Gromnir

the greatest story ever told had one o' the more bloated casts am able to recollect, and it weren't a comedy like mad, mad, mad, mad, world where an overstuffed cast is part o' the joke. while judas is pivotal in greatest story, he don't get a heck o' a lot o' screen time, and by the time you get to judas is a possibility you are exhausted. george stevens tried to tell the entirety o' the jesus story from birth to ascension. were impossible to give any character other than jesus much development. also, greatest story is arguable more respectful o' source material than most other cinematic religious epics, but that also meant it could be a bit dry for substantial portions o' the film. even so, david mccallum stood out for us in a film with a legion o' academy award winning performers. no small task. HA! Good Fun!

New York judge rules Trump committed fraud while building real estate empire "Engoron ordered that some of Trump’s business licenses be rescinded as punishment, making it difficult or impossible for them to do business in New York. The judge said he would continue to have an independent monitor oversee the Trump Organization’s operations." first, this is so not in our wheelhouse. as such am not pretending we got more knowledge or expertise than fox news, cnn or washington post sources. however, is our opinion fox and other news outlets understates the disillusion aspect. ain't just that trump won't be able to do business in ny if this holds. is our understanding that banks, insurers and the like who wanna do business in ny will no longer be able to do business with trump. as such this is gonna prevent trump from doing biz with virtual every major bank and insurer. however, there will be appeals and trump also has a lawsuit claiming Judge engoron through various inactions and actions is preventing trump from mounting a defense. the lawsuit involving the Judge could delay or alter proceedings. an appellate court is set to decide the lawsuit this thursday? regardless, trump corp goes into disillusion receivership w/i ten days, which is functional an extension o' the current receivership the court already ordered. HA! Good Fun!

literal haven't heard this song since the old dr. demento days, and back then am recollecting it as an accordion solo. the contribution o' @majestic made us 'member something moldering away in the cobweb filled corners o' our cranium. HA! Good Fun!

am having three subscriptions... four if you count amazon prime. it is an admitted waste o' money to keep the subscriptions given the fact we ain't watched a complete show since... andor? better call saul and andor were the last two shows we watched to the final episodes. am having watched one-to-three episodes o' a whole bunch o' series post andor, but nothing has held our attention for almost a full year. is not a curmudgeon thing neither. we don't sit at home staring at our blank tv screen lamenting the good old days o' tv. it ain't as if we believe tv has gotten worse. it's just been kinda a personal tv dry spell for us and we got enough movies and other entertainment (pc games and the like) to keep us distracted when we ain't doing something more constructive. HA! Good Fun!

we were interested, but somebody with similar taste in flicks to us saw it and told us mad god woulda' been an intriguing visual spectacle if it were edited down to twenty minutes... or less. for our friend, mad god were too much shock value w/o enough substance to carry it for a feature length offering. we will likely see it eventual, but am not a dedicated fan o' grotesque horror and if am unwilling to put up with james joyce being conscious obtuse, then is almost zero chance we will will grant phil tippett more leeway. HA! Good Fun!

that makes more sense, though one wonders how azdeus coworkers recognize comedic sign language efforts, unless they is all well-versed in sign language. HA! Good Fun!

am always thinking o' him first for his role in the great escape, and then as judas in the greatest story ever told. the man from uncle were a smidge before our time and in our locales it didn't get the syndication reruns the way many other shows o' the same time period did, not that we had regular access to tv until the early 80s. as such, we hardly saw any uncle stuff until we were already in our thirties. cool show though. oh well. HA! Good Fun!

am not sure why we expect different. if you were talking about a group o' school-aged kids teasing somebody with a disability, we would not be shocked 'cause kids is all sociopaths until their brain develops, and full brain development don't happen for a few not-adults until they hit their early twenties. we coached football (american) and mock trial at the high school level, and it always bothered us when we saw kids channeling lord of the flies in real-time. if one snot-nosed brat had asperger's syndrome, a speech impediment or even a skin condition, the other kids would find ways subtle and overt to make the weak or different kid suffer. am assuming azdeus does not work with a bunch o' adolescents. no excuses. aside, we spoke with our home and auto insurance guy today. we made minor adjustments to our coverage on three properties. no biggie. however our agent waited until the end o' the call to let us know that in less than six months we could expect a ~30% rate jump. explanation for the anticipated larger bill were the combination o' increasing natural disaster frequency coupled with inflation. according to our agent, most major insurance carriers were gonna be adopting something close to 30%. 'course is not as if most landlords is gonna just eat that additional cost. rents is gonna increase proportional, if not more. incomes hardly change at all, but the cost o' everything else increases? HA! Good Fun!

