Wednesday Night Open Thread

When is movie night? It’s not tonight, at least, not for me. It’s been a long day — started around 3:30 this morning, so I’m probably already asleep.

Of course, most of the time, stuff I write reads like someone was asleep when it was written, so there you go.

Anyway, when movie night does roll around, I’m going to watch Space Mutiny, the gosh-awful film from the early 1980s that was riffed in Season 8 of MST3K.

Why? No good reason, as I explained over at my little blog.

You know what else I do for no good reason? I write posts that service no purpose but to left you take the stage. Makes my life easy. Besides, you guys are really funny. Or clever. Or interesting. Anyway, I enjoy reading the stuff you write. And, yes, I do read these open thread posts. I don’t always comment on them, but I do read the comments, because they’re fun. So, maybe I do have a good reason after all.

Which, of course, puts all the pressure on you to write something, eh? Well, as it’s Wednesday Night Open Thread, it’s time for you to shine.

Who wants to start?

One Step Ahead of You

Attorneys for a detainee at Guantanamo Bay are suing the psychologists who created the CIA’s harsh interrogation techniques used in the war on terror.

Ironically, one of those techniques is “allowing frivolous lawsuits to give the victim false hope before crushing it and breaking his spirit”.

[title reference link]

As Far As I Know, There Are No Camera Tricks Involved in This

[Illusion of choice 2] (Viewer #60,579)

The music is fairly awful, but the confused white people in the background make up for it.

Also, these guys look like a Tim Burton stop-motion clip, which is a fairly amazing talent to have.

Link of the Day: The Rewards of Speaking Your Mind

[Submitted by Jimmy via According to Hoyt (High Praise!)]

On Being Persona Non Grata

[Think you have a link that’s IMAO-worthy? Send it to harvolson@gmail.com. If I use your link, you will receive High Praise! (assuming you remember to put your name in the email)]

Still Working on a Spy Satellite to Spy on It, But It Has a Facebook Account, So I Guess We Don’t Really Need One

The US appears to have launched a spy satellite with the capability of spying on other spy satellites.

Not sure if it’s a technological breakthrough or a cheap publicity stunt for an Inception sequel.

Its Most Enduring Feature Is That Its Fans Will Always Defend It By Saying the Real Version Has Never Been Tried

[Submitted by slapout (High Praise!)]

Straight Line of the Day: Donald Trump’s Next Bold Move As President – Three Words:…

Works like this: I feed you Moon Nukers a straight line, and you hit me with a punch line in the comments.

Donald Trump’s Next Bold Move As President – Three Words:…

The Illustrated Frank J: They Can Open for Puppet Show and Spinal Tap

[reference link]

[title reference link]

[source]

Shut Up and Build a Moonbase Already!

NASA has announced that it has discovered 10 new “potentially hazardous” space rocks close to Earth that could put life on this planet at risk.

Apparently they’re all composed entirely of idling SUVs

Random Thoughts: Comey, Free Market, and Health Care

So is Universal Studios trying to save money by making a universe based around public domain characters?

Is there anyone who loved Breaking Bad who isn’t watching Better Call Saul? Because that would be insane.
Better Call Saul is the makers of Breaking Bad using what they’ve learned from that series to further their craft even more.

We keep being told we’re going to get evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors and all we ever get is more evidence Trump is kind of a dummy.

The Fallout series is getting boring and repetitive. I hope in the next one they finally change war.

I see Britain is having an election. What are even the issues there? White wig shortages? O’s lacking U’s? Terrorism?

My questions for Comey:
What does FBI stand for?
How long will Trump be president?
Where is Russia?
Instead of FBI director, wouldn’t your name be better for an anthropomorphic comb?
Are you related to Banksy?
Does the White House have a lock on the outside? Like could we lock Trump in there so he can’t get out?

Everyone’s voting YOLO!

I think the solution for the U.K. is to make a robot their PM: Optimus Prime Minister.

The youth are rejecting old, failed ideas for newer old, failed ideas.

Maybe Trump and Corbyn can break the ice talking about the violent authoritarians they admire.

My level of understanding of British politics is that I’m still stuck at trying to figure out what in the world a “Jezza” is.

Mickey Mouse’s friends need to confront him on his unhinged narcissism, though he’ll probably insist it be called a “mousekaintervention.”

I just got a big check from George Soros to say bad things about Trump, but Trump is so great! What should I do?

The free market is the only working system we have for solving scarcity. All government can ever do about scarcity is manage it. Poorly.
But the free market is also this scary, profane thing run by greed, which is why we keep it away from important things, like health care.
I think we’re on the path to single payer as a free market system is just to awful to contemplate – even if it’s better in the long run.

I have a lot of dire predictions lately, but I’m comforted by the fact that I, like everyone else, am horrible at predicting the future.

“Textile” means cloth? That’s a really bad word for it. Who came up with that? Idiot.

I don’t care about people saying awful things about Trump. I just wished they’d say more awful things about all the other politicians.

Trump is useful because when people despise and are horrified by Trump, they now understand how I feel about their favorite politicians.

My daughter was curious to see the Super Mario Bros. movie, but I only have the RiffTrax version. Probably for the best.
A few minutes into it, my 4yo son asked if we could turn it off so he could go to bed.
I didn’t remember it was about Princess Daisy. That actually makes sense since she’s more Luigi’s love interest. The only accuracy.
Only legitimately funny scene in movie is where Mario and Luigi think they’re getting executed and they’re just getting their picture taken.

I don’t care for Shakespeare. The dialog is very unrealistic. No one talks like that.

I got a lot of angry responses from fanboys for insulting Shakespeare. It’s just like that time I made fun of Batman v Superman.

Why did they hire Kathy Griffin to direct Shakespeare?

Your biggest unearned privilege is the year you’re born in.

Console upgrades are getting boring. “It can render a few more polygons now. If you squint really hard, you can see the difference. $500.”
Nintendo is the only one trying to do anything interesting with hardware, and many times succeeding.

Don’t fire people for saying a bad thing about a politician. Fire people for saying good things about politicians.

Are the Democrats complaining about a health care bill being rushed and poorly thought out?

I don’t understand the Alex Jones interview controversy. Isn’t he newsworthy? Isn’t that the standard even if he’s a pile of garbage?

I’m thinking of selling out. At these cocktail parties I’d be invited to, are the drinks free?

Pfft. Wonder Woman. I’m going to teach my daughters to emulate Samus Aran.
Though not the one from Other M.

Cartoon of the Day – Obstruction


[Bob Gorrell]

Heh.