At least the police went in within five minutes at Sandy Hook.
Alex Jones harassing the poor families is when it really hit me how bad things are on guns.
Yeah, it's really hard to fathom how the cops got to be so deadly-bad on Uvalde.
The teachers who called it in probably should have said it was black person looking in the windows of parked cars.
For me, Sandy Hook was a turning point
Yeah, and the response of the public and various institutions to Jan. 6 was what made me realize that nobody much cares about preserving the whole democracy-and-rule-of-law thing.
For some reason I never looked up where in Connecticut this school was. Just realized it's 20 miles from where my grandparents lived & I visited every year.
"College students are mad about genocide in the elementary schools! Go! Go! Hurry!"
At least Alex Jones fucked around enough to find out (moving to liquidating his company).
I presume that neither powers of enforcing judgment nor bankruptcy generally allow coercion of someone's job choice. But I wish he could be ordered to turn Infowars into something both lucrative and personally humiliating. Where he's wearing a jester's hat and cupping his cheeks and so forth.
Somewhere in the 'chives, I can be found complaining about Kav ruling against me on standing, and what a hypocrite he'd be if he votes to uphold standing in the abortion pills case. I'm still mad about my case, but at least he didn't go with the Fifth Circuit on abortion pills.
I remember the news accruing through that day. I may have been in tears at one point and another, before the anger came to stay.
Probably more than once a month this year, my kid's school has had lockdowns or "shelter in place" alerts due to suspected or actual violence. It's never related to kids at the school or their family members, it's always neighborhood stuff. Despite being a pretty good school, it's in a bad neighborhood, so when someone gets stabbed or shot in gang activity or a drug deal gone back around the corner or police pursue someone through the alley they lock the school down just in case.
It's tough to know how to feel about it or what we as parents can do, if anything. Sometimes the discussion seems less like a rational response to a threat and more like pearl-clutching. The crime rarely impacts the school itself (not never, but rarely), but of course if it ever does it'll be a huge crisis. We have a lot of issues with the school administration but this is one issue they really can't control and seem to be handling more or less OK.
Crime in DC went up in general over the past year, contrary to the nationwide trend. One contributing factor is probably a lower prosecution rate than usual, and everyone involved is passing the buck about why. The two main schools of thought seem to be that (a) evidence is objectively inadequate for good prosecutions, or (b) the US Attorney's office just isn't bothering to prosecute anything but slam-dunk cases. (The third school of thought is that he's too woke, but anyways.)
I'm not sure how much this actually has to do with the OP, except in the very general sense that shit is fucked up.
To end on a happier note: the OP also asked about summer plans. We have a low-key trip or two in July and travel for a wedding in August, but mainly I'm looking forward to being child-free for almost two months. The kid is going to "grandparent camp."
Ugh. I spent hours writing that, and not only did I let at least one typo slip though, I forgot my name. I'm out of practice.
12: Don't feel bad. The important thing is that you were able to remember your name eventually.
turn Infowars into something both lucrative and personally humiliating
Hard to know how he could improve on InfoWars in that respect.
Oh hai someone was just shot a block from my office a couple hours ago.
The last time that happened, outside my previous workplace, it was a much bigger deal.
Sometimes there is a shooting near my office outside of a bar called Chief's. For reasons, this is never a very big deal.
The "Church Lady Bandit" was caught and arrested in my building, but that was a long time ago.
https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/crime/2012/01/18/church-lady-bandit-sentenced/23388140007/
Hard to know how he could improve on InfoWars in that respect.
Well, not getting the profit off it would help.
I liked the arena district better when it was an abandoned prison.
Crime in DC went up in general over the past year [...] and everyone involved is passing the buck about why
Year-to-year crime statistics are notoriously noisy though, especially when crime is already at a historically low rate.
My kid just graduated and now he's left for his summer job. We now have an empty nest, which, let me tell you, is freaking me out.
I'm trying to make mine get a summer job and it's not easy.
23: Thanks, I'll keep that in mind if I find myself truly worrying or getting roped into an argument about it, but there really are specific concerns about prosecutions in DC (the crime lab lost its accreditation in 2021, and as far as I can tell has only partially regained it) and my kid's school's neighborhood.
24: I'm pretty sure it won't freak me out, but who can say?
Its like back in elementary school when your best friend moves away.
I celebrated the start of summer by taking the day off yesterday to watch Furiosa in the middle of the afternoon. The theater was completely empty. (I kind of understand why no one goes to the movies anymore -- the film was scheduled to start at 3:00, but didn't actually begin at 3:30, in order to trick us into watching half an hour of ads. Not even trailers -- straight up commercials for Progressive Insurance and Motorola cell phones.)
The movie was pretty good, but didn't even come close to the bonkers joy of Fury Road.
30.last is unfortunately correct.
But, guys, watch "Godzilla Minus One"! Even if (like the Selkie) you are only agreeing to watch it to stop me going on about it all the time, you will (like the Selkie) really enjoy it.
31.2 Omg yes. Godzilla Minus One is maybe the most perfect kaiju movie that it is possible to create in the present day.
Did they go back to the guy in the foam-rubber suit?
31 - You're right; I enjoyed it very much, and it was more interesting/complex than you'd expect.
Godzilla Minus One rocks. Also Shin Godzilla if you haven't seen it. I rather enjoyed Furiosa and I'm glad Miller didn't attempt to top the bonkers all out madness that is Fury Road, if that were even possible.
There's a great Paul Thomas Anderson (iirc) quite about George Miller that I can't find now since google has turned to shit saying in effect that he has no idea how Miller does it and is also astonished that dozens of people didn't die during filming.
Millenium Mambo OTOH is released, and good, and not fun at all.
38 one of my all time favorite movies. That opening scene on the walkway is incredible.
