marceline

There have long been stories about Cosby's general rudeness even before the rape allegations. I generally don't blame people for that kind of thing because stars get approached in inappropriate ways all the time. Then again, Cosby has always felt free to tell other people how to act. Also Gary Glitter is going to jail for 16 years. I mention that because I know someone cares deeply. I hope one day we get to see Cosby in a court.

All the stuff about Eddie Murphy and Cosby a while back had me checking out old clips. I'd forgotten how good his Cosby impression was. There's a lot in this video that feels very different now.

Now that's just wrong. You know I loved David and Angie (and drunk Jesse) more than anything. I could get into Rick/Michonne as long as the pairing doesn't eat the show. I just got so sick of last season's "Glenn and Maggie put everyone else at risk to find each other" that I shudder to think what could happen with these two.

I have no feeling about Tara. I think it's good to have characters who simmer on the backburner so that they can be ready when it comes time to kill off a few more folks.

I think we actually had a gay couple on TWD at the prison. I remember a scene of two guys in a cell when the plague was making it's way through. One was bathing the brow of the other with a washcloth and when Guy #2 died Guy #1 didn't tell anybody so they weren't able to brain him before he turned. Obviously that's not the same as a named character like Tara or these two but I think TWD has subtly dealt with this before. As for Rick/Michonne, I just have trouble seeing them as a couple. But with the exception of Glenn/Maggie, romance on this show is always played almost as subtext. Carol/Daryl, Bob/Sasha, etc... as long as everything doesn't become focused on them as a couple I guess it could work. It would be interesting given how Michonne has pretty much become a surrogate mother to Carl and Judith. If they are a couple, it's a matter of time before they disagree on something with the kids and somebody pulls the "you're not their mother" card. I have to admit that I would love to how Lincoln and Gurira play that.

"For a second there, it seemed like respectability politics could work if all blacks just kept a pristine record, graduated from Harvard, lead a quiet life, came from a biracial background, had beautiful kids and a dynamic wife, said all the right things, made all the right moves. Perhaps Obama would singlehandedly be able to overcome 400 years of America’s intractable execration of the black body and mind by just being…perfect." This. This. So much this. Obama is everything these bigots claim we should be telling "our kids" to be. He's done absolutely everything right ("Pull up your pants. Go to school. Work hard. Be a father to your children. Etc....") and they still hate him. Obama is living proof that no matter how hard and how well you play the game, if you play by the rules of BRP, you will never be allowed to win. One thing that I think keeps getting glossed over is that Cosby used BRP as a cover for his crimes. He knew that as long as he mugged and told charming stories about his wacky (yet still clean and articulate) children he could get away with rape. It's not surprising that the people who can't bring themselves to think he's guilty are the ones most invested in BRP.

I can't believe that discourse in this country has gotten so dumbed down that people are even debating whether the president loves America. That's such a simplistic way of looking at the world. Does loving America mean ignoring the awful things in our history? You've got Oklahoma wanted to change AP History classes because they aren't "patriotic" enough. All that's going to do is make people in this country less competitive in the global job market. When did this country get filled with ignorant fascists? We can't discuss real issues because six years later right-wingers still can't grow up and accept the fact that they lost the election.

I found Michonne's reaction interesting. She's come a long way from the woman who walked around with two walkers on leashes. She knows what it's like to be alone and what being alone and unable to trust does to the soul. She found her humanity again and she wants to hold onto it. Unlike Rick who has lost so much he can't bring himself to trust. I have to admit I love the way Michonne and Rick have become family. I know there's a lot of people that want to see them get together (I can take or leave that. I don't watch this show for romance.) but functionally they already are a couple. When Rick talked about his hesitance to take "my family" into the community, it was clear to me that included Michonne. The disagreement between them functioned like a marital fight. Two parents trying to figure out what was best. Her hand on his at the end was sweet. Not in a romantic way but in a, "I got you" way. (Can you tell I'm ambivalent on a Rick/Michonne pairing? LOL!) I'm sorry but Rick's plan to show up under cover of night was stupid so I wasn't surprised to see it go pear shaped in record time. But I lost all patience with him when he wanted to keep Aaron and Eric separated at the end. After all the insanity he's committed in the name of keeping his family together - surrounded by people who had routinely put Carl's and Judith's well-being first - it was hypocritical and pointlessly cruel to even suggest it. I like how it was Glenn who checked him. Glenn knew that if that were Maggie in that room nothing would keep him away. I really liked this episode.

