Disqus - Latest Comments for eruditeogre

Re: downdetector.com/status/hulu

eruditeogre — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 00:19:00 -0000

Same here.

Re: nerds of a feather, flock together: 2016 Hugo Longlist, Part 4: Nonfiction and Institutional Categories

eruditeogre — Fri, 29 Jan 2016 16:47:40 -0000

Very happy to see our podcast here. Thanks for considering us worthy!

Re: so hey maybe you should buy my book

eruditeogre — Mon, 25 Jan 2016 18:13:27 -0000

This will probably make you want to thump me, but after reading this I realized I have never purchased one of your books. From THE TROUPE on up I've gotten review copies, and someone gave me a copy of MR. SHIVERS during a buy at the bookstore. If you need me to punch myself in the face or temporarily blind myself let me know.

So, I will sally forth and obtain one from Amazon (technically not paying for it because I am using trade-in money, but still counts, yes?). I'm really looking forward to this one!

Re: In July, Read Some Weird Fiction

eruditeogre — Mon, 23 Jun 2014 17:35:27 -0000

I love the idea of people reading the Vandermeers' THE WEIRD collection for a book club. It's massive and diverse and unnerving. But for a strange experience that would be more down-to-earth, I'd recommend Nick Mamatas' LOVE IS THE LAW, which is one of the best reads I've had in a long time.

Re: Dangerous Minds | 3-year-old little girl hears Bad Brains for the first time: ‘Turn it up!’

eruditeogre — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 12:46:54 -0000

Now she'll make you play it 67 more times in a row.

Re: SF writers Jim C Hines and John Scalzi dress up as sexy female assassins to raise money for The Aicardi Syndrome Foundation

eruditeogre — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:09:43 -0000

Yeah, but Jim shaved his LEG!

Re: Reining in the Drone War

eruditeogre — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 11:40:37 -0000

The double-standard relates to the fact that the government declares a wide swath of people to be "combatants" regardless of their actual behavior and many politicians and citizens passively accept that. Non-combatants do die in war, but when you re-define them as targets, you have created something different.

Re: Reining in the Drone War

eruditeogre — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 11:36:43 -0000

FYI, a definition of due process: http://legal-dictionary.the... . I am not sure that "an attorney appointed by the person giving the OK to kill someone" fulfills either the criteria or the spirit of due process.

Re: Reining in the Drone War

eruditeogre — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 11:21:45 -0000

If you could cite your apparently precise figures for deaths in Fallujah and the drone campaign, please do share them, because AFAIK those figures don't exist (cf http://www.iraqwarlogs.com/... ). Also, the final tally from drone strikes is far from complete, and I have a feeling that, unless we citizens do something, the extended drone campaign(s) will exact a heavier toll than that terrible battle in Iraq.

The issue is war, but also the tactics that extend, obfuscate, and intensify the slaughter that war brings.

Re: Vodou in NYC

eruditeogre — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 10:51:22 -0000

I highly recommend anthropologist Karen McCarthy Brown's MAMA LOLA too.

Re: WIRED on Pseudo-Scientology Movie ‘The Master’

eruditeogre — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 11:31:45 -0000

I am curious (but not yellow). As a former cultist of sorts I want to see if they got not just the leader right, but also his minions and followers. It is not a mystical thing, but a social one, the creation of an illusion that speaks to our misgivings and desires. Too many films bestow some sort of magic on these leaders, when it is really more of a process of instigation and the promise of a life and world that seems unattainable otherwise.

Re: Dog face t-shirts

eruditeogre — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 13:36:16 -0000

I pretty much live in Mountain T-shirts. They have lots of great designs and the shirts themselves are pretty sturdy. The dogs are pretty amazing but my favorite design is their Green Man (not to be confused with their High King, which is a Green Man made out of marijuana leaves).

Re: Is Making a Protest Vote in Presidential Elections a Vanity Choice?

eruditeogre — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 08:54:54 -0000

So, what the author is saying is that our system is horrible and parasitic, and that we should maintain that system and vote for the one that will do the least "damage," while doing nothing else to deal with the terribleness of the system. We should continue powering the system rather than seeking ways to change it.

