For the last weekend of Should (In Theory) Be Entirely Unnecessary Month:
- Unfortunately, the performance arts are not exactly a bastion of fairness on race or ethnicity. Slatkin's article barely scratches the surface, because it never mentions the single, easy step that could be taken. Blind auditions aren't just for gender disparity! Or for music.
- Finally — and ironically, forced by Kickstarter rules — a major-studio film will be available on the day of initial release to those of us who hate theaters without doing any illegal downloading. It's not even the expense that's the issue (although the expense is getting out of hand, especially once one considers concessions!); it's the sheer unpleasantness of the herd-of-cattle, uncomfortable-seating experience... and having to see something that is often supposed to create an emotional resonance in the dubious company of people one would not ordinarily associate with (and yes, I mean you, gum-cracking preteenaged girls with your incessent text-messaging and perfume! among others). And unlike the preceding sausage, with film there's no real possibility/excuse of the ephemeral performance-art moment of magic...
- I suppose it could be worse: Determining who's a real nerd could be gender-based. Oh, wait: It is.
- First it was Crown. Then it was Borders. Now it's B&N's turn to be turned into something else... ok, it actually happened a long time ago, in that B&N stores are no longer primarily trade bookstores. This particular bid for the chain, however, inadvertently makes clear that financiers now consider the company little more than a real-estate investment boondoggle (between real estate owned and the value of long-term leases).
- It's not the science.
But climate change denial is also about ideology. Many deniers have come to the conclusion that climate change is some kind of leftwing conspiracy – because the scale of the international public intervention necessary to cut carbon emissions in the time demanded by the science simply cannot be accommodated within the market-first, private enterprise framework they revere.
Sadly, this all-too-accurate-on-one-level comment fails to acknowledge the source of the ideology in question: Willful misreading of Adam Smith. "Self-interest" is only two-thirds of the descriptor: One must include "enlightened," or one's interpretations are merely self-interest.
- Oh, my, this makes too much sense. Sarcastically, I'd propose that H'wood go one step farther: Bite a very small bullet and refuse permission for screenings of the next Star Trek film on premiere day in Arizona in summer of 2016. It's not like there won't be holdover films available to fill those screens.