The most recent 20 comments posted to Electrolite by Robert L:

Show all comments by Robert L.

Posted on entry Tales calculated to drive you... ::: May 10, 2005, 05:58 PM:
but one is hard pressed to see how "Cockblocker" is a commentary on "Blockbuster"

Blockbuster is a company that actually sometimes makes filmmakers produce censored versions of movies to fit with its agenda, or refuses to stock certain features with sexual constent altogether. So they are, at least sometimes, "cockblockers." Yes, I am aware that that word in common usage has a different meaning, but it would in fact seem to apply very well in a more literal sense to Blockbuster.
Posted on entry And while we're in the business ::: May 02, 2005, 05:22 PM:
He probably "disciplines" flies by pulling off their wings, too...
Posted on entry "Advertecture," or perhaps "architizing." ::: April 07, 2005, 05:25 PM:
Perhaps if it's judged legal after all, Tor can buy the ad space for Robert Jordan...

Or better yet, with inside access, it begs for guerrilla billboard action...
Posted on entry Trivia, only not. ::: March 30, 2005, 08:47 PM:
My impression from an old Washingtonian friend who attends NPC events pretty often is that they basically get whoever they think will be entertaining and/or a big draw, with little thought about fairness or representing conflicting views. I doubt this is an exception.
Posted on entry Dept. of What Were They Thinking. ::: March 09, 2005, 10:14 PM:
..indeed, DD confessed that he had a collection of records by Status Quo.

Duuuuuuude! Love that phased guitar sound on "Pictures of Matchstick Men"....(Yes, I'm aware of their cult status in the UK.)
Posted on entry Full text blogging. ::: March 07, 2005, 07:46 PM:
I don't believe there has been a national day of mourning here since JFK's funeral.

Great Britain had one recently, not for any of their war dead, but for Princess Diana.

But of course, we don't need one here, since "major combat operations have ended"...
Posted on entry Open thread 11. ::: February 07, 2005, 08:32 PM:
Well, post-breakup, a John Lennon halftime show would almost certainly have been a John and Yoko halftime show. Somehow I would enjoy hearing a 15-minute version of "Don't Worry, Kyoko" with tons of feedback in the midst of the Superbowl.

With all due respect to all, I get tired or the "Lennon or McCartney" controversy. I mean, you don't hear Stones fans arguing the merits of Jagger vs. Richards as the real talent, do you? I don't know many serious Beatles fans who buy into it. For every instance of, say, Paul's "Yesterday" to John's "Yer Blues," one can come up with another pair, say Paul's "Helter Skelter" vs. John's "Imagine," that posits Paul as the hard rocker and John as the balladeer.
Posted on entry Happy New Year. ::: January 07, 2005, 07:12 PM:
If we don't legalize torture, then we'll just ship the victims over to Egypt or someplace and let them do it, and cheaper too. We must stop American torturers from losing their jobs to overseas competition!
Posted on entry Open thread 10. ::: December 06, 2004, 07:29 PM:
You mean besides work? Well, most recently, The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll, a biography of eccentric 1950s children's book author Dare Wright. Very odd indeed.

That and the installation manual for the new external hard drive I just got.

Agreed: The Cat Who Walks Through Walls wouldn't make Heinlein's Top 20. Try The Puppet Masters, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Double Star, The Door Into Summer....
Posted on entry President Sissy. ::: December 01, 2004, 03:29 PM:
OK, I've never visited the Canadian Parliament, nor seen any video footage (though my father was born in Ottawa), but I can remember the first time I saw footage of the British Parliament. Margaret Thatcher was addressing the Members, and though I am not a fan of her policies, I was very impressed with her intelligence and her presence. But what amazed me was the whole atmosphere of the place.

When the President addresses Congress, everyone politely listens quietly. The may applaud a sentence they like, but other than clapping, they sit quietly and applaud at the end. Thatcher's audience, on the other hand, was constantly restless. Packed shoulder to shoulder, they shouted "Hear, hear," when she said something they liked, and "Disgraceful!" when someone said something they didn't like. The whole atmosphere was lively, raucous, and charged with emotion. I saw Tony Blair debating the head of the Conservative Party recently, and things were a little more subdued, but not much.

Be they Labour, Conservative, or Liberal, all the British politicians I've seen seemed totally at home with this sort of in-your-face discourse. Bush may say "Bring it on," but he doesn't practice what he preaches--and neither do most American politicians. Rudolph Giuliani, much as I loathe the man, might cope with this sort of thing well, but Bush is not going to face a potentially hostile crowd and win them over with a total "Blow me!" attitude the way someone like Mrs. Thacher could; his audiences have been stage-managed for years.

