So the University of Missouri system president resigned. I was still trying to catch up on the controversy when that happened. This SB Nation piece has a decent synopsis.
It’ll be interesting to see where this leads: What if more college football teams start deciding to use their power for the greater good? Would they choose wisely? Would it be the end of football as we know it?
I’ve been busy as hell and untethered from the news and politics lately, and I can’t say that’s been a bad thing for my general outlook. I missed the candidate forum Rachel Maddow hosted. Is it worth watching on YouTube?
It’s raining hard here today. Chickens look forlorn. Maybe it’ll finally cool off.
Open thread!
schrodinger's cat
I am sick as a dog, sore throat, stuffy nose, the works. I hate all humanity.
Joel
For the first time in my lifetime, college football has been a force for good. I’m not expecting the trend to continue.
srv
Looking at the reaction to Wolfe’s response, you would have thought someone wiped out an entire Indian village.
Butch
As for the question about Maddow, absolutely it’s worth watching.
geg6
Good for them. Getting the yoot all riled up for social justice is always a good thing.
The candidates’ forum was very, very good. O’Malley did very well, Bernie came off a little more human and less angry, shouty guy and Hilary did what she had to do. I don’t think you missed much unless you want to watch the film of O’Malley before they bring him on. They show his awesome biceps and what I’m guessing was a polar plunge, shirtless. Pretty nice. ;-)
Yutsano
OT: My nym got fixed. Yay!
On topic: It’s amazing what took this guy down, and it’s the unfortunate state of big time athletics in schools. You can bet Wolfe wasn’t getting calls from alumni about the student hunger striking but he was getting HOWLS over the football team not giving them their weekly fall blood sport. It will be more interesting to see where this all leads now. I sincerely hope some new forms of activism take hold from this.
srv
You should read up on the witch hunts at Yale
Not going to stop until they get a scalp.
p.a.
I hate that the war on xmas starts so early; it really distracts from the enjoyment of Thanksgiving’s gluttony. The secularists will stop at nothing! Is it even legal for Jews etc to be out in public during christian holidays??!! This wouldn’t fly in the Middle Ages. #tbc(throwbackchristmas), #gwoc(globalwaronchristmas). Don’t forget, this is a Judeo-Christian nation. Until we get control, then it’s Judeo-down-the-memory-hole.
Roger Moore
@schrodinger’s cat:
You should be hating on microbes for that, not people.
JPL
I’ll give Wolfe credit for saying his inaction, hurt the school. The media has touted it as his handling of the situation. Handling makes it sound as though he did something.
schrodinger's cat
@Roger Moore: I hate them too.
JPL
@schrodinger’s cat: I’m sorry to hear about your illness. Feel better soon. It has been rainy and cloudy around here for weeks. You can’t go out without seeing someone blowing their nose or cough.
Yutsano
@geg6: If the candidate cycle were different, O’Malley would have my support easily. Then we could have an ab war with Canada. I did think Justin was dashing but OH MY…
And from what I understand El Presidente in Mexico isn’t bad looking either…
RSA
@p.a.:
Awesome. Okay if I steal this? (Even if stealing isn’t a theme of any current holiday…)
Nicole
I thought the Rachel Maddow thing was all right, but a lot of it seemed like, no matter what she asked, the candidates managed to bring it around to carefully phrased talking points, which were only tangentially related to the original question.
Mack
The candidate forum was very enjoyable to watch if you lean the slightest bit left. All of our candidates came off as likable, though at times the way O’Malley delivers his earnest responses grates on my nerves…can’t tell you why, it just does. When the Republicans finally narrow the field…they may try something like this, but even in a softball environment, I’m doubting any of them would come off looking that good.
Tommy Young
That is what they do. In their DNA.
p.a.
@RSA:
Columbus Day
You may not steal. You may use with proper attribution, for example: “some internet schmuck said…”, “I saw this scrawled in crayon…”
Amir Khalid
@Yutsano:
Welcome back!
Gin & Tonic
I’m going to have to vent. You know how, sometimes, in the day or two after you watch a movie, it grows on you, you replay some scenes in your mind, your perspective changes, maybe you appreciate some aspects more. Less often, a day or two later you come to the unfortunate realization that your first impressions were wrong, and the movie was awful.
