Pornography

The real irony here is that the author imagines that she poses a significant threat to the patriarchy. I hate to break it to the author, but the author is serving and utterly re-inscribing the power of the patriarchy with every exchange of her sexual labor for money. The patriarchy is based on a power differential in which one party, women, are the underclass, those without, those who come second and the ones who serve. In this exchange, you are entering the commodity relation as the weaker party, the party who needs money, the one who must sell her sexual labor as a commodity. Don't forget that is is the patriarchy that has the power and the money to "command" your labor as such. Any worker can imagine that their sale of the labor commodity "empowers" them. But the objective conditions are otherwise. Objectively, there is no parity between you and the patriarchy that employs you. You are the one in need of money; the sex industry is the one with the money. You are the one who must work; the sex industry is the one who profits from your labor by selling the surplus value extracted at the point of labor, your labor. You are paid a fixed wage, I would imagine, while the sex industry reaps profit for doing nothing.

You can believe what you want to believe; but your belief is actually false consciousness. You're being exploited just like every other worker, and in this case, in a much more intimate way. Your body is literally becoming the spectacle of the commodity, a commodity that obscures the real social relations between people, the people who made it. Your sexual spectacle is being erected to dazzle others with a false sense of participation in an act from which they are ultimately alienated, objectively.

This is not a moral judgment. It is an economic and social analysis. In the end, you are a worker, a laborer, the one exploited. The sex industry, the emblem of the patriarchy, is the one profiting from your work. I don't feel sorry for you. I just think that you are seeing life as if through a camera obscura: upside-down and inside-out.

World Trade Center

Obscene monuments of the rich, they scar the sky.
While the disposable poor just struggle and die.
The view from the gutter is different, you see.
We’ve been down so long, it looks like up to me.
Inequality, injustice and lack of fair play?
Too bad for them, too bad you say.
Trickle-down largesse? It urinates on us.
They get what they deserve?.. the underclass.
Don’t soak the rich. Soak the poor!
As I weep beside the golden door.
They reap what they sow, the least of these.
Hungry children , ...ignore their pleas.
As politician puppets deny poverty,
God, is this what we mean by “society”?

Dot-Com Bubbles

The dot com bubble burst because of the Telecommunications Act of 1999. This piece of legislation benefited the "Baby Bell" industries and overturned the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that encouraged the robust dot com boom in the 1990s. The Baby Bells heavily financed Bush's warchest in 2000 and most people do not realize how big of an issue the reunification of the Bell Telephone companies was at the end of the 20th Century. Within a few years, MCI WorldCom was bankrupt and AT&T was a withered husk with only its good name to offer to the highest bidder for a few million dollars (Baby Bell SBC bought it and then changed its name to AT&T) - only Sprint-Eathlink survived of the three major long distance carriers. Bush delivered his promise to the Baby Bell companies to give them back their monopoly on telephone service, and by then, Americans were focused on wars and the Patriot Act. The dot com boom was an unfortunate casualty in the telecom war - they made an alliance with the wrong side. That is the story most people don't know about it. I worked in the telecom lobby in DC in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Bikers

I had to laugh when I saw your "noble" comment, along with American "pride."  What a crock of crap if ever I saw one.  Your breed of American pride is beyond prejudice.  Same crap from the same type of ignorant people that have no understanding of what true American pride or noble acts are.

As for the other stupidity in these posts, let's review.  One man does not control everything going on in this country.  No one in the history of this country does so.  Local government probably controls permits, not the President.  If you have issue with it, take it up with DC's local government.  This stupidity and pure ignorance of how government works proves just how little you people truly understand about government.

That many motorcycles logistically would have caused issues if they had been awarded a permit.  Even if it was for a few hours, traffic would have been screwed up for a while.  Now rather than be adults about it, they just screw over the entire city.  Wow, had no idea acting like a child was a form of displaying "American pride."  No wonder we're viewed as some of the most intolerant people on the earth and not the happiest place to live in.

Oprah

While Chong wrongly popped off with things that became audible to the public, it too should be considered and weighed for truth that Oprah's own staff at Harpo studios cited her for being self absorbed, an oppressive manager, had turned the "personality" on only when guest were present or she was to go on the air. The same Boss that signed all her employees to a non-disclosure, silence contract. Where there's smoke there' fire...Y'know?

