Jace, Extat

Speaking of, great show. Winkler stole it though. Basically any time he was on screen I was just waiting for his flip-flop personality to take over the episode.

I don't pretend to understand the utility of such a coin, but I agree in the end. Hacksaw to the MiC, no more subsidies for farmers growing crops that don't make money, make WalMart pay taxes. Start paying this shit down.

Sorry to DP: But a lot of these motherfuckers need a gift card to Hobby Lobby more than they need an update to the next Digital Issue of Made Up Human Experiences to Pretend I'm Not One of An Infinite Number of Identical, Perfectly Cylindrical, Black or White Pieces On the Board of Jesus and Satan's Backgammon Game - Weekly (Joke credit, Bo Burnham)

Probably? But we were talking about Drag Queens. And as I'm constantly updated by the Alphabet People every sixteen seconds when they discover a new fad to confuse with "Gender Expression" (or whatever gibberish is the order of the hour)... Drag Queens and Trans are different things. I am Trans but not a Drag Queen: hence "trans-adjacent" Political Actors. People who are like-trans, but not Trans. Adds to my distaste for the situation. Joe DumbTrump doesn't know the difference, is gonna take out his frustration on people like me. And just so we're clear: Political Actor- a person active in politics. Being a film or TV actor has nothing to do with it. And get over yourself calling me out for thinking of Neil Patrick Harris as one of my Artist Exemplars- seriously: he's an incredible performer and a lot braver than any of these spoiled shits who live off Twitter in real safe states that bend over backwards to appease the Alphabet Brigade.

What? Dude, Nancy Pelosi is a Political Actor. So is Tim Scott, Ron DeSantis, and Hilary Clinton. Stop.

I'll beg your pardon on this one. I meant "actors" as in Political Actors. Just folks going around doing stuff with politics being the driving motivation. I didn't know Elliot Page has done a show since transitioning - normally I don't warp my viewing habits around peoples' personal decisions but I'd actually rather like to see that. Always been a fan, and I often refer to the guy as "E-Page" when in past-tense because I -personally- don't understand, like, why his accomplishments pre-transition need to be retrospectively filtered. But that's just me and I only bring it up because, well, we're talking about the motherfucker. I didn't know he was still acting, I'd assumed he retired or something. (I don't Google people unless, like, I'm after some specific bit of information about them. It feels intrusive to me.) C'mon man, gimme a break.

"Ambassador Glover, what can you offer me?" "Change."

Sadly I missed the bug on that one, but that was delightful.

Lexx...

FUCK

Starting S3E1 of The Great I had to pause it and lick the BBQ sauce off my fingers to sing the praises of the actor who plays Orlo. He's fantastic, been one of my favorites since the beginning but he just knocked me over by saying "No, no!" with such dejection and disbelief that; well, here I am typing. The actor, Sacha Dhawan, is a treasure. I can't wait to see him in many things to come. All the actors in this are great (which I tend to put to direction/production and good writing making possible), but boy is this fella just aces. Looks bizarrely like my former Treatment- Squad Leader too. Like, uncannily. Good looking guy, nonetheless.

I pretty much just play Rome II and Attila. I would play Empire more if it were sharper (I'm a graphics slut sometimes, I admit it). I don't care for the fantasy games, as the historical settings kinda feed my creative sub-processes as I'm playing. I WANTED to love 3 Kingdoms, and I like almost do. But I don't like that it feels pared down compared to its predecessors.

Also, I think a lot of Kendall's own guilt comes from the fact that the kid wouldn't have been in the car on that road if not for him.

I don't know anything about it other than what you've shared here. But one imagines the tempering phase of this alleged Governor's Blades would be rounding up all the homeless, and/or refugees for... y'know, reconcen RELOCATION! Practical operations experience in a series of low-risk maneuvers + male bonding = POWER

As a product of "child welfare" attention, I'll take the ignoramus and even dangerous parent in a heartbeat. But that's just me.

Hadn't realized this was out. Just rewatched the S2 finale to refresh in anticipation

I feel what you're saying; I am not at all suggesting that anybody of any community should just shut up and take what R's let them have. It's just this particular method of... activism... doesn't make sense to me. You can be on the correct side of an issue and still take it too far. <And not even necessarily *dangerously* far> Like, no kid is gonna get read a picture book by a Drag Queen and then get their shit cut off- that's not how it works. But c'mon, now! C'mon, now! I fucking see you, people. A fuckload of librarians didn't all wake up one day with God telling them Drag Queen Story Hour will get more kids reading or turning into gay frogs or whatever conservatives think is going on... But gimme a break. I don't have to be grateful that Trans-adjacent actors are being used as shock troops in a cirque-du-soleils trolling campaign just because a bunch of affluent whites learned about non-binariness in their thirties and forties.