So I went to see Bridge of Spies last night, and I looked at Metacritic this morning, and can’t help wondering if they were shown a different movie by the same name. Leaving aside the glaring historical inaccuracies around the construction of the wall, the movie had all the subtlety of a 40-ton weight dropping on Wile E. Coyote’s head. Aside from the Donovan and Abel characters, all the others had all the depth of Looney Tunes characters. And even with the leads, only Mark Rylance brought some chops to the role. Tom Hanks was the Earnest but Slightly Bemused Everyman he always is — he wasn’t playing Ray Donovan, he was playing Tom Hanks Playing Ray Donovan. The music was from the discount bin at Cliches R Us — here’s a Big Moment, audience, since you’re simpletons. That “menacing” East Berlin gang that Donovan encountered — they were so squeaky-clean I expected them to break into “When You’re a Jet You’re a Jet.” Sure, it’s probably great for the craft that Spielberg employed all those costumers (get me 500 fedoras!) and set designers and carpenters and masons and thousands of extras (but couldn’t hire someone from continuity to get the Verrazano bridge out of the scene.) But if you want Cold War atmosphere, it’s not necessary to have a tracking shot of the wall with hundreds and hundreds of people on the set; I guess Spielberg never heard “less is more.” A film which could be an interesting character study doesn’t have to be turned into a Movie! Experience! For! The! Ages! For Cold War atmosphere and character study, the 2011 Tinker, Tailor at half the budget was twice the film.
Yeah, not a fan.
Villago Delenda Est
The NYT story I read on this left out ALL the background on what precipitated Wolfe’s resignation.
Really helpful, NYT. “All the news that’s fit to print” my ass. If only it was about Hillary’s email, we’d know so much more that is totally wrong.
Another Holocene Human
@p.a.: Isn’t Starbucks an ally, then? Chalices washed in the Blood of Christ, our Savior?
Another Holocene Human
I’m trying to think of that time the priests showed up in high feast day red vestments that had snowflakes, reindeer, and glass balls embroidered on them.
Betty Cracker
@srv: From what I’ve read about the Yale Halloween email thing, it does sound like a particularly dumb witch hunt, but possibly there’s more to it than what CF includes in the article you linked. He always has an ax to grind and occasionally leaves out relevant material that doesn’t support his POV, so I’ve learned to distrust him.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
If you missed last night’s “Hamilton” package on “60 Minutes” last night, CBS has it up for a limited time. They also have “extra” videos of a tour backstage and the recording of the cast album.
Those of us who were theater techie geeks will particularly enjoy seeing how the turntables work.
Another Holocene Human
@Villago Delenda Est: You’d think “feces swastika west of the Hudson” would be exactly the kind of News of the Weird [Yokels Who Live In The So-Called Rest Of The Country] that NYT lives for.
Tommy Young
@p.a.: Let put aside we killed a lot of Native Americans. I have gone on record here against Christmas. Thanksgiving might be my favorite holiday. I love the excess of it. One of the few days my family totally comes together.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
Also for the theater techie geeks, a podcast of the directors of “Hamilton” and “Allegiance” talking about how to do history in live theater.
Amir Khalid
@Gin & Tonic:
Sod the critics. Most of them write only to impress each other. As long as you can think intelligently about what you just saw, your opinion is as good as that of any fancy professional critic from the media.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Yutsano:
I suspect the real breaking point was when the students persuaded the faculty to support them. Until then, it was another Students vs Administration story, but once the faculty swings to the students’ side, the administration is out of legs to stand on.
p.a.
@Another Holocene Human: as long as the cups aren’t filled with fair-trade coffee.
Mack
@srv: That was well written, and I found myself nodding in agreement through most of it. My daughter is a sophomore at what might be called the Yale of the South, and I amazed by how much well meaning advice is dispensed to incoming freshmen. I’ve had professors and administrators tell me that it is necessary because so many freshman come in with absolutely no real world experience…many cannot perform the most basic tasks like laundry or cooking. Anyway, more to the point, I’m not sure I buy into the whole “privileged East coast elite mindset” thing, but I do agree that the email in question was thoughtful and respectful and did not warrant the backlash whatsoever.
