This is an old story, and ever time it comes up I am reminded of Roger Ebert's little book of rules:

Be wary of freebies. The critic should ideally never accept round-trip first-class air transportation, a luxury hotel room, a limo to a screening and a buffet of chilled shrimp and cute little hamburgers in preparation for viewing a movie. If you go, your employer should pay for the trip. I understand some critics work for places that won't even pick up the cost of a movie ticket, and are so underpaid they have never tasted a chilled shrimp. Others work for themselves, an employer who is always going out of business. Yet they are ordered to produce a piece about Michael Cera's new film. I cut them some slack. Let them take the junket. They need the food. Also, I admire Michael Cera. But if they work for a place that is filthy rich, they should turn down freebies.

The whole article is a great read, a real insight into the practical application of ethics, and also has some bits about rice cookers, because it's Roger Ebert, the man who wrote a cook book entirely about rice cookers.

Seriously.

How's Snapzu working out for you? A profitable way to promote your blog and drive traffic without costly ecourses? Wait, maybe this isn't really Michael Dinich. Maybe this is some service Michael pays to blogspam for him. How can we know if this is him? What's something he, and he alone, would know? Got it. What was most notable about Insane Clown Posse's release of Echo Side on The Amazing Jeckel Brothers in 1999 as well as Tales of the Lotus Pod in 2001?

Trump just last week: "You'll have to ask Michael Cohen."

FBI today: (raids Michael Cohen's office)

Trump today: No, I didn't mean it like that!

Starship Troopers. One of Verhoeven's best

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSLZQcx_mN0

Based on a book that is on every military reading list

Why?

https://libcom.org/library/starship-stormtroopers-michael-moorcock

The future is now. Yay. Let's talk about kittens

But they do actually tend to be better dancers. They have bigger penises too.

There are a few things you're holding as truths here. One is your admiration for dancing black men and their genitals, which you think is an objective fact. Another is that you need to confront us with that because we're not comfortable enough with it. Not surprised you spend a lot of time being sexually threatened that way. Not sure that it's other people's discomfort you ought to examine.

We all know those are facts.

No, we don't. Even if these racial generalizations were true in a loose sense, that would only be a starting place for thought. You can assert that this is so, but it's a coarse generalization, right and wrong about any specific individual. You can say that your opinion that this is so is a fact. What you're claiming, though, is not a fact. It might be the beginnings of some, but that would require you to go further.

You could use this sham insight you have, you know, when you often find yourself thinking about dance, as the basis for some reflection on why you feel that way. You could go into the cultural context of dance and performance in black society. You could delve into the traditions that could explain a historical emphasis on developing an ability to dance as a priority in black culture, the way playing chess is taken seriously in Russian society. Rather than that, though, you short-circuit and come up with it being a racial characteristic rather than a cultural one you've given any real thought to.

You've done yourself no favor with this prejudice. It's not going to be taken as you stating incontrovertible proof. At least in my case, I take it as revealing a mess of pre-occupations.

I’d say you’re reading way too much into what I wrote, but.. that would be based on the assumption that you’re being sincere.

Personally, I'd say you should look further into what you've written above, and I do say that sincerely.

I meant that in a self-deprecating way

What exactly is self-deprecating about you stating your race in co-opted black slang from the early Cenzoic era?

but that doesn’t really matter because it’s you who decides what’s acceptable for me to say, right?

Actually, it is up to me to decide what I'm going to accept. If it just so happens that majorities of people find your pronouncements on race offensive, you may want to consider whether everyone else is wrong and you're on solid ground. Maybe if you climbed down from that race-realist martyr's cross long enough, you might get a better perspective.

Now if you were intellectually honest, instead of continuing to shame me (like a psychopath would), you could just dig up some crime American crime statistics (as I explicitly specified, to make sure my claim was true), and see that I was, in fact, speaking the truth.

You can make a factual claim like that and still screw it up. The context where you're making a personal observation about race determining criminal behavior is part of the way it'll be received. Among the reasons that analytical statement could be taken as offensive include what you've done or not done with that information. The eugenicist's assumption that genetics determine behavior is likely to bother some people, given what horrors have been wrought in the name of that cause. Your refusal to consider historic, social and cultural reasons for the statistical claim, leaving the attribution of guilt to a race without lookin...

As said in the review, this was a Star Wars movie that's not really a Star Wars movie. For me, the greatest issue was the music, which is my favorite element of the franchise. As much as I like Michael Giacchino, who is one my favorite film composers, he is no John Williams, nobody can compose like John Williams. So I failed to connect with this movie and, as far as I'm concerned: "no John Williams, no real Star Wars".

