Althouse: At the Saturday Night Café...

April 22, 2023

At the Saturday Night Café...

... you can write about whatever you want.

45 comments:

Eva Marie said...: In a prior blog post the movie Tootsie was mentioned in the comments. This is what always bothered me about Tootsie: As a woman Dustin Hoffman (45) was considered a suitable mate for a frumpy Charles Durning (59) who played the dad. As a man Dustin Hoffman was considered a suitable mate for the dad’s daughter - Jessica Lange, quite the beauty at age 33.; 4/22/23, 8:44 PM
Narayanan said...: stricct scrootinee by Adams Apple test for Trans Title Civvil Rights???>; 4/22/23, 8:49 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: Deep Fake videos are really good

Hint: if it ain't in the news it ain't happening.; 4/22/23, 10:11 PM
Gator said...: If you would have told me 30 years ago I would care about the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs more than the NBA playoffs, I wouldn’t have believed it (played point guard 3 years varsity in high school).

Grew up with Bird, Magic, Jordan etc.

Now NHL > NBA. And I cannot ice skate; 4/22/23, 10:41 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: Canadian uncle leaves hilarious voicemail

Hint: uncle is high; 4/22/23, 10:49 PM
gadfly said...: Narayanan said...
stricct scrootinee by Adams Apple test for Trans Title Civvil Rights???>

Grammarly, loaded onto your computer, would help clear up typing errors and sentence construction.

I suppose the comment infers that a protruding "Adam's Apple" indicates that a person is male but Google finds indicate that biological females may develop an "Adam’s Apple" if they use testosterone.

And BTW, doctors can reduce the cartilage throat lump surgically.; 4/22/23, 10:55 PM
wildswan said...: Get Woke
Insult your customers without being able to realize what you are doing
Go Broke; 4/23/23, 12:23 AM
wendybar said...: "It’s a settlement that should never have happened. Dominion wasn’t hurt. It really didn’t lose any money… It’s probably making more in its lawsuits than counting votes. And it would have been very hard for them to prove any damages.

Also, the judge made errror, after error, after error. For example, he made a ‘finding’, a finding that the election was fair. 40 million Americans disagree with him. That should have been left up to a jury not to him…"

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/its-a-settlement-that-never-should-have-happened-something-else-had-to-have-been-involved-harvard-professor-and-attorney-dershowitz-on-fox-settlement-with-dominion/; 4/23/23, 5:51 AM
wendybar said...: It's something I always wonder, but figure they want to protect their progressive breathen.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/bill-maher-asks-why-black-celebrities-dont-speak-out-against-black-crimes-like-in-chicago-and-new-york-video/; 4/23/23, 5:54 AM
wendybar said...: "But bigger questions surround this case, hot-potato questions the media won’t touch, with the hottest being this: Do the Teixeira revelations expose a violation of the War Powers Act by Biden? But most disturbing, are claims of United States Special Forces inside the red-hot Ukrainian war zone, months after Biden boasted there will be “no boots on the ground,” a boast perhaps as credible as his blathering that “if you take the vax, you won’t get COVID.”

If United States Special Forces advisors are on the ground, in the midst of a kinetic war, supporting Ukraine's military against Russia, not only do Americans have a right to know, as major wars have been ignited by the slightest of hair triggers, but a larger question must now be examined: Has Joe Biden violated the War Powers Act?"
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/04/did_a_21yearold_air_guardsman_expose_bidens_violation_of_the_war_powers_act.html; 4/23/23, 6:03 AM
Humperdink said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/23/23, 6:11 AM
tim maguire said...: Eva Marie said...This is what always bothered me about Tootsie:

My wife us like that—age and attractiveness differences in movies really bother her. “Why am I supposed to root for this guy to get the girl? This attitude ignores the role played by evolution—the woman is supposed to bear healthy children and the man is supposed to provide a safe environment in which to raise them. The man’s role takes more time to prepare for, so it’s natural for the man to be older (the woman’s window is about 16-35, while the man’s window is about 25-50). Similarly, the male equivalent if beautiful woman is not handsome man, it’s rich man, thus the phenomenon of the sugar daddy.; 4/23/23, 6:11 AM
wendybar said...: The woke has turned off a lot of people.
'The Lakers won that year,' he recalled. 'They even had slogans on the floor and the baseline. It was trying to cater to an audience or trying to bring a certain audience to the game, and they didn't know it was turning other people off. People want to see sports as non-political.

