Category Archives: Politically Incorrect

One of televisions most notorious cartoon antisemites is now an Orthodox rabbi.

Eric Cartman, the egomaniacal, hate speech-spouting grade schooler on Comedy Centrals long-running adult animated series South Park, has had a change of heart in a new hour-long special of the show, which is set 40 years in the future.

In South Park: Post COVID, which debuted on Thanksgiving on the Paramount Plus streaming service, Cartman has converted to Judaism, leads a congregation in Colorado Springs, wears a tallit wherever he goes, and has a Jewish wife named Yentl and three children: Moishe, Menorah and Hakham. His trademark blue hat now serves as a kippah.

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Is Cartmans conversion for real, or some elaborate scheme directed at his old nemesis, Kyle Broflovski? Post COVID is only the first part of a new series of South Park movies commissioned as Paramount Plus exclusives, so we wont know for sure whats going on with him until the story arc continues sometime in December.

But his sudden devotion to the Torah is enough of a shocker to send Kyle, the shows long-suffering Jewish protagonist, into fits of rage, as he becomes convinced his ex-friends new life is just a mean-spirited ruse.

The Cartman-Kyle storyline is only the B-plot of the new special the rest involves the old schoolyard gang reuniting to try to uncover long-buried secrets of the pandemic but South Park has long used the dynamic between the two as politically incorrect comic fodder, dating back to the shows debut in 1997. Series co-creators Matt Stone (who is Jewish, and voices Kyle) and Trey Parker (who voices Cartman) have built many episodes around Jewish themes, frequently making note of Cartmans antisemitism usually as a way to mock actual antisemites.

The pint-sized sociopath has previously impersonated Hitler in an attempt to get Passion of the Christ fans to re-enact the Holocaust; faked having Tourette Syndrome in order to spout antisemitic speech in public; and tried to force Kyle to hand over his Jew Gold. Hes even jokingly converted to Judaism before, in a 2012 Passover special.

But this time, Cartman actually seems serious about his faith he even yells out Talmudic lessons while in the bedroom with his wife. Kyle, meanwhile, seems to have lapsed from his own beliefs in the intervening decades, noting at one point, Its been a long time since Ive prayed. The rest of the Broflovski family, who play a large role in the original South Park series and in the 1999 feature-length film, are nowhere to be found in Post COVID, though Kyle still lives in their house and keeps their photos on his wall.

So maybe seeing his longtime frenemy embrace the faith he once ridiculed could open up something in Kyle. But if so, that may take some more healing. When circumstances compel Kyle to host Cartmans family, he instead tries to kick them out. One of Cartmans kids exclaims, This is just like when our people were exiled from the Holy Land!

Jewish fans of South Park are used to Cartmans shenanigans: Odds are, theres something funny going on here. We wont know for sure whats up with him until the next made-for-streaming film, which is due next month.

South Park: Post COVID is now streaming on Paramount Plus.

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Cartman converts to Judaism on South Park after decades of tormenting Jews - Jewish News

Merriam-Webster just announced its Word of the Year. For some, it is a symbol of hope and health. For others, it's a representation of a politicized issue.

But as everyone can agree, the word is everywhere and it's controversial.

"Vaccine" is Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year. The word was selected based on lookup data, notable spikes, and year-over-year increases in searches.

"This is a word that has kind of two parallel but intersecting stories: one is a medical story, and one is a political story or a cultural story," said Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster's editor-at-large.

This selection comes after "pandemic" was chosen in 2020, which informed top searches on the site and reshaped daily language, according to the company. The Oxford English Dictionary selected "vax" as their word of the year.

"Vaccine" was selected, according to Merriam-Webster, because it is a promising medical solution which became a major source of political division. New research into vaccines led the company to revise and expand its entry for "vaccine" in May. An entry for "immune response," in which cells behave as though a disease is present to train the body to fight it, was added separate from "immunity."

"The 'messenger RNA vaccine' was new to me, I had never heard of it, and unless you were a research scientist, you probably haven't," Sokolowski told CNN. "Therefore, the dictionary didn't even cover a definition."

On the site, lookups for "vaccine" shot up 601% over 2020, especially toward the latter part of the year when the first US shot was administered in December.

There was a 1,048% increase in site lookups this year compared to 2019. This August, lookups of "vaccine" jumped 535% due to widespread distribution in parts of the world and major stories about policy, approval and vaccination rates. In August, the Pfizer vaccine received full FDA approval.

It was also the time when New York and California instituted vaccine mandates for healthcare workers, as well as national announcements about booster shots for the general public, which led to debates about inequities in vaccine distribution.

And searches have remained stable through late fall, especially with talk about the Omicron variant and the efficacy of vaccines in stopping it.

"Vaccine" also has a compelling etymology, according to Sokolowski. The word derives from the Latin word "vaccinus," meaning "of or from a cow." The Latin for cow is "vacca." The word later entered French as "vaccin," then into English with today's spelling.

Sokolowski believes people will continue to look up the word in high numbers for perhaps years to come, as the term "vaccine" becomes a more regular feature of daily life.

One notable runner-up word was "insurrection," searches for which increased by 61,000% on January 7, the day after the January 6 siege on the US Capitol. Searches continued throughout the year with more arrests and congressional hearings. Sokolowski noted the word "embodied the shock of that day" because of its derivation from Latin, which originally had strong legal meaning.