Tommy Young
@Mnemosyne (tablet): I am not a theatre geek. In fact many times I don’t understand these shows. But that 60 Minutes segment, well I am in with that dude.
trollhattan
@Gin & Tonic:
Rarely go to the movie theater but yesterday the kiddo and I caught “The Martian” (her choice). Despite the 2+ hour running time I found it taut story-telling and alternately gripping and thrilling. Ridley Scott. In space. Without monsters. Who’da thunk?
trollhattan
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
And to think the typical response to faculty going against administration was to get rid of tenure….
p.a.
@Tommy Young: I like what *ahem* some schmuck on the internet said a few weeks back: Halloween (and New Years) are the best holidays because you’re not obligated to spend them with family.
If I want to see people screaming at each other in Italian I have 2 options: Opera or family get-together.
trollhattan
@p.a.:
Okay, you just topped srv’s “only the Trump can lead us” quip as the day’s best guffaw. Kudos!
p.a.
@Gin & Tonic: Isn’t that a Spielberg joint? If so, what else did you expect?
bemused
@schrodinger’s cat:
Ugh, Hope it goes away quickly. My mate starting getting a sore throat yesterday morning and by evening he was miserable. He’s not one to baby himself when sick but it hurt like hell when he tried to swallow and he barely got any sleep last night. It was better this morning but glad he had his annual physical today and dr said it was viral, not strep, etc. Now if I can get him to take it easy this evening after work….
Gin & Tonic
@p.a.: I know, I know. But the Coen brothers are listed as writers, so I expected a little better.
Tommy Young
@Mack: I went to college in 1988. Illinois school. The system had this thing going on. Wellness. Wellness of body, mind and spirit. We had to take a class called Wellness 101. Taught us how to balance our check book. How to boil water. Maybe things I already knew, but didn’t mind having them said to me again. I have always thought a school system ahead of its time. Not even sure you could offer that class today.
Gin & Tonic
@trollhattan: I thoroughly enjoyed the book; haven’t yet seen the movie. Did you see it in 3D? That seems to be the only option for me around here, and I’m leery of 3D.
piratedan7
@trollhattan: it would have been tough to screw up the game plan from the foundation laid by the novel, but I’ve seen it done. Just enough science and exposition to feed the drama. Plus, good actors in roles that lent itself to nuanced performances (outside of Matt Damon, naturally). Only quibble is that somehow the forgot to help make the planet itself more of a character…. but hey, any film that gives more than a passing nod to science is alright by me.
ThresherK (GPad)
@Mnemosyne (tablet): I am a big fan of “Parade”, which is not a happy show given the subject. I will have to listen to this podcast.
kc
@srv:
Lord, I hope the Yale football team doesn’t go on strike …
benw
@schrodinger’s cat: sorry, you’re sick. You could go back in your box. Then you’d be simultaneously sick and healthy. Dunno if that’s better.
trollhattan
@Gin & Tonic:
Just two of the Ds were offered yesterday. Certain scenes were clearly cooked to trigger the 3-D “DUCK!” response, especially in tandem with the surround sound, but in retrospect didn’t negatively impact the storytelling.
kc
@Mack:
My general impression is now that Yale students are a bunch of WATBs.
Betty Cracker
@Mnemosyne (tablet): Maybe I’m overly cynical, but the fact that the faculty sided with the students makes me wonder what else was going on in their relationship with Wolfe. I’m not an academic, so those who are feel free to chide me for my ignorance, but I’m generally suspicious of business people being brought in to manage educational institutions.
I don’t know anything about Wolfe at all except what I’ve read about him in the last 24 hours. But I suspect he wasn’t indifferent to the students’ concerns — he just failed to grasp the importance of his role in addressing them. He didn’t get that managing relationships — with students, faculty, etc. — is, well, WAS, his primary responsibility.
RSA
@trollhattan: p.a.’s been on a roll this whole thread.
trollhattan
@piratedan7:
You mean such as “Michael Bay’s ‘The Martian'”?
Confess the voice of Neil Degrasse Tyson popped into my head a few times asking “did they get that right?” but my last physics class was a LOOOONG time ago so my belief-suspending was held in check.