The War on Drugs

Donating money to D.A.R.E. is counter-productive and supportive of the war on drugs that has increased Chicago metropolitan heroin purity from 2%-pure to 90%-pure over the past 40 years since I was a Cook County prosecutor. Drug prohibition is the single best strategy to put more drugs, including heroin, everywhere, uncontrolled and unregulated. I sought to bring that anti-drug war message to an anti-heroin meeting sponsored by the Daily Herald and held in a Geneva theatre some years ago but was told "All speaking slots are filled." Attending the meeting away, I learned that only drug-war supporters, and drug awareness and drug-treatment messages were heard. Now, as a speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, I presented last year at a Rotary club luncheon in Kenosha WI and learned that their town of 100,000 people was running one heroin overdose case a day. This year kids in SW Cook County School District 230 (Orland and Palos Townships) are experiencing heroin overdose, but again only drug-war supporters and drug treaters were heard at government and school-supported meetings for parents and students. It's time for a contrary message to be heard -- a message calling for an end to drug prohibition and for the treatment of drugs as a medical matter needing legalization, licensing, regulation, labeling, taxation and control. The drug cartels and street gangs, like Al Capone with alcohol before, favor the continuation of drug prohibition that protects their illegal drug distribution monopoly. Responsive authorities and good people should not side with them by also supporting drug prohibition. Drug use may be bad but drug prohibition is worse.

Hollywood Boulevard

whenever i go down into hollywood and i see all of the tourists walking around (sadly, they're pretty easy to spot which makes them targets).. they sort of have this look of.. 'WTF mixed with, did i really decide to come *here* for vacation and, i hope it's still not too late to cancel the rest of our trip'. if you live here, it's fun & you know all the cool places to go (and definitely which to avoid).. but if you're a tourist, and you actually get to the boulevard, they MUST be like.. oh crap.

what i love about hollywood is its grittiness. i don't know how hollywood was in its heyday (like golden era of hollywood).. but hollywood blvd has always been a sh*thole since i was a kid. but that sh*tty grittiness is what adds to its charm. unfortunately, "sh*tty grittiness" is left off of most travel brochures & the hollywood people get is not the one they were expecting. now what you have is that awkward stage between sh*tty grittiness & gentrification. hollywood still seems to be stuck...it can't quite seem to gentrify.

it takes a special type of person to be able to handle hollywood blvd at night lol. sometimes i go down there at nite just for some amusement because you know you're guaranteed to see some crackheads fighting over a rock. crazy woman shouting at people and taking her clothes off. or the inevitable late-night drunken brawls at 2am when the clubs let out.

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    i don't know what hollywood blvd you live near. but if you honestly tell me you don't see crazy sh*t on hollywood blvd you're insane. what tourist goes to hollywood blvd and expect to see panhandlers that heckle you if you don't contribute on block after block? or costumed Elmo and Superman characters getting into actual fights in front of grauman's? you've never seen strung out people yelling at random strangers or people cracked-out people taking their clothes off? there was this one lady down there that used to throw literal sh*t at people until i guess they shipped her off to skid row.

    lol you can't be serious. i did say, they are attempting to gentrify the area. and nor did i say ALL of these things happen at once. but any given night on hollywood blvd and the surrounding streets is not what tourists are expecting. they're expecting star home tours, the walk of fame (that smells like piss in many sections and you cannot deny that).. i could go on and on. i also bet i could go on youtube and find a plethora of stupid sh*t going on on hollywood blvd.

Forgiveness

For years, I've struggled on and off with fits of depression. It generally involves some sort of unceasing inner self-criticism that casts a shroud of gloom over everyone and everything around me, until all that's left is a very lonely me sitting fetal in a very small room that I seem to have made for myself. And then I remember my Christian upbringing. Jesus set the model for someone that never allowed themselves to be victimized. Regardless of who we are or what we've done, there is always hope and forgiveness ahead, so long as we are brave enough for the journey. More importantly, the ENTIRE dynamic of Jesus' relationships was one of perpetual giving. He went out with nothing, loved his followers intensely, and told all of them to go out and to deliver the gift of love and forgiveness to the world. My personal challenge to anyone reading this (especially those who relate to the depression bit) is this: when you're feeling down for whatever reason, stop what you're doing and go love someone. Do something to help them physically, encourage them, listen to them, etc. Shift your mental focus from yourself to someone outside of you, and see if you were happier focusing on yourself or focusing on others. Nowadays, we have facebook and acquaintances galore but we don't have loving community.

