Stephen Colbert Must Be Ecstatic About His

For those of you who are not aware, comedian Stephen Colbert is a devout Catholic.

Also, it could be argued that he is the biggest Tolkien/Lord of the Rings geek ever. 

I can only imagine the glee he must have felt when Pope Leo XIV released an encyclical on artificial intelligence that quoted Gandalf

………

In sounding this call to both disarm and to build, Leo turns to “twentieth-century Catholic author” JRR Tolkien. Though he can’t quite bring himself to say that he’s quoting Gandalf from Lord of the Rings, that’s exactly what’s happening.

(The encyclical says only that the quote comes from “the words of a protagonist in one of [Tolkien’s] novels.” Though Pope Francis previously spoke of Tolkien’s work, this appears to be the first time that Tolkien has ever been quoted in the highest levels of the church’s official doctrinal publications.)

Gandalf says, in what is very much a theme of the entire Lord of the Rings:

It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.

The moral and local action envisioned here, along with Tolkien’s suspicion of the dehumanizing effects of technology, clearly appealed to Leo.

 

My Thoughts and Prayers for That Innocent Brown Recluse Spider

It appears that spree-killer Kyle Rittenhouse has been hospitalized following a bite from the highly venomous arachnid.

I can only imagine the agony of the spider when it encountered that much evil, bigotry and bile in its mouth. 

One of the Greats

Gene Hackman has died at age 95.

He could be and do almost anything as an actor.

I Get This

I generally do not give much thought to the proclamations of celebrities, but something Keira Knightly said really resonated with me.

She will not have any more children in addition to her current 2, not because of the work, and not because the pain of labor, or the inconvenience of pregnancy, but because she cannot deal with having to watch Peppa Pig with her kids any more.

Keira Knightley is over having kids but it's not because of any of the reasons you may think.

The British actress and star of Netflix's new spy-thriller series "Black Doves" spilled the real reason why two children are enough for her on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon."

“You know that thing where you’re like ‘Oh, you know they’re so nice. Should we have another one?’ ” Knightley said. “And you think, ‘Oh yeah, I could do the pregnancy. I could even do the birth but I cannot watch anymore Peppa Pig.’ So there's no more kids."

Knightley described her children, who are 5 and 9, as "very cool right now. They're into Studio Ghibli and just like beautiful things where you're just like 'oh, this is just lovely' after seven years of 'Peppa Pig.'"

 Thankfully, my kids were pre Peppa Pig.

It’s Times like These That I Miss F%$#edcompany

We have the story of Cameo, a former unicorn worth $1,100,000,000.00 which now lacks the cash to pay a $600,000.00 court settlement.

I would note that the valuation, was always suspect, as it was largely driven by investments of Softbank, whose business model, as I have noted earlier, appears to be buying a large chunk equity of a company on the cheap and then increasing the price for smaller and smaller purchases until you have a valuation in the billions of dollars.

Joseph Kennedy, Sr., the first head of the SEC would probably call this stock fraud, but these days, we'd call it, "Pump and dump."

Needless to say, if we had decent financial regulator and financial prosecutors, they would not be doing their securities manipulation in the United States, and if the Japanese had decent financial regulator and financial prosecutors, Masayoshi Son would be experiencing the joys of a Japanese prison.

The app Cameo, once a unicorn and a pandemic-era distraction, has seen much of its valuation evaporate. The connection-economy darling rose to fame as an app that let users pay for customized messages from celebrities. At its peak in 2021, Cameo’s valuation reached $1 billion before plummeting 90% early this year.

And it just got worse. Last week a consortium of 30 state attorneys general fined Cameo for not properly disclosing when celebrities were paid to endorse a certain product. However, Cameo’s financial situation meant it couldn’t afford to pay the $600,000 penalty levied by the suing states. Instead the company will have to pay only $100,000, according to the settlement agreement.

During the settlement Cameo submitted audited financial documents from 2021 and 2022 that showed it couldn’t afford the payment. Cameo also provided more recent financial information from October 2023 that further proved it had fallen on hard times.

Cameo’s bleak financial outlook spared it from having to pay the full penalty. However, if the company were to break the rules again it would be forced to pay the remaining $500,000, which “would presumably send the company into bankruptcy,” said Jennifer Arlen, director of a program on corporate compliance and enforcement at NYU Law.

