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I am enjoying Clone Wars but I find these days I get more enjoyment out of YouTube Star Wars memes than actual Star Wars itself. For example.

Well, just my own two cents on this issue, there has been a very concerning rise in antisemitic incidents. The president should be calling this out. But at the same time, there’s been a roughly equally concerning increase in islamophobic incidents. See here. I do agree these two should therefore be roughly equally emphasized, and that Biden is lacking in this regard. However, I hardly think this rhetorical bias makes him a bad president.

Seppuku.

I don’t know if the one I saw is the same you’re talking about here, but chances are it is. I didn’t think it was that balanced tbh. And that’s part of what I was saying before. I also don’t want to derail this thread any further - iirc people have asked for this not to become the topic of the thread, so I’ll shut up now. I also agree completely w/ what @The Anti-Targ said above.

I had no idea that “government cheese” was an actual thing. I thought it was kind of apocryphal.

He has said pretty much exactly this. The objection seems to be the emphasis on antisemitism - either by him or by the media covering his statements, or both. Which, granted, was his clear focus in his speech today. His speech on the protests last week was much more balanced, even if the coverage was not.

Yeah, they are absolutely gorgeous. And so much more interesting than yer common or garden gold and silver pieces. Etsy is great. I've found so many nice things on there. I've been on a bit of a rampage recently.

Is it too much for Biden to say he has a no problem with students protesting Israel's actions in Gaza and they should be free to do so in the manner of the US's long proud history of peaceful protest on all manner of political and social issues, even if he doesn't agree with their criticisms, but what he has no time for is violence or calls for violence or statements in support of Hamas' campaign of terror against Israel. You can't just come out with statements in opposition to antisemitism and claim to have addressed the complexities and nuances of this mess nor the injustices being perpetrated by Israel. Focusing on antisemitism is tantamount to legitimising everything Israel is doing. There's no moral high-ground in doing that. Not doing anything wrong is not the same as doing the right thing. Esp when it comes to a president leading means actively doing [hopefully] what's right.

Fair enough. Just wanted to clarify the objection is still based on his statements/use of the bully pulpit rather than any substantive actions or lack thereof.

I know it's technically not canon to the novels, but I'd love to know the etymology of the name for the Others' spoken language, which was developed for the show, but never used. I have to imagine GRRM had some role in naming the language. Anyone got any insight into that word? The only thing I've been able to find is "skrot" which is swedish for trash.

That is my argument True, pockets of Europe banned it from their domestic economies, particularly when nations looked inward and the world became more isolationist, in the time period you're talking about. But I would call serfdom a form of slavery, and that continued on in most (but not all) places for a significant portion of time, legal or not. Very shortly after some places banned that...slavery re-emerged, with it being used in colonial environments, away from the homeland. The North Atlantic slave trade was not the only source of slaves...just one of the more recent ones. Slavery spiked again, during the 17th and 18th century, as the Industrial Revolution began putting pressure on non-industrialized industries (farming and mining)....industrialization eventually won out and now slavery is illegal in all of the western world. It's spiking again now - because we've found ourselves in a situation where the most sought-after materials (rare earth metals, etc) happen to be located in the unindustrialized parts of the world.....so demand for those materials has resulted in a dramatic rise of slavery in those parts of the world. In any case....the whole topic is extremely complex and ever shifting. The general trend has been that slavery disappears from areas that industrialize - though it's often just moved somewhere else. I think GRRM understands that - it's one of the reasons why Dany is having such a hard time eliminating it in areas that she takes over - there's no alternative yet. Westeros is actually very much like the areas of Western Europe that you're talking about - they've outlawed slavery and they're quite isolationist. They don't quite have serfdom....though the smallfolk do seem to be forced to give over a very large portion of their goods to the cities, and the concept of all the wildlife belonging to the local King or Lord still exists, which cuts the people off from a readily available source of meat. And the Free Cities (apart from Braavos, which was founded by slaves) are free in name only. Their own citizens might not be slaves, but they obviously have no problem with other people bringing slaves into their country - very similar to most places in Europe from ~1300-1700. I think GRRM has done an excellent job of portraying slavery in a very realistic way. I really wish we had a better picture of the culture (past and present) of the Children of the Forest. They're sort of the indigenous-population analog in GRRM's story. In the Americas, prior to white people, slavery was widely practiced - tribes would war, and the victor would keep the women and children as slaves. It was incredibly common (though not universal, some tribes did not practice it at all.) I wonder if the Children have a similarly checkered past? Thus far in the story, we've kind of been presented with the idea of the Children of the Forest being....just completely unified. It would be much more interesting if there were competing factions.

So I bought one of these to go with my new PC. Red Eagle G Master 43 inch 4k 144Hz Gaming Monitor I just got the tape measure out. Eek. I think I might need a bigger desk.

I'd wear those myself! They're beautiful.

This is a sword that cuts both ways, I think. If Jerry Coyne is to be disregarded because he doesn't like social-justice politics, than isn't Jack Turban in the same boat for his own advocacy? If we go too far down that road, there won't be many expert opinions we can consider at all. Also, other scientists who think sex is binary include Luana Maroja, at Williams College, Carole Hooven at Harvard, and Emma Hilton at the University of Manchester.

Chapeau, Sabine.

I wouldn’t say “being too hands off” is problematic at all, just the opposite. But I also wouldn’t say he’s being too hands off either. He has spoken about it twice? Not sure, but I think it was once or twice. And in both occasions he did use the same language and rhetoric that all the MSM uses. And it’s not even subtle. So, not really hands off imo b/c he has his hand on the scale. Agree 100%.