Iran

Even though the shah gave us personal freedoms, we had no political freedoms. In a democracy, people can choose who rules them and how. This was not the case with the shah. Then Khomeini came along and gave people false promises and they believed him. As we say in Farsi: Gorbe az hole halim oftad too dig! There was certainly corruption during the time of the shah and wealth distribution was far from fair. Originally though what ignited the revolution was the coup that was staged against Mosadegh by the CIA and the British. People never forgot that and never forgave the way the US had meddled in our affairs. The US is always after its own interests (like any other country) and as history proves it, it sometimes stops at nothing to get what it wants. Bad US foreign policy, ignorance, wishful thinking, lying mullahs, and lots of other elements came together and gave birth to the IRI. Today, the people of Iran have lived through lie after lie, massacre after massacre, war, brutality, propaganda, etc. Normalcy has disappeared, yet people crave it and want to find a shortcut to it when there is none. The terrible instability in the region, including the instability in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, etc. doesn't help instill confidence in people. And US and Israel keep screaming about the nuclear program when they should have put focus on Iran's brutal disregard for the human rights of its own citizens. Iranians cannot even trust themselves. Who can forget how we messed up in 1979? What we need is a brilliant and decent leader, a category that has been scarce. But can we ever trust again? I hope the time will come.

Democracy in Iran has to come from within. Our "spring" in 1979, turned into a horrible long winter. We are in a better position than our Arab neighbours to know that an Islamic government is a recipe for disaster. Any ideological political system has no hope of delivering democracy. This is true not only about Islam but also about Communism. In a democracy all are equal and no one is more equal than the rest!

Panopticons

I usually agree with you fully on just about everything you have written about here, but this is not one of them. I see major differences between your Baltimore scenario and this. Firstly, the nature of spying vs. police work, the first being to ostensibly prevent crime/terrorism and the second being to catch a criminal once we are pretty sure a crime has happened. The needs are then very different, ongoing surveillance vs info needed for a particular case. The second is obviously the scope. ‘People using payphones in Baltimore for the period of the investiagtion’ is obviously a much smaller group than ‘anyone using a cell phone/social media site in America from here to eternity’. It’s the ongoing and blanket nature of the surveillance that I think has many people concerned. Next, I’m not sure why you appear to be trusting the very same people at their word regarding the scope of PRISM who were hiding this program in the first place. I am right with you in a complete lack of surprise that this was going on after the Patriot act but the reality here is a little jolting.

The Drudge Report

Regardless of the fact that the majority of these stories seem to be committed by blacks does not justify blatant racism. Melvin put it best when he referred to the fact that these kids are a product of their environment. Unfortunately, many young blacks have been fed a steady diet of self-hatred and victimization where they feel like they do not have to take responsibility for anything. No one is making excuses for their behavior because there is none. With that said, regardless of how disgusting this behavior, terms such as "savages", "bananas" and wishing for death when referring to an entire race is and always will be racism. I know several African Americans whose children are very well behaved and would never be caught dead behaving that way. In fact, my child attended a majority white private school where the white kids constantly came to school drunk or high. Should I make a hasty generalization of all white kids being drunks and drug addicts? Finally, this type of reporting fits a media stereo type. The media will not report otherwise. But alas, unfortunately, these stories are too easy and numerous to find particularly with everyone having a recording device on their phone. There is no excuse for this behavior and no justification for this blatant racist post. Posts like this is why the Democrats can claim that all opposition to their agenda is purely racist and not based on policy. It is racist posts like this that is making it hard to defeat the liberals. Everyday I try to convince African Americans that Republicans are not racist. However, posts like this make it hard. Because just like you, they see one bad apple and assume that it is true of everyone. I guess in a way, you and all of the people that cheered you on are guilty of the same small-minded savagery that you accuse these kids of. Have a nice day.

The Paleo Diet

You should forget grains, anyway. Try out the Paleo Diet. I’ve been on it for 3 years and feel amazing compared to how I felt on carbs/sugars, and I also dropped off my extra weight in the first 6 months of being on it without restricting calories. There are no gimmicks you have to buy (no books, programs, special snacks, etc). Just focus on healthy meats, vegetables, fruits and sparingly nuts/seeds. Whole dairy is optional, some like it and some find they feel better without it. It took me a little over a month to get used to it before my intense carb cravings went away completely, but after that it has been fine. My body easily shifts in and out of ‘ketosis’ between raw fruit snacks. Of course GMO issues are not just limited to grains, but it is a good start for your health to break free of the glucose addiction. Just have to make sure you drink plenty of water and have fruit-instead-of-meat days now and then so you’re being kind to your kidneys.

