#david r george iii

[dig-jules]

This opener alone is how I know this McCoy book abt to go insane

[aclkplm208-blog]

Lt. Sera'tashi Xosha

Meet Lt. Sera'tashi Xosha, Chief Tactical Officer of the Enterprise-F on Star Trek Unity.

[legallybrunettedotcom]

BUFFY READING LIST

As promised @possession1981 and I have compiled a list of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and Angel) related academic text and books. I think this is a good starting point for both a long time fan and for someone just getting into the show, or just someone interested in vampire lore. I have included several books about the vampire lore and myth in general as well. Most of these are available online.

BOOKS

Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer; edited by Rhonda V. Wilcox & David Lavery

Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy - Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale by James B. South

Buffy Goes Dark: Essays on the Final Two Seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Television, edited by Lynne Y. Edwards, Elizabeth L. Rambo & James B. South

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Myth, Metaphor and Morality by Mark Field

Televised Morality: The Case of Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Gregory Stevenson

Undead TV: Essays on Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Elana Levine

The Aesthetics of Culture in Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Matthew Pateman

Girls Who Bite Back: Witches, Mutants, Slayers and Freaks by Emily Pohl-Weary

Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Ronda Wilcox

Into Every Generation a Slayer Is Born: How Buffy Staked Our Hearts by Evan Ross Katz

The Lure of the Vampire: Gender, Fiction, and Fandom from Bram Stoker to Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Milly Williamson

Blood Relations: Chosen Families in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel by Jes Battis

Sex and the Slayer: A Gender Studies Primer for the Buffy Fan by Lorna Jowett

Diseases of the Head: Essays on the Horrors of Speculative Philosophy; edited by Matt Rosen (chapter 2 Death of Horror)

Public Privates: Feminist Geographies of Mediated Spaces by Marcia R. England (chapter 1 Welcome to the Hellmouth: Paradoxical Spaces in Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Open Graves, Open Minds: Representations of Vampires and the Undead From the Enlightenment to the Present Day; edited by Sam George and Bill Hughes (chapter 8 ‘I feel strong. I feel different’: transformations, vampires and language in Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

The Contemporary Television Series; edited by Michael Hammond and Lucy Mazdon (chapter 9 Television, Horror and Everyday Life in Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Joss Whedon and Race: Critical Essays; edited by Mary Ellen Iatropoulos and Lowery A. Woodall III

Buffy and the Heroine's Journey: Vampire Slayer as Feminine Chosen One by Valerie Estelle Frankel

The Existential Joss Whedon: Evil and Human Freedom in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly and Serenity by J. Michael Richardson and J. Douglas Rabb

Buffy the Vampire Slayer 20 Years of Slaying: The Watcher's Guide Authorized by Christopher Golden

Reading the Vampire Slayer: The Complete, Unofficial Guide to 'Buffy' and 'Angel' by Roz Kaveney

Hollywood Vampire: The Unnoficial Guide to Angel by Keith Topping

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Monster Book by Christopher Golden

Slayer Slang: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Lexicon by Michael Adams

What Would Buffy Do? The Vampire Slayer as Spiritual Guide by Jana Riess

ARTICLES, PAPERS ETC.

Bibliographic Good vs. Evil in Buffy the Vampire Slayer by GraceAnne A. DeCandido

Undead Letters: Searches and Researches in Buffy the Vampire Slayer by William Wandless

Weaponised information: The role of information and metaphor in Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Jacob Ericson

Buffy, Dark Romance and Female Horror Fans by Lorna Jowett

My Vampire Boyfriend: Postfeminism, "Perfect" Masculinity, and the Contemporary Appeal of Paranormal Romance by Ananya Mukherjea

Buffy, The Vampire Slayer as Spectacular Allegory: A Diagnostic Critique by Douglas Kellner

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer": Technology, Mysticism, and the Constructed Body by Sara Raffel

When Horror Becomes Human: Living Conditions in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" by Jeroen Gerrits

Post-Vampire: The Politics of Drinking Humans and Animals in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twilight", and "True Blood" by Laura Wright

Cops, Teachers, and Vampire Slayers: Buffy as Street-Level Bureaucrat by Andrea E. Mayo