According to Sokolowski, people turn to the dictionary in times of uncertainty and urgency. The dictionary is a way to achieve a consensus, which "doesn't mean that we agree with each other on the policies, but that we agree with the words that we use as carrying meaning and having a specific meaning."

Another runner-up was "perseverance," the name of NASA's latest Mars rover, which landed February 18. The name was chosen by a seventh-grader in Virginia who participated in an essay contest organized by NASA.

The word "woke" also made the top 10, which fascinated Sokolowski because of how quickly the definition changed. Five years ago, "woke" referred to "a kind of enlightened awareness," but it now serves as an "epithet to argue against the acknowledgment of what some would call progressive ideas or some would call revisionist history."

The word "guardian" shot up 3,142% this year mainly because Cleveland's MLB team changed its name from the Indians to the Guardians to remove a term many called culturally insensitive or politically incorrect.

"We are in a period of time when terms of identity, whether it's transgender identity, racial identity, ethnic identity, the pronouns that we use... are the object of a huge amount of concentrated attention in our language," Sokolowski acknowledged.

Other top words include infrastructure, cicada, meta, nomad, cisgender, and murraya -- a tropical tree and the winning word for the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

"In controversial times or uncertain times, there is this neutral and objective arbiter of meaning and that is the dictionary," Sokolowski contended. "That's why we revise constantly to make sure our dictionary is accurate, but it also means that there is a sort of constant."

The-CNN-Wire

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It's a beacon of hope and it's a politicized issue. Merriam Webster's 2021 word of the year is ... - WKOW

There is still no news about the premiere of Venom Let There Be Carnage in China when it hit theaters around the world last October but in the eastern country there is still no possibility of seeing the tape in theaters. The reason? Rumors indicate that it would be a cancellation to Tom Hardy for a series of unfortunate statements the actor made at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.

At that time, the interpreter was asked if Marlon brando it was an influence on him. So Hardy commented that he saw only one Hollywood legend movie: The Tea Rising in Shanghai, in which he plays Chinese, said and was celebrated by the journalists of the meeting. The truth is that the film actually talks about Japan and is titled The Teahouse of the August Moon.

The interviewer thanked the actor for his playful statements in a time so marked by public relations. Hardy doubled down: When China dominates everything in 15 years, we are all going to have to speak Cantonese. People are going to have to grow. There is a trillion dollars in debt and the beneficiary of all that is China.

There are more people in China than we have here. Who are we to meddle with what God wants? No man can stem the tide. It is simply about the collapse and rise of civilizations , went to the analysis politically incorrect from Tom Hardy that surely offended his fanbase in that eastern country.

The comments of Tom Hardy were described as Insulting to China in hundreds of Internet forums including the Bilibili video platform with a post that reached 1.5 million views. It is definitely discriminatory to call a Japanese character Chinese. I feel ofended. It is a shame. Goodbye, Tom Hardy , remarked a user among thousands of similar comments.

If the statements of Tom Hardy lead to Venom Let There Be Carnage is not released in China, it will be a major disappointment for Sony. Lets remember: the first installment of the symbiote raised more money in that country than in North America. 269 million dollars against 214 million of the green currency in the United States. Scandalous!

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They cancel Tom Hardy in China for discrimination and do not premiere Venom 2 - Market Research Telecast

I love to play with colors, creating lively, unexpected schemes for clothing, flowers and home dcor. When I find the perfect shade, its mine for life. As soon as I enter my nail salon, the manicurist pulls out Hi-Voltage, a glorious magenta that garners compliments even when Im on a gurney.

My closet is filled with go-to-black, accented with fuchsia, electric blue and red, but when it comes to house paint colors, Ive learned to play it safe. My art teacher used to say, When in doubt, choose gray.

After our last remodel, I tested eight shades of gray on the living room walls, checking the paint day and night before settling on Dim Sum. A subtle blue with a hint of gray, Dim Sum has a HEX code (red-green-blue formulation) of D7DFE0 and an LRV (light reflectance value) of 72.75 percent. It bears no resemblance to anything you would want to eat. Who comes up with these names, anyway? Many dont even include the name of the color, namely Footie Pajamas (bluish pink) or Happy Yipee (golden yellow).

While choosing an interior color is tricky enough, exterior colors present another layer of complications. In sunshine and in shadow, they must work with the roofing, the driveway, the landscape and even the neighborhood.

Over the years, the wrong colors have put a hex on our homes, impeding our ability to unload them. When I lived in Walnut Creek, I chose a lovely shade called Redwood, transforming our house into the neighborhood IHOP. The turquoise shutters peeking through the bedroom window didnt help. Before selling the IHOP, we removed the shutters and repainted the interior Relocation Beige. Then I visited Dutch Boy and chose a delicious shade of blue for the exterior. Or so I thought, until my son, then a teenager, phoned me at work.

Mom, this house looks like a Smurf village! he hollered.

Amplified under sunlight, that stunning blue on the sample square metamorphosed into a cartoonish calamity. To make it work, wed have to wear goofy Phrygian caps. There goes the neighborhood. Instead, we took the paint cans back to Dutch Boy, where they were poured into an enormous vat and mixed with a couple of quarts of inky black at considerable expense.