Geek Culture

Hollywood cowardly geek content creators wash their hands like Poncio Pilato every time a tragedy occurs like this.

The Aurora Theater Shooting - Dark Knight Rises' Nolan and Bale went to hospitals and tried desperately to distance themselves from a cosplaying geek culture members shooting up people dressed like a comic book character. Film company panicked and prayed their movies earnings would not be affected.

Sandy Hook - violent video game/geek culture fed coward decides to live out his violent fantasies and with no remorse, just like when you play Grand Theft and other violent video games - takes down children. Django director Tarantino, aka, the GOD of cowardly Geek Culture who are the main types of people behind our violent mainstream culture, goes on the DEFENSIVE. Saying there is no connection as he washes his hand and slivers out the back door, tail curled up. And people actually defend him.

Now this geek who's perverted children's cartoons, allowed to do so with no responsibility of the consequences, is "horrified" that parts of his violent and crass cartoons are edited by HIS OWN TARGET AUDIENCE, geek culture that laughs at and enjoys violence.

The hypocrisy.

Root-cause is our culture, its violent. But we suffer fools gladly which is part of our mainstream culture.

Theocracies

It is not a "belief system", it is a retrograde, astoundingly primitive (meaning, literally, not evolving or progressing), social system which has been imposed on the general population with the specific intent to suppress the full and equal participation of women in all aspects of human activity.

Any attempt to call such a system "culture" or tradition" is at once a willful and mendacious distortion of the truth and a blatant, insufferable insult to all of the world's women.

By the same token, in what cannon was it ever established that 'culture" and 'tradition" are inherently positive values? Certainly human history is proof positive to the contrary.

Protect us, Oh Lady, from Culture and Tradition.
Amen.

Alt Weeklies

Actually, a lot of alt-weeklies are doing okay in terms of advertising revenue and circulation... there are a couple of reasons why...

A) their ad revenue always sucked... most are free and not delivered, which means the rates they could charge for ads was always much, much, much lower than newspapers with paid circulation and delivery... so they developed their business much further down the chain... ie, big major dailies had a long way to fall -- huge newsrooms to cut back and a lot of content to cut, leading to a decline in the paper's quality... alt-weeklies don't have fall to far -- they've developed their business with small staffs and limits on their content from the very start... nobody picks up their local alt-weekly and shakes their head and says "man, this just ain't what it used to be"... because it's always been shitty.

B) the more local a paper's content is, the better off the circulation has been doing... you can get national news from any number of sources, and even most of your state/regional news from any news organization that has an AP subscription... you can't get your sulky treatises on why Band of Horses are such sellouts anywhere but your local alt-weekly.

C) people who do pick up alt-weeklies pick them up for different reasons than people might pick up a newspaper or a magazine, or even some of the bigger "alt-media" papers, like the onion's print edition... nobody (almost nobody) is like: "Oh shit, I've got to have my copy of the Akron alt-weekly right now!" If people were, then some smart enterprising person would put it online (or content similar) and put the alt-weekly out of business. Instead, most people who pick up the Akron alt-weekly, are walking down the street and think, "oh that's an interesting cover and i've enjoyed reading this paper" and pick it up... or see it in a restaurant, or on the way out of the grocery store, etc. I've replaced my NYT and WaPo reading with online versions, because why the fuck should I wait for a paper to show up, and pay for that shit when I can just go online. There just isnt' a huge demand for the alt-weekly product online.

D) part of the appeal of the alt-weekly is what you see in the print edition and isn't replaceable with an online edition. When I pick up the DC alt-weekly, it's usually because it has good cover art -- that's what's driving my interest, and that's not affected by the availability of the content online, or an alternative.

The Village Voice is a big enough, serious enough publication it may be facing problems that real newspapers have, but most alt-weeklies have a shitty business plan to begin with, but because of the nature of their content, many of the ones who have managed to be financially stable to this point are holding steady.

Internet Privacy

First. None of us know what kind of a teacher she is; she may be awesome with reaching out to her kids on their level as well as teaching them what they need to know, or she may be freakin' terrible at the subject matter, baked out of her gourd during class, and incapable of being patient with her students. But we don't know. So let's try not to make any speculative judgments beyond what we do know.

