(no subject)

Back from ICFA, where we had an excellent time. Trying to catch up, but if there's anything in particular you think I should see, let me know.

Funny dictator

LOLKims

Thanx to matt_ruff

Arf arf

Dueling church marquees

Thanx to Making Light.

ak = id

President Obama gets Bart Stupid's support by granting him what was already there.

Thanx to Pandagon.

Some good things about this year's ICFA

* Meeting nisi_la

* The opening panel, particularly DeWitt Kilgore and Owl Goingback. The latter reported that publishers asked him to change his name because it sounded too foreign.

* nellorat's paper on Peter Straub, specifically Mister X

* nellorat's session, where as she said, the audience was small but choice: Kit and Joe Reed, Jennifer Stevenson, Rhonda Brock-Servais, and of course Peter Straub.

* Kit and Joe Reed, whom we got to spend a lot of time with;

* Bill Senior talking about The Hobbit

* David Farnell's paper on how intermarriage with the Other is seen as frightening/tempting in H.P. Lovecraft's "The Shadow over Innsmouth" and Octavia Butler's Lilith's Brood.

* Farah Mendlesohn, who has stepped down after years of great service as the parent organization's president and has declared that her new title is Dowager President.

To encourage free enterprise

cmpriest offers an argument for the kind of healthcare system the civilized world uses.

And on the same topic, that old iron Michael Berube offers a eulogy for the night the country died.

Dangerous drug

In its purest form, a newspaper consists of a collection of facts which, in controlled circumstances, can actively improve knowledge. Unfortunately, facts are expensive, so to save costs and drive up sales, unscrupulous dealers often "cut" the basic contents with cheaper material, such as wild opinion, bullshit, empty hysteria, reheated press releases, advertorial padding and photographs of Lady Gaga with her bum hanging out. The hapless user has little or no concept of the toxicity of the end product: they digest the contents in good faith, only to pay the price later when they find themselves raging incoherently in pubs, or – increasingly – on internet message boards

--Charlie Brooker

Thanx to john_d_owen