'Politics stays out of the game; it doesn't need to be there.'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/nba/article-12003315/Phil-Jackson-says-doesnt-follow-NBA-political-2020-Bubble.html; 4/23/23, 6:29 AM
farmgirl said...: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKDbPkTcObE

A voice of reason in the wilderness: for Althouse.
Welcome 2the Resistance!!!; 4/23/23, 6:40 AM
Humperdink said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/23/23, 6:51 AM
Humperdink said...: Ever hear of the African American Mayors Association? I sure did not. Their annual conference was held in DC this week. No word as to whether the mayors brought their tent city residence with them.

The focus at the conference? "Our theme is expected to elevate dialogue that informs and empowers the future of leadership, change, and growth in cities across America."

Growth? Dream On.

https://www.ourmayors.org/Events/Annual-Conference-2023; 4/23/23, 7:14 AM
Nancy said...: Ann, what do you see as the purpose of these Cafes given comment moderation?; 4/23/23, 7:29 AM
narciso said...: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/04/erasing_women.html; 4/23/23, 7:37 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Ann, what do you see as the purpose of these Cafes given comment moderation?"

It's a tradition from my side and on some days a place to put my photographs.

From the reader's side, it's an opportunity to raise new subjects or to say something interesting or funny.

It is not an opportunity to do back and forth conversation with other readers or to maintain a look of activity through the night.

I am not able to proceed without moderation, so there's no other option. If the cafe has no value to you, just skip it.; 4/23/23, 8:01 AM
Mark said...: "People want to see sports as non-political"

Bullshit. You 'no politics in sports' folks are the people insisting on the National Anthem played and everyone required to stand for it.

Enough with pretending you don't want to mix politics and sports.; 4/23/23, 8:38 AM
Owen said...: Is this Café now closed? I want to register my disappointment with yesterday’s Earth Day. I direct my disappointment at my fellow humans who persist in producing bad science laced with hysteria and unfalsifiable claims of imminent doom which is then consumed with a profound indifference of actual physics and the actual record of climate events. And I direct my disappointment at myself, for not finding a better way to challenge the deepening Dark Ages. I spent several painful hours yesterday biting my tongue as a “discussion group” of smart, well-read, accomplished people traded complaints at Evil Oil for killing the planet and humble-bragging about their geothermal pumps and solar power arrays that, strangely, had not produced grid independence nor even lower electric bills. None of them seemed to have a clue about intermittency and the need for load-following generators .(which are almost always going to be gas-fired turbines). None of them wondered how we get to 100% EVs or even to 25% EVs without crashing the grid or exhausting the planetary reserves of copper, cobalt or lithium, to say nothing of transition metals. I could go on; but the simple point is, the West is living in a fool’s paradise. We are caught in an ongoing religious mania for absolution from largely contrived environmental sin, we are being sold impossibly expensive and useless indulgences, those who should call bullshit have been bought off or shouted down, and this will not end well.

/rant; 4/23/23, 8:52 AM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: Go woke, go up in smoke! A Disneyland giant 45-foot-tall animatronic dragon exploded into flames.

“Due to unforeseen circumstances, this performance of “Fantasmic!” cannot continue”
“We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.”

Who forgot to turn off the propane tank?; 4/23/23, 9:16 AM
wendybar said...: "The Left has never changed their stripes."
https://twitchy.com/samj-3930/2023/04/23/dom-lucre-enrages-lefty-horde-of-frothy-mouthed-batst-haters-tweeting-about-liberal-womens-fantasies/; 4/23/23, 9:17 AM
wendybar said...: "Bullshit. You 'no politics in sports' folks are the people insisting on the National Anthem played and everyone required to stand for it."