"Not Like Other Men"?: The Vampire Body in Joss Whedon's "Angel" by Lorna Jowett

Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Domestic Church: Revisioning Family and the Common Good by Reid B. Locklin

“Buffy vs. Dracula”’s Use of Count Famous (Not drawing “crazy conclusions about the unholy prince”) by Tara Elliott

A Little Less Ritual and a Little More Fun: The Modern Vampire in Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Stacey Abbott

Undressing the Vampire: An Investigation of the Fashion of Sunnydale’s Vampires by Robbie Dale

"And Yet": The Limits of Buffy Feminism by Renee St. Louis & Miriam Riggs

Meet the Cullens: Family, Romance and Female Agency in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Twilight by Kirsten Stevens

Bliss and Time: Death, Drugs, and Posthumanism in Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Rob Cover

That Girl: Bella, Buffy, and the Feminist Ethics of Choice in Twilight and Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Catherine Coker

A Slayer Comes to Town: An Essay on Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Scott Westerfeld 

Undead Objects of a “Queer Gaze” : A Visual Approach to Buffy’s Vampires Using Lacan’s Extended RSI Model by Marcus Recht

When You Kiss Me, I Want to Die: Gothic Relationships and Identity on Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Ananya Mukherjeea

Necrophilia and SM: The Deviant Side of Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Terry L. Spaise

Queering the Bitch: Spike, Transgression and Erotic Empowerment by Dee Amy-Chinn

“I Want To Be A Macho Man”: Examining Rape Culture, Adolescent Female Sexuality, and the Destabilization of Gender Binaries in Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Angelica De Vido

Staking Her Claim: Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Transgressive Woman Warrior by Frances H. Early

Actualizing Abjection: Drusilla, the Whedonversees’ Queen of Queerness by Anthony Stepniak

“Life Isn’t A Story”: Xander, Andrew and Queer Disavowal in Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Steven Greenwood

S/He’s a Rebel: The James Dean Trope in Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Kathryn Hill

“Once More, with Feeling”: Emotional Self-Discipline in Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Gwynnee Kennedy and Jennifer Dworshack-Kinter

“The Hardest Thing in This World Is To Live In It”: Identity and Mental Health in Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Alex Fixler

"Love's Bitch But Man Enough to Admit It": Spikes Hybridized Gender by Arwen Spicer

Negotiations After Hegemony: Buffy and Gender by Franklin D. Worrell

Double Trouble: Gothic Shadows and Self-Discovery in Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Elizabeth Gilliland

'What If I'm Still There? What If I Never Left That Clinic?': Faërian Drama in Buffy's "Normal Again" by Janet Brennan Croft

Not Gay Enough So You’d Notice: Poaching Fuffy by Jennifer DeRoss

Throwing Like A Slayer: A Phenomenology of Gender Hybridity and Female Resilience in Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Debra Jackson

“You Can’t Charge Innocent People for Saving Their Lives!” Work in Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Matt Davies

Ambiguity and Sexuality in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: A Sartrean Analysis by Vivien Burr

Imagining the Family: Representations of Alternative Lifestyles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Vivien Burr and Christine Jarvis

Working-Class Hero? Fighting Neoliberal Precarity in Buffy’s Sixth Season by Michelle Maloney-Mangold

A Corpse by Any Other Name: Romancing the Language of the Body in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein for the Adam Storyline in Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Amber P. Hodge

Sensibility Gone Mad: Or, Drusilla, Buffy and the (D)evolution of the Heroine of Sensibility by Claire Knowles

"It's good to be me": Buffy's Resistance to Renaming by Janet Brennan Croft

Death as a Gift in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Work and Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Gaelle Abalea

“All Torment, Trouble, Wonder, and Amazement Inhabits Here": The Vicissitudes of Technology in Buffy the Vampire Slayer by James B. South

Staking Her Colonial Claim: Colonial Discourses, Assimilation, Soul-making, and Ass-kicking in Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Jessica Hautsch

“I Run To Death”: Renaissance Sensibilities in Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Christine Jarvis

Dressed To Kill: Fashion and Leadership in Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Christine Jarvis and Don Adams