So I'm only assuming the Canadian and Australian Parliaments are similar in tone to the English one, and that his handlers don't want footage of Bush being booed.
Posted on entry President Sissy. ::: November 30, 2004, 01:56 PM:
Maybe he's afraid they'll throw empty Labatt bottles at him.
Posted on entry Nice. ::: November 20, 2004, 07:00 PM:
Kathryn--"Love Me, I'm a Liberal" is indeed the title. It appears on Phil Ochs in Concert (Elektra, 1967) and on the posthumous retrospective Chords of Fame (A&M). Not sure if either of these is on CD but I imagine one or the other is. Must give that song a spin again--it's been a long time since I listened to it...
Posted on entry Nice. ::: November 18, 2004, 07:18 PM:
This guy is new to me, but basically he comes across as a troll. A philosophizing troll, albeit, but a troll nonetheless. Let's juxtapose two quotes:

On his own beliefs: "I couldn't be a Catholic because that's stupid.  (Some of my best friends are Catholic--really!--but it's still stupid.  We Are All Protestants Now.)"

On "liberals": "They simply can't believe that any sane person could believe other than they do. This is not politics, people; this is not a political position. This is religious fanaticism."
Posted on entry One simple question. ::: September 09, 2004, 11:35 AM:
A: Not enough.
Posted on entry No bottom. ::: August 31, 2004, 03:05 AM:
From the days of the La Guardia report onward, it has been the policy of the drug-prohibition lobby to link any criticism of the laws with promoting drug use. This nonsense has continued on for decades, as blowhards like A. M. Rosenthal picked it up. The Lyndon LaRouche people even would like to arrest proponents of legalization.

One group, of course, who would very much not like to see legalization is the drug cartels. they would like it about as much as Al Capone liked the repeal of Prohibition.

So we just don't know if Hastert is the one linked to the successors of Pablo Escobar, do we?
Posted on entry Open thread 9. ::: August 30, 2004, 03:08 AM:
Not to mention The Man Who Wasn't There, which is a masterpiece.
Posted on entry Salad. ::: August 22, 2004, 10:05 PM:
Are they free? If so, I'll take one, unless once I read the fine print there's something that throws me off.
Posted on entry Why they call it the Grauniad: ::: August 18, 2004, 11:35 AM:
You see, simple transpositions, unless they make an amusing new word, are not enough for typo junkies. No, the things to savor are when "greek type" makes it into the final printout ("Headline goes here"), or even better, as the NY Post's police blotter did a month or two ago, a note gets set:--something like: "(jr--leave this in for now. We're checking to see if it's the right unit)"
Posted on entry The Beginning Place. ::: August 18, 2004, 11:22 AM:
Will--or should I call you Nattering Nabob of Naderism?--I voted for Nader in the last election, and I am not one to blame him for Bush's "victory." In fact, I've read convincing arguments that he took about equal numbers away from both parties, In fact, I have an old friend who's basically very conservative, loves Ann Coulter, but is talking about voting for Nader this time around. I don't necessarily like his personality, but I could say that of a great many politicians. I did find his platform to be much more to my liking than Bush's or Gore's. And I got a good deal of flak from my sister, who I'm close with, about it; she's very involved in local Democratic politics where she lives.

However, this time around I plan to vote for Kerry, and what's more, I have actually given his campaign money (a first). Last time around I could make the argument that Nader represented an honest attempt to forge a more liberal third party that could eventually grow--just as the Republican Party or the British Labour Party did. This time around, I can make no such argument.

I can say plenty of negative things about Kerry, but he and his party, for all their serious flaws, represent the obviously better choice to me aganst the horror of four more years. So, I hear your sarcasm and agree with a lot of what you say. Yet I hope, rather than backing away, you might say why you still support Nader in what seems to me, this time around, a purely ego move. I'd be interested to hear your arguments.
Posted on entry Why they call it the Grauniad: ::: August 17, 2004, 06:56 PM:
//gives world-weary sigh, yawns slightly//--You just see the ones that we proofreaders miss...

I remember DIANA RAINS SUPREME. A good one. Of course, it's still a long way from Horror House Shocker: VICTIM FED TO SEX SLAVES [the Gary Heidnick case] or DEADFELLA [a slain mobster]

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