………

Cameo’s harsh financial picture makes it the latest in a line of former unicorns to have hit hard times. In March 2021, Cameo was flying high, with a soaring valuation of $1 billion on the back of a $100 million Series C funding round. Major investors like SoftBank, Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and even skateboarding legend Tony Hawk all lined up.

Like I said, pump and dump.

The investors bought a part of the company for $100,000,000.00.  You overpay, but this serves to increase the value at the IPO, so you make bank when the IPO happens.

And then there is the sales pitch:

………

Cameo pitched itself as an alternative to talent agencies and managers that could help celebrities connect with their fans directly, while cashing in on their fame.

“We exist in an entirely different world today—one in which talent actually want to connect more deeply with their fans, and fans expect unprecedented access to the talent they admire most,” Cameo CEO Steven Galanis wrote in a blog post after the Series C round. “This funding will help us create the access and connections that will define the future of the ‘connection economy’ on a global scale.”

Yeah, this time, it's different.  Always a red flag.

Seriously, the bezzle is obvious here .  Where are the prosecutors.

 

Why I Haven't Commented on the Death of the Recent Death of a Very Public Person

While this individual achieved much notoriety in professional sports, and went on to have significant success in entertainment, he was, at the end of his life, best known for his involvement in a notorious crime, which involved a large number of interesting juxtapositions between fame, race, law enforcement, and media excesses.

I thought about posting, and was asked by someone about this, but I decided against it.

I placed him on my list of, "They who must not be named," in 2016, and I am sticking to that.

That is all.

There is a Marked Improvement in New York City Air Quality

Following Rush Limbaugh and Donald Trump, Sean Hannity has moved to Florida.

This means that his stench will now pollute Palm Beach, Florida, where he now owns a home.

So his stench will compete with, or possibly compliment, Donald Trump's distinct odor of, "Armpits, ketchup, a butt and makeup."

Won't someone please think of the alligators and the manatees?

Blame it on Ryan

Seeing her reelection as a challenge in her current district, Colorado 3, Lauren Boebert is going to stand in the safer Colorado 4 in the next election cycle. 

She is blaming Ryan Reynolds and Barbara Streisand for her decision.

As Anna Russel would say, "I'm not making this up, you know."

We’ll never know if Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Co.) makes New Year’s resolutions, but it’s clear that, if she does, “Don’t make yourself look stupid” was definitely not on the list for 2024.

On December 27th, Boebert announced she’ll be running for Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, instead of the 3rd, which she currently represents. In her announcement video, she blamed “Hollywood elites and progressive money groups” for the decision. Even though it’s very clearly based on the fact that the 3rd District is much more conservative, thereby giving her a better chance at retaining a seat in the House. But, in an interview on Steven Bannon’s War Room podcast over the weekend, she blamed Barbra Streisand and Ryan Reynolds instead.

“It’s coming from Hollywood when you have Barbra Streisand coming in and donating to the Democrat, when you have Ryan Reynolds coming in and donating to the Democrat,” she told Bannon of her move. “It shows you that Hollywood is trying to buy their way into Congress.” Or that Hollywood just thinks Lauren Boebert sucks.

………

In November, the rep for Colorado’s 3rd district, [4th district] Ken Buck, announced he would not be seeking re-election in 2024, partly because there are still so many election deniers in the GOP. This made way for Boebert to ditch her race against Frisch for a more conservative district on the other side of the state. (She doesn’t need to live in the 4th to represent it.) The Colorado Sun reports that the 4th District leans 27 points toward the GOP, while the 3rd District leans just nine points.

Obviously, I would never expect Boebert to just come out and say, “I think all my MAGA bullshit ended up hurting my career, and maybe the voters also hate that I got kicked out of Beetlejuice for being an asshole, but now I’m scared of losing my district to a Democrat so I’m just going to jump to a different district instead, byeeeeeeeeeee” but she could have at least given an explanation that didn’t involve blaming two random celebrities. Maybe the “Don’t make yourself look stupid” can be a resolution for 2025. Or, better yet, maybe Colorado’s 4th won’t elect her and we’ll never have to hear about her again. Fingers crossed.