Hehe. I have noticed that. I once read a paper that was a Marxist critique of such methods. It written in the early 80s I believe, so I don't know how applicable its premises would be today, but it essentially argued that knowledge of the retailers' expectations allows them to be subverted. A recent example of the kind of subversion it prescribed is found in a bestselling book here in the US: In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan. He suggests, in part, that we only buy food from around the outside edges of the supermarket, where the perishables usually are. Thus we avoid buying foods filled with preservatives to extend shelf life (and thus profitability) at the expense of healthfulness. To do so, we often have to navigate the more chaotic, high-traffic, oddly arranged parts of the store. But in return we get to "stick it to the man" a little bit, sharpen our cooking skills, and eat healthier by default.

The burgers are made from pea protein isolate, plus 20 other ingredients that Goldman said all meet Whole Foods’ standards. But for eaters who abide by the Michael Pollan advice to never eat anything that includes ingredients your grandmother wouldn’t recognize, the burgers might be a tough sell,

So, in other words,it's yet more processed glop. I look at processed food this way..Who benefits the most from processed food, you,or the company who makes it? The more something is processed,the more profits the company makes and the less benefits the consumer will receive. So,that being said (and yeah,I could go on and on about this) I'm going to eat the cheaper,but less processed beef and they can take their over priced fake meat and, well, you know.

Kim Un called and said he's no Michael Jordan ;)

Poor George, I think he expected to make a bigger splash than he did. Meanwhile, Friedersdorf runs the table.

Unrelated fact: he is one of the 'public figures' that is pro-Brexit - source

Superdelegates have never decided a Democratic nomination.

Really? Because I could have sworn that one of the reasons cited for Obama's win over Clinton in 2008 was his successful courtship of superdelegates. Nevertheless: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89369899

Why do superdelegates get to play such a big role?

They don't — usually. That's because in the past, the battle for the Democratic nomination had been settled fairly early. Michael Dukakis (in 1988) and Bill Clinton (four years later) established themselves as the clear front-runners fairly early in the process. It was even more one-sided in 2000, when Democrats nominated Al Gore, and in 2004, when John Kerry got the nod. The superdelegates really didn't have much of a role to play. But this time it's different. Neither Obama nor Clinton is running away with the nomination. And that puts the supers in a position they have never been in before.

I don't think it unlikely that they'll be in a similar position this time.

Now, New Hampshire is in Bernie's neck of the woods; I'd have written him off completely if he couldn't win the primary there. However, New England doesn't represent all the primaries. The primary to watch is going to be South Carolina: if he can pull off another close poll there like he did in Iowa then I'll be more optimistic of his chances.

Tax avoidance, not evasion. Let's ask Michael Avenatti what the difference is.

I recommend the book/movie In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan to anyone interested in this scam. It is great.

It's going to be interesting to see how Michael Fassbender portrays Jobs. I know Ashton Kutcher catches a lot of flak for the movie 'Jobs' but he had the mannerisms down, it just had a shitty script to follow.

And the British conservative party. Look at what Michael Gove has been tasked with over the past few years. they keep the nastiest work for him to limit the character damage to their party.

Mine was Michael Jackson - Billie Jean. Damn I'm old.

"The problem is, with people like me and Michael Hayden, we never have any say about pricing," he said. "By the time there's a pricing, we're gone already. We've done the science and the clinical work and everything, and then it's the commercial and financial people that determine the price."

The decision to price Glybera at $1 million was based on a business calculation, according to van Deventer.

To set a price, they compared Glybera to other drugs that treat rare diseases.

Because Glybera is a one-time treatment that can last at least 10 years (according to patient data collected so far), the $1-million price seemed reasonable, van Deventer said.

This is probably how Michael Hastings perished. The government wanted him dead so they hacked his car and took over control only to crash it.

Anything for attention and ratings. People like him get a taste of attention and will do anything to get more. It's sad really...

What makes Alharbi a public figure, according to Beck? “By behaving suspiciously at the Marathon finishing line when the bombs detonated, thereby causing his detention and a background check by law enforcement,” states Beck’s motion to dismiss, Alharbi “embarked on a course of conduct that was reasonably likely to result in public attention and comment on his background, activities, and immigration status.” Plus, he gave interviews defending himself, said Beck’s legal team, led by Michael J. Grygiel.

I can't believe people would believe this type of bullshit statement.

Wow. I had absolutely no interest or faith in yet another Steve Jobs movie. Shame on me for underestimating Danny Boyle and Michael Fassbender - after seeing this I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for it.

I liked the two other woman in the talk show who were standing up for Michael Sam. Nice to know half the people on the show have functioning brains.

The orange shirt guy looks like Keegan-Michael Key.

Gotta disagree with you there. I'd usually agree with you that reboots/sequels/prequels are almost always crap out of the gate but Paul Feig has a pretty great track record with Bridesmaids, The Heat, and Spy and the fact that the studio is willing to take this franchise on a different direction is wonderful news for a reboot. The casting of big actors like Andy Garcia and Michael K. Williams only helps solidify the goodwill this film has been garnering.

I have really high hopes for this one.

So many of the main actors are gone, and so young:

Michael O'Hare, Jeff Conaway, Tim Choate, Richard Biggs, Andreas Katsulas, and now Jerry Doyle.