Queer Eye Of That Vampire Guy: Spike and the Aesthetics of Camp by Cynthea Masson and Marni Stanley

“Sounds Like Kinky Business To Me”: Subtextual and Textual Representations of Erotic Power in Buffyverse by Lewis Call

“Did Anyone Ever Explain to You What ‘Secret Identity’ Means?”: Race and Displacement in Buffy and Dark Angel  by Cynthia Fuchs

“It’s About Power”: Buffy, Foucault, and the Quest for Self by Julie Sloan Brannon

Why We Love the Monsters: How Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Wound Up Dating the Enemy by Hilary M. Leon

Why We Can’t Spike Spike?: Moral Themes in Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Richard Greene and Wayne Yuen

Buffy, the Scooby Gang, and Monstrous Authority: BtVS and the Subversion of Authority by Daniel A. Clark & P. Andrew Miller

Are Vampires Evil?: Categorizations of Vampires, and Angelus and Spike as the Immoral and the Amoral by Gert Magnusson

BOOKS ABOUT VAMPIRE LORE AND MYTH IN GENERAL

The Vampire Lectures by Laurence A. Rickels 

Our Vampires, Ourselves by Nina Auerbach

Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality by Paul Barber

The Secret History of Vampires: Their Multiple Forms and Hidden Purposes by Claude Lecouteux

The Vampire Cinema by David Pirie

The Living and the Undead: Slaying Vampires, Exterminating Zombies by Gregory A. Waller

Vampire Forensics: Uncovering the Origins of an Enduring Legend by Mark Jenkins

Slayers and Their Vampires: A Cultural History of Killing the Dead by Bruce A. McClelland

The History and Folklore of Vampires: The Stories and Legends Behind the Mythical Beings by Charles River Editors

Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology by Theresa Bane

Vampires of Lore: Traits and Modern Misconceptions by A. P. Sylvia

The Vampire: A New History by Nick Groom

Vampyres: Genesis and Resurrection: from Count Dracula to Vampirella by Christopher Frayling

Race in the Vampire Narrative by U. Melissa Anyiwo

Vampires, Race, and Transnational Hollywoods by Dale Hudson

[stra-tek]

Pages from the U.S.S. Universe NCC-2999 Technical Manual, by Scifi_Shipyards on TrekBBS here. The ship is based on one from David R. George III's novel Serpents Among the Ruins.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

July 1, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JUL 02, 2024

Today the United States Supreme Court overthrew the central premise of American democracy: that no one is above the law. 

It decided that the president of the United States, possibly the most powerful person on earth, has “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution for crimes committed as part of the official acts at the core of presidential powers. The court also said it should be presumed that the president also has immunity for other official acts as well, unless that prosecution would not intrude on the authority of the executive branch.

This is a profound change to our fundamental law—an amendment to the Constitution, as historian David Blight noted. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said that a president needs such immunity to make sure the president is willing to take “bold and unhesitating action” and make unpopular decisions, although no previous president has ever asserted that he is above the law or that he needed such immunity to fulfill his role. Roberts’s decision didn’t focus at all on the interest of the American people in guaranteeing that presidents carry out their duties within the guardrails of the law. 

But this extraordinary power grab does not mean President Joe Biden can do as he wishes. As legal commentator Asha Rangappa pointed out, the court gave itself the power to determine which actions can be prosecuted and which cannot by making itself the final arbiter of what is “official” and what is not. Thus any action a president takes is subject to review by the Supreme Court, and it is reasonable to assume that this particular court would not give a Democrat the same leeway it would give Trump. 

There is no historical or legal precedent for this decision. The Declaration of Independence was a litany of complaints against King George III designed to explain why the colonists were declaring themselves free of kings; the Constitution did not provide immunity for the president, although it did for members of Congress in certain conditions, and it provided for the removal of the president for “high crimes and misdemeanors”—what would those be if a president is immune from prosecution for his official acts? The framers worried about politicians’ overreach and carefully provided for oversight of leaders; the Supreme Court today smashed through that key guardrail. 

Presidential immunity is a brand new doctrine. In February 2021, explaining away his vote to acquit Trump for inciting an insurrection, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who had also protected Trump in his first impeachment trial in 2019, said: “Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office…. We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation, and former presidents are not immune from being held accountable by either one.”