Behold the power Ryan Reynolds.

Want Some Cheese With that Whine?

It appears that Meghan "My Dad was John McCain" McCain is suffering from major butthurt after one of her former co-hosts on The View declared that some of the people on that show had been nepo babies.

Meghan "My Dad was John McCain" McCain is threatening to sue, which is a problem because:

• No one said that it was her except for Meghan "My Dad was John McCain" McCain.  When one examines the hosts of that show, the right wing ones at least, we have:
• Meghan "My Dad was John McCain" McCain
• Alyssa Farah Griffin, whose dad founded World Net Daily.
• Elisabeth Hasselbeck , wife of NFL quarterback Tim Hasselbeck.
• Abby Huntsman, daughter of former Utah Governor John Huntsman.
• And she is a nepo baby.
• The truth is always a defense against defamation or libel in the United States.
  

So, she got some shade thrown at her, and she decided to remove all doubt:

Nobody mentioned Meghan McCain’s name on Thursday morning’s episode of The View. But the former co-host clearly felt seen.

“I don’t understand why my former colleagues @TheView @ABC bring me up and slander me on an almost weekly basis,” McCain tweeted a few hours after the show aired. “It has been years - move on, I have.”

“I have never been accused of a crime in my life and am a patriotic American - I would never and have never ‘influenced peddled’ in my life, let alone with foreign adversaries,” she added. “Not all politicians children are the same - and I am no Hunter Biden. All accusations are absurd, defamatory and slanderous. I will be consulting my lawyers regarding what was libeled against me on The View this morning.”

McCain was referring to comments made by current co-host Ana Navarro during a segment about the Republican Party’s relentless campaign to smear President Joe Biden with the actions of his son Hunter.

I should mention here that Ana Navarro never worked with McCain, and Ana Navarro is a Republican, but whatever, I guess.

“Did Hunter Biden influence peddle on his last name? Yes he did! So did half of Washington,” Navarro said. She then appeared to catch her co-hosts off guard when she added, “People at this table did it!”

Oh, snap!

Asked for clarification by McCain’s de facto replacement Alyssa Farah Griffin, Navarro explained, “I’m not talking about currently.”

At that moment, the reaction around the table made it clear they knew which U.S. senator’s daughter Navarro was talking about—even if they declined to make it explicit for the audience.

That means McCain was the first to directly connect the comments made on the show to herself, which could complicate her proposed attempt to claim libel.

Gee, ya think?

I do not know why, nor do I care why, McCain and her former cow-orkers seem to have parted on unfriendly terms.

But this level of unaware self-owning is both amusing and not a surprise.

Tweet of the Day

Haven’t they suffered enough?

— Tom Arnold (@TomArnold) September 25, 2023

Tom Arnold is a funny guy.

Not only is this funny, he's taking a shot at himself, which is always a classy move.

Hoping for an Alien Abduction Right Now

The Onion writers seeing real life headlines like "Kanye West says he's no longer an anti-semite after watching Jonah Hill in 21 Jump Street" and knowing they could never come up with fake news satire half this absurd: pic.twitter.com/xzSgY5wf5R

— PolarJohan (@PolarJohan15) March 25, 2023

Yes, this story is real, and I no longer want to be on this planet.

Also, writers for The Onion are seriously considering retirement after this.

Kanye West is returning to social media to share an update on his feelings toward Jewish people.

The rapper and fashion mogul, who now goes by Ye, shared a post on Instagram Friday (March 24) claiming that actor Jonah Hill’s performance in 21 Jump Street helped change his views about antisemitism.

“Watching Jonah Hill in 21 Jump street made me like Jewish people again,” Ye wrote alongside a poster for the 2012 comedy, which also starred Channing Tatum. “No one should take anger against one or two individuals and transform that into hatred towards millions of innocent people.”

The rapper added, “No Christian can be labeled antisemite knowing Jesus is Jew. Thank you Jonah Hill I love you.”

As Anna Russel would say, "I'm not making this up, you know."

How to Make a John Waters Story Even More Epic

You just add Angela Lansbury and a notorious New York "dungeon like" sex club.

Much like all John Waters stories, this story is kind of sweet, very respectful, and profoundly weird.

