The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Jerol J.:

Mary @ 65. If I were God, Cheney's last name would be a swear word too.

This is the greatest thread in the history of the Internets. Nay, the history of the world.

Without intending at least to be condescending to my WI brethren, once Leinie was sold to Miller it's only fit for rinsing out a glass for the next Capital or New Glarus. Capital in particular - their German styles are exemplary. There is also a new micro out of River Falls called Rush River which has an unpasteurized IPA that is phenomenal - one of the best IPAs I have ever had.

Here in MN we also have a wealth of micros: the ancient and venerable Schell's, the mighty Summit, new kids on the block like Flat Earth, and the hottest micro in America according to Beer Advocate - Surly Brewing Company. Surly makes hyper-aggressive brews that are available in growlers and 16 oz. cans. Believe me, one can of Surly Furious can keep a man happy for a loooong time.

We saw Barack at the Minneapolis rally and we were early arrivals so we got screened. I did notice that after the speech when he started shaking hands he had guys on either side of him that were definitely serious about their business. The kind of men that can spot that bullet coming and will step in front of it without hesitation. While I totally believe in Rethuglican conspiracy theories I tend to think that the Secret Service has far too much pride to even think of being lax with Obama. They're the best in the business when it comes to protection.

I recall some description of a Hollywood charity event years ago. The Bush daughters showed up for some reason, with a small Secret Service detail. Lots of Hollywood types had their own security there as well. And according to the author of the piece it was clear that the later was all just bravado and steroids, but the guys from the Treasury dept. were just clearly the kind that radiated "Don't even THINK about fucking with us".

I love classical YouTube clips like this; I'll be playing the Allegretto for days now. But the most moving piece for me will always be Elgar's Cello Concerto (performed by du Pre of course). And on alternate days, Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks".

My wife and I watch a lot of MSNBC, because the alternative is unacceptable (CNN and Fox). I can handle Matthews' misogynist rants far better than the delusional barks coming from Lou Dobbs, Wolf Blitzer, etc. Plus MSNBC has Olbermann and I shall no other gods before him.

Anyone see Matthews breaking down as Hillary won in New Hampshire? At one point he was this close to a nervous breakdown and Olbermann was looking out of the corner of his eye like he was expecting Matthews to shape-shift or something.

You could make it a correspondence course, on-line

Phoenix University, in association with Blackwater USA, is pleased to offer...

Rose at #34 - I totally agree with this viewpoint. As an American, this movie really pushed a lot of my buttons and still does. So while Moore intended it to be aimed at Thatcher, I'm thinking the Wachowski brothers were aiming at Bush and Cheney. Hell, walking out of that movie I wanted to buy a mask and a can of spray paint, then hit the streets to get into trouble.

Hugo Weaving should have gotten some nominations for his faceless performance - the way he cracked out that dialog was incredible.

Owlmirror @ 174

Yup, that's the one. I suppose one could take it as just a cautionary fable but he skated a little too close to the line for me. I remember reading it and thinking he can't be saying this. And then I reread it and thought yes, he is saying this - he feels that because of the actions and beliefs of a radical fringe, we should wipe all of them off the earth. I can take opposing view points in artists. Hell, just the other day I cranked up some Ted Nugent (my wife was gone and I needed a monster guitar riff to shake the rafters) and lord knows, he's plenty crazy. But I expected better of Simmons, at least a little rationality and humanity.

I can usually separate the art from the artist so I'll give Bradbury a little leniency. There are many artists in many mediums I'll disagree with but whose work I have enjoyed. I always suspected that Bradbury might be a conservative - like others have posted the nostalgia was a dead giveaway. Anyway, it's still not as repugnant to me as another speculative fiction author who wrote a small piece of fiction after 9-11 advocating genocide for all the Arab world. THAT guy I will never read again.

Every time I get asked to read fan fiction and it happens a little too much, it disappoints 90% of the time. And really it has so much promise, so many possibilities to expand certain fictional universes, worlds that were barely explored or explained.

I was pressed to read a novella once called the Eighth Wealey, which surmised that Willow Rosenberg could be a missing Weasley daughter. That's right, Buffy crossed with HP. And while the premise was good the delivery was painful. Still, I did reread the part where Buffy knocks the snot out of Draco Malfoy in Knockturn Alley.

I read a year or two ago that the latest generation of Cuban-Americans are abandoning their parents and grandparents obsession with Fidel and returning to Cuba. I've got no link to support this and if I recall that most of the info in the article was anecdotal rather than based on any survey. But what interested me was that it proposed that this generation were far more likely to vote blue, which means everything in a toss-up state like Florida. And if idjits like Mitt screw up with the base, it's even better.

Oh god, opening those Frazetta images on a Tuesday morning at work was just too much to bear. The Apache video I could take but that the psychic damage inflicted by that Eowyn may take years to heal. So of course I copied the images and will now send them to all my Ringer friends so they too need copious amounts of eye bleach.

I would like to have a hamster, or a gerbil. My wife had guinea pigs in college. But with 5 Maine Coons in our house, we can't have hamsters, or any other type of animal that might be considered prey. They're the velociraptors of felines - they work as a team and no cage or enclosure would stop them.

Once upon a time my wife asked the "bird lady" at the local pet store we could have birds, even though we had "multiple" cats.
Bird Lady: Oh, an African Grey or a cockatiel can pretty much defend itself against a few cats - I think you can have birds.
Me: We have 5 Maine Coons.
Bird Lady: You can't have birds.

I see potential for great mayhem here. See, there's some regulars on a couple fantasy boards that love to roast a certain author. I won't name this INDIVIDUAL other than to see he's a fantasy author who claims he's not a fantasy author, you might say his OBJECTIVISM towards that is rather strong. Which still doesn't explain why he thinks a chicken is evil incarnate. Anyway, they could easily push his buttons into overdrive given their penchant for mocking and parodying his work. Of course, if said author got involved in a flame war it might keep him from writing and that can only be a good thing.

I've got my well-read wife and literate friends to read and offer their unflinching criticism on my novel. The last thing I need is a circle of self-congratulatory wankers looking over my stuff. This is why I hate community writing groups too - you get this desparate mob that is so fearful of getting their own material slagged that they're afraid to offer up any honest criticism in exchange. Thanks, but no thanks.

Hmm, I wonder what would happen if some of his fundie brethren would stumble upon this piece from the Onion? I suspect that this was ghost-written by Reverend Fred Phelps.

As an American baseball fan, the only football/soccer song I am really familiar with is Slade's "When I'm Dancing I Ain't Fighting" but that's not really a chant.

The art of jeering has not died in baseball though. Not too long ago at a game, my wife once entertained our entire section by loudly deriding Derek Jeter's long string of girlfriends every time he came to bat. And this is in Minnesota, not Boston. Oh, the handful of Yankee fans behind us were sooooo pissed.

That "Shining" trailer is the funniest thing I have seen on the Internet in a couple years. Thanks!

Comment statistics for Jerol J. on the Making Light blog

Total: 19 comments. View all these comments on a single page.