Hungry Joe
@Gin & Tonic: I always come out of Spielberg movies feeling like I’ve been in the ring for 15 rounds with a body puncher — he’s an expert at beating emotion out of you. Which is a) why I don’t go to Spielberg movies anymore, and b) why I never actually got in the ring with a body puncher. Or anybody else, for that matter.
p.a.
@trollhattan:@trollhattan: Tks. Sadly, not many of the Italian-speakers (1st gen US born) left.
Here’s a story Cole might like. Young WVa. native (Martha Smith) came to Providence to work at the Journal/Bulletin. Believe timeline was mid-1970’s. Alone in a new city, an Italian coworker invited her to a holiday meal, Tgiving or Xmas. Midway through the meal she breaks down sobbing. Dead silence at the table. “What’s wrong honey? Homesick?”
“N-n-no. It’s just all the f-fighting.”
Baffled looks, laughter. “Who’s fighting?”
trollhattan
@kc:
Guessing that goes back at least as far as when W attended.
p.a.
@Gin & Tonic: I didn’t know they were involved. I think O Brother… is the best movie (as entertainment, not SOCIAL STATEMENT) of the last 20 years. Christ, it’s 15 years old!
Villago Delenda Est
@p.a.: Spielberg’s been coasting since the first 15 minutes of Saving Private Ryan.
Villago Delenda Est
@Betty Cracker: I suspect there was a whole lot of other stuff going on that we’re not being told about, at least by the national media that has a shocking tendency to focus only on the here and now and not bother to ask any questions about what the fuck precipitated this outcome. Wolfe seems to have been very detached from the gestalt of the campus…typical spreadsheet focused MBA dumbass, unfit to lead anything.
Betty Cracker
@p.a.: Haha! Great story! I had a similar acculturation process with my husband’s family — the older members especially would get into loud, heated, passionate arguments at decibel levels that in MY family would signify that the arguers were about to resort to fisticuffs or firearms. I learned it was just their way; there were no actual hard feelings.
Hungry Joe
@Villago Delenda Est: Spielberg peaked with “Duel.”
p.a.
I liked Hanks in Road to Perdition but it’s not Spielberg.
A guy
Anybody read the letter the student government write. Start with a comment about the school meeting the shooting of Michael brown with silence and then devolves into a rambling diatribe of generalities. What a bunch of whiners!
Another Holocene Human
@p.a.: Dunno what my problem is, but aside from a few funny set pieces, that movie really left me cold.
Wally Ballou
Football?
You can have it, all right.
EthylEster
@Hungry Joe: ouch! but i tend to agree.
Another Holocene Human
Check out the t-shirts!
Missouri Hunger Strike Teen Task Force
The kids are all right.
burnspbesq
@kc:
How would you know?
Mike E
@burnspbesq: Better to strike than to lay down for the Heels, wouldn’t you say there Dookie?
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Betty Cracker:
Oh, I wouldn’t be surprised if the faculty was already pissed off at him for their own reasons, but it’s still good that they backed the students. That doesn’t happen very often, IIRC.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@efgoldman:
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
Oh, wait, that’s from a Rush song.
RSA
@efgoldman:
Interestingly enough, there are visible practical applications of this philosophical view today. Decision-making systems that run on digital computers act by selecting from a set of alternatives, and even if the most common one is “NO OPERATION”, it’s a deliberate choice. That’s what robot cars will be doing, for example.
Sorry if this is changing the subject too much.
Seanly
In other news, Tom Cotton can DIAF. Apparently being on SSDI causes heroin addiction. He wants to introduce legislation to require some people to get back to work.
RSA
@Seanly:
From disability.gov:
Does Tom Cotton even know what he’s talking about? I’m not all that knowledgeable, but maybe he could be clearer.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Seanly:
Well, come on, it’s not like sick people get disability payments, right? So of course nobody on disability needs medication. It’s so logical.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@RSA:
IIRC, commenter cckids has a son who was born permanently disabled but he still has to be re-certified every X number of years just in case a magical cure has occurred. Hopefully that process is not what Cotton will be fucking around with.
RSA
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): I didn’t realize there was a re-certification process already in place. Wow. I’m think of Blackstone: “It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.” Some Republicans invert that, and they want the inversion to apply to anyone getting government benefits: “It is better that ten innocent persons suffer than that one guilty person gain unneeded benefits.”
bemused
@RSA:
For Republicans, it’s better that 1,000 (at least) innocent persons suffer than one guilty person gain undeserved benefits. It’s like voter “fraud”.