Second. What we do know is still very limited. This article and the images within give us only a small insight into this woman's personality, her lifestyle, and her habits. More than that, this doesn't even seem to be a full report and even has conflicting statements with what has actually been said to occur. What I can discern from the limited information at hand is she's a young, beautiful woman who isn't ashamed of her body, (in fact she seems to quite enjoy showing it off), and who partakes in smoking marijuana in her free time, which, quite frankly, is a rather subjective pastime as far as I'm concerned with regards to the ethical question of whether or not it's "right" or "appropriate". If you exchanged the joint for a cigarette or perhaps a beer, would your perception of this woman and her responsibility towards being a role model change? I mean, cigarettes and alcohol are both legal, and kids don't remain kids forever--eventually they'll have access, and quite possibly partake in these "vices". Would it be wrong, then, for her to post pictures of herself smoking or drinking as she is won't to do in her own free time? And consider this: should we hold this woman accountable for an ethical standard many of us don't follow, (including, quite possibly, many of her student's parents), merely because she is responsible for our children *some* of the time? That doesn't exactly seem fair. And here's another thing to consider: if she were a male teacher and posted half-naked photos, would it still be as controversial? Hm? Or is it maybe because we've objectified and sexualized female beauty more than male beauty that it's "unacceptable" behavior? Quite frankly, the posting of nude pictures online should not be grounds for job termination. Everyone has a body. Everyone gets naked sometimes. Human anatomy is not something to be ashamed nor afraid of.

Furthermore, am I the only one here made uneasy by the fact that employers today seem to have so much leverage with which to pass judgement on their employees due to the public nature of the internet? Consider: if the internet is a public place, would it not be unlike your employer seeing you at a professional football game or a bar? If you're intoxicated in such places, though not necessarily making a complete ass of yourself, but you are clearly intoxicated and perhaps having trouble being coherent or being completely level--would it be fair for your employer to put you on unpaid leave, suspend you, or even fire you merely because you were intoxicated on your own time in public? Does that seem right to you? I mean, we already have laws and the police to govern our actions--do we *really* need our livelihood to come under fire just because some people like to let off steam with a bunch of other people outside their home with the use of "drugs" (in this case, alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana)?

I will agree that we live in a profoundly narcissistic age as well as a time in which over-sharing is starting to become an issue in regards to boundaries--but consider that this is in response to society's shift from being a repressive, closed doors type of environment where no one said what they actually meant, (and in fact if they did, they were considered eccentric or shameful or just plain strange and "unseemly"), to one where speaking one's mind and being open and honest with how one feels is not only encouraged but cherished. Do we need more discretion in our words and actions with regards to how we interact with one another? It's debatable. You take the good with the bad and everyone gets dirty sometimes when they don't want to, but that's life. It's a growing process.

Do I think this woman deserves to be suspended? No. Observed, maybe. Put on academic probation, perhaps. But not suspended or fired or what have you. Do I think she is not a good role model? No, because I don't know her well enough to make that assessment. All I know is that she seems to be acting as almost any other attractive 23 year-old female of this generation might as she adheres to the modern morality of this day and age instead of some of the more traditional values that some people still hold and that were more commonplace in America in bygone days. Is she a bad person or a bad teacher? Who can say except for the people she teaches. The rest of us are merely bystanders with opinions, and who can say for sure which of us are truly right? Not me. And probably not you, either.

Beyonce

I couldn't disagree more strongly. Putting this no-talent fraud (who table-danced for Gaddhafi's sons in 2010 for a million bucks) on stage at this event denied thousands of talented vocalists a once-in-a-lifetime chance to display their talent to the world for real, in real time. Beyonce makes millions pretending to sing and you defend her fraudulent display worrying the poor diva might get the sniffles if she actually tried to sing one song, the very thing she is so generously compensated for. Anyone from the 99.9 percent of professional vocalists who actually sing and get paid almost nothing would have been a better choice. Let Beyonce go give Robert Mugabe a lap dance and spare us her canned fakery.

Gun Control

How about he learns to control himself. Self center little punk...Mr. me me me...couldn't take a little argument about a stupid game. He would have used a knife in the kitchen if not the gun. Self absorbed adolescent punk. Maybe he should have learned at an earlier age sportsmanship, conflict resolution and self control. But no, this little snowflake was taught he is never wrong, he can do what he wants, there are no consequences to his actions...typical me me me culture. He should rot in hell where he belongs. It's not about guns is about lack of values, morals and respect for human life.

