Thank you for posting this. There was a cult literature thread a while back and I posted Warlock as being an example of a true cult novel. He was one of the authors who demonstrated that a really great Western could also be really great literature. It's too bad that the film adaptation of Warlock hasn't been rediscovered; it came out at the time of HUAC and was scripted by a blacklisted writer (and the film's themes contain an inherent criticism of witch hunts), and so it suffered.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 12:46 PM on May 14, 2008

It might be bad, but I can't wait to rewrite it as Speed Humper for my Porn Year project.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 12:24 PM on May 9, 2008

I'd like steampunk more if it were porn.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 8:24 AM on May 8, 2008

I can't actually find a single statistic that suggests that black men commit a disproportionate number of rapes. In fact, the whole world of rape statistics, the more I dig into it, becomes hard to pin down, because a large percentage of women don't report their rapes.

Perhaps black men do rape more, but, in the absence of solid statistical evidence, and without a clear context, that's not the sort of accusation that should be raise lightly, especially since the history... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 6:50 PM on May 6, 2008

It's interesting how many women do report feeling trepidation in the company of a man that eventually assaults her, and then dismisses it, because the man is black and they don't want to make assumptions.

I feel like it is always someone's right to feel safe, no matter what the circumstances, no matter how silly or how rude it may seem. If I feel nervous about someone approaching me in the street at night, I will cross the street, and even duck into someplace that feels... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 9:29 PM on May 6, 2008

I just though a little more about this. You know, when I lived in Los Angeles, and would find myself walking on a darkened street behind a woman, or walking toward her, I always crossed the street to give her some extra room. And I'm not looking to hurt anyone. But I know how frightening it can be to be alone outside with a stranger near you, and I just don't need to contribute to anyone's nervousness. Anyone who would get offended because a stranger expresses some fear of them ... well, they... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 9:36 PM on May 6, 2008

So you're saying that in my scenario, it would be more likely that the woman would attack and murder me?

No, of course you aren't, because that's stupid. In fact, the case you are making is unrelated to the case I was making, but thanks for stopping by to remind us that men are the ones who really suffer in the country, and women are just being paranoid when they are afraid of a stranger at night.

At least, that's what it sounds like you were saying.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 10:36 PM on May 6, 2008

Obviously, the answer is yes they should. That was exactly my point. Yes, you nailed it.

My God, I've been so blind. You have perfectly deflated my balloon of needless concern with your excellent use of man-on-man violence statistics and mockery, and I shall never again be so foolish as to engage in a simple gesture to make a fellow human feel more comfortable.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 11:08 PM on May 6, 2008

Well, by all means, hulk up behind strange women on darkened streets. After all, statistically, what the hell are women worried about?
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 11:12 PM on May 6, 2008

I wasn't talking specifically about rape. All I am saying it is not bizarre for people to be frightened of total strangers in a darkened street, and, if someone is getting a sense that something might be amiss, they have every right to avoid a stranger, or go into a better lit place, or make a phone call, in order to make themselves safe. Every time I have been held up, it has been because I ignored a serious sense that something was amiss.

Yes, people should not live in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 11:23 PM on May 6, 2008

Anotherpanacea - I thought that was interesting too. 100% of black rape victims were raped by black men. 63% of the rapists of white victims were white and other.

Yeah, I've seen that statistic too, and it's one of the great examples why statistics like this can be so dangerous, as the place I have seen it quoted most, in doing a search engine search, is on blatantly racist sites.

Obviously there is a lot going on here. Black... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 10:17 AM on May 7, 2008

Consider living in a City for a while.

I don't know what that means. I live in downtown Minneapolis, and have lived in Koreatown in Los Angeles and the French Quarter of New Orleans. Perhaps the capitalization in your comment means something. By "City" are you referring to Clifford Simak's classic science fiction book in which humans have abandoned the cities to intelligent dogs and ants?
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 9:53 PM on May 7, 2008

Oh. So city means whatever you define it as meaning.

I spent summer in Manhattan when I was a boy, in the 70s. People walked around with guns in their pants, and David Richard Berkowitz was shooting people in their cars.

City living can be rough. Don't mock people who have enough experience with it to use a little caution.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 11:33 PM on May 7, 2008

Really? Then I might suggest you try living in a city at some point.

Here are the crime maps for downtown Minneapolis -- not exactly an urban hellhole of crime and violence. In my neighborhood, there were six cases of aggravated assault and one case of rape report in the past week. And while women are more likely to be raped by men they know, something like 30 percent of all reported rape cases are still by strangers. It happens. These are the level three sexual... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 12:05 AM on May 8, 2008

Listen, my girlfriend was sexually assaulted about two weeks ago. It was a relatively minor thing -- a guy grabbed her while walking past her. But it didn't seem minor to her at the time; it felt like a huge fucking violation. He just hulked up to her in the streets and grabbed her.

I suspect my girlfriend isn't unique in that experience, and I suspect that many women have had far more violent or invasive experiences. I know the flash of fear I see in women's eyes when... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 12:26 AM on May 8, 2008

Not only did some refuse to participate, but, if the William Shatner film The Tenth Level is to be believed, one actually took a swing at Milgrom, causing him to leap away into a Kirk-like shoulder roll.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 10:02 AM on May 7, 2008

That Derren Brown video is sort of heartbreaking. You don't usually get the sense from reading about the Milgram experiment just how painful it was for some of the participants to think they were hurting someone else. The subjects in the Brown video were just so desperately unhappy to think that they were causing someone else pain.