Legendary filmmaker John Waters has claimed he once saw the late icon Angela Lansbury in a “dungeon-like sex club” in New York City.

Waters first revealed that he saw Lansbury, who tragically died at the age of 96 on 11 October, in the sex club Hellfire in the eighties in his 2019 book Mr Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder.

However he revealed to Page Six on Tuesday (18 October) that her presence in the club – which catered to “gay and straight perverts alike” – was not surprising, but “welcoming”.

The Pink Flamingos director told the outlet: “[Lansbury] was pure class even 40 years ago when these kind of clubs were all the rage.

“It may have been the only night she was ever there, but just her presence made Hellfire a little more welcoming.”

He added that it was not uncommon to see “lots of celebrities” at clubs like Hellfire, explaining that he had also seen Andy Warhol and Truman Capote at the sex club.

“Everybody went. She wasn’t doing anything,” Waters added.

John Waters is the Patron Saint of Baltimore.

Adding to my List

I am adding Rachel Dolezal to my list of They Who Must Not Be Named.

For those of you who do not recall, Ms. Dolezal achieved a significant measure of notoriety when it was discovered that she was a white woman passing as a black woman while heading the NAACP Spokane chapter.

I did not write about it when this happened 7 years ago, and I won't write about now that there are reports that her OnlyFans pictures were leaked to Twitter.

This whole affair seems to indicate very real problems in our culture of celebrity in our society, but I have neither the time nor the inclination to tease out the individual elements.

There is Low, Lower, and

You know, this guy


And how he tried to ride Vanilla Ice's coat tails

Running for the Senate, getting just 3% of the vote, and then, being accused by the Wrapper Vanilla Ice of attempting to use his fame for your political advantage.

I am referring to the Ken half of St. Louis Ken and Karen, Mark McCloskey, who, along with his wife, drew down on peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters, and then attempted to parlay that into a political career:

After showing up in a campaign ad for a notorious Republican Senate candidate, Vanilla Ice reassured fans that he didn’t agree to be involved at all.

Mark McCloskey—the disgraced former lawyer who went viral after he and his wife pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters outside their home in St. Louis in June 2020—shared a promotional post featuring Vanilla Ice’s name and image on Thursday.

“Join #TeamMcCloskey in Green County for the Ozark Empire Fair,” the post read, above pictures of McCloskey and the rapper next to each other. Below the images, a line added: “Featuring Vanilla Ice and Ying Yang Twins.”

But on Thursday evening, Vanilla Ice’s management made it unequivocally clear that their client was not supporting McCloskey’s campaign. “Vanilla Ice is not taking sides on political issues and is working to support his family,” his managers told The Kansas City Star. “Please make this known.”

As well as Vanilla Ice and McCloskey not being affiliated, they’re not even appearing at the fair mentioned in the ad on the same day. McCloskey will actually appear two days after the rapper’s show.

………

Along with his wife Patricia, McCloskey became a right-wing cause célèbre after his gun-toting stunt in 2020. The couple pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges over the incident, but they were ultimately pardoned by Missouri’s Republican Governor Mike Parson. The couple also last month made an unsuccessful bid to get the Supreme Court to overturn a decision that placed their law licenses on probation.

How low do you have to go to be disavowed by Vanilla f%$#ing Ice.

Cue Monty Python

Tony Dow Still Alive: Wally Cleaver on 'Leave It to Beaver' Not Dead

—Variety

Much like Mark Twain, the reports of his his death have death are greatly exaggerated. (Also, Mark Twain never said that)

Unfortunately, it does appear that Mr. Dow is in hospice care for cancer, and is not expected to be with us much longer.

Handled it Like a Westley

Carey Elwes just got bitten by a Rattlesnake, but he's going to be OK, and even found time to make a Princess Bride reference: 

Cary Elwes is on the mend after a scary incident landed him in the hospital over the weekend.

The 59-year-old actor posted a close-up of his hand — in which one of his fingers and fingernails appears swollen and blue — to Instagram Monday.

Seeming to be in good spirits despite his injury, Elwes began his caption with a nod to his classic 1987 movie The Princess Bride: "Bit not by a ROUS but a rattlesnake."