aside, north dakota is the only state which doesn't do registration for voting and instead uses id exclusive. multiple courts determined the north dakota solution is a transparent effort at suppressing votes o' indigenous peoples. in all fairness, nd had been doing an id requirement since the late 1940s or early 50s and while there were problems, the scheme weren't particular discriminatory. https://www.npr.org/2020/02/14/806083852/north-dakota-and-native-american-tribes-settle-voter-id-lawsuits While Native Americans in North Dakota are roughly 5% of the state's population, the voting bloc was instrumental in securing a narrow victory for former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat, in 2012, according to The Bismarck Tribune. Following the election, the paper notes, the Republican-controlled legislature decided to no longer allow voters without proper state-issued ID from casting ballots simply "by signing an affidavit attesting to their eligibility." regardless, universal id requirement is most certain not a solution in and o' itself. similar, the id requirement, as were the case in nd, is frequent used in predictable gop voter suppression schemes. but again, id is not the fundamental problem. the issue is people. as long as you got people running the system, some o' them is gonna try and find a way to make the system work better for their side/group. there is almost never a simple solution to enduring social, cultural, economic and political problems, 'cause at their core, the problems and solutions depend on people. have said more than once, am not a fan o' crt in total, but am genuine wishing the nightmare o' a few boardies were a reality. for all its faults, crt challenges students to dispassionate and objective consider those laws which disproportionate advantage the dominant cultural group. yeah, is too ez to fall into the trap o' seeing every law which benefits the dominant cultural group as "racist," though crt should simultaneous diminish the stigma o' the "racist" label itself. also, crt don't end with identifying bad/racist laws. is not all that difficult to identify laws which benefit the dominant group and are intended to do so. go on social media and announce that sb 202 or north dakota voter id is bad should not be the end o' the analysis. the tough part is producing change. crt recognizes change almost never occurs 'cause the dominant group were made to feel bad about a law, rule or scheme. regardless, am not seeing a real downside to ubiquitous teaching o' crt at the university level, and while am dubious o' the value in high schools, we wouldn't be afeared o' mandatory crt curriculum neither. HA! Good Fun!

gonna disagree. happens often. am personal extreme consistent and have used the simpsons clip for king more than once. how many times in the wotr thread(s) did we make functional identical posts, particular when responding to complaints about poe and deadfire o' all things. were same complaints, so same response. if there is a a crpg romance discussion and Gromnir makes the bad choice to respond, you will once again get our views on bg2 romances and ravel from ps:t. same bat time... hans blix, crt, free speech in europe, etc. y'know how often we invoke groundhog day on this board? sure, once we used a clip to show the curious physical and behavioral similarities 'tween ned ryerson and gordon sondland but that were an exception to our typical invocation o' the film. am having observed, more than once, most o' our posts qualify as spam. the terrible reality is, if you got a good enough memory, you will not be shocked by how often the exact same conversations occur, sometimes only months apart. recommendation: roll with it. HA! Good Fun!

admitted both parties has long histories o' individuals, groups and even leadership as a whole advocating voter suppression efforts. however, since Gromnir were o' age to vote, the gop has been the party most obvious involved in or complicit with coordinated efforts to prevent minorities and young people from voting. most such schemes is state level endeavors, but national level republicans who condemn those inequitable activities is too few and far between. one o' the main reasons why Gromnir, in spite o' our conservative voting patterns, never considered registering as a republican is 'cause we had seen too many gop voter suppression schemes. yeah, big tent was the gop mantra at the national level for many decades, but willful ignoring what were actual happening, particular in southern states, were too much hypocrisy for us to ignore. HA! Good Fun! ps even in georgia, fraudulent voter registration efforts is criminal and am suspecting the numbers o' people successful denied the vote through such means is gonna be low, particular in recent years when something like 40 states (including georgia but not mississippi) have online voter registration. is tougher to scam young people into believing they has been registered when there is online access to registration status. am not saying amentep described activities don't still happen, but the more effective means for the gop is to do legal as with more than a couple o' the provisions o' sb 202.