Well, after those experiences with the IHOP and Smurf village, I had learned my lesson. In 2002, before the exterior of our house was last painted, I visited Home Depot, which offered paint-by-numbers palettes. After testing several combinations, we came up with a winning trio that we decided to replicate this year: cool gray with a hint of lavender for the stucco, charcoal gray for the trim and muted purple for the shutters, which happens to go splendidly with my nails.

Unfortunately, we couldnt find the old paint cans, and Home Depot no longer had the combo cards from 2002. On a whim, I clicked on Google Lens and took a picture of the house. At first, what came up was dead bed bugs. Then a closeup unveiled Cement Mortar Texture and Rough Gypsum. Not too much help.

Since the painter we hired uses Kelly-Moore, I visited the paint store and borrowed an 11-inch-long, 2-inch-thick color fan containing 1,600 shades. Then I ventured online and played with electronic palettes (kellymoore.com/mycolorstudio) until I was dizzy. Take the Plunge (a lavender-gray), Natural Pumice and the politically incorrect Gypsy Jewels create a striking palette. So do Breathless (another lavender-gray), Kettleman (charcoal gray) and Vintage Wine. I also couldnt resist Kundalini Bliss. How many samples should I test at $10 a quart?

I asked my husband for his input, but he wasnt about to duke it out with me over 1,600 possible colors. Just choose one or two favorites and give me veto power. Oh, by the way, check out the paint cans that I put on the back steps.

The labels are gone, but they look like the exact shades we used in 2002. Should we ask the paint store to replicate them, or should I continue playing with palettes? After all, Im having too much fun.

Time to take a Leap of Faith and lose myself in Blissful Meditation? But its late, and these sleepy shades of gray are making me yawn. Do I dare take a risk? A jolt of Hi-Voltage magenta would certainly enliven this subdued suburban street. Flashing my nails, I relay my decision to my husband.

Yes, he says emphatically. With chartreuse accents.

The rest is here:
If you want to live in a Smurf house, I can help with colors J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

Aurora police officials say three people were injured outside of Hinkley High School in Aurora Nov. 19. Its the second shooting in close proximity to a high school in five days. Photo by PHILIP B. POSTON/Sentinel Colorado

A quip from one of the teenage boys accused of wounding two Hinkley High School students, while shooting up the parking lot there about two weeks ago, illustrates Auroras problem.

When one of the boys involved in the apparent gang-related shooting was asked by police why he felt he needed to take a gun to a schoolyard scrap in the parking lot, he said, Its the way it is in this town, according to a police affidavit of the interview.

From the mouths of well-armed babes.

The boy clearly isnt alone in thinking that everybody needs a gun to go to school, to the store, to the park, to speed through a neighborhood, or harangue kids who speed through a neighborhood.

The Sentinel reported that 135 people were shot, wounded and didnt die in Aurora so far this year. Its a 136% increase in the number of non-fatal shootings since 2019, police say.

The vast majority of these shootings targeted young men and boys. On top of that, were the usual couple dozen of murders by gun that Aurora sees slightly wax and wane every year.

The Denver Posts Elise Schmelzer reported this summer that gun sales were over-the-top brisk in 2020, but that 2021 will eclipse even that number. The nearly half-million guns approved for sale by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation in 2020 were about 45% more than 2019, according to the Post.

This year?

Data from the CBI and FBI show that people in the state have already legally bought almost a half-million guns by the end of October. Residents statewide are buying guns at the rate of about 50,000 a month these days.

Its not just Aurora and Colorado. The FBI reports more than 25 million guns have been sold across the United States so far this year, a record number among record years going back for decades.

Armed to the teeth in a pandemic, what could go wrong?

We all know the answer to that. Even those who lie to themselves and others with the absurd chestnut, guns dont kill people, know the truth.

People dont effortlessly embed lethal metal slugs into peoples bodies, guns do.

Id be as misled or misleading as the gun whacks if I thought that rounding up some of the pistols and assault rifles would easily round down the number of people shot each week in Aurora and Denver.

The plague of gun violence is vastly complicated, because weve made it that way. Rather than deal with the obvious dilemma posed by exceedingly lethal and portable weapons accessible to children across the region and the nation, we politicize whats essentially a public safety problem, making it a wedge for Team Right to fight against Team Left.

We have no problems with safety caps on pain-killer bottles and sophisticated locks to keep thieves and even drunks from stealing our cars. But we pass out handguns to people as if they were no more treacherous than a wine opener.

Just how badly this can go wrong is in the headlines nearly every day now. In southeast Aurora last week, a former Greenwood Village cop and a group of teenagers got into an argument about dangerous driving in the neighborhood. A 17-year-old boy and the 36-year-old cop both pulled out guns and the boy was dead and the man injured in a matter of seconds.

Monday, another teenage boy, this time in Michigan, walks into his school with a gun his father bought four days earlier and opens fire on his fellow students, killing four, wounding seven more, and terrorizing the entire school and town.

The Sentinel and every other newspaper across the country is filled with stories just like that every day. An argument or critical moment appears and someone is injured or dead, about 200 times so far in Aurora this year.

