Dr. MID-Nite

When (US) politicians of a certain stripe start talking, you get the sense that US politics typically move a half-step forward then ten steps back.

Akira Takarada has passed away at the age of 87. This prolific actor is primarily known for his roles in science fiction films like The Last War, King Kong Escapes, and the Godzilla series. He was the male lead in the very first Godzilla film made back in 1954. Having had the honor of meeting him, he was very invested in getting to know his Western fans. He will be missed.

Akira Takarada has passed away at the age of 87. This prolific actor is primarily known for his roles in science fiction films like The Last War, King Kong Escapes, and the Godzilla series. He was the male lead in the very first Godzilla film made back in 1954. Having had the honor of meeting him, he was very invested in getting to know his Western fans. He will be missed.

Akira Takarada has passed away at the age of 87. This prolific actor is primarily known for his roles in science fiction films like The Last War, King Kong Escapes, and the Godzilla series. He was the male lead in the very first Godzilla film made back in 1954. Having had the honor of meeting him, he was very invested in getting to know his Western fans. He will be missed.

Akira Takarada has passed away at the age of 87. This prolific actor is primarily known for his roles in science fiction films like The Last War, King Kong Escapes, and the Godzilla series. He was the male lead in the very first Godzilla film made back in 1954. Having had the honor of meeting him, he was very invested in getting to know his Western fans. He will be missed.

The Idaho law also has a better shot at being upheld.  They allow a lawsuit against the provider from, IIRC, relatively close family only.  I still hate it, but the members of their groups by and large do have a legitimate interest.  I absolutely don't think they have an interest that should be considered superior to the mother's...but they do have an interest.  
 
I'm afraid that the tighter terms are likely to be upheld.  I'm still hoping that the bounty aspect gets thrown out;  as we've discussed, yeah, this'll explode in so many ugly ways.  
 
But that's where we're going.  

You would think that.  And yet...
 

I once ended a session by having the PCs find a letter that contained vital information.  They had spent the whole session looking for it, felt good they had found it, and one Player transcribed the letter as they were certain it had more clues than were obvious.

The next session they formed a plan to act on their new information & I had a NPC interject to remind them of an important thing they were overlooking (I didn't want to waste a session with them going down a blind alley).  They insisted that *wasn't* info that they had.  I insisted it was in the letter they had just worked so hard to get.  The players all looked at me in silence & the one who had transcribed that letter held up her notebook page & proved that info *wasn't* among the info they had gotten from the letter last session.
 
Knowing I had screwed up & left out a vital point, I (rather lamely) had the NPC declare there was "a hidden fold" in the letter that contained the information.
 
The Players all laughed for about 10 min at my weak save & from that point on if I ever tacked something on to an ongoing info dump someone would mention that "there must have been a fold".
 
This has been a running joke now for 25 years.  I married one of them.  The woman with the notebook was our Maid of Honor.  In the years since I've gotten christmas cards that say "Merry Christmas! and a >obvious fold in the card< "Happy New Year".  I texted my wife 4 things to pick up at the store a couple weeks ago, then remembered something else 10 min later & got a text back "was there a fold?"
 
I try to take it with good humor......

Going back to the 80s, it was a random meeting at a performance of Cats. 
 
Never met Patrick Stewart, although I was at the Dragon*Con a year both he and Shatner attended. Think the closest we got though was across the hall, a very, very crowded hall.  

Hmmm...I'll say James Earl Jones as I don't recall him making himself as available to fans.

You and Certified are both correct. I've never met William Shatner (though I've met other Trek stars).
 
I'm a big kaiju fan. I met Akira Takarada and Don Frye at a kaiju convention (as Frye was in Godzilla Final Wars). Ultimate Warrior I met at a work conference (he was promoting the latest WWE video game).

I'm curious as to what you think an "acceptable" level of representation is. Realistically, if we're basing representation on % of population a good chunk of the cast would be of Chinese or Indian descent. This movie had two Asian characters and one Indian character. So....actually...too little representation if we're going by the numbers. They even rolled the black and gay guy into one character for crying out loud. I see more representation after an hour at work so I'm continually befuddled by this complaint.

I believe my remark may have been misconstrued. I wasn't referring to what's acceptable to "that crowd/faction." Obviously, many of them have wholly embraced those attitudes and publicly proclaim them. I was referring to American society as a whole. Time was, anyone even whispering such sentiments where the wider public could hear them would have been pilloried. Mainstream media would all take them to task. Politicians of every stripe would denounce them. If the speaker was a politician, his/her career would be ruined.
 
Now, while one side vociferously cheer them on, the other side roll their eyes, shrug their shoulders, and pass off those remarks as one more example of the decline of discourse in America. There are no consequences, no accountability, and no expectations of them. People -- at least prominent people -- can deceive, slander, and impugn with impunity. Even when that can easily be proven, it not longer seems to matter.