... is kp, so our assumption were "weird" were the flick's most outstanding quality. am not having seen el conde, but given kp approval our starting point is the belief the movie makes naked lunch and un chien andalou feel tame in the comparison. slight hyperbole. slight. HA! Good Fun!

Hasan Minhaj’s “Emotional Truths” things that make you go, "hmmmm." HA! Good Fun!

Pennsylvania announces automatic voter registration PA is likely a battleground state in 2024, so this is big news. https://www.gpb.org/news/2023/06/08/new-study-shows-the-impacts-of-automatic-voter-registration-in-georgia georgia shifted purple contemporaneous with auto voter registration. young people has historically been failures at registration. unless a candidate or issue captures the imaginations o' millennials and gen z, registration becomes an afterthought. automatic registration is not a panacea for combating youth apathy, but it does result in a noteworthy uptick in millennial and gen z turnout on election day and especial in states like california where mail-in is de rigueur. in 2016, clinton lost PA by less than a % point... ~45K votes. edit: the reason we added the fox news link is so those interested could read the comments section. am aware europeans is unable to access the comments. you do not need take our word, but as one might imagine, the fox viewer feedback is dominated by conspiracy theories 'bout how auto registration leads to massive voting fraud. sure, auto registration is already a thing in multiple states and unsurprising there is safeguards in place to make certain people who should be prevented from voting do not gain access to the franchise because they acquired a driver's licensee. tucker carlson may be gone from fox, but the conspiracies remain, eh? 'course the writer o' the linked article does nothing to disabuse readers o' their obvious anticipated misapprehensions. HA! Good Fun!

we got a number o' decent butchers in the vicinity, but we also got corti brothers which is a one stop solution for people interested in food. their full service meat counter would make our chosen butcher unnecessary if it were a smidge closer to our home. https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/Grocer-Darrell-Corti-navigates-a-world-of-rare-9182014.php https://www.winespectator.com/articles/the-wizard-of-all-california-grocer-darrell-corti https://www.latimes.com/style/la-fo-corti10-2008sep10-story.html the CB deli offers the best sacramento area sandwiches and am admitted impressed with their selection o' sausage, cheese, meats and specialty items. downside is their limited in-house baked goods. am suspecting 'cause o' the popularity o' their sandwiches, corti brothers ovens produce little beyond the bread for their sandwiches. we recent did a pros/cons lists o' moving to eureka/arcata in ca or possible to idaho falls (am kinda exhausted by sacramento summers) and one o' the cons were no more corti brothers. during the late spring through earlyish fall, we also got this place: https://www.davisranchproduce.com/ their selection is considerable, but davis has the best corn and tomatoes we have ever had anywhere, and the early season snow peas and asparagus is also beyond reproach. davis ranch has a fantastic variety o' peppers as well. not an exotic choice, but we bought a bunch o' poblanos earlier today. we get our eggs and bacon from another local farmer. rare do we need milk in quantity, so that is one item we could get local but do not. the US is the world's largest ag exporter and the california valley(s) represent a significant % o' US food production. it would be almost criminal if we failed to take advantage o' abundant local sources for produce and meat. HA! Good Fun!

when am having done azata, mephistopheles is an encounter extreme early in act v. for our couple aeon runs, the archdevil were only slight more temporal remote than azata. from our personal experience, pre dlc there were no chance o' reaching the level cap with the archdevil fight, but it did mean that azata and aeon were the mythics which did cap out fastest o' our various wotr finished games. the xp boost from the single fight was substantial. again, for us the battle were almost shocking early act v. however, the numerous dlc have added a fair amount o' xp bloat to the game. by exhausting all the possible dlc content before tackling the azata or aeon mephisto battle might it be possible to reach the level cap? dunno. maybe. HA! Good Fun!

couldn't help but think what it would be if not french. korean: there would be extreme bullying and a revenge plot. japanese anime: would have no real plot but there would be at least one scene at the beach, and possible one at an onsen. the school cultural festival would figure prominent and one character would likely have an inexplicable pet 'bout which nobody would comment. german: the important aspect would be it would be black and white. there would also be a whole lotta symbolism fans o' the film would pretend to appreciate. polish: same as german but a whole lot darker. english: distilled, the movie would be ninety minutes o' uncomfortable shame and embarrassment... and that would be the comedy take on the subject matter. american: actors (likely pro models) too old to be high schoolers do their best to pretend being average american teens navigating cliques/heart ache/drugs/teen angst/etc. HA! Good Fun!