One Aurora and two Denver city lawmakers are proposing an effort to create a regional gun buy-back, hoping to persuade people to give up whats killing all of us. By itself, such an effort would be beyond futile and probably heavily supported by the gun industry. Given that there are likely millions of guns in the glove boxes, purses, backpacks and suit-coat pockets in closets all across the state, such an event would be as effective as ridding the community of old pills in the medicine cabinet. There are many, many more to come.

Given that every single past effort to create serious gun control has failed fabulously at the capitols in Colorado and Washington, and everywhere else, its pretty clear were just going to have to suck it up.

There are far too many guns out there, way too easy for teenagers to get their hands on to think that we could persuade every parent in the region to buckle down on their kids to just say no to firearms.

More than one Colorado member of Congress and the state Legislature go to extravagant lengths to show off their firearm obsessions, normalizing the act of strapping on a hog leg anywhere in Colorado, just like people reach for umbrellas in places where it rains.

More security at schools and malls. A huge effort to get parents to act like parents. Campaigns and programs to give kids something to do besides drive around with guns. All those things will help. None of those things are the answer, however.

Only far, far fewer guns, tightly controlled, locked and monitored will change the fact that kids think they need a gun because, thats the way it is in this town.

Follow @EditorDavePerry on Twitter and Facebook or reach him at 303-750-7555 or [emailprotected]

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PERRY: 'That's the way it is in this town' - A child's guide to gun control in Aurora - Sentinel Colorado

A recent article focused on Fabindias casteist Bana and Rajwada collection raised some important issues that compel us to confront deeper questions about the history of the subcontinent and historiography itself. The article called upon FabIndia to reconsider using their supposedly problematic and provocative fashion labels of Rajwada and Bana the former meaning Royal and the latter being an honorific term used to address young Rajput males.

The author alleges the terms evoke negative memories for oppressed castes of Rajasthan and should therefore be renounced. He even recalls a specific memory where he was allegedly attacked by children belonging to the Kshatriya community for making casteist remarks. He implicates the entire Rajput community for the supposed actions of a few children children he admits to have supposedly incited with apparently harmless casteist taunts. Leaving this tale aside, the feudal protocols such as removing shoes when passing a Zamindars house also dictated the relationship between the Rajput Zamindar and the Rajput clan-retainers (commoners). However, feudal practices like not being permitted to ride horses is not to be taken lightly. These practices are not justifiable, but they were not limited to Kshatriya domains.

Such practices were also found in regions where monarchs or rulers were from non-Kshatriya communities such as Bharatpur, Patiala, or Rewari, places that were ruled by rulers from OBC communities such as Hindu Jaats, Sikh Jatts, and Ahirs, respectively. Anti-Dalit atrocities and oppressive practices are still found in these regions today, as they are everywhere else in the nation. However, it is still problematic to blame entire communities for the actions of some. Such generalizations form the basis of casteism and most self-styled crusaders miss the mark by indulging in this.

Additionally, conflating caste and class is very problematic. Rajputs are neither economically dominant nor prosperous, hence conflating zamindar Rajputs with common Rajputs (clan retainers) is as dishonest as clubbing a Jat or Ahir Zamindar with a Jat or Ahir commoner. Though most of Indias feudal lords and monarchs were Rajputs, the community in general formed the bulk of North Indias farmers. Royals and nobility from non-Kshatriya communities were also found across India, including in Rajasthan. There were Jat zamindars (Chaudharies and Mirdhas), Charan and Rajpurohit jagirdars and such casteist practices were prevalent in these regions as well as across the country. Rulers from OBC communities indulged in casteism as well.

Returning to the contention over honorific terms, claiming that terms like rajwada are problematic is a rather puzzling argument. This is an extreme example of cancel culture which will only create more social conflicts rather than solve them. If we are to follow this logic, we would also have to cancel Dalit stalwarts such as Santokh Singh Chaudhry for his familys adoption of the name Singh and Chaudhry both of which are related to Rajputs and feudalism. Indeed, terms like Sardar (which is colloquially used for turbaned Sikh men) would also be cancelled as it has its roots in feudal India as Rajput and Afghan nobles and retainers utilized it. Are we to gloss over the fact that many communities have engaged in adopting Rajputs symbols, names and titles as a means of empowerment and upliftment? The most prominent example being that of Sikhs who adopted Singh and Kaur from the Rajputs.

Cancelling words related to Rajwada would also require the author to change his first name to something else less provocative. Contrary to his claims, there is an agressive Rajputisation followed by most North Indian OBC SC ST communities, from Jats to Bhils. The admiration for Kshatriyas and their symbols has also engendered unprecedented levels of historical appropriation (e.g. new Gujjar claims on Chauhan and Pratihar Kshatriya dynasties, Ahir claims on Yadu Rajputs). For millions across the nation, Rajwadas contributions are inspirational, and many have been at the forefront of anti-casteism. Many of their socialist reforms that continue to irk casteists, such as reservations, have found their champions from among the Kshatriyas notably former PMs Chandra Shekhar and VP Singh. In fact, more Kshatriya elites have donated lands or advocated for redistribution of lands to OBCs and Dalits than any other segment (Brahmin, Bania or OBC zamindar elites) in Indian society.