That 'vanity' he talks about is people often putting their energy elsewhere, trying to make a difference rather than feeding the beast that is our political system. His fear and anxiety is palpable in the piece. Perhaps it is time for more of us to be brave and try to alter the course our country is on. . . .

Re: A Dismal Jobs Report: What's Obama to Do?

eruditeogre — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 16:18:23 -0000

Folks can talk economic theory & ideology all the live-long day, but until we decide to substantially change our economic system we're going to keep limping along, imploding, slightly recovering, eroding. The problem is not a lack of good programs, it's a system that rewards predatory financial practices and concentrates wealth with a tiny minority.

Re: GOP Votes for Contempt as "Fast and Furious" Blows Up in Its Face

eruditeogre — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 18:21:54 -0000

Did YOU read the Politifact article? The bullet that killed Terry could have come from one of the Fast & Furious weapons but the FBI report oddly found it "inconclusive" if it came from one of the guns. Funny that. What is false is the assertion that there is no doubt the bullet came from one of the guns. Clearly more investigation is needed, but the whole thing is mucked up by ideological crap from both sides.

Re: Supreme Court Finds Frivolous Lawsuit to Be Frivolous; Upholds “Obamacare”

eruditeogre — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 15:18:35 -0000

Well, the article and the conversation are both quite interesting. The title is terrible, and factually untrue.

Re: 4th Street Fantasy day 1

eruditeogre — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 21:05:01 -0000

THE SUN THE MOON AND THE STARS is such a good book! I have not read it since it first came out but its message has stuck with me. It's also a great reminder that there is so much more writing fantasy (or using fairy tales) than just gritty wars or quests.

Re: The Truth Behind the Bath Salts "Epidemic"

eruditeogre — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 08:41:48 -0000

This article is very disingenuous. Bath salts have more serious side-effects than the author notes, which 30 seconds on Google could have discovered: http://www.forbes.com/sites... . Bath salts are not cocaine, but they are troublesome because of their variety of manufacture and the way they are taken casually. The author may be right that the usual ineffective pattern for dealing with drugs is occurring, but to dismiss the problems that are created for users and communities by the proliferation of the drug does a disservice to readers.

Re: Maddow on "Fast and Furious," AKA "What Your Uncle Who Watches Fox News All Day Is All Worked Up About"

eruditeogre — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 15:11:30 -0000

Thanks for trolling and not actually addressing any of his points. This is not Bush's legacy; Fast & Furious was a reiteration of the program by the current administration. A fair amount of information is being concealed by the Justice Department. I don't like the political maneuvers on either side, but these is a valid issue to be examined here.

Re: Police Tase an 80 Year Old Naked Woman

eruditeogre — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 14:33:22 -0000

Is there some shadow contest among elements of law enforcement to see who can find the most egregious situation for tasing someone and then doing it to show how powerful they are?

Re: American Police Forces Plan To Arm Domestic Drones

eruditeogre — Thu, 24 May 2012 11:30:30 -0000

What makes me uneasy is the casual way that the sheriff talks about the wide, taken-for-granted use of all sorts of crowd-dispersal technology. Because policing is now more about control than protection.

Re: Obama Administration Caves to Fracking Companies on Major Regulation | AlterNet

eruditeogre — Sat, 05 May 2012 20:23:23 -0000

Yes, i do.

Re: Congress Already Has the Power to Make Us Buy Things We Don't Want

eruditeogre — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:12:49 -0000

But this analogy does not fit perfectly. I do not own a car, but I am not being subject to a fine for not doing so. And as I understand it, we are not forced to buy these things; car manufacturers are legally obligated to install them in vehicles. I have also never been pulled over in an older car and fined for not having air bags in the vehicle. All of this torquing of the legal arguments because people can't abide something better, like single-payer or another actually universal form of health care coverage, just gets sillier and sillier. Product standards are not the same thing as "you must buy this with no exception or you will be penalized."

Re: Bachmann's Latest Offensive Remark: She Says Obama Is ‘Waiving A Tar Baby In The Air’ | AlterNet

eruditeogre — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 14:35:52 -0000

Could someone edit that headline and the quotation inside?

Re: Growth of Income Inequality Is Worse Under Obama than Bush

eruditeogre — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 19:30:53 -0000

Thanks for the additional information. This fills out the picture the Saez Report gives us.