interesting. we haven't. the last trek we watched every episode 'pon release, baring the unforeseen, were ds9. rather early into voyager's first season we realized we were not a true trek fan who would suffer many bad episodes in the hope we would get lucky and enjoy an infrequent good offering. am now having seen every voyager episode, but we didn't accomplish such an arduous task until a couple years post the initial dvd release... so, 2006 or thereabouts? that said, in spite o' our voyager cynicism, is no way we were gonna miss brad dourif episodes o' voyager. paul williams' guest spot were also can't miss for us even though it weren't great tv. edit: joel grey and scott thompson also were guests who inspired us to tune into voyager when their episodes were broadcast. converse, in spite o' being a ray walston fan, we skipped the boothby installments o' voyager. to keep on topic, am a trek fan same way am a traditional conservative. we most certain do not vote for every gop candidate. we have seen extreme little trek since discovery first aired--2017. is also approximate when we said our final fu to the republican party and any republican candidate who refuses to speak out against sh!te such as muslim ban, the fed portland response and january 6. with an extreme brief viewing o' discovery, we realized we no longer recognized trek. we similar don't recognize the gop o' trump, mtg, gaetz, hawley and so many others. HA! Good Fun!

off topic, but am gonna note we watched voyager for ensign lon suder. edit: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/09/16/texas-attorney-general-paxton-impeachment-verdict/ texas once again trying to out do florida. HA! Good Fun!

on second thought, @ShadySands should probably avoid the atlantic article we linked. the author o' the piece describes romney's bachelor existence in dc and it ain't pretty. warning: the following is not for the faint of heart. is no way to unsee or unhear such tragedy/travesty. HA! Good Fun!

unnecessarily serious response: ethical? am admitted stretching our imagination to the limits to excuse theft of a book. moral? 'cause is a book, is similar difficult but at least more plausible. an alien invasion is occurring and you need something to wedge a door closed so the xenomorphs can't get reach you and a group of defenseless children hiding in the last bookstore in galveston, texas, so you grab for a copy o' romney's bloated and insufferable book o' apologies and critiques with no intention of paying for it but hopeful the use o' romney's words will hold off the acid-blooded insectoids better than they did his gop colleagues. theft is the moral choice in such a situation. the obvious moral and ethical response to a ultra wealthy person further enriching themselves with book sales is not theft but rather protest and a refusal to personal purchase said book... although the grift, particular for a wealthy guy such as romney, is ordinary focused on ego as 'posed to monetary gain. no doubt bartimaeus is aware o' folks such as ted cruz and donald trump jr using skeevy methods to inflate their book sales so as to attain some desired position on the nytimes bestseller's list, yes? romney did something similar with his previous book, making the mass purchase o' his book a prerequisite for his attendance at speaking engagements. in romney's defense, am recollecting he waived such requirements at public universities and the like, but the compelled book purchases were nevertheless a naked effort at self-aggrandizement. personally we want books we do not like to be in libraries, 'cause am knowing people not named Gromnir tend to dislike books we would want to read and to grace the shelves o' libraries. if only books popular with the masses is on the shelves o' a public library, am thinking we all lose. regardless o' how much we dislike an author, the situations in which we would feel compelled to protest the presence o' a book in a public library is real but extreme limited, and short o' alien invasions or similar, am unlikely to come up with a compelling moral reason for theft o' a book. thus ends our unnecessary and not wholly serious response... but yeah, theft o' books and other ip is bad. HA! Good Fun!

the atlantic article on romney is an amusing read. is multiple instances wherein a spokesmen for mitch mcconnell observes the senator from ky does not recall conversations as does romney. mitt's observations about a few other senators is a hoot. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/11/mitt-romney-retiring-senate-trump-mcconnell/675306/ is no way we buy the book, but am s'posing we might give it a looksee once am able to get it from the public library. unlikely, but maybe. HA! Good Fun!