Overall, the article rests upon a well-established bias among academics and media one that glosses over the fact people from all communities in India have, at some point in history, indulged in the same casteist behaviour. Here, the author is trying to specifically blame Rajputs for it. This is a gross misrepresentation of the structural nature of the caste system in which all sections of the society openly and commonly engaged in caste discrimination against Dalits. The anti-Dalit acts by OBCs was not a rare occurrence historically or contemporarily, by any measure. Broad brushstrokes that divide Indias historical society into a binary of oppressed and oppressor misrepresents Indian history and veils the true breadth of the caste system. Expanding the boundaries of what is considered politically incorrect to include terms related to Rajwada and Bana is a rather odd way of countering caste discrimination. This type of hyper-polarization will do little to address this serious issue. If words like Rajwada or Bana offend such self-styled crusaders, then they must also staunchly oppose Rajputisation and the aggressive appropriation of Rajput history undertaken by various OBC groups. On the contrary, some journalists have erroneously but actively supported Goojar claims on Samrat Prithviraj Chauhan and Mihirbhoj Pratihar as well as that of Ahirs appropriation of Yaduvanshis and Koeri appropriation of Kushwaha Rajputs.

These actions of converting medieval Rajput monarchs to OBC castes while cancelling the entire Rajput community of 70 million, across classes, as oppressive zamindars are inherently contradictory. It only serves to isolate a community and incite caste hatred against it. Is this not exactly what people opposed to the tag Jashn-e-Riwaz intended, albeit for a different community?

Views expressed above are the author's own.

END OF ARTICLE

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Bana and Rajwada collections: Dichotomization obscures the realities of caste and class - The Times of India Blog

Heres a selection of top gift ideas for the DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD-loving, TV binge-watcher in the family.

Smallville: The Complete Series 20th Anniversary Edition (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, not rated, 9,606 minutes, 1.78:1 aspect ratio, $179.99) The Emmy Award-winning drama that chronicled the life of a certain refugee from the doomed planet of Krypton, raised in a small town in the United States and taught to fight for truth, justice and the American way finally arrives in the high definition format after a decade wait.

As most fans know, the WB and subsequently renamed CW cable channel chronicled Clark Kents adventures for 10 seasons from 2001 to 2011, and lucky gift owners can now appreciate all 218 episodes on this 42-disc Blu-ray set.

Tom Welling stars as the pure of heart and often angst-ridden teen (a budding Man of Steel). Viewers are privy to his origin and early young adult years, living in a small town in Kansas and raised by Martha and Jonathan Kent (Annette OToole and John Schneider).

His adventures allowed him to meet many iconic characters from DC Comics extensive Superman canon.

That includes Clark meeting his first crush Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk), his cousin Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl (Laura Vandervoort), the villain Doomsday (Sam Witwer) and eventually Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane (Erica Durance).

Most enlightening was Clarks complicated relationship with the millionaire founder of LuthorCorp., Lionel Luthor (John Glover), and his son Lex (Michael Rosenbaum). We all know how that turned out.

The show even took fans to the beginnings of a fledgling Justice League with Clark forming an alliance with Green Arrow (Justin Hartley), Impulse (Kyle Gallner), Aquaman (Alan Ritchson), Cyborg (Lee Thompson Young), Black Canary (Alaina Huffman) and Martian Manhunter (Phil Morris).

My biggest disappointment with the series is only seeing a short scene of Mr. Welling dressed as Superman and even a bigger aggravation was Warner Bros. not allowing him to star in a Superman movie.

However, and most notable, Smallville set the framework for the meteoric rise of the live-action superhero television series that followed on the CW network, making it one of the more pop art influential television shows in the history of the medium.

Best extras: Warner Bros. pulls together all of the bonus content from the 2011 complete series DVD set release as well as the Season 6 to 10 Blu-ray sets, within a cubed-shaped box and clamshell case for each season, to give fans more than 28 hours of production and series extended memories.

Highlights include almost two dozen optional commentary tracks and more than a dozen featurettes such as 30 minutes on introducing the Justice Society to the Smallville universe; a 26-minute look at the Green Arrow in comics; and a 23-minute roundtable discussion with four of the actors who have portrayed Jimmy Olsen over the years.

Viewers also get a pair of bonus discs in the DVD format (really, Warner could not release those as Blu-ray?) that were included in the 2011 set and offer goodies such as a 90-minute look at the history of DC Comics, an hourlong retrospective on the series to celebrate the 100th show and a 109-minute retrospective covering the entire series.

Another big extra is getting a coveted digital code to watch the show via the Vudu streaming service.

Sex and the City: The Complete Series (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, not rated, 2,691 minutes, 1.78:1 aspect ratio, $139.99) HBOs groundbreaking and multiple Emmy-winning, critically acclaimed series from the late 1990s covering the professional careers, relationships and romances of four best friends living in New York City finally gets a spectacular release in an 18-disc, high definition Blu-ray set.

Based on the bestselling book by Candace Bushnell, the show offered viewers over its six-season, 94-episode run a mix of comedy and drama tied to the world of writer Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), public relations executive Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall), lawyer Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) and overachiever Charlotte York (Kristin Davis).

Besides an homage to the fashion and style of the Big Apple, the series also refreshingly and unapologetically dived into highly sexual and modern social issues decidedly focused on from the female perspective.

For many, it will go down as one of the greatest television shows of all time.

Purists will note that Warner Bros. has reframed the presentation from its original square 1.33:1 presentations roots to the screen-filling 1.78:1 for modern monitors while still delivering strong visuals through the transformation.