That's not what I've written. I don't want liberals to abandon Trans interests. MY interests are Trans interests. I simply prefer my sub-grouping not be used as a cannon fodder cudgel by faddish political peacockers... from their own safe and Democratic bastions, of course. That I'm supposed to be grateful for such ill-use is infuriating. That I'm slighted for expressing as much is crushing.

There was less pushback against transness and non-binaryness five years ago than there is now. Making something a political standard invites pushback. Making it about something wherein there -are- legitimate concerns regarding the (VERY DIFFICULT) treatment of children is just fucking stupid. In case I haven't made it clear; I don't actually care what any of you do with your children. What disturbs me most is that I see a lot of very excited people who don't seem to understand that they're in a political salient (one that concerns me) and are too Pride Blind to see it. I don't like being attached to salients unless I'm defending Kursk in 1943, and even then I'd rather be anywhere else on the line. My sister and my brother-in-law let me stay with them for the better part of a year when my Nice Liberal Always-On-The-Right-Side-of-Twitter-Law gay roommates decided they didn't need me no more and sent my ass packing back to Indianastan just weeks after reaffirming that we were cool for another year of coexistence. My brother-in-law and sister are Trump voting conservatives, and if their son started sucking dick I don't have a single doubt in my mind that they'd have his back. But they get nervous when stuff like this comes up. Influencing stuff. I understand that, and I cannot condemn them for it no matter how wildly people who are too enthusiastic about their in-group doomsay about the future. DeSantis is taking advantage of people who just don't want their children to be harmed by stuff that's new and they're unfamiliar with, and obviously a fair amount of bigots are tagging along. I do not see the social utility in continuing to antagonize these people about an issue that adds nothing to the liberalization of this country. I see it like a debuff, to use videogame parlance. A debuff for me (making conservatives madder at Trans people who don't get to quietly pass or live in states that protect us) and for the cause as a whole by, again, making them madder at what they see as weirdness and impression on their child rearing. Like a Helm of Cutting Off One's Nose to Spite One's Face Again, again, again. Please understand that this is a politics thread. I'm filtering all of this through a political lens. And what makes California and Oregon parents warm and gooey inside when it comes to social construction don't play so well where I live. And yes, liberals antagonize conservatives about this. In the last few months I have seen more sneering references to conservative panic about Drag Queen Hour than I have to the fact that they're all tacitly complicit in an attempted overthrow of my government. THAT is where my irritation really comes from. You're all wasting your time with this horseshit social tinkering when the Reichstag is burning.

I never said you did. I said "I" do not. And I said it more-or-less in response to: To me the fear is that I could suggest that trans-ness is intrinsic to my value as a person or an artist. It is not. People are stupid and impressionable - especially children. And yes, I think they should be given reasonable discouragement from seeing something novel and thinking they identify as the same. Especially in a climate where their parents or medical providers might think that said (reasonable!) challenges to their newfound identification could lead to the child's death if they don't wholesale support their new gender identity. Which isn't -really- a problem if they're not taking medicines. Kid throws a baseball cap backwards, thinks he's trans for a weekend but then realizes she's just gay - no harm done. But you don't have to be Jonah Ryan to think that caution is advisable when dealing with very very new realities of the human experience in children. (Trans-ness isn't new, old as humans. But the life-altering and irreparable introduction of drugs and SRS's IS NEW and should be approached with care.) When I was first researching Transgender-ness (with a stolen Computer ID login so that the school couldn't trace such activities to me (yes, I actually did that in HighSchool)) there was a lot of rigors involved in being trans. As there should be with life-altering decisions. Meanwhile, in the last five years or so I've read too many comments and articles about how medical providers see providing Gender-Affirming care as a fucking crusade instead of a medical intervention to a non-acute (but important!) diagnosis. One, ONE, parent being told that by not approving hormones or SRS for their minor that they're potentially killing their child is too many. And the fact that the medical providers are trying to help doesn't change the fact that you can hurt people with well intentioned medicines. I can't believe I have to go to such lengths to explain this. I am not anti-Gender-Affirming care. I receive it myself. I WISH I had grown up in a household where I might have felt safe sharing my true self with my family and/or school and friends. Could have received HRT (after APPROPRIATE COUNSELING) around puberty. That doesn't mean that I think it's wise to make a social totem out of what's supposed to be a personal development of oneself and identity. No, the Republicans are not in the right with their Don't Say Gay stuff and banning books. It's fucking appalling. But that doesn't make you right either just because you're bola-ing to the opposite. I knew I was trans because I wanted to be a girl. Not because my (first) stepfather put his dick in me, and not because of Mrs. Doutfire. Because I'm fucking trans.

Meanwhile, what a show. I am having trouble thinking of a direct analogue to Kendall's arc in this series. At the beginning he's the main character, then Shiv rose up and finally it was Roman's turn to carry the action late. It's cool storytelling, compelling as fuck. And bully for Marcia. Getting out of the game with cash in her pocket (thanks, Con) and managing to be the most morally virtuous character by virtue of a gesture that cost her nothing but empathy and human decency. Great show.

