Andrew Reeves

Also, eight times out of ten, if you actually Do The Reading the concept goes from, "I dunno, man, this idea sounds kinda dumb" to, "This idea sounds clinically brain damaged."

And thus here we are in 2025 AD.

See also:

bsky.app/profile/andr...

There's a whole slew of late GWB / BHO movies that are so absolutely Of Their Time that watching one is like cracking open a time capsule.

Oh, when both are on offer, kettle chips beat Lays, no question.

I seem to have gained some new followers, so I should do some preliminary statements:

Israel has a right to exist and there is in fact such thing as an Israeli civilian.

Liberal democracy is the best system of government derived by mankind (and left-liberal is best liberal).

Yes, but, idk, it feels less purely potato for whatever reason.

Okay, that's a good point.

Because potato + salt + fat is kind of a pleasing flavor profile.

I'd push back and say that it's already going that way by the time of Beza.

Thinking about omnipotence and divine justice, my personal theology is a combo of Molina, Origen, and many worlds theory.

That was the take of some hyper-Calvinists like Perkins.

Someone who says "God gives some people the illusion of faith because it will be that much more delightful to torture them forever when they thought that they were one of the elect" is someone who basically imagines a kid torturing animals and then scales it up.

A lot of Calvinism is unthinkingly imagining God as what a human would do with infinite power. Basically taking an implicit "If *I* were omnipotent, I'd fuck with my creations just because I could." and mapping that onto the Almighty.

I was in the Defense Language Institute for Korean when the 50th anniversary of the bombings rolled around in 1995 (to much controversy). Someone in the class asked one of the teachers thought of the bombing, and his answer was, "Quite frankly, they deserved it." (He was also an ordained pastor.)

In this house there is always time to hate on Zinn.

My only contribution to Atomic Bomb Discourse is to note that like much in the public sphere, it's downstream of a bunch of Boomers who got intellectually one-shotted when they learned that US History was slightly more complicated than John Wayne movies.

Although I have a hard time with HPL's NYC stories. They're just not as good as his other stuff, and that's largely because they're all, "It sucks here and there are black people and foreigners everywhere and this city is just the worst."

Dostoyevsky is weird for me. His big selling point for me has always been his Christianity, and, well current events have *really* soured me on the whole notion of Russian Orthodox Christianity will save the world. And, idk, it sours me on him in a way that HPL's xenophobia doesn't.

Okay, it's actually part of a whole set of promotions, which is honestly quite clever.

I mean, in the late 2010s I was watching in just absolute horror as people in several humanistic fields were saying words to the effect of, "My discipline is inherently racist [but somehow I should keep my job]."

Like, sure, you can talk about smashing capitalism and smashing the state *as long as you, capitalism, and the state all agree that you're doing a bit.*

The kayfabe at the end of the 20th c. -- humanities theory person claiming to be undermining everything in the shadow of the Big Ten stadium and who was basically there to provide atmosphere -- was perfectly fine, but probably unsustainable once social media came along.

Like all Broadway musicals these songs will be in my head for days now. It’s the genius of American musicals — haunting your brain with cheerful singing — but I can still be upset Defying Gravity won’t leave my ears.

Wendy's sign that says, "Misfortune awaits lucky you"

My town's Wendy's. This feels both cryptic and menacing.

And the end is genuinely distressing when [massive spoilers]!

Yeah, was probably, "I want to do Apocalypse Now," and they figured sure, the attack helicopter scene, gave him the go-ahead, and ended up getting a meditation on spiritual decay.

So Black Library is putting out all of the Dark Coil Stuff in two two-part omnibuses. The Dark Coil: Damnation is out now, and The Dark Coil: Ascension is out in November.

Seriously, anything you can find of his is *amazing.*

I'm still sort of sad that Kubrick never picked up Ian Watson.