Best extras: Viewers will first find two aptly named movies an extended cut of Sex and the City: The Movie (2008) and Sex and the City 2 (2010) that display a nice finishing touch.

Next, the extras, culled from the DVD sets, focus on 18 optional commentary tracks with writer and director Michael Patrick King; an almost hourlong, two-part HBO farewell to the show; and a vintage 48-minute panel discussion from the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival with Mr. Patrick King interviewing Miss Parker and then other writers of the show.

I Dream of Jeannie: The Complete Series (Mill Creek Entertainment, not rated, 3,470 minutes, 1.33:1 aspect ratio, $119.99) One of the iconic situation comedies from the earlier days of television debuts in the high definition format on a 12-disc set offering all five seasons of the show (the first in black and white) that originally appeared on NBC prime time between 1965 to 1970.

Viewers get all 139 episodes of a series that focused on the relationship between astronaut Capt. Anthony Tony Nelson (Larry Hagman) and a gorgeous 2,000-year-old genie (Barbara Eden) that he accidentally released from her bottle found when he was stranded on a desert island.

Smitten with her new master, the subservient genie gets him back home to Cape Kennedy, Florida, where the real shenanigans begin as they learn to live with one another and the love between the pair blossoms.

That means hiding her magical secret from others, including initially from Capt. Nelsons best friend, Col. Roger Healey (Bill Daly), and later from the bewildered psychiatrist Dr. Alfred Bellows (Hayden Rorke) and NASA superiors.

Despite the politically incorrect dose of sexism, the laughs hold up and are plentiful complemented by a groovy theme song; an opening cartoon from the Looney Tunes legend Friz Freleng; primitive special effects; and guest stars such as Sammy Davis Jr., Paul Lynde and Bob Denver (Gilligan making this a great gift for the television historian in the family.

Also, Mill Creek has done a great job delivering a very digitally clean version of the classic series.

Best extras: Viewers only get the 1985 made-for-TV reunion show I Dream of Jeannie 15 Years Later that has Jeannie happily married to Col. Nelson (Wayne Rogers replaced Larry Hagman, by the way) and living in suburbia with their teenage son.

Missing, and definitely necessary, is the optional commentary track with Miss Eden, Hagman and Daly recorded for the special 2008 DVD release.

And, come on Mill Creek, Miss Eden is still alive, and I bet that she would have been more than happy to reminisce about the role that made her a star.

Star Trek: The Complete Original Series 55th Anniversary Steelbook Collection (Paramount Home Entertainment, not rated, 4,062 minutes, 1.33:1 aspect ratio, $111.99) Paramount offers gift givers yet another variation to its high definition release of the first, and many argue the best, of the Star Trek television series with a 20-disc set collected in a trio of metallic cases.

Owners get the three seasons of Gene Roddenberrys groundbreaking, 1960s sci-fi television show with all 79 episodes, pristinely cleaned up and remastered to perfection. There is even an option to watch the shows with special effects shots enhanced using current technology.

That translates into a massive voyage to appreciate the early adventures of the crew of the USS Enterprise that included legends such as Capt. James T. Kirk (William Shatner), Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Dr. Leonard Bones McCoy (DeForest Kelley), chief engineer Montgomery Scott (James Doohan), security officer Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig), helmsman Hikaru Sulu (George Takei) and communications officer Lt. Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols).

Best extras: All of the extras from the remastered rerelease of the show back in 2009 are included with a major highlight granting viewers access to Starfleet Commands database for the episodes Where No Man Has Gone Before, Run Amok and The Trouble with Tribbles.

This informative interactive provides a pop-up, picture-in-picture presentation with interviews and facts about the episode.

Equally important, from a historical perspective, owners get a wide range of featurettes and extras including an optional commentary track with the writer of The Trouble with Tribbles episode David Gerrold; the restored unaired alternate version of the pilot Where No Man Has Gone Before; and nine minutes from Roddenberry on the groundbreaking series.

The extras also feature versions of The Cage (the full-color episode with original special effects, full-color episode with remastered special effects, and an extended version with black-and-white footage).

And, just for fun, goodies include two additional episodes with Tribbles themes More Tribbles, More Troubles from Star Trek: The Animated Series, and Trials and Tribble-ations from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Three separate installments of Billy Blackburns Treasure Chest: Rare Home Movies and Special Memories, by the often-used background performer, offer a collection of rare footage from the set.

However, the real reason for the die-hards to buy the set is for the packaging.

The steel cases are yellow (Season 1), blue (Season 2) and red (Season 3), and each front and back of the cases feature color photographs of characters from the shows.

Note: For those unaware, the Star Trek franchise continues in the live-action format today via the Paramount Plus streaming service. A great gift for those immersed in the Trekkie universe and unable to afford the monthly cost is the first three seasons of Star Trek: Discovery (not rated, 2,052 minutes, 2.39:1 aspect, $119.11) available in a 12-disc, high definition, Blu-ray set.

Set a decade before the emergence of the crew of the USS Enterprise, the adventures dive into the complex life of the nearly all-powerful Michael Burnham, a key member and science specialist of the USS Discovery.

She often flexes her brute instinct and savvy intellectual muscles while shedding a few tears as she saves the galaxy in multiple parallel universes and time-altering dimensions.

