities - companies for horrifyingly unethical practices.

Third, a truly beautiful WORK OF ART - Jesus, handing the Constitution to the founders. Make sure you have your javascript turned on, because there are captions explaining every single figure. This parody version of the captions is pretty sweet, too.

Lastly, and most insane: the Conservative Bible Project! Many of you have probably heard of this one, but it's worth linking to again. Its stated goal is correcting for liberal bias in the Bible by...retranslating the King James version of the Bible.

No, really. They are serious. (I'm not entirely sure the idea didn't originate with a satirist who infiltrated the group, though.)

My favorite parts: a benefit of the project is that "the ensuing debate would flesh out -- and stop -- the infiltration of churches by liberals pretending to be Christian, much as a vote by legislators exposes the liberals;" and "'Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."' Is this a liberal corruption of the original? This does not appear in any other Gospel, and the simple fact is that some of the persecutors of Jesus did know what they were doing."

RationalWiki documents another case of Conservapedia's founder, Andrew Schafly, trying to change the Bible for his own political ends. In responding to the famous parable that involved Jesus saying, "let him who is without sin cast the first stone," Schafly wrote that the problem is: "The answer lies in its liberal message: do not criticize or punish immoral conduct unless you are perfect yourself. But one need not be perfect before he can recognize and punish wrongdoing in himself and others."

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 02:58:55 GMT

House: awesome episode! This is why they need Cameron and Chase. They bring a different dynamic and take to things, and, as a bonus, seem to be inspiring Omar Epps to do more with his character than glower and seem dully miserable.

Actual ethical dilemmas, omg whut.

House/Wilson subplot: liked it, but I think they made Wilson just a hair too skeptical of the possibility of House changing. (I haven't checked yet, but chance of h_w and/or HHoW people saying "omg how dare Wilson pick his dead girlfriend's apartment over House!!" = 99.5%.) Loved how far House was willing to go to stay at Wilson's. And was amused to see Due South's Ray Vecchio as a cranky Canadian, hee.

Also, I was pleased that I knew what House's mirror box technique was about as soon as I saw it. I had read about it as a way to help people with amputated limbs in V.S. Ramachandran's Phantoms in the Brain, a really fascinating look at neuroscience written for people who are completely clueless about all things higher-science, such as me.

HIMYM: I have nothing to say but awwww, Barney/Robin, how are you so amazing?

Big Bang Theory: It's weird, but Howard and Raj's supremely awkward attempt to pick up goth girls was my favorite part of the episode. Sheldon feeding Penny chocolate was fun, but I think they made him a little *too* creepy here.

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:17:33 GMT

Holy crap, today is frightening and bizarre - Lindsey Graham said something ENTIRELY REASONABLE. I don't even know how to deal with that.

This kind of thing is much more what I expect from the far-right - Erik Erickson (yeah, that's his real name), founder of the website RedState and a member of his city's government, wants to eliminate their police force rather than let them unionize. It's always surprised me a little that there hasn't been more friction in the 'law and order' coalition over how much cops love their union, honestly - most movement conservatives aren't exactly fans.

About the Polanski mess (the criticism of his arrest and extradition is entirely baffling to me; I have some sympathy for the judicial misconduct argument, but the way to deal with that isn't fleeing the country, ok), two interesting pieces: the Washington Post is editorializing against the easy target of Hollywood liberals and the French defending Polanski while two of their own columnists make the exact same ridiculous arguments in his favor; and a post by one of my favorite bloggers, Ta-Nehisi Coates, the best quote of which is: "This is about establishmentarians sticking up for other establishmentarians."

My favorite quote of the day, though, is Wonkette on Harry Reid: "Go back to your junkyard desert, Sadness Monster!"

today in futile fannish arguments

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:41:45 GMT

Does the HHoW episode discussion thread always go to the "poor blameless House will be destroyed by the lack of trust by those around him" place? It does, doesn't it? Sigh. I attempt to argue against this, with predictably limited success.

Elsewhere, there's the question of whether possibly-jokingly-intended allusions to a slash pairing make said pairing more or less legitimate. I, as I always do, tend to think intent is irrelevant.

some doom and gloom before bed

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:52:10 GMT

So, there's been a possibly anti-government murder of a census worker in Kentucky - no way to say for sure yet, but the man was found hanged, on 9/12 (the date of Glen Beck's big event in Washington), and the word "Fed" was written on his chest, it's hard not to suspect this was a message killing. Fuck a lot of Rep. Michelle Bachmann, who's been whipping up hysteria about this for months.

