“Whatever the outcome is, the drastic step is a warning sign for what may be in store in the coming years. For decades, a series regular on a TV show has been the holy grail for rank-and-file working actors because of the guaranteed income and a chance at a career- and life-changing experience if the series is a hit. If more shows start to dramatically reduce the number of series regulars, with the majority of roles available being guest-starring and recurring, the impact will be profound, with fewer actors being able to make a living and qualify for health insurance.”
“This whole situation highlights one of the hidden benefits of recognizing corporations to have rights, that corporate rights also serve as a check on government tyranny.”
“This whole spectacle is an example of the idea that introducing payments for a good or service can change the thing we’re buying.”
“The real problem with our battles against disease is that no one is in charge. We can all name the generals who led almost every war we’ve fought: Washington, Grant, Pershing, Eisenhower, MacArthur, Westmoreland, Abrams, Schwarzkopf, Petraeus, and so on. Can you name who won or lost the war against the Spanish flu? Against polio? (Not the vaccine makers Salk and Sabin. I mean the generals.) We can’t because we have no Pentagon for disease. No one is in overall charge. War is a public calling, but American medicine is a privatized mess. When we need a huge effort for the public good from it, we can’t muster it. In fact, we get the opposite — hospitals hoard ventilators and make it hard for their staffs to go where the outbreaks are. We have a patchwork of agencies with very defined, very limited purviews: the CDC, the FDA, the NIH. Even the CDC has a small staff whose job is mostly to investigate outbreaks and make recommendations to local health departments and local hospitals. Imagine the FBI, cut to a third of its size, with no guns, handcuffs or powers of arrest, plus an inclination to publish scholarly papers instead of busting heads. That’s the CDC.”
RIP, Otis Redding III, singer and son of Otis Redding, Jr.
RIP, Larry “Gator” Rivers, longtime Harlem Globetrotter.
“Comcast Cuts the Cord: Cable TV Customers Drop Below 50% of Company’s Connectivity Clients for First Time”.
RIP, Mike Shannon, longtime broadcaster and two-time World Series champion for the St. Louis Cardinals.
RIP, Tim Bachman, co-founding guitarist and vocalist for Bachman-Turner Overdrive.
RIP, Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian folk music icon whose best known songs include “Sundown”, “If You Could Read My Mind”, and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”.
The writers are on strike, and longtime Writers Guild member Mark Evanier explains the stakes.
A brief history of bleeping.
Republicans really don’t want young people to vote.
Tucker Carlson is an even bigger asshole than you thought.
A longtime mystery involving one of Jeopardy!‘s early champions has finally been solved.
“Nice Twitter handle you got there. Be a real shame if something happened to it.”
“Greene’s attack on Weingarten’s status as a mother is a window into what certain people really mean when they invoke parents’ rights. Let’s explore that below.”
RIP, Eileen Saki, actor best known for playing Rosie the bar owner of M*A*S*H.
RIP, Don Sebesky, prolific arranger and conductor of theatrical music, winner of three Grammy and two Tony awards.
RIP, Barbara Bryne, stage actor best known for her work in Stephen Sondheim productions.
“Harlan picked up the tab” is a phrase we keep hearing a lot. One wonders if Clarence Thomas has ever paid for anything in his adult life. “Sugar Justice”, indeed.
“The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday licensed the first-ever vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, completing an elusive quest that has been decades in the making.”
Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty. Now lock them the hell up.
“No mention of Ginni, of course.”
“Republicans are not just willing to shoot their hostage. For many it’s too fun an opportunity to let slip by.”
“Perhaps if I tell them that the footage came from a combination of WikiLeaks and Hunter Biden’s laptop, it will alleviate their concerns.”
“Besides making it harder to identify (and block) people who paid $8 for Twitter Blue to get an Elon-approved blue checkmark, Musk’s new verified label gives him cover in case any celebrities decide to sue him for implying they were fans of Twitter Blue.”
You Houstonians, in case you haven’t heard his semi-drunken version of the call, can reflect on Mike Shannon from October, 2005: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Fntuc9cmy4
(***sigh***) Interesting how the transformation from Lights Out Lidge to Light ‘Em Up Lidge was announced so relatively calmly by the other side. Mercifully this clip doesn’t linger on Lidge staring vacantly at the tracks.
Personal note… that vague air of entitlement is why I’ve hated the (deleted) Cards ever since leaving here to go to college in Missouri, the entire Gas House Gang passing through Buff Stadium notwithstanding.