This point occurred to me in another thread and I figured it deserved some theorizing of it's own, because if you think about it....it's actually an incredibly important issue. All of Dany's conflicts thus far have been land-locked. Her forces primarily consist of Unsullied and Dothraki....and they have zero experience at naval warfare (with the Dothraki being actively afraid of the sea). I don't think it's realistic to expect Dany to successfully make land-fall anywhere on Westeros without a group of experienced, organized naval officers. Tyrion can advise her on the defenses around Blackwater Bay, but little else. And Euron is out there, and extremely competent. Aurane Waters is also out there, leading pirate raids with the flagship he stole from Cersie. There's a TON of threats in the ocean right now. So....which character (or characters) is going to fill that role for her? I really only see one . The only option that occurs to me is Victarion Greyjoy. We know he's been sent specifically to help her, and we know that Euron is going to betray him. He might be dumb as a post, but he's rock-solid in terms of naval warfare. It's possible that Euron's betrayal may be the breaking point that finally causes Victarion to oppose his brother. He's also got a Red Priest on-board....one who saved his life. That Red Priest views Dany as the messiah - Victarion might be somewhat swayed by that as well. He's my best-guess, in terms of who will lead her Navy. What about you guys? Is there some set of events that could result in Asha, Davos or Aurane Waters leading her Navy? They'd all be good candidates, except they're all in the wrong place and have no current link to Dany.

Yeah, the "attacks" by Biden as cited so far are... stretching and hand-wavy.

Jello. I used to make it a lot as a kid. It was a cheap and easy sweet. I think probably the last time I had it was in the form of shots, at parties we threw in my 20s. The purple ones, we mixed in everclear instead of vodka. Relatedly, Cool Whip was the standard accompaniment for Jello, and now just the thought of it makes me queasy.

This seems to be circular logic. You’re saying his actions don’t match his words, but when asked to identify what actions, really the only one mentioned is him being too “hands off” the police crackdown. I tend to agree, but again that is a rhetorical point. I don’t think he should be using the substantive powers of the presidency - like, say, federalizing the national guard - to confront the NYPD. That doesn’t sound like it’d help the situation.

Many of the great houses store food (particularly, grain stores) not just for themselves but for the smallfolk, because of the unnatural winters. If they didn't, there would be no smallfolk. The city populations would simply all have died off long ago if it weren't the case. The more rural areas keep stores as well, centered around townships and inns. This is true on Planetos, and it was true in medieval times. Stores are kept for particularly rough times. King's Landing's stores have been depleted but there are still many areas of the country which haven't had their supply lines cut. And yeah, Dany definitely thinks King's Landing is pivotal. It's the figurative and literal seat of power for the continent. As for King's landing being easier to access than Oldtown....how so? They're both port cities, at the mouth of a major river. They both have lookout points on either side of the bay to serve as early warning. If anything, I'd say King's Landing is harder to access, because the defenses there have been dramatically increased due to the Battle of Blackwater Bay. That chain boom is still there and the bay is more enclosed, making it easier for a Navy to defend. Dragons may somewhat ameliorate that, ships burn.....but the bay is still more enclosed. As for Old Town being more important than King's Landing - it's closer to the breadbasket of the continent. There is more fertile land near Old Town than King's Landing - Highgarden's lands are famously productive, hence the name. An army landing there (or near there - the Shield Islands would serve as a great military staging ground) would at least not immediately starve. Militarily it makes more sense. If Dany were to land in the South and work her way North, gathering supplies on her way, she could cut off King's Landing and win the city via siege, rather than attempt a naval battle with an inexperienced Navy. There's also a very good chance that by the time Dany arrives in Westeros, Old Town's defenses will have been ravaged by Euron, with little time to recover. I'm not saying that's what Dany is going to do - she's almost certainly going to occupy Dragonstone. But if I were Tryion, I'd counsel her to start in the South....especially if Faegon already has a hold on King's Landing. My point about Dany not being much of a reader is actually quite important. She isn't going to know anything at all about naval warfare, the defenses of Kings Landing, or any of the other major port cities. She currently doesn't have anyone to advise her on those things. Tyrion will be of assistance once he sides with her, since he knows all the details of the defenses of King's Landing from his time as Hand....but she still doesn't have the equivalent of an Admiral to lead her navy. Tyrion can advise on defenses....but he's no naval commander. She's going to need one.

Watched The Wages of Fear (1953) and I have to say, it’s a really tough call between this and Sorcerer (both adaptations of the same book). They’re pretty equally fantastic, but I think I prefer the ending of the latter.

I despise Lavrov almost as much as Poots. He'll be fine [maybe] but here's hoping Maria slips a shark into their bed the next time he wants a blowjob.

I also requested the second John Gower novel, The Invention of Fire, by Bruce Holsinger, in an audiobook read by the excellent Simon Vance. These books both do a tremendous job of taking the poetry of the real-life John Gower, and then imagining what the man who wrote them must have been like, and how the court of Richard II worked. It also deftly portrays Geoffrey Chaucer again, although in this one he has a less-pivotal role, despite his important diplomatic link to the mercenaries of Sir John Hawkwood in Italy. Many times a successful novel like A Burnable Book is followed up by a hollow imitation of a second book, but this is not the case here. Holsinger turns the reader's viewpoint to another key turning point of history, the advent of guns, and includes an excellent main story about the use and development thereof into a political thriller. Really interesting history, characters with stories you want to hear, and technical writing skills at a level slightly above the normal middle-brow fiction.

Nope, he's bald from the first time we meet him.