Sadly, Hou Hsiao-hsien is reportedly in the early stages of dementia.
There's a great Paul Thomas Anderson (iirc) quite about George Miller that I can't find now since google has turned to shit saying in effect that he has no idea how Miller does it and is also astonished that dozens of people didn't die during filming.
Steven Soderbergh - I think I posted it here.
The ability to stage well is a skill and a talent that I value above almost everything else. And I say that because there are people who do it better than I'll ever be able to do it after 40 years of active study. I just watched Mad Max: Fury Road again last week, and I tell you I couldn't direct 30 seconds of that. I'd put a gun in my mouth. I don't understand how [George Miller] does that, I really don't, and it's my job to understand it. I don't understand two things: I don't understand how they're not still shooting that film and I don't understand how hundreds of people aren't dead.
https://theplaylist.net/steven-soderbergh-mad-max-fury-road-20171109/
https://www.reddit.com/r/GODZILLA/comments/6t967e/three_generations_of_godzilla_suit_actors/
This photo is a still from a sitcom that needs to be made. The three suit actors are the leads, constantly bickering about rubber suit vs CGI vs mocap and over the top vs naturalistic.
New projections suggested only around 40 of Macron's MPs would qualify for the second round vote on July 7, in run-off races that would predominantly be fought between candidates fielded by the far right or the leftwing bloc for the 589-strong assembly, according to two studies for Le Figaro and BFM TV. The findings suggest Macron's gamble to dissolve parliament and hold early elections in the hope of stopping the rise of the far-right Rassemblement National party could backfire badly. They also underscore how the outcome of the two-round vote on June 30 and July 7 could be determined by the left.
Soon we will see how much support Vichy had in the population.
41 ah yes of course, no wonder I couldn't find it, thanks. I've also seen it posted on film twitter.
I saw a Soderbergh movie being filmed. They set up and took down a small buffet twice within a couple of hours.
Just right there on the sidewalk on Broad Street. Then Michael Douglas got out of a car.
My phone is suggesting that I put Pokémon Go into deep sleep to save battery life. Which is just Google being a bastard because the main use I get out of my phone is playing Pokémon Go.
40: Oh no! I watched some of his early movies on Criterion last year (The Boys from Fengkuei and The Green, Green Grass of Home) having previously only seen The Assassin and Flowers of Shanghai, so it was fun seeing him not doing period pieces. Great artist.
For cineastes, I'll note that Netflix has Godzilla Minus One in black-and-white if you want it.
If you need a Hong Kong Film Awards winning gangster noir this will cut it although it's actually Taiwanese and set (rather atmospherically) in Taipei:
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt29319990/
Very stylish, referential, vicious action, completely preposterous plot, and what if the manipulative noir dame was also your favourite aunt?
50 Thanks, I'll check it out. I recently watched Johnnie To's Election and Triad Election (Election 2) and we're talking Casino levels of excellence. Highly recommended.
For cineastes, I'll note that Netflix has Godzilla Minus One in black-and-white if you want it.
You can also turn off the English dub and watch it in the original Japanese, with subtitles.
We turned on subtitles when we had a baby napping and we wanted to watch TV and haven't turned them off since.
We would swaddle the baby, put it on the vibrating chair, and put the chair in the bathroom, and turn the fan on, because the fan was really loud. The baby would sleep for hours.
Then we would yell at friends and family, "NO! DON'T USE THE MAIN BATHROOM, THE BABY'S SLEEPING!" (Back then we seemed to have people over a lot. Since Covid, I've forgotten how to have people over.)
"NO! DON'T USE THE MAIN BATHROOM, THE BABY TOOK A KILLER DUMP AND THE AIR IS CLEARING!"
I saw Godzilla Minus One in Sapporo in February, obviously without subtitles, understood none of the dialogue and had a great time.
You can also turn off the English dub and watch it in the original Japanese, with subtitles.
I was delighted to learn that when they first did an English dub of "My Neighbour Totoro" they proposed dubbing the name "Totoro" as "Greg".
My neighbour Greg.
(No idea if true. Seen on Insta. Too good to check.)
Very stylish, referential, vicious action, completely preposterous plot, and what if the manipulative noir dame was also your favourite aunt?
So you're saying it's a Taiwanese version of "The Code of the Woosters"?
Bertie is confident that he can defeat infamous gang boss Iron Hand Spode after learning the secret of the Eulalie Devastating Skull Impact Punch from sifu Jeeves, but when the moment comes he realises he's forgotten it.
After consuming an entire jug of gin-laced orange juice, Gussie Fink-Nottle uses his Drunken Master Style to defeat all 800 novices at the Market Snodsbury Shaolin Temple.
If classic Shaw Brothers wuxia/king fu films are your thing, allow me to recommend Five Superfighters which has the inspired and hilarious premise of bad guy who goes around beating up kung fu students and their masters because his mission in life is correcting bad kung fu. Lots of good fights and the Shaw Brothers film I'd most like to see have a modern remake (but it's gotta be HK and not Hollywood).
61: I haven't seen it, but the description of the plot makes me think of Paper Tigers, which I thought was well done. Did you see it? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paper_Tigers
That looks good and I'll look out for it but it's not quite it. It seems to lack the flamboyant bad dude wandering around kicking martial artists butt's to correct their bad king fu.
Yes, it sounds like a very different tone. The Paper Tigers is more drama than comedy (and the action is low budget and not over the top), but I think you'd like it.
56: I saw it in Tokyo in December! We were staying near the Godzilla Toho building, but we went to Roppongi Hills to see it with English subtitles.
I would totally pay to see a Wodehouse/wuxia mashup.
"If you will recollect, we are now in Autumn - season for meteor showers, when Frost shows its early strength towards the borders."