But it was not just McConnell who thought that way. At his confirmation hearing in 2005, now–Chief Justice John Roberts said: “I believe that no one is above the law under our system and that includes the president. The president is fully bound by the law, the Constitution, and statutes.” 

In his 2006 confirmation hearings, Samuel Alito said: “There is nothing that is more important for our republic than the rule of law. No person in this country, no matter how high or powerful, is above the law.” 

And in 2018, Brett Kavanaugh told the Senate: “No one’s above the law in the United States, that’s a foundational principle…. We’re all equal before the law…. The foundation of our Constitution was that…the presidency would not be a monarchy…. [T]he president is not above the law, no one is above the law.”

Now they have changed that foundational principle for a man who, according to White House officials during his term, called for the execution of people who upset him and who has vowed to exact vengeance on those he now thinks have wronged him. Over the past weekend, Trump shared an image on social media saying that former Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY), who sat on the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, was guilty of treason and calling for “televised military tribunals” to try her. 

Today, observers illustrated what Trump’s newly declared immunity could mean. Political scientist Norm Ornstein pointed out that Trump could “order his handpicked FBI Director to arrest and jail his political opponents. He can order the IRS to put liens on the property of media companies who criticize him and jail reporters and editors.” Legal analyst Joyce White Vance noted that a president with such broad immunity could order the assassination of Supreme Court justices, and retired military leader Mark Hertling wrote that he was “trying to figure out how a commander can refuse an illegal order from someone who is issuing it as an official act.” 

Asha Rangappa wrote: “According to the Court, a President could literally provide the leader of a hostile adversary with intelligence needed to win a conflict in which we are involved, or even attack or invade the U.S., and not be prosecuted for treason, because negotiating with heads of state is an exclusive Art. II function. In case you were wondering.” Trump is currently under indictment for retaining classified documents. “The Court has handed Trump, if he wins this November, carte blanche to be a ‘dictator on day one,’ and the ability to use every lever of official power at his disposal for his personal ends without any recourse,” Rangappa wrote. “This election is now a clear-cut decision between democracy and autocracy. Vote accordingly.”

Trump’s lawyers are already challenging Trump’s conviction in the election interference case in which a jury found him guilty on 34 counts. Over Trump’s name on social media, a post said the decision was “BRILLIANTLY WRITTEN AND WISE, AND CLEARS THE STENCH FROM THE BIDEN TRIALS AND HOAXES, ALL OF THEM, THAT HAVE BEEN USED AS AN UNFAIR ATTACK ON CROOKED JOE BIDEN’S POLITICAL OPPONENT, ME. MANY OF THESE FAKE CASES WILL NOW DISAPPEAR, OR WITHER INTO OBSCURITY. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”

In a concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas, whose wife was deeply involved in the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election, also took a shot at the appointment of special counsels to investigate such events. Thomas was not the only Justice whose participation in this decision was likely covered by a requirement that he recuse himself: Alito has publicly expressed support for the attempt to keep Trump in office against the will of voters. Trump appointed three of the other justices granting him immunity—Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett—to the court.

In a dissent in which Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson concurred, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that because of the majority’s decision, "[t]he relationship between the President and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law."

“Never in the history of our Republic has a President had reason to believe that he would be immune from criminal prosecution if he used the trappings of his office to violate the criminal law. Moving forward, however, all former Presidents will be cloaked in such immunity. If the occupant of that office misuses official power for personal gain, the criminal law that the rest of us must abide will not provide a backstop. With fear for our democracy,” she wrote, “I dissent.” 

Today’s decision destroyed the principle on which this nation was founded, that all people in the United States of America should be equal before the law.

The name of the case is “Donald J. Trump v. United States.” 

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[brokehorrorfan]

4K UHD Review: The Guyver

Following in the wildly successful footsteps of Batman and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Guyver takes a (relatively) grounded approach to its outlandish source material — in this case, a Japanese manga series — without divorcing itself from its comic book roots. Produced by Brian Yuzna (Re-Animator, Society), the 1991 film is directed by special effects wizards Screaming Mad George (Society, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master) and Steve Wang (Predator, The Monster Squad).