It is a widespread example of societal alarm fatigue. Beyond voting in politicians that rise above the encouragement of demagoguery, there's only so much the average Joe can do other than to rebuke such individuals in their day-to-day lives.

About a week and a half ago, the mayor of Salt Lake County issued a mask mandate to help combat the spread of the omicron COVID-19 variant. Summit county (where Park City is located) issued one last week.
 
The Utah State Legislature began their 2022 session yesterday. Their first item of business? Legislation to overturn these mandates and to ensure that no others can be issued. 
 
Sadly, I have neither torch not pitchfork handy.

As an addendum to my earlier posts: Prof. Walters suggested two things that could avert a Second American Civil War. One was regulating social media, whose current business model involves radicalizing its users. The other is voting. The Republican party wouldn't be working so hard to nullify voting if they really thought they had a lock and didn't have to care anymore. Though I admit, at this point I don't see what can get nonvoting citizens off their asses and out to the polls.
 
Dean Shomshak

Adoration for celebrities spilling over to influence political decision-making is nothing new.
 

Brawler: Moon Knight (Marc Spector) (Marvel)
 

Cannon Fodder: The Wrecking Crew
Wrecking Crew (comics) - Wikipedia

Cannon Fodder: The Wrecking Crew
Wrecking Crew (comics) - Wikipedia

Absolutely, this evening I’ll find my post earlier the last time this came up. Engage in local politics, lean in on democracy, and expect accountability from your government especially at the local level. State and Federal politicians come up from local levels, people as a whole don’t pay attention to your Board of Supervisors, City Council and so forth. Hold them accountable and take action when they don’t do the right thing. It works, it has always worked, and without that we get the government we deserve.

I will note that The American Revolution was...in effect....doing exactly what people seem to be railing against now. It's easy to support the status quo when it either benefits you or harms you minimally in comparison to others. The system we have in place has been corrupted by those in power and continues to become more corrupt on a daily basis. And...let's be realistic...if there are no consequences for the harm our current system causes, why would those in power ever change it willingly? If the threat of violence is off the table, what other alternatives are there? Work within a system that is so controlled by big wealth that there's no chance of significant change in a dozen lifetimes? Vote? We're seeing the answer to that. Gerrymander voting into irrelevance. Those in power LOVE peaceful protests....because they can safely ignore them. Protests without the threat of consequences is like a shark without teeth. Strikes are a potential middle ground, but again...our system has effectively weakened organized labor for decades and it's only now starting to have any semblance of a recovery. I'm not advocating violence. I abhor it. But....like the French and Russian Revolutions of previous eras, I can't see the establishment giving up any kind of power without some type of forceful coercion.

I will note that The American Revolution was...in effect....doing exactly what people seem to be railing against now. It's easy to support the status quo when it either benefits you or harms you minimally in comparison to others. The system we have in place has been corrupted by those in power and continues to become more corrupt on a daily basis. And...let's be realistic...if there are no consequences for the harm our current system causes, why would those in power ever change it willingly? If the threat of violence is off the table, what other alternatives are there? Work within a system that is so controlled by big wealth that there's no chance of significant change in a dozen lifetimes? Vote? We're seeing the answer to that. Gerrymander voting into irrelevance. Those in power LOVE peaceful protests....because they can safely ignore them. Protests without the threat of consequences is like a shark without teeth. Strikes are a potential middle ground, but again...our system has effectively weakened organized labor for decades and it's only now starting to have any semblance of a recovery. I'm not advocating violence. I abhor it. But....like the French and Russian Revolutions of previous eras, I can't see the establishment giving up any kind of power without some type of forceful coercion.

I will note that The American Revolution was...in effect....doing exactly what people seem to be railing against now. It's easy to support the status quo when it either benefits you or harms you minimally in comparison to others. The system we have in place has been corrupted by those in power and continues to become more corrupt on a daily basis. And...let's be realistic...if there are no consequences for the harm our current system causes, why would those in power ever change it willingly? If the threat of violence is off the table, what other alternatives are there? Work within a system that is so controlled by big wealth that there's no chance of significant change in a dozen lifetimes? Vote? We're seeing the answer to that. Gerrymander voting into irrelevance. Those in power LOVE peaceful protests....because they can safely ignore them. Protests without the threat of consequences is like a shark without teeth. Strikes are a potential middle ground, but again...our system has effectively weakened organized labor for decades and it's only now starting to have any semblance of a recovery. I'm not advocating violence. I abhor it. But....like the French and Russian Revolutions of previous eras, I can't see the establishment giving up any kind of power without some type of forceful coercion.

My "Not of This Earth" pick is....Gamora!
Gamora - Wikipedia