Smashing Pumpkins

The sound was really good last night, in the shiny new complex, with the exception of one of the
later Oceania songs in which William just banged on his mistuned tinny Strat
like a monkey and gave everyone a frontal headache. His drummer, who had kind of a timberlake
look, was positively shredding. The bass
and other guitar played well but like they were at the end of a long tour…let’s
get home and crawl under the sheets for a few weeks.

Both the big globe visual screen and light show were a total
bore. I read somewhere it was designed
by the Pink Floyd guy, who I’m sure wasn’t cheap…waste of money. I don’t think I looked at the video more than
once. Ooooh, archival footage of a
missile factory….think deep thoughts about the slightly tangential relationship
to the music…ooooh a big lonely tree and a starry night sky, how trippy…who
cares? Maybe it’s because William, with
his chubby belly hanging out of his too tight tshirt and dramatic rock poses,
is more interesting to check out. I love
how coming from the era he does that he clearly worships overproduced rock gods
like Floyd…at one point during a ballad he even did a pretty decent Waters
imitation croak. Awesome.

It was hilariously disconnected how much he talked about
football. All of the fake artsy fartsies
were giving me the stink eye earlier for watching Monday night football during
the opening band, then it turns out William probably was, too. Go cry about it, gloom cookies…its America,
we love crippling violence.

While we’re at it though, it was actually bizarre that the
torch bearer for twisted, obsessive romantic love responded to boos at his
mention of Tom Brady with “What’s wrong with it? Do well and marry a hot model.” Really, dipshit? That’s what it’s all about? Are we back at the point of admiring Aryan frat
boys who have been given every opportunity to succeed? Is whatever Brady is doing, “Doing well”? Funny I thought it was about creating beauty
through your art and finding lasting love and warmth and acceptance.

Another point about the interlude commentary: the last time I saw this band was in some
small venue in San Francisco, and I’m pretty sure that like me, nobody cares or
remembers about New York’s acceptance of SP back in the day. You’re just playing yourself with the whole “doesn’t
it make more sense now?” thing. Expressions
like this don’t further your reputation as misunderstood, gifted crank, or ruin
your mystique… it’s just irritating arrogance. 
At the end of the day you write good songs, have an interesting voice and
can really play your guitar…let’s leave it at that. If you actually want to get into it, SP probably
does make more sense now, but it doesn’t have anything to do with you. It’s because back in the day New York wasn’t just
a corporate run shadow of its former self that eats whatever gets stuffed down
its bloated throat, it actually had a music scene of its own that didn’t really
dig your grandiose arrangements. So how
does it feel that your way of doing the good old rock and roll goes hand in
hand with late stage corporate capitalism? 
But don’t worry, William, you’re currently winning the battle of you vs.
Kurt. In 20 years nobody will really remember
Nirvana and you can still do a farewell tour.

Oceania is a very good album. I thought so as soon as it came out, and
still do. And getting to hear it whole
was awesome, even if the lemmings in the crowd didn’t know any better. Takes balls to play the whole thing front to
back (another Pink Floyd move, bravo). 
Try that, Soundgarden. I also
think the newly remastered and expanded Mellon Collie sounds amazing, so
amazing that the band should release an acoustic version of it and tour small
venues to promote. Are you listening,
William?

All in all a good safe arena rock night was had by all. Starting the “dusty old classics” with XYU
was a heavy, much appreciated choice, and the Bowie cover was sweet as
well. The “new new” song (Dream Machine)
they debuted played well, but I would have liked to hear Porcelina and Mayonnaise
instead. Maybe next time. And the good tshirts were only $20….rock on.

SNL

The consistent problem with SNL over the years has been the effort to turn things into marketable licenses rather than simply a one-off funny skit. Like, say, Debbie Downer -- hilarious the first time and toenail-out-with-pliers excruciating with each successive attempt to replicate that first time. Or Baby-Hands. Same thing. Would be a classic moment in SNL history but undercut by attempts to replicate. But nothing can match that first shocking moment of the baby hands. It's lazy by-the-books comedy. In my opinion, Lorne Michaels is the one who needs to be gone and then you might get something fresh with the writing. In the 70s he was a renegade. By the 90s he was establishment. Today, he is like your grandpa who should be retired but won't.