- House Republicans Paying Outside Counsel $500,000 To Uphold Defense Of Marriage Act. Leaving aside the potential ethical and legal problems with this, isn’t it funny how politicians always find the money when it’s for their pet projects? [via]
- Chris Christie: “I AM the law!” [via]
- I think I agree with Tasha Robinson: nobody really comes across looking great in the recent Weird Al/Lady Gaga tempest in a teapot.
- Gary Busey endorses Donald Trump for President. As TV’s Frank noted on Twitter, “Hope this doesn’t suddenly turn Trump’s candidacy into a sick stupid joke.”
- And finally, The Fantastic Mr. Starfox. [via]
legal
Wednesday various
- A couple of weeks ago, they unveiled the new costume for NBC’s upcoming Wonder Woman series. The internet responded with the appropriate amount of disgust and horror. “I feel like my eyes are not only bleeding,” I myself wrote, “they’ve been top-coated with a carcinogenic plastic laminate.”
Well, not to worry: NBC and producer David E. Kelley have heard our complaints and all is better now. Her boots are now red instead of blue.
- Making Light lays out a recent timeline of Dorchester Publishing, explaining why it’s probably a good idea for writers and readers alike to stay very, very far away from them.
- Military ranks of the British Invasion. [via]
- “Though the efficacy of standardized testing has been hotly debated for decades, one thing has become crystal clear: It’s big business.” [via]
- And finally, Ryan McGee on the Comedy Central Roast of Donald Trump:
All of this proceeded banally for the first half of the show, until Sorrentino [the Situation] got up and did something that, had it been done by an Andy Kaufman, Norm MacDonald, or Zach Galifianakis, might have been called performance art. What he did was manage to stretch seven minutes of stage time into what felt like 36 hours of aural waterboarding. Trump, who was already a nearly invisible presence up until that point in the overall proceedings, receded even further as each ensuing comic opened up both barrels on The Situation, sensing blood in the water. Sorrentino’s performance will probably get the roast more publicity than anything else, but that’s part of the problem: The show clearly booked him so he’d bomb, not because he would do a good job.
And maybe that’s fine with you, if you enjoy train wrecks that involve baby seals and orphans inside said flaming train.
Monday various
- Indian entrepreneur turns pachyderm poop into paper. Yeah, I think I’ll probably stick to my Moleskines. [via]
- Gosh, Mark Twain really didn’t like Ambrose Bierce’s Nuggets and Dust Panned Out in California:
…for every laugh that is in his book there are five blushes, ten shudders and a vomit. The laugh is too expensive.
Call me crazy, though, but now I sort of want to read it.
- Why is Warren Beatty so determined to hold on to the rights to Dick Tracy, even if he’s never going to do anything with them?
- Blue eyes are not actually blue? A little weirded out by the idea what I actually have are transparent eyes. [via]
- And finally, Ray Bradbury: prune salesman. No, seriously [via]:
Thursday various
- Today is Harry Houdini’s birthday. In honor of that, here’s a look at his Scene and Prop List. [via]
- I don’t know… ordering the removal of a mural depicting your state’s labor history from the lobby of your state’s Department of Labor seems like kind of a dick move. [via]
- As, frankly, do these new farm “protection” bills discussed by Mark Bittman — although, there, there’s some dangerous precedent being set:
The Florida bill would require anyone wishing to photograph a farm to first secure written permission from the owner. And what if they don’t? First-degree felony. The implicit goal here is to deter and criminalize damning undercover exposés….The bill would also make it illegal for an agenda-less passerby to snap a picture of a farm from the side of the road, but my best guess is that those “crimes†might not be prosecuted quite so diligently.
- The Phantom Menace in 3-D? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me…oh, god, what is this? Like the at least the sixth or seventh time? Shame very obviously on me, George Lucas, but I will not be going to see this. [via]
- And finally, an interview with Terry Jones. He discusses, among other things, Monty Python‘s less than certain start:
I mean, even right up until the middle of the second series John Cleese’s mum was still sending him job adverts for supermarket managers cut out from her local newspaper.
Tuesday various
- “The government is always going to go after the guy with the most money, regardless of culpability…” The Forfeiture Racket is a lot worse than you might think. I don’t have a lot of sympathy for convicted criminals who lose their property, particularly property used in the commission of a crime. And my first thought, when I read about an accused large-scale meth dealer who might lose his beloved comic book collection (the link that led me to the one above), was well, good, if he’s convicted, he probably should lose his property. But forfeiture laws go way beyond that, down all sorts of crazy, corruption-filled paths.
- But yes, by all means, let us cut funding to poison control. [via]
- Oh that Chris Brown…still a class act.
- Okay, I’ve got to admit, this is a pretty neat zombie T-shirt.
- And finally, I’m no copyright expert, but I think inscribing a passage from James Joyce into the genome of a synthetic microbe is covered by fair use. The Joyce estate, apparently, does not agree. [via]