Funny, how nobody was complaining about it until Kaepernick started kneeling for dollars.; 4/23/23, 9:26 AM
Narayanan said...: wendybar said...
It's something I always wonder, but figure they want to protect their progressive breathen.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/bill-maher-asks-why-black-celebrities-dont-speak-out-against-black-crimes-like-in-chicago-and-new-york-video/
=========
is Obama family included in 'cleberties'; 4/23/23, 9:28 AM
Narayanan said...: Has Joe Biden violated the War Powers Act?"
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/04/did_a_21yearold_air_guardsman_expose_bidens_violation_of_the_war_powers_act.html
==========
ummmmm
which WHO [white house occupant] = 'president' has not?
list please!!!; 4/23/23, 9:32 AM
Narayanan said...: wendybar said...
"It’s a settlement that should never have happened. Dominion wasn’t hurt. It really didn’t lose any money
========
company was taken private [for about 80,000,000]

what did they know and when did they know it
The company was acquired by Staple Street Capital (as well as its own management team) in July 2018.

An April 2023 jury trial has been scheduled in Dominion Voting Systems Inc's $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit accusing Fox News of trying to boost its ratings by falsely claiming the voting machine company rigged the 2020 U.S. presidential election against former President Donald Trump.; 4/23/23, 9:38 AM
Narayanan said...: Grammarly, loaded onto your computer, would help clear up typing errors and sentence construction.
===========
with intent to miskate; 4/23/23, 9:39 AM
Old and slow said...: Owen has it right about the "green" fantasy we are enveloped in. There is no arguing with these true believers.; 4/23/23, 9:56 AM
Big Mike said...: Bullshit. You 'no politics in sports' folks are the people insisting on the National Anthem played and everyone required to stand for it.

Once upon a time even the slimiest Democrat at least pretended to be patriotic. Now they can’t even be bothered to pretend.; 4/23/23, 9:59 AM
Eva Marie said...: tim maguire said . . . “the role played by evolution . . . “
Except it doesn’t reflect personal observation - not in my extended family, not in my friends.
So I looked it up:
Muslims have the widest spousal age gap (6.6 years between men and their wives or partners), followed by Hindus (5.6 years), Christians (3.8), Buddhists (2.9), the religiously unaffiliated (2.3) and Jews (2.1). Large age gaps are especially common in sub-Saharan Africa, including in Gambia (14.5 years between men and their wives or partners), Guinea (13.5) and Mali (12.9). There are much narrower gaps in European countries such as the Czech Republic (2.0), Slovakia (2.1) and Estonia (2.2) – though the United States and China (both 2.2) also are notable examples of small gaps.
So I looked up 100 years ago:
The discrepancy between the ages of husbands and wives in the U.S. has fallen continuously throughout the twentieth century: husbands were on average nearly five years older than their wives in 1900, but were just over two years older in 2000.
So then I went back to the 1600s. These statistics are from England:
The marriage age of men was probably the same or a bit older than that of women. (In 1619, it was about 23 for women, 26 for men.)
I think in terms of evolution the a we need to look at the evolution of fantasies in movies. By the way director Sidney Pollack was 49 and his wife was 47 at the time of filming.; 4/23/23, 10:05 AM
DINKY DAU 45 said...: Dominion called out the Lies and got paid and they are just beginning. The FOXERS got caught with their pants down and managed by an imbecile who allows all info to go out and then cries uncle and pays up. Next up Rudy, the Kraken lady, Lindell, OANN, NEWSMAX all goanna pay for their lies, that's what big $$$ can do. STAND BACK AND STAND BY it's like STEALTH F-35's you just can't see them, THE ENEMY CANT FIGHT THEM BECAUSE THEY ARE INVISIBLE. (GUY WITH THE BIG BRAINS once leader of the country yikes!); 4/23/23, 10:09 AM
Iman said...: Hey, Lem… that guy sounds like Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys.; 4/23/23, 11:00 AM
wendybar said...: ummmmm
which WHO [white house occupant] = 'president' has not?
list please!!!