But they were Christian things as recently as the 1960s which means people who lived through those things, like my still very much alive mother, can remember growing up surrounded by the very real activities of Christian terrorists. Look at the number of people lynched in this country by people who were literally burning the sign of God. It's amazing to me that people refuse to acknowledge the real, heinous crimes committed by Christians in the name of God even as the Klan and other more secular hate groups continue to recruit new members. It may be Islam now but they didn't invent evil and given how the right wing, insurrectionist, hate mongering talk that comes from people who love to talk about Second Amendment remedies is still downright common today, Christians - American Christians especially - don't deserve to point fingers. Obama was and is 100 percent right to remind the American people that we have no right to the high ground when it comes to extremism.

I think so. One thing I find fascinating about TT (aside from the fact that she doesn't age) is that by her own admission she's never hurt for work. She said in an interview a long time ago that from the day she arrived in NYC she's always had an acting job.

Bill Cosby thanks Eddie Murphy for not playing him on the SNL special.

Tonya Pinkins is one of those actors I've always wanted to see on stage. I always seem to visit NYC right before or after she's done a show.

I really wonder what the final number is. How many women did Cosby do this to. Many of his victims must've passed away by now and others will never come forward so we'll never know but I wonder just how many times he's done this.

I certainly don't want to give the government the power to force any medical procedure precisely because I am pro-choice but anti-vaxxers harm innocent people. Not just kids who are too young to be vaccinated but also cancer patients, organ transplant recipients, people who are HIV+, etc... Why should a teacher undergoing chemo be put at even more risk because some granola mom or Ron Paul wannabe rejects decades of proven science? If you choose not to vaccinate you kids for anything other than medical reasons, then those kids shouldn't be allowed in school (or frankly anyplace where large groups gather but that's impossible to control.) Honestly, I think the forcing of the issue won't come from the government but from the private sector. No workplace is going to accept this kind of risk without pushback. Once corporate America has to start dealing with the liability issues the hammer's going to come down. I already heard a discussion on my local NPR station about how companies are looking at the legalities of asking for vaccination records for new hires. I think vax records are going to become the new pre-employment drug test.

Let me get this straight. You're pissed off because none of us got angry about news we didn't know about someone we never heard of because a song we don't know is played at events we don't attend. I respectfully request that you let us out of your head because obviously we aren't getting nearly enough air or light in there. Just to be clear I'm not making fun of Southerners, I'm making fun of Alphanguy specifically. In another thread he claimed that he's representative of people from the Ozarks. (There's a lot of context missing but I don't have the stomach to revisit the whole conversation.) My mother comes from country people. I don't make fun of them.

Who the phuck is Gary Glitter? Is he some kind of Ozarks celebrity?

What I want to know is when did anti-vaxxers become a valuable political group? Most anti-vaxxers are liberals (to my everlasting shame). There's a lot of libertarians mixed in there of course but I never would've imagined that the anti-vax group vote would be large enough to make candidates take such stupid positions.

So in one week we've had two GOP presidential hopefuls come out as anti vaxxers and Thom Tillis has come out as anti-handwashing. That's right. Anti. Handwashing. For restaurant workers. It's like these people are trying to take us back to the middle ages. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/thom-tillis-washing-hands-toilet

For me it was Sea World. (Yes people! There was a Sea World in Ohio!)

Right?! The only way it could be worse is if he were performing in a Catholic church.

He's supposed to be in Sandusky, OH this Friday. The theatre has this announcement on its website: "Mr. Cosby is a well-respected member of the entertainment community and one of America’s most beloved performers. While we are aware of the allegations reported in the press, we are only in a position to judge him based on his career as an entertainer and humanitarian. The show at The Sandusky State Theatre on January 30 will go on as scheduled."

Yet I have no doubt that Cosby's apologists will find a way to convince themselves she's doing this for attention or money or because her career didn't "work out."

Exactly. Since when does being smart and articulate mean you aren't approachable? If we're going to do big things, you need to bring the best minds to the table. I don't think that advanced degrees necessarily make you a better person but we've turned into a country that dismisses education when before the chance to pursue an education was considered a de facto part of the American Dream. (As an aside, I actually *did* get to have a beer with my senator last year. We talked about our vegetable gardens. It was cool. )

In Britain sounding intelligent is still considered an asset. Too many Americans, and especially Republicans, consider being able to string together a coherent thought to be a detriment. That's how we end up with people like Louie Gohmert.

Larry Wilmore came for Cosby last night and took no prisoners. His panel was essentially a real life version of this thread.