A podcast series on ransomware from MIT Technology Review and ProPublica. The end of Part 1 automatically leads to Part 4, so I’ll post them in the correct order.
Category: Politics, Religion & Money
Isn’t That Special, and That Other Special Too
On February 16 I received a message from the non-controversial Joe Pera, promoting his upcoming tour.
Besides being Black History Month, is February also Comedian Month? Because yesterday this message popped up from the controversial Louis C.K. Hmm… “popped up” may not be the right expression to associate with Louis.
Hello. You are in the Boston area. Yes you are. Don’t lie. Anyway I’m writing you all of a sudden because I made an infomercial. It’s really fucking stupid and silly but I think it’s fun to watch and I believe it will make you laugh. It’s going to air in Boston TONIGHT in one hour! (Haha sorry) at 2:05 AM on WFXT which is an independent station and then again at 2:35. It’s channel 25 and 34 digital, whatever that means, I’m sure you can find it on cable somewhere.
Anyway it’ll be on a few times during the week in different spots but this is the first airing so I thought you might like to tune in if you are awake at that hour or set your DVR for 2:05-2:35 AM.
That’s all. Have a good weekend!
Louis CK
Also I am not in Ukraine. My flight was canceled because no one can fly there now.
Was Louis really supposed to be in the Ukraine right now? Yeah, he was.
Louis called WFXT an independent station, but it isn’t, it’s a Fox affiliate. A late night infomercial on broadcast TV? Seems an unlikely place to find a new audience, so I was curious and recorded it. The commercial is also airing in L.A., Philadelphia, and Dallas. As expected it’s a parody of infomercials while also serving as a sales pitch. Here’s the first minute of the thing.
At the end of the video is one of the milder surreal cuts. Some of the others are more typical of Sarah Silverman’s dark sense of humor.
So I’m not surprised that Louis’ old friend in comedy, Sarah Silverman, would make an appearance. Wait. That’s not Silverman, it’s Sarah PALIN!
But wait, for only $5 more you also get last year’s comedy special!
Louis C.K. and Al Franken paid a heavy price for their offenses when #MeToo hit with fevered momentum. Some of the more radical elements within the movement seemed to conflate the abuses of Louis and Al with the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein. While Evangelical Christians, in a rare showing of forgiveness, didn’t condemn Trump for his obvious offenses.
What Putin Wants
Get back, get back, get back to the U.S.S.R. Those Ukraine girls really knock him out.
Food to Die For
I’ve had food poisoning a couple of times, but never suffered from a truly horrible case like this poor kid.
A teen suffered finger and leg amputations after eating leftover noodles gave him sepsis.
Here is my coverage for @Forbes https://t.co/Ekc5PEwUmA
— Bruce Y. Lee (@bruce_y_lee) February 22, 2022
It’s unclear if the food was contaminated when it was picked up and/or caused by the way it was stored by the students. But I assume the unnamed Chinese restaurant in Boston was shut down immediately by the Board of Health and was investigated by the Massachusetts Department of Health.
https://news.yahoo.com/teen-ate-leftover-rice-noodles-155422253.html
Important follow-up:
An Affair to Remember
Kennedy lost California to Nixon in 1960. He was in the lead until the absentee ballots were counted. (Republicans presumably like mail-in ballots when they’re counted in their favor.) But perhaps JFK’s loss wasn’t all that surprising, considering this less than forceful commercial.
JFK won the White House even without California, of course, and once in the highest office of the land he continued his philandering ways. Political affairs of the intimate sort don’t concern me. We’d have been better off if Clinton and Monica had never come to light. Trump and Stormy Daniels was unimportant, but the bribe wasn’t. I never had more than a passing curiosity about JFK’s mistresses, until his mystery girlfriend Mimi came forward to tell her story.
Mimi was the exception to the glamorous women who are usually associated with Kennedy’s affairs, and that was what made her interesting to me. A virgin in every sense, Mimi met Kennedy shortly after starting as a White House intern. Mimi’s memoir was published ten years ago, and if WordPress is cooperating with your browser you should be able to read this embedded preview.
Some reader comments on Amazon are sympathetic, while others express outrage, and they condemn Mimi with righteous holier-than-thou moral judgment. In the same manner that Newt Gingrich denounced Bill Clinton for his affair with Monica… while carrying on his own illicit affair. Newt’s hypocrisy was what made his private life a public concern.
Kennedy’s ability to compartmentalize his life was something that Mimi picked up to rationalize what she was doing. Whether it was hollow flattery to control a girl half his age, or sincere compliments for someone he genuinely cared for, Kennedy made Mimi feel special and appreciated. Listening to records together and giving each other silly little gifts are things I can’t imagine Kennedy doing with his more worldly girlfriends.
Having read Mimi’s memoir, something I can easily imagine is how pleased JFK was to meet Dianne, the eldest Lennon sister. It’s safe to assume that Kennedy was smitten, but Dee Dee got married just a few weeks before the ’60 election.
Hollow Caustic Decision
Ten days ago I spoke here about Maus. It’s been revealed that one week before then, on January 10, Maus was banned from a school district in Tennessee.
Jonathan Pierce, the board member who initiated the vote to remove Maus from the eighth-grade curriculum, said during the meeting that the Holocaust should be taught in schools, but this was not the book to do it.
https://www.npr.org/2022/01/27/1076180329/tennessee-school-district-ban-holocaust-graphic-novel-maus
Today happens to be Holocaust Remembrance Day. So now the question is, what Holocaust books does the McMinn County School Board allow in its schools? Being Tennessee, gotta wonder if they’re teaching “Intelligent Design” as scientific fact.