4/23/23, 9:32 AM

Trump.; 4/23/23, 12:41 PM
Eva Marie said...: Wendybar, I agree with you. There was no reason for FOX to settle.; 4/23/23, 1:25 PM
Jim at said...: Bullshit. You 'no politics in sports' folks are the people insisting on the National Anthem played and everyone required to stand for it.

Playing a national anthem isn't political to those who don't hate the country it represents.; 4/23/23, 2:33 PM
walter said...: Dems cancel 2024 debates.
Team Juice celebrates.; 4/23/23, 2:38 PM
Saint Croix said...: Cocaine Bear is hilarious!; 4/23/23, 3:16 PM
Humperdink said...: Only a leftie would view the National Anthem as political. Respect for the National Anthem is patriotic, not political. Commie-Pinko lefties hate this country and it's traditions.

As an aside, since there is a move afoot to change the name of military bases, might I suggest we change the name the home base of the 82nd Airborne after the Manhattan DA. We could call it Fort Bragg. They'd never know.; 4/23/23, 3:19 PM
Drago said...: Eva Marie: "Wendybar, I agree with you. There was no reason for FOX to settle."

On the contrary, by unnecessarily settling all the Murdocks and Paul Ryan have done is transfer the cost of supporting the democraticals narrative vs Trump to their shareholders who the Murdocks and Paul Ryan clearly don't care about (as judged by their actions) anyway.; 4/23/23, 4:54 PM
Drago said...: Murdochs, not Murdocks; 4/23/23, 4:55 PM
Narayanan said...: thanks Wendybar

I consider Trump = President [without '']; 4/23/23, 8:15 PM
Chuck said...: "It’s a settlement that should never have happened. Dominion wasn’t hurt. It really didn’t lose any money… It’s probably making more in its lawsuits than counting votes. And it would have been very hard for them to prove any damages."

That is actually a true statement! At least the part about how hard it would have been for Dominion to prove a billion dollars' worth financial damages as a result of Fox's defamatory broadcasts. (Or cable-casts as the case may be.)

Dominion's financial damages were a tiny fraction of the claim. There could have been punitive and/or exemplary damages as well. But there are some (admittedly complicated) methodologies that get employed when punitive damages far outstrip actual financial losses, especially in a commercial case.

Simply put, the settlement amount was probably far more than Dominion could have ever hoped to have gotten in a jury verdict amount, or at least far more than what would have been sustained by the trial court and/or an appellate court on review of any jury verdict.

All of this is pretty much exactly what I wrote on these comments pages shortly after the settlement was announced. My comment was here, at 12:16pm.

And so again, I think that is the stark beauty of this Dominion settlement amount. It is for more than what Dominion could ever have reasonably hoped for at trial. There is no discount whatsoever for the possibility that a jury might side with Fox; no discount at all for the possibility that the trial judge had made an error along the way that might give Fox an avenue to appeal and get out for nothing at all. And no discount for the obvious fact that a trial would net Dominion a lot less than the settlement about.

It's so beautiful! Dominion held out and made Fox pay three quarters of a billion dollars, just to avoid the humiliation of what Dominion had ready for a trial. It was so important to Fox, to avoid a trial that they very nearly gave Dominion a blank check. Knowing full well that they will likely have to do the same with Smartmatic.

This is as nasty an ass-kicking as Fox could suffer in court outside of an actual criminal case.

So there is your answer, Professor Dershowitz. Fox paid an amount that is frankly inexplicable on normal "damages" or "risk" criteria. Fox paid a laughably large amount because they couldn't stand the embarrassment of a trial.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of guys.; 4/23/23, 8:38 PM
walter said...: Primary debate..; 4/23/23, 10:27 PM
Eva Marie said...: Drago, that’s a good point.; 4/23/23, 11:14 PM