As the Star Wars-esque expository opening crawl explains, mankind was created by aliens as an organic weapon. The evil Chronos corporation is further developing a technology that allows humans to change into "super monster soldiers" known as Zoanoids for world domination. The only viable defense against them is The Unit, a piece of bio-booster alien armor that increases a human's natural powers a hundredfold, turning them into The Guyver.

Mark Hamill's top billing may lead you to believe that he's the titular hero, but he instead plays a supporting role as a CIA agent investigating Chronos. The real lead is Jack Armstrong (Student Bodies) as Sean Barker, an amateur martial artist who's the only person that can activate The Unit. When his girlfriend (Vivian Wu, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III) is endangered, Sean utilizes his newfound powers to take down Chronos and the Zoanoids.

Armstrong is a bland lead, but it's not entirely his fault. In addition to a mustachioed Hamill channeling Colombo, he has to compete with several scene-stealing character actors. Re-Animator's David Gale chews the scenery as the malevolent head of Chronos, briefly reuniting with Jeffrey Combs as the company's scientist, Dr. East (get it?). Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes) plays Gale's right-hand Zoanoid with Jimmie Walker (Good Times) as his rapping goon. Linnea Quigley (The Return of the Living Dead) cameos as a scream queen.

But the real stars of the show are the creatures, the designs of which showcase boundless creativity. The Guyver looks like Ultraman by way of Clive Barker, and each Zoanoid adopts a different animal's traits. While a number of other artists were employed to pull off the myriad of monsters, George and Wang's fingerprints are all over the effects, imbuing the alien superhero movie with some disturbing body-horror.

Jon Purdy's script deviates significantly from source material not only in terms of story but also tone. While some of the manga's dark atmosphere and violence remain intact, it's undercut by goofy humor in an attempt to appeal to a younger demographic. Fans of Yoshiki Takaya's original creation were no doubt disappointed (Wang attempted a bit of a course correction with his 1994 sequel, Guyver: Dark Hero), but the tonal confusion is actually charming.

Originally cut down to a PG-13 rating in the US, The Guyver has been newly restored in 4K from the original, R-rated 35mm camera negative with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 options for Unearthed Films' 4K UHD + Blu-ray release. Far removed from the days of Jaws and Alien in which the monster was largely hidden in shadows, George and Wang put their creations on full display — and even with a crystal-clear restoration, the in-camera effects shine.

Two new audio commentaries are included. The first is a lively one with George and Wang, moderated by Budget Biomorphs: The Making of The Guyver Films author Dom O’Brien. It's not the most informative track — the filmmakers admit to not having seen the film in over two decades — but they're enjoying themselves so much that it hardly matters. The second commentary features creature crew members "Evil" Ted Smith and Wyatt Weed, who delve into the nitty-gritty of the effects.

Yuzna and George each sit down for thorough new interviews. Yuzna reveals that he's been approached about a remake, but the rights are complicated, while George's infectious energy lasts the entire 56 (!) minutes. Creature suit camera test footage is included with commentary options from George and Wang or Smith and Weed, while outtakes and a gag reel feature George and Wang commentary.

Other extras include: alternate title sequences in English, German and Spanish; English, German, Spanish, and French trailers (all carrying the alternate title Mutronics); and extensive promotional and production galleries. The collector's edition also comes with the soundtrack CD composed by Matthew Morse (Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker) and a booklet featuring liner notes by O’Brien and Morse.

The Guyver is available now on 4K UHD via Unearthed Films.

[powerpolyculeshowdown]

CANON POLYCULE SHOWDOWN

this is a contest for canonically confirmed polycules or polycules that have a lot of hints to a possibility of them being canon, even if the authors might not have intended that way!

Beware of spoilers!! Some of these only become polycules later in the media they're from, and some of the descriptions describe a tragic fate for the polycule, so keep in mind there will be spoilers

rules can be found here

bracket can be found here

honorable mentions can be found here

links for all the match ups as they go live can be found in the MASTERPOST. it will be updated each round, but i will also tag every round to make them easier to find

help me w descriptions for the honorable mentions!