I knew I was, like, a girl without Drag Queen Hour. Because it's something innate, not learned. Anybody can learn anything. That's what impressing means upon the impressionable. And no, I would not want to influence a single child into wanting to be transgender ever. It's hard. It's confusing. It's lonely and you have to take medicines for the rest of your life (if you can afford them) and look forward to surgical reconstruction of your reproductive organs (again, if you can afford them). I would never want to influence someone into thinking they identify with the opposite sex. I also think that (essential) healthcare should be free and anybody who is transgender should be able to get the treatments they need as soon as they're a legal adult - And goddammit if I had the money and resources (maybe sooner than you think) I'd make it my mission to get every trans person in America the care they deserve. AFTER they realize they're trans on their own. Mrs. Doutfire is hilarious. Every kid should see every Robin Williams movie wherein he doesn't play a serial killer or the saddest robot to ever be a living person. It had nothing to do with the fact that I turned out trans. There's a serious disconnect somewhere where liberals cry foul that conservatives accuse them of trying to turn their kids non-binary, then state "yes, that's exactly what we're doing." Wut? I disagree. Didn't the counter-culture of the sixties and seventies spring out from a bunch of Ultra-conservative veteran parents after the war ended? Like, that's what happened right? I haven't read a U.S. Social Studies textbook in a while but I'm pretty sure that's what happened. Yes, role models are important. Will and Grace was mentioned earlier, personally I think of Neil Patrick Harris a lot as an excellent role model when he was openly and awesomely gay while playing the most hilariously womanizing character in the history of sitcom. But to Will and Grace, or even Ellen... that's an example. Of someone experiencing success. Getting a show made is fucking hard, and it's an impossible achievement to dismiss when you're pioneering something like gay characters. That is showing success for an underrepresented community. Earned success. Dressing up and reading a book in a deliberately friendly space is not brave. It doesn't require anything admirable except an ability to read and be displayed. That is your purview, your choice to make on your own if you so desire; as is taking your children to such proceedings. I don't think it is nearly as impressive a feat as what the Wachowskis did and frankly (maybe a little too frank) I think it's pathetic to overstate the value of such practices. You wanna talk about being brave: Those bitches couldn't even have their own stand-in trans character displayed in their movie: made it anyway and I guaran-goddamn-tee you that The Matrix turned more little boys and girls onto the idea that there might be safe spaces to be different than any dude in a dress reading Dr. Seuss ever will.

Just gonna reply to you both in one area: I do not dispute your RIGHT to have a Drag Queen Story Hour at any venue that allows for such activities. Your children are your property, you can do with them as you please. But it seriously alarms me that not-wanting to have your kids go to Drag Queen Story Hour is somehow perceived as wrong or a moral failing. I will never have children, but I wouldn't be interested in taking them to such a farce. I wouldn't take them to see a clown read a book either. A Disney Princess I feel differently about, there's lots of Princesses in books. But that's irrelevant. Those are MY feelings. Mine. I don't like clowns, don't think they belong outside of Life Expectancy if I'm in a library. And I definitely, as something of a non-binary myself, don't think that kids have to be exposed to self-expression like a chicken pox party if you're otherwise doing your job as a parent. Imitation can be self-expression. But most kids who can't read for themselves yet don't know the difference. And again, all this is not to say that I dispute anybody's right to have their under-age property read to by anything at all to their hearts' desire. But c'mon. Varys you openly state that it's a stratagem to expose the young and impressionable to gender-subversive ideas. Like that's in your fucking mission statement. But folks who don't want such things for their young, confusable, and impressionable children are inherently bigots??? Maybe they just want the kid to develop on their own. I really really resent this subject precisely because I'm now stuck trying to explain why some otherwise-perfectly-normal people might turn to Fox News and the like because that's the only place you're allowed to have an honestly, but not necessarily bigoted, negative opinion of a very very radical (expressly radical) activity. This kind of shit drives me up a wall, and is what I'm talking about when I (speaking for myself only) criticize my liberal allies. And again, again, again, this is not to say that I dispute your right to do as you please with your children when teaching them to read. I just find it disingenuous to the extreme to suggest that conservatives (my fucking opponents in a battle for the soul of my country) are wrong when they point out that you're using a stratagem to subvert childrens' conceptions of their sexual identity. Because that's literally what you're doing. I don't like having to pretend I can't see that.

So, like was the announcement through Musk? Like, he personally was like retweeting DeSantis' announcement? Sorry, I don't use Twitter. I have no idea what happened and am just inferring based on what I've read here. I might have missed something about it reading through on my phone earlier, I just had/have no idea what y'all are talking about. You know I ain't no Muskie. All this stuff is gooberness to me.