Given the overall cultural moment...I have to say I'm worried about people and places dispensing the H1N1 vaccine. Over-the-top paranoia about the government + a new potentially scary vaccine, when assumptions that negative health consequences result from receiving vaccines are easy to fall into even for mostly-reasonable people = a whole hell of a lot of potential badness. If you can believe the administration intended to set up death panels for the elderly, I'd bet the difference between locally- and federally-administered health programs won't be too hard to look past.

this week in Monday tv

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 05:16:08 GMT

House: Pretty happy with this episode. My only real complaint was how thin the characterization of the patient was - he never felt like a person so much as a source of meta jokes about the role of the internet. But they had a lot to get to besides that, I guess. The people who expect some kind of consistency as to how House's leg pain is dealt with must've been pretty frustrated though, heh.

Loved House and Wilson entirely, but then I pretty much always do. I also enjoyed Cuddy and 13 more than I have in the recent past - didn't really care for the cooking teacher transparently being there just to deliver a H/Cuddy anvil, as I tend to find that kind of thing somewhat lazy, but I can look past it if it's not in an episode already focused on H/Cuddy. (Basically, you can either have relationship attention or anvils in an episode and I'm fine with it, but not both plz?) I'll also be disappointed if Taub, the recent highlight of the diagnosis scenes, doesn't come back soon.

I thought it was weird House wouldn't talk about his recreational case-solving to Wilson, leading to the urine testing - I know the meta reason was probably to find a place to fit in more Andre Braugher-House scenes, but I'm unsure why from a character perspective. But, anyway, there was at least an effort to get House to talk to him. And it will probably be fixed next week, since afaik Braugher isn't in that one.

House hand-feeding Wilson something he cooked = instant classic.

HIMYM: Oh, noes, Barney and Robin relationship troubles already! They are the one actual couple on TV that I like! (Well, okay, there's Marshall and Lily. And Jim and Pam from the Office aren't bad either.)

I didn't entirely buy that Robin had such a big problem with Barney going to strip clubs, actually. That he went without telling her, sure, I see why that'd bug her. And I guess it was mostly to bring back up the issue of Barney's past man-whoreishness without him actually doing anything too objectionable. But there wasn't nearly enough follow-through here to make it worthwhile.

The show was stolen by the doppelgangers (lesbian!Robin, mustache!Marshall and stripper!Robin) and Marshall's bizarrely elaborate fantasy justifications, though. Love!

BBT: Okay, not much to say about this one - but, yeesh, are they actively trying to make Leonard/Penny's hook-up as unpleasant as possible, or is it supposed to be just for comedy? Having to drink themselves into a vomiting stupor before they can face sex with each other is an...odd approach. I don't know, I tend to hate romance storylines on TV about 90% of the time (my perspective on this kind of thing tends to be weird, I guess? I don't know why either), but this seemed especially bad.

But, anyway! Mainly I watch this show because Sheldon is funny, and Sheldon and Penny have a weird but interesting friendship and it's fun to watch them bounce off of each other, and in those two regards it was pretty much a success.

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:46:58 GMT

OH MY GOD, THIS RICK PERRY GIF. It is epically ridiculous, I can't even describe. ...wait, yes I can - he seems to be petting some old dude. This is just the opening Kay Bailey Hutchinson needed! Wait, that's not very good either.

Also: House fandom has exploded over three separate things this week, and it's been amazing. Man, I wish I was a sociologist. There's a great study waiting to be written here.

Also also, Thursday shows in brief: Office = awesome (Toby! Oscar! Andy! Darryl's sister!); I also watched Community, which I found mildly amusing but not really worth following. Glibly acknowledging the inherent falseness of TV-simulated emotion and then attempting to actually buy into it does not work.

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:44:36 GMT

Being a reasonable H/W fan is le hard, you guys! Because, basically, it means you will be annoyed by everyone, pro and anti. (Is that what attracts my cantankerous ass to it? It is not unlikely.)

For an example: this thread. (Spoilers for future episodes are in the post above it, and in some of the subsequent comments.) On the one hand, the posting of boring unthoughtful hostile responses to spoilers by H/W fans like the one that starts the thread are irksome. BUT, then the overly hostile responses by H/Cuddy fans lumping that entire part of the fandom together as part of that unthoughtful and hostile response is even more annoying and childish.

BASICALLY. I am kind of tired of most everyone in the fandom acting like H/W fans are the only ones who bitch. EVERYONE bitches about stupid shit, that's what makes fandom what it is. Hell, that's what makes humans what they are. It's disingenuous to act like anyone has a monopoly on that.

Though this does give me a chance to feel unjustifiably superior, so! Apparently on some level I must actually enjoy this kind of thing.