Round 2 part 2 finished.

Round 3 will go live on May 19th!

(#canonround2 or #pollycule if you want to search for the polls)

tags:

#canonpolyculeshowdown - for relevant updates and the polls

#pollycule - (yes double L) specifically for the showdown polls, to make it easier to find. doesn't include the prelims cause I only thought to add this after, sorry

#canonpropaganda - for, well, propaganda. ill post asks, reblog posts and maybe reblog reblogs

#honorablemention - for the ships that did not make it in (i will still make a post introducing all of them)

#tournamnt poll - the generally agreed on tag for blacklisting purposes. let me know if i forget to use it! i cant edit polls but it will remind me for the following round

#canonroundN - N being the number of the round we're in. so, for example: canonround0, canonround1, canonround2, etc. from the quarterfinals onwards, they'll also include the specific tag (#quarterfinals, etc). Check the post's tags for that ome if you want to look at all polls from that round!

list may be updated as needed.

if you submitted something that did not get in, nor was it posted as an honorable mention, and you wish to know why, feel free to send an ask.

LIST OF CONTESTANTS:

Nathan/Vlad/Ursula (Hunger Pangs)

Rilla/Arum/Damien (Penumbra Podcast)

Nathan/Gabriel/Annalise (The Bastard Son and the Devil Himself)

Ben/Ryn/Maddie (Siren Freeform)

Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot (High Noon Over Camelot)

Quanxi/Pingsti/Cosmo/Long/Tsugihagi (Chainsaw Man)

Wu Zetian/Li Shimin/Gao Yizhi (Iron Widow)

Caleb/Astrid/Eadwulf (Critical Role)

Sadie/Walt/Anubis (The Kane Chronicles)

Rajan/Wolfgang/Kala (Sense8)

Princess Glisselda/Seraphina/Lucien (Seraphina)

Tess/Jacomo/Margarethe (Tess of the Road)

Logan/Jean Grey/Scott/Emma (X-Men)

Uzui/Hinatsuru/Makio/Suma (Demon Slayer)

Megaera/Thanatos/Zagreus (Hades)

Dianda/Simon/Patrick (October Daye)

Haruka/Michiru/Setsuna (Sailor Moon)

Asmodeus Alice/Clara Valac/Iruma Suzuki (Mairimashita, Iruma-kun!)

Aizo/Yujiro/Hiyori (HoneyWorks)

Kyle/Rogelio/Lonnie (She Ra)

Dashawn/Steve/Jose/Cupe R III/Otto/Arturo/Gregory/Quackers McQuack (Bojack Horseman)

Fluorite (Steven Universe)

Miss Piggy/Kermit/Gonzo (Muppets)

Sherlock/Watson/Mary (Sherlock Holmes movies)

Ichika Hoshino/Saki Tenma/Shiho Hinomori/Honami Mochizuki (Project SEKAI)

Tree Trunks/Mr. Pig/Alien Husband (Adventure Time)

Daniel/Sam/Jack/Teal’c (Stargate SG-1)

Mukai Naoya/Saki Saki/Nagisa Minase (Kanojo mo Kanojo/Girlfriend Girlfriend)

Eddie/Venom/Anne/Dan (Venom)

Peter Quill/Aradia/Mors (Guardians of the Galaxy)

George/Gilda/Thomas (Design for Living)

Leif/Thorn/Kale (Leif and Thorn)

Kieran/Ray/Gemma (Trigonometry)

Eugene/Rapunzel/Cassandra (Tangled the Series)

Jack/August/Rina (The Wicker King)

La’gann/Coral/Rodunn (Young Justice)

Syenite/Innon/Alabaster (Broken Earth)

Enrique/Hypnos/Sofia (The Gilded Wolves)

Max/Jack/Anne (Black Sails)

Pyrrha/Commander Wake/Gideon the First (The Locked Tomb)

Neptune/Venus/Jupiter (We Know the Devil)

Quincey/Jack/Arthur/Lucy (Dracula)

Amber/Reese/David (Adaptation)

Will/Tessa/Jem (The Infernal Devices)

Kieran/Cristina/Mark (The Dark Artifices)

