Pattern Ghost

I almost clicked on that link, then I lost my nerve.

Yep, pretty sorry state.

Sorry, I don't have time to read those at the moment, have to get ready for a thing. But I find the first article's headline amusing, and vaguely insulting. "Less military"? Then describes teaching officers interpersonal communication skills? I was in the Military Police. Even in the 80's, early 90's we were very restrained in our use of force, stressed interpersonal communication skills, and didn't run around in fear of our lives. I think that last one is key. Police today seem to be running around in constant fear of their lives. Some caution is certainly justified, but in many cases where my training would tell me to calm a situation down, instead I see time and again on these police videos an officer who screeches panicked orders, sometimes too fast or too contradictory to follow, while drawing a gun. Even if the situation does call for a drawn gun, and forceful orders, the communication skills of these officers still lack. The person receiving an order needs time to comply. It takes the brain a second or two (I think 1.5 is average?) to process something and act on it. I think training people to be cautious but not fearful is important. I see far too many panic reactions from police. Nearly every use of force case I've seen hit the news shows police officers in panic mode.

They go to the state police academy. How'd the right wingers take that over in a state that's run top to bottom by liberals exactly? Here's a hint: The left wing side of the government is every bit as authoritarian as the right is. They're just backed by a different set of big money interests. Edit: I apologize if that second paragraph sounded a bit snarky. It was. I know you probably didn't mean it in the same way I usually see people throw that kind of blame back and forth. This latest election cycle has made me over sensitive to how polarized our country has become. I know your smarter than that, and just had a knee-jerk reaction.

They could use Egg Fu's grandson . . . Egg Fu Young.

Still a policy issue rather than a case of police brutality, assuming she was armed.

You left out the "with knife" part there. Two, according to the article. Seattle needs to look at its requirements for less lethal force. According to local radio, Seattle PD officers have a choice of carrying (at least, I assume, since I've seen cops carrying all three in Seattle) one of three less lethal options (Taser, pepper spray, baton). Both officers appear to have chosen baton. A reason given by several officers interviewed by the local talk radio guy is legal complications for Taser (stats showing more likely to be sued), and pepper spray blowback. IMO, both of those reasons are BS, but they seem to be the prevailing reasoning of officers in Seattle given the choice of what to carry. IMO, police should be required to carry either the pepper spray or Taser in addition to the baton. You don't fight a knife with a baton. In this case, I probably would have myself, but it's unreasonable to ask officers to risk getting knifed by going into melee with a knife. That only left these officers with their sidearms as a response. I think had they had pepper spray or a Taser, they could have settled it with no loss of life.

My wife and I call that being good at "face acting." Not coincidentally, all of our favorite actors are good "face actors."

Well, he is until he's fired.

Nobody seemed too put out when she had Putin on, who is arguably the bigger monster of the two. I think it's kind of like the guy I saw at Festival Sundiata this past weekend. The moron was walking around with a homemade sign that said "God is imaginary!" OK. Great. Anyone that agrees with him won't be moved. Anybody who doesn't, isn't going to be. Utterly pointless exercise. (Well, he was getting some exercise walking around, so I guess that was god for him.) Alex Jones isn't going to recruit millions more morons to his cause. They're already out there. That's how we got Trump. Even most of the really far right aren't whacko enough to buy into his conspiracy nonsense, and those that are inclined to buy in have already sought him out. He's a semi-frequent guest on Coast to Coast as it is. Colbert has an entire segment devoted to mocking him. Megyn Kelly isn't really going to add to his notoriety at this point.

I'm pretty sure it's "villen." Just spell it like it sounds, right? Hooked on foniks!

Young T'Challa: I don't want to eat my veggies! Nanny: Boy! There are starving children in Ethiopia, and here you sit, a Prince, wasting good food! Young T'Challa: Well, we could send it to the Ethiopian children if we weren't an isolationist regime!

I never got the Chris Pine hate. He's not my favorite, but he's never ruined anything for me either. I'll throw Z for Zachariah onto the list, just because. It seems to be an indie film, starring him, Margot Robbie ( ) and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Post-apocalyptic love triangle movie.

Sounds like they need to make a few more Wonder Woman movies to explain all that.

I'm sitting at my computer desk. But inside, I'm standing up and applauding for you, Hermit. Well done!

Yeah, Legends was helped immensely by having (IMO) the three best CW DC villains last season.

Thanks. It's nothing serious, just some residual aches from falling on my face last Sunday. Caught my toe on a busted chunk of sidewalk and went down fairly fast. That, and some Spring fever, now that Spring finally got here.

Thanks all for some bite-sized food for thought. Sure beats digging around the quagmire* that Trump makes of the search results. *Family Guy pun unintentional, but totally left in there on purpose.

You know, I'm not going to wail and gnash teeth over this without knowing whether or not the thing we're not in would have made a bit of difference anyway. Sure, it's an indicator of the mindset of our current majority leadership. Not one I'm thrilled about, to be honest. But the first thing I asked myself was: So, what's in the Paris Climate Accords, and would they have been worth signing on to anyway? I vaguely recall some criticism of the Accords from when Obama was in office. In trying to research just the accords themselves, I ran into Google's infatuation with Trump's involvement, and couldn't find much that actually explained just what the ____ we were supposed to be getting into in the first place. I did find this article that mentions some of the failings of the Kyoto agreement that are potential pitfalls for Paris. It does seem to make some valid points. It's from April of last year. If I didn't have a splitting headache and a swollen ankle, I'd probably dig around a bit more so that I could worry properly, but I just don't have the energy at the moment.

I'll pass on the metric system. I'll put my full 20 stone weight behind that, too!

Roy, because Data is lacking in ruthlessness. Battle of the space mercs! The Operative (Serenity) vs Jubal Early (Firefly)

Infinite Man's name is slightly less stupid. Which cooler head will prevail? Rocky Road vs Mint Chip

It's still stupid, but I'm glad to hear that they at least had the awareness to use a comics-derived bit of stupidity.

Yep, that's how we know we like it.