Actually, it makes me a little more optimistic about humanity than just reading the results of the Milgram experiment did.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 12:08 PM on May 7, 2008

Science is fun again.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 9:58 AM on May 7, 2008

At least someone is taking the small digital screen seriously as a potential new format. I am so sick of film snobs screaming that the only way a movie should be seen is on the giant screen of an old movie palace.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 8:59 PM on May 6, 2008

I for one, will stand up for Dave Sim, as he requests in his letter. The man is not a misogynist.

He's a loon.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 12:40 PM on May 6, 2008

Also questioned by Portland City Councilor Kevin Donoghue:

Sex: Fun or just annoying?
Sugar: Sweet or just something we pretend is sweet?
Alcohol: Ingredient in cocktail, or just a science project gone wrong?
Cherries: Fruit or obnoxious red bomb?
The sun: Source of life or annoying glowy thing?
Democracy: The great American experiment or just a bunch of people shouting nonsense?
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 7:46 PM on May 5, 2008

My younger brothers both beat the crap out of me. They even taught the dog to terrorize me. On the other hand, I had almost no rules -- I could come home whenever I wanted at night, my parents only checking in on me when my grades came back and weren't what they were hoping for, and I often left school early to hitch hike into Minneapolis to see second-run movies or punk shows, and they neither knew nor cared.

Smoke in your pipe and put that in, sociologists.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 10:32 AM on May 5, 2008

I blame Bratz for Milly Cyrus. Because I know nothing about either, but am a blowhard.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 10:24 AM on May 5, 2008

Because she's rich. Like, Batman rich.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 10:22 AM on May 5, 2008

Let me just take this moment to say: Diablo Cody is one of the most eggregious abusers of Twitter in the brief history of the site.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 10:19 AM on May 5, 2008

Something similar happened at my wedding, but my friends are not theater folks. They are porn actors.

I posted the video, but YouTube made me take it down.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 3:47 PM on May 4, 2008

These people were painting unpleasantries on cave walls. And, before that, if Erich von Daniken is to be believed, they were flaming the stars.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 9:58 AM on May 4, 2008

Motherfuckers. Every one of you.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 1:06 PM on May 2, 2008

What, no mudbug option?

I score as barely Yankee. But I use a lot of the terms intermixably, and just went with whatever I've used most recently. I'm liable to call a mudbug just about anything at any time, depending on my mood.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 8:54 AM on May 2, 2008

My New York relatives call it kwoefee. I don't know where the w comes from.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 9:04 AM on May 2, 2008

Everybody sold more albums than The Beatles because The Beatles biggest sales were in singles; their albums did so-so.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 9:34 PM on May 1, 2008

I'm glad people pointing out the kid is fat. Because that is going to make YouTube seem a lot better when compared with metafilter comments.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 1:01 PM on May 1, 2008

I like to fill a pit with hungry pit bulls, then fling bloody chunks of meat down at them, and then dangle my genitalia into the middle. So far, I've only lost one testicle, so I reckon it's pretty safe.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 12:24 PM on April 29, 2008

Pepsi Rube, but kudos.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 9:14 AM on April 29, 2008

My God, that really is a monster.

Let's eat it.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 9:11 AM on April 29, 2008

I'm also impressed at how clean he is.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 4:06 PM on April 28, 2008

This comes perilously close to vindicating Hudson Hawk, and must be stopped.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 4:04 PM on April 28, 2008

It's appropriate that this video series was hosted by the uncanny valley version of Crispin Glover.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 3:46 PM on April 28, 2008

I watched Sean Cullin's acting clips on his site. Even for a comic performer, he's an egregious overactor.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 3:27 PM on April 28, 2008

Well, now I'm a fan.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 12:36 PM on April 28, 2008

I think it is a bad idea for any element of real life to seem derived from any element of the fiction of VC Andrews.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 10:18 AM on April 28, 2008

Well, I for one celebrate the audacity of this post.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 5:39 AM on April 28, 2008

I would hollow out a volcano and build my lair there.

But why do I go stating the obvious?
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 1:01 PM on April 27, 2008

Eventually the Navy will morph into the United Federation Star Fleet, and then you'll all be sorry for being so negative.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 12:49 PM on April 27, 2008

A married woman lately living without Cripplegate , that appeared to be between 30 and 40 years of age, was arrigned, For that she having not the fear of God before her eyes, nor regarding the order of Nature, on the 23. of June last, to the disgrace of all womankind, did commit Buggery with a certain Mungril Dog, and wickedly, divellishly, and against nature had venerial and Carnal copulation with him, &c.

It was was proved that the Prisoner was a person... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 9:51 AM on April 27, 2008

He was convicted for assaulting her, and while that's nothing to be glossed over or praised and while nothing excuses it, this wasn't some normal girl.

He plead down to assault. The charge was rape and torture. And I've known some pretty abnormal girls, but I have yet to rape or torture any of them, and don't think I'll ever get around to it. But I'm not a misunderstood genius who is trying to make rock and roll dangerous again, either.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 8:53 PM on April 26, 2008

These aren't cult books. Warlock by Oakley Hall is a cult book. You Can't Win by Jack Black is a cult book.

These are cult books for people who are afraid to read.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 1:35 PM on April 26, 2008

Hm. An electoral fiat by a conservative court that favored an incompetent president who lost the popular election, and, had all the votes been counted, may have lost in Florida? Well, thank goodness it's a judge appointed by a Democrat telling us to get over it, and, even better, one who had no hand in the vote that overturned the essential democratic process, replacing it with cronyism, partisan bullying, and decisions made through the back door, without the unpleasantness or messiness of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 4:29 PM on April 25, 2008

I scan through the songs for the snippets of sound that I like, which I repeat a few times. Then I take a nap.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 1:02 PM on April 25, 2008

This is exactly the opposite of the problem I had in math class when I was in high school.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 11:25 AM on April 25, 2008