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How to Give a Wedding Toast Without Annoying Hundreds of Hungry Guests

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/how-to-give-a-wedding-toast-without-annoyin…
Created
Tue, 27/02/2024 - 01:01

In this column, professional speechwriter Chandler Dean provides partly satirical, partly genuine “How To” advice focused on a hyper-specific subcategory of speeches—from graduation speeches to wedding toasts to eulogies, and all the rhetorical occasions in between.

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So your best friend or sibling or child or cousin or a second-tier friend has asked you to give a toast at their wedding. In one sense, you should be honored—because you’ve been deemed one of the best people to put words to the exhilarating feelings associated with this unforgettable day. In another sense, you should be horrified—because you will be one of the last things standing between hundreds of travel-weary reception attendees and dinner.

But you can meet the moment and let the caterers mete out the meal, if you make these sacred vows:

Address the elephant in the room.

Not Helpful

https://digbysblog.net/2024/02/26/not-helpful/
Created
Tue, 27/02/2024 - 01:00
Former Democratic operative behind fake Biden robocall in N.H. From the What Were They Thinking Department. NBC News: Steve Kramer, a veteran political consultant working for a rival candidate, acknowledged Sunday that he commissioned the robocall that impersonated President Joe Biden using artificial intelligence, confirming an NBC News report that he was behind the call.  In a statement and interview with NBC News, Kramer expressed no remorse for creating the deepfake, in which an imitation of the president’s voice discouraged participation in New Hampshire’s Democratic presidential primary. The call launched several law enforcement investigations and provoked outcry from election officials and watchdogs. A former Dean Phillips consultant, Kramer claims he commissioned the call as an act of civil disobedience to protest the threat of artificial intelligence to political campaigns. He compares himself to Paul Revere and Thomas Paine. “This is a way for me to make a difference, and I have,” he said in the interview.

Suggestions for Rebooting the Marvel Cinematic Universe from Farmer, Essayist, and Poet Wendell Berry

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/suggestions-for-rebooting-the-marvel-cinema…
Created
Tue, 27/02/2024 - 00:05

With apologies to the great Wendell Berry.

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When despair for the world grows in me, and I wake in the night at the least sound, I sometimes go down to the local theater and check out the latest Marvel spectacle, preferably in 3D, because it’s more abundant in real pleasure.

Lately, though, the work of Marvel and its sort has been lacking in several kinds of sense. Here, then, are my humbly offered suggestions for improvement:

1. The villains have just not been believable. Why a squinting, purple monster looking to eliminate half of life in the universe when the strip mining industry is right there? Instead of sending a thermonuclear missile into space, the Avengers could handcuff themselves inside the Governor’s office as an act of nonviolent protest.

t-rex, are they buckets or classes or boxes because holy dang you need to choose one

http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=4160
Created
Mon, 26/02/2024 - 19:00
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February 26th, 2024

SNL Speaks Truth

https://digbysblog.net/2024/02/25/snl-speaks-truth/
Created
Mon, 26/02/2024 - 11:30
I’ve actually wondered why they haven’t done this bit before. It’s been sitting there waiting for them for years. This was very timely, though. They even had the S. Carolina vote count in the sketch. But they missed Graham being booed and heckled at Trump’s victory party after which Trump called him up on stage to bask in the recriminations and hate. There is no limit to how much abuse these weirdos are willing to take. Here’s Graham being chased through the airport after he tepidly condemned the January 6th insurrection. He’d rather grovel before these assholes than give up his seat in the Senate. It’s pathetic.

Yanis Varoufakis, Australia & the New Cold War in the Age of Technofeudalism

https://www.ppesydney.net/australia-the-new-cold-war-in-the-age-of-technofeudal…
Created
Mon, 26/02/2024 - 10:02

Join economist and former Greek Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis for a special talk at the University of Sydney. Yanis will discuss his new book, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, and its implications for Australia as the world enters a ‘New Cold War’ of geopolitical tensions between the United States and China.

The post Yanis Varoufakis, Australia & the New Cold War in the Age of Technofeudalism appeared first on Progress in Political Economy (PPE).

War Is Bad for You — And the Economy

https://tomdispatch.com/war-is-bad-for-you-and-the-economy/
Created
Mon, 26/02/2024 - 09:36

Joe Biden wants you to believe that spending money on weapons is good for the economy. That tired old myth — regularly repeated by the political leaders of both parties — could help create an even more militarized economy that could threaten our peace and prosperity for decades to come. Any short-term gains from pumping in more arms spending will be more than offset by the long-term damage caused by crowding out new industries and innovations, while vacuuming up funds needed to address other urgent national priorities. The Biden administration’s sales pitch for the purported benefits of military outlays began in earnest last October, when the president gave a rare Oval Office address to promote a $106-billion emergency allocation that... Read more

A Very Addled Demagogue

https://digbysblog.net/2024/02/25/a-very-addled-demagogue/
Created
Mon, 26/02/2024 - 09:00
“Nobody can ramble like this. They’ll say: ‘He rambled, he’s cognitively impaired.’ Well, it’s really the opposite. It’s total genius – you know that.” — Donald Trump That’s Trump’s latest bullshit, from his CPAC speech. The crowd went wild in ecstasy when he said it. Trump’s Heinrich Himmler, Stephen Miller obviously wrote it. It was American Carnage on steroids. But it also featured Trump’s personal riffs like the one above. It was a nightmare and everyone should watch it. The Guardian did a good rundown if you don’t have the stomach for it. A few highlights: “For hard-working Americans, November 5th will be our new liberation day,” Trump told a packed ballroom at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at National Harbor in Maryland.

This. Is. A. Cult.

https://digbysblog.net/2024/02/25/this-is-a-cult/
Created
Mon, 26/02/2024 - 07:00
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like that. Did they not get what had just happened? Are they that slow? Or do they just not care and think robotically defending Donald Trump under any and all circumstances is normal. I’m a little bit baffled by people able to smoothly deal with this kind of dissonance. It suggests something …. bad. Update— More evidence: Republican primary voters in South Carolina said former President Donald Trump, 77, is more physically and mentally fit to be president than former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, 52. Despite Trump’s 25 years on Haley, South Carolina GOP primary voters were more confident in Trump’s physical and mental fitness than hers. In CBS News’s exit polls, 72% believed Trump was healthy enough in both aspects to be president, with just 27% disagreeing. Haley fell short of Trump, with 60% saying she has the physical and mental faculties to be commander in chief. Per ABC News, 71% said that Trump’s physical and mental health were satisfactory for a president, but just 59% said the same of Haley.