WereBear
With Spielberg, I tend to feel his fingers pressing my emotion buttons: you love him-you love him- you aren’t sure–he’s making it work–love him more–now…..cry! Again! And we’re out.
sparrow
@srv: With apologies to any decent BJers who may have gone to Yale, I have to say that every Yalie I ever met was an unreadeamable, arrogant, entitled narcisist. I loathe those self-important losers.
RSA
@bemused: I think you’ve hit upon the best example with voter fraud.
schrodinger's cat
Thanks guys! I have gotten worse over the day, now have a low grade fever. No strength to make snarky comments, even.
Steeplejack
Redacted. Low-grade fiddling going on.
Pogonip
For those who wish to enlist in the War on Christmas, be advised that my father is the commanding general, having been a Scrooge for at least 56 years. AND he’s also a loyal Bill O’Reilly fan. We figure he has a split personality.
bemused
@RSA:
It doesn’t really matter to Republicans how many innocent people get screwed to just nab a few fraudsters. Hey lookee how tough on losers, deadbeats and moochers we can be.
Germy Shoemangler
Germy Shoemangler
WaterGirl
@Germy Shoemangler: I usually enjoy your comments so much! But this one left me feeling rather empty.
Germy Shoemangler
– Irving Berlin
Germy Shoemangler
@WaterGirl: My Harpo Marx impression. Or was it Gary Cooper?
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
He was a businessman, with no academic experience, brought into run the school.
A President of a College with only a B.A.
White Privilege is a muthapucka.
WereBear
@rikyrah: These assholes need to get some actual businesspeople to run businesses and leave government and academics alone.
I don’t get any service from their customer service, I don’t get many products to choose from, the ones I get fall apart way too soon, and they don’t want to pay the employees they grudgingly employ.
Maybe they should try to make the business of America work before they get all arrogant and try to branch out.
sparrow
@Mack: Rice or Duke? :)
Capri
@rikyrah: Heh. I’ll see your administrator and raise you Mitch Daniels.
Listen to the clip in the middle of this article. More than “failing to act” more like complete out-of-touch Ahole
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/11/09/455324174/amid-controversy-university-of-missouri-system-president-resigns?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20151109&utm_campaign=alert&utm_term=breakingnews
sparrow
@p.a.: I did that when I first started dating a Greek. We meet an old friend of his, they start talking in Greek. After we leave, I’m like “so, wow, that was a big disagreement, are you guys ok?” thinking they will never speak again, and he just looks at me like I’m a complete alien — “thats a normal Greek conversation! That’s normal you cold-ass Americanaki!”
Duane
@trollhattan:
The Sailor
I broke the connector to my laptop power supply yesterday. I was bereft of internet.
So I wasn’t able to comment about the Colts’ game.
I’m not a sports fan, I’m a team fan. The Colts WON!
Um, sorry, it’s an open thread, and handegg. Hope I’m not too far off topic.
The Sailor
Um, I think srv & A Guy are really trolls. Is it just me?
cmorenc
@srv:
I read the linked article – if I was Nicholas or Erika Christakis (the residential adviser couple being “witch hunted” for an email no one but an immature demented ideologue could possibly interpret as offensive – I would tell these students to go fuck yourself, you self-righteous assholes- and probably get dismissed by the university for failure to exude obsequious utter humility in front of the politically pure and correct students.
cmorenc
@Amir Khalid:
The key thing is to find a critic who has a good track record of liking most of the same movies you like, and for some of the same reasons – even though there are sometimes nits of disagreement or not mutually seeing all the same things in each movie. I rarely went to a movie the late Roger Ebert really liked that I didn’t also like.
Big Picture Pathologist
If college football teams put their efforts into improving the world, they would make the play Lysistrata look as effective as an Occupy Wall Street demonstration.
AxelFoley
@The Sailor:
No, it’s not just you. They really are trolls.
jlow
From the SBNation rundown- I’m a friend of (ex)President Wolfe and he had a black friend so he’s not a racist, and the students don’t know what real oppression is.