"Grateful to the staff of Malibu Urgent Care, LA County Fire Dept. and the staff and medical professionals at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center for their great care," he added. "Am recovering well thanks to all these wonderful folks.

That is a pretty Westley way of handling it, because it probably hurts like a mother f%$#er.

No indications that he went Dread Pirate Roberts on the the snake.

Adding to My List of They Who Must Not Be Named

Johnny Depp and Amber Herd.

I am not at all interested in their version of the Akira Kurasawa classic Rashomon.

We're Zucked

It turns out that Facebook has a secret list of VIPs who can never be shut down.  (Note that this does not include the rat f%$#ery of Ben Shapiro) 

They can do things like post revenge pr0n, and their posts cannot be deleted by ordinary moderators or the algorithm.

Hypocrisy much?

Mark Zuckerberg has publicly said Facebook Inc. allows its more than three billion users to speak on equal footing with the elites of politics, culture and journalism, and that its standards of behavior apply to everyone, no matter their status or fame.

In private, the company has built a system that has exempted high-profile users from some or all of its rules, according to company documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The program, known as “cross check” or “XCheck,” was initially intended as a quality-control measure for actions taken against high-profile accounts, including celebrities, politicians and journalists. Today, it shields millions of VIP users from the company’s normal enforcement process, the documents show. Some users are “whitelisted”—rendered immune from enforcement actions—while others are allowed to post rule-violating material pending Facebook employee reviews that often never come.

At times, the documents show, XCheck has protected public figures whose posts contain harassment or incitement to violence, violations that would typically lead to sanctions for regular users. In 2019, it allowed international soccer star Neymar to show nude photos of a woman, who had accused him of rape, to tens of millions of his fans before the content was removed by Facebook. Whitelisted accounts shared inflammatory claims that Facebook’s fact checkers deemed false, including that vaccines are deadly, that Hillary Clinton had covered up “pedophile rings,” and that then-President Donald Trump had called all refugees seeking asylum “animals,” according to the documents.

………

In describing the system, Facebook has misled the public and its own Oversight Board, a body that Facebook created to ensure the accountability of the company’s enforcement systems.

In June, Facebook told the Oversight Board in writing that its system for high-profile users was used in “a small number of decisions.”

………

At times, the documents show, XCheck has protected public figures whose posts contain harassment or incitement to violence, violations that would typically lead to sanctions for regular users. In 2019, it allowed international soccer star Neymar to show nude photos of a woman, who had accused him of rape, to tens of millions of his fans before the content was removed by Facebook. Whitelisted accounts shared inflammatory claims that Facebook’s fact checkers deemed false, including that vaccines are deadly, that Hillary Clinton had covered up “pedophile rings,” and that then-President Donald Trump had called all refugees seeking asylum “animals,” according to the documents.

A 2019 internal review of Facebook’s whitelisting practices, marked attorney-client privileged, found favoritism to those users to be both widespread and “not publicly defensible.”

“We are not actually doing what we say we do publicly,” said the confidential review. It called the company’s actions “a breach of trust” and added: “Unlike the rest of our community, these people can violate our standards without any consequences.”

(Emphasis mine)

You know, the phrase, "Not publicly defensible," seems to distill all of Facebook into just three words.

Mind Officially Blown

I was today years old when I put together that this was father and son. pic.twitter.com/aDoES86EDM

— William K. Wolfrum (@Wolfrum) September 10, 2021

Former MLB Commissioner Bart Giamatti and Oscar nominated actor Paul Giamatti were father and son.

Bye, Felecia

Meghan McCain has quit as a host of The View on short notice.

She was probably pushed: 

Meghan McCain, the lone conservative voice on ABC’s daily talk show “The View,” told viewers Thursday that she was leaving her co-host chair at the end of the season this month.

McCain said at the start of the New York-based program that she wants to stay in Washington, D.C., where she worked during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I have this really wonderful life here that I ultimately feel like I didn’t want to leave,” McCain said.

McCain, who is married to conservative writer Ben Domenech, gave birth to a daughter, Liberty,[ed comment, WTF?] last fall. The couple have split their time between New York and Washington.

………

The Daily Mail, which first reported that McCain would exit, said the host had two years left on her contract with ABC.

(emphasis mine)

She announced it on very short notice. 

Pushed, with good reason.