The show shines with storylines that incorporated Capt. Christopher Pike (the original commander of the USS Enterprise), a young Spock (Miss Burnhams foster brother), and a war between the Federation and the Klingons.

Viewers also get more than eight hours of extras that offer a detailed breakdown of the production through optional commentary tracks and featurettes on costuming, special effects, alien species, lore and set design.

Beverly Hills 90210: The Ultimate Series (Paramount Home Entertainment, not rated, 13,192 minutes, 1.33:1, 1.78:1 aspect ratio, $119.99) Fox Networks influential patriarch of prime-time, young adult soap operas gave rabid fans 10 seasons of friendship, steamy romance and angst-ridden adventures between 1990 to 2002.

All 290 episodes are now available in a massive 74-disc set packed in three clamshell cases and presented in the antiquated DVD format.

The series follows the complex lives of a group of buddies living in the upscale land of celebrity-encrusted Beverly Hills, California, as they evolve from high school to college students and eventual semi-responsible adults.

The show made teen idols and stars of Jason Priestley and Shannen Doherty as Brandon and Brenda Walsh, a pair of siblings from Minnesota attempting to acclimate to the new West Beverly High School.

They meet other rising stars including Luke Perry as Dylan McKay, Tori Spelling as Donna Martin, Jennie Garth as Kelly Taylor and Hilary Swank as Carly Reynolds.

Best extras: The set first includes the six-episode BH90210 featuring seven actors from the original show (including Mr. Priestly, Miss Doherty and Miss Spelling) existing in a fictionalized reality-type series as they work on rebooting the franchise.

Next, viewers get a smattering of extras from the previously released DVD sets highlighted by a trio of optional commentary tracks (none with the stars) and 43 minutes on filming the final episode.

A bonus disc is also included that features a 40-minute, 2003 reunion with the cast and a vintage behind-the-scenes featurette with the young actors from 1993.

CSI: NY, the Complete Series (Paramount Home Entertainment, not rated, 8,478 minutes, 1.78:1 aspect ratio, $118.99) Yet another spinoff of the successful CSI: Crime Scene Investigation franchise gave viewers a chance to watch a team of forensic scientists and police officers in action in the Big Apple for nine seasons on the CBS network between 2004 and 2013.

A spinoff from the successful CSI: Miami follows Detective Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise), a former Marine haunted after the loss of his wife in the 9/11 World Trade Towers attack, and his crime-solving investigators. They include assistants Stella Bonasera (Melina Kanakaredes) and Jo Danville (Sela Ward); Detectives Danny Messer (Carmine Giovinazzo), Don Flack (Eddie Cahill), Lindsay Monroe (Anna Belknap) and Aiden Bern (Vanessa Ferlito); and medical examiners Dr. Sheldon Hawkes (Hill Harper) and Dr. Sid Hammerback (Robert Joy).

They delve into cases offering the chance for an irresistible mix of murderer profiling, autopsy imagery, use of tech equipment and subplots tied to their soap-operatic lives.

Of course, guest stars abound during the series and eagle-eyed viewers will appreciate appearances by Ed Asner (The Mary Tyler Moore Show) in his Emmy-winning episode from the fifth season, Yahrzeit; Peter Fonda (Easy Rider); Edward Furlong (Terminator); Michael Clarke Duncan (The Green Mile); Kid Rock; Marlee Matlin (Children of a Lesser God); and Craig T. Nelson (Coach).

This boxed set contains all of the 197 episodes on 55 discs secured in three clamshell cases.

Besides delivering a love letter to the diverse locations and architectural wonders of New York City, the series theme song allows owners to listen to snippets of The Whos anthem Baba ORiley until their ears bleed.

Best extras: Offering more than nine hours of extras scattered across the discs, the set includes: 18 optional commentary tracks with select cast and crew; deleted scenes; and over four dozen featurettes ranging from 10 minutes with horror director Joe Dante (he directed the episode Boo), a 15-minute early look at the characters and even a trio of CSI crossover episodes.

Of course, the only caveat is watching the slick show in the antiqued DVD format.

Note: Budding crime-scene investigators will also appreciate owning the seven-season run of NCIS: New Orleans The Complete Series (Paramount Home Entertainment, not rated, 6,528 minutes, 1.78:1 aspect ratio, $118.99) offering 155 episodes spread out over 39 DVDs. The show starred Scott Bakula as Special Agent Dwayne King Cassius Pride and lots of dead bodies in the Big Easy.

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Gift Guide 2021: Best of DVD and Blu-ray television - Washington Times

>>349915485thats you. thats your boss. that was then, this is now. we already confirmed that bots make 100's of thousands of transactions a second, you said yourself you cna program the machines to make trades

and you think its a big leap for some dude to hire a mathematician, an actuary and a programmer and build a program that can trade like a stockbroker. I think you seriously underestimate the skills of these professions, and I dont think its very far fetched to suggest that its already happening. In fact as I pointed out above, entire books have already been written which say exactly that .... AI is up and running and trading. It is making investment decisions outside of (or with very little) human input.

We also have behavioural scientists, actuaries, psychologists and marketers working together to create propaganda to control buying patterns and "coonsumers". they too have been working with machine learning to do preditive analysis and design.

now I agree much of this is in its infancy, its likely prone to error (or 'getting reamed" as you put it kek) and quite fallible. But all the precursors are there. All it takes now is for some mad scientist to put the two together.