am gonna guess trump believes he would still be President if his vice president were other than mike pence. the thing is, pence supported just about every trump excess, no matter how extreme, save for on january 6. pence were ok with pu$$y grab and muslim ban before trump were elected and pence stood by trump through the mueller report, a couple impeachments, a government shut down, maga cronies and their get rich quick schemes related to the wall boondoggle, sending armed federal troops to states where state governors express rejected federal "help," which amounted to kidnapping protesters and whisking them away in white paneled vans, not to mention the mishandling o' covid which 'ccording to multiple persons on trump's covid team resulted in hundreds of thousands of excess american deaths. also recall that pre january 6, pence were like some kinda bobble-head doll whenever trump mentioned the rigged election, reflexive and mechanical agreeing with conspiracy theories in spite o' zero meaningful supporting evidence. trump started with the rigged election nonsense six months before the election and continued from november when he lost until today. trump needs somebody more servile than pence? good luck. am thinking 'cause o' how poor trump does with educated women conservatives, he will likely choose a vp who polls well with that demographic. nikki haley has said the wrong things about trump, so her potential as vp appears diminished. perhaps kristi noem? trump's vp choice doesn't need be a woman, but am honest not sure who is polling best with conservative soccer moms other than nikki. regardless, am not seeing a whole lotta great possibilities and almost none which genuine is gonna help trump with the demographics he needs. reports are that kamala harris had a historic dysfunctional presidential campaign, and once she became veep, there were considerable turmoil w/i her office. worse, the stories about kamala's interpersonal and management problems were not coming from fox news. say what you will about the biden administration, but is noteworthy how the white house rumors and leaks diminished to a mere trickle after trump left the building. is kamala harris staff who were portraying the veep as a less huggable joan crawford. am thinking democrats is gonna downplay as much as possible the fact that if biden is reelected, kamala harris could be the next President, and not 'cause o' a 2028 election win. am suspecting the 2024 vp choices to be as uninspired as the candidates. rfk jr? our dark horse choices is stella immanuel, douglas maccregor or harvey. all is win, but am pulling for stella immanuel. HA! Good Fun!

as o' today (things will change) am thinking pretty much any moderate democrat ticket could beat trump. democrats need independent voters, so progressives are problematic unless they are overwhelming popular. even so, democrats, most independents and quite a few educated conservatives (particularly suburban women,) will not vote for trump in 2024. converse, biden has little chance o' beating most possible republican candidates... with the exception o' trump. is an insane game o' chicken, but trump and biden ain't strapped into their respective vehicles aimed at each other so much as they is pedal to the metal and bearing down on their own parties, daring 'em to chose somebody else. to have any chance in 2024, republicans need the trump base to vote for the gop candidate. the gop understandable believes trump will burn down the republican party before he voluntarily supports any other candidate for President than himself. democrats understandably believe they have the upper hand in a biden v. trump rematch, so the safe bet is to stick with biden in spite o' his numerous documented flaws? the safe bet seems mighty risky from our pov. HA! Good Fun!

am taking a preventative approach to hypertension/heart disease as both our ethnicity and specific family history suggest we got a high probability o' needing deal with some kinda heart problem. also, we got in the habit o' cooking for folks who have difficulty making their own meals and it is shocking how few services there is for people who can't cook for themselves and simultaneous require low sodium intake. https://www.mealsonwheelsamerica.org/ https://sacloaves.org/ these organizations do fantastic work for elders and homeless, but they understandable don't have the resources to do low sodium. even so, am simultaneous recognizing that the correct amount o' salt in a dish is to aim for just a hairsbreadth short o' too salty. if am cooking for guests, we do not skimp on salt. also, having grown up on a small ranch, and being raised in a farming community, am quite aware is nothing 'bout small farms which precludes the use o' all those terrible chemicals and genetic altered seed/beasts. a corporate farm with revenue in the hundreds o' millions or billions actual has a better chance o' successful doing "organic" production as predictable blight, pest or critter disease on a farm or two (or a dozen) may be overcome by the megafarmer. a typical small farm/ranch is one avian flu or drought away from collapse, so they don't risk. our grandparents, by necessity, were self-made mechanics, chemists (fertilizer and pesticides) and veterinarians. recall covid? there is a reason why you could get ivermectin paste at any local feed store. might not count as processed, but the things people seem to be afraid o' insofar o' process is not avoided on small farms/ranches. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!