Which brings us to my crazy sci-fi conspiracy theory.

Anyways i got other shit to do. I read any response though. You can have the last word. It been a nice change to have a conversation with someone who wants a discussion and not usual frog posting "kike shill fed" one liners.

thanks for listening to my crazy ideas, and have a great night anon.

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/pol/ - Politically Incorrect - Page 2 - 4chan

For comedians, a little controversy is often necessary for success. And though its easy to offend people, it'salso easyto write off people as being too easily offendedsowhat determines if a comedianhas gone too far?

Well, that, of course is completely subjective, although history has shown us that surefire way to draw complaints about your work (and therefore, more eyes on it) is to hone in on race, sex, and politics. Often, you can take the relatively easier route to drawing up some angry press by simply use dirty words in a public setting. In the age of Internet commenters, though, comedians can be sure that people out there somewhere are listening, and they're ready to take to Twitter to call for their heads if they feel upset.

Daniel Tosh found himself at the center of this debate after trying out a joke about rape during a set. The joke brought a mountain of shit down on him, even as comics like Louis C.K. weighed in to defend a comic's right to try and fail at making people laugh. C.K. himself came under fire for a Saturday Night Live monologue that poked fun at child molesters, proving that in comedy, sometimes the people who defend others often end up being defended, as well. Sometimes, the pressure calls for an apologysee Tracy Morgan, Michael Richards, and Bill Maher. Other comedians, like Lisa Lampanelli, refuse to say sorry.

Obviously, Tosh's career wasn't sunk by the joke., and he is more or less free to perform material that is controversial and offensive as he wants. In comedy, even if you're called out and beat down by people with opposing views and strong senses of what is and is not acceptableas many of the men and women on this list of controversial comedians have been at one point or anotheryou can rest assured that there is always another audience willing to look past it and buy a ticket to your next gig.

Read more:
The Most Controversial Comedians of All Time | Complex

OK, people. Now you can start decorating for Christmas.

Im an old-school traditionalist who believes we should embrace the advent season only after weve digested the remains of the Thanksgiving season, and on this, I realize Im an outlier.

Retail stories have had Christmas paraphernalia up since the last echoes of fireworks faded on the Fourth of July. Some unfortunate radio stations have played Christmas music exclusively for weeks now (hello, Chipmunks, barking dogs and the interminable Paul McCartney standard). A group of 80 marauding shoplifters even started their holidays early, invading a Walnut Creek Nordstrom to make off with Christmas treasure. (Too soon, marauders! Too soon!)

Yes, Im a grinch. A Scrooge, even. And Ive yet to meet even one, let alone three, ghosts.

Its not that I dont welcome Christmas, even though were always Doing It Wrong. The gift-giving tradition began when three Magi from the East brought the infant Jesus gold, frankincense and myrrh after following a bright star to Bethlehem. Now, we give gifts to each other, and retailers collect the gold while selling myrrh-scented candles in pricey catalogues.

Maybe its the times.

Weve senseless killings, punished and unpunished. Theres a spike in inflation that drives up prices for everything. (Soon payday lenders will be setting up kiosks at gas stations, alongside the smog check guy.) Santas sleigh is anchored off the California coast, waiting to unload into the Port of Long Beach, in part because of a shortage of his big-rig truck driving helpers.

There are political divisions so deep that Joe Biden could cure cancer and save a baby from a burning building but still be criticized in an overwrought fundraising email the next day that warns about donating before the MID-MONTH FUNDRAISING DEADLINE!

There are real racial divisions in America sowing distrust and suspicion among fellow Americans, not to mention hustlers who seek to exploit those divisions for their own advancement. There are mobs of Twitter warriors prowling the internet, seeking politically incorrect people whom they may devour.

And thats not even to mention Secretary of State Antony Blinkens complete inability to bring a truce in the never-ending War on Christmas. Who knows what will be left behind when we withdraw from that one?

Its tough to get into the spirit of the holidays. But its not impossible.

We live in a great country, a land of freedom so desirable that people wait in line for years to come, some risking their lives walking thousands of miles or sailing unseaworthy rafts across shark-infested waters. They hand their children to U.S. Marines over razor-wire fences so those infants have a chance at a better life.

Although we often disagree with each other, we are fortunate to live alongside hardworking and patriotic fellow citizens, including and especially those who volunteer to help in the worst of times: firefighters, police officers, doctors, nurses, military members past and present and their families. Even many of those who protest this country seek to make it better, to live up to its ideals.

We live in a land of plenty in a nation and a world where many go without. We lead the world in helping, with medical care and disaster relief and food for the hungry.

Yes, there are many reasons not to feel thankful, many crass commercializations of the season that seek to take our eyes away from that Bethlehem manger. But there are also many things we can choose to consider instead, those true, noble, right, pure, admirable things.

Heres hoping we can do that over the next month and even beyond. And why not? If big-box retailers can celebrate Christmas their way virtually year-round, why cant the rest of us try to do it the right way?

Contact Steve Sebelius at SSebelius@reviewjournal.com. Follow @SteveSebelius on Twitter.

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STEVE SEBELIUS: Find the merry in a world of bah, humbug! - Las Vegas Review-Journal