Winter/Moon/Qibli (Wings of Fire)

Camille/Nyra/Dendro (Muted)

Sasha/Anne/Marcy (Amphibia)

Neal/Peter/Elizabeth (White Collar)

Turtle Heart/Melena/Frex (Wicked)

Emiya/Saber/Rin (Fate Stay/Night)

Sofiane/Victor/Luisa (Mortel)

Taylor/Theo/Josey (3)

Jack/Emma/Izzy (You Me Her)

Keiko/Miles/Kira (Star Trek)

Jade/Dave/Karkat (Homestuck Epilogues)

Anzu/Kazuki/Junta (Romantic Killers)

Shikimori/Izumi/Ai (Shikimori is Not Just Cute)

Camina/Michio Pa/Josep/Serge/Berthold/Oksana (The Expanse)

Breq/Mercy of Kalr/Seivarden/Ekalu (Imperial Radch)

Roguish Semiotician/Infamous Mathematician/Player Character (Fallen London)

Alphonse/Seth/Listener (Bittersweet)

Storm/Helen/Mira (Love and Luck Podcast)

Nicky/Joe/Andy/Booker/Niles (The Old Guard)

[queenfriday17]

Source

Today the United States Supreme Court overthrew the central premise of American democracy: that no one is above the law.

It decided that the president of the United States, possibly the most powerful person on earth, has “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution for crimes committed as part of the official acts at the core of presidential powers. The court also said it should be presumed that the president also has immunity for other official acts as well, unless that prosecution would not intrude on the authority of the executive branch.

This is a profound change to our fundamental law—an amendment to the Constitution, as historian David Blight noted. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said that a president needs such immunity to make sure the president is willing to take “bold and unhesitating action” and make unpopular decisions, although no previous president has ever asserted that he is above the law or that he needed such immunity to fulfill his role. Roberts’s decision didn’t focus at all on the interest of the American people in guaranteeing that presidents carry out their duties within the guardrails of the law.

But this extraordinary power grab does not mean President Joe Biden can do as he wishes. As legal commentator Asha Rangappa pointed out, the court gave itself the power to determine which actions can be prosecuted and which cannot by making itself the final arbiter of what is “official” and what is not. Thus any action a president takes is subject to review by the Supreme Court, and it is reasonable to assume that this particular court would not give a Democrat the same leeway it would give Trump.

There is no historical or legal precedent for this decision. The Declaration of Independence was a litany of complaints against King George III designed to explain why the colonists were declaring themselves free of kings; the Constitution did not provide immunity for the president, although it did for members of Congress in certain conditions, and it provided for the removal of the president for “high crimes and misdemeanors”—what would those be if a president is immune from prosecution for his official acts? The framers worried about politicians’ overreach and carefully provided for oversight of leaders; the Supreme Court today smashed through that key guardrail.

Presidential immunity is a brand new doctrine. In February 2021, explaining away his vote to acquit Trump for inciting an insurrection, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who had also protected Trump in his first impeachment trial in 2019, said: “Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office…. We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation, and former presidents are not immune from being held accountable by either one.”

But it was not just McConnell who thought that way. At his confirmation hearing in 2005, now–Chief Justice John Roberts said: “I believe that no one is above the law under our system and that includes the president. The president is fully bound by the law, the Constitution, and statutes.”

In his 2006 confirmation hearings, Samuel Alito said: “There is nothing that is more important for our republic than the rule of law. No person in this country, no matter how high or powerful, is above the law.”

And in 2018, Brett Kavanaugh told the Senate: “No one’s above the law in the United States, that’s a foundational principle…. We’re all equal before the law…. The foundation of our Constitution was that…the presidency would not be a monarchy…. [T]he president is not above the law, no one is above the law.”

Now they have changed that foundational principle for a man who, according to White House officials during his term, called for the execution of people who upset him and who has vowed to exact vengeance on those he now thinks have wronged him. Over the past weekend, Trump shared an image on social media saying that former Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY), who sat on the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, was guilty of treason and calling for “televised military tribunals” to try her.

Today, observers illustrated what Trump’s newly declared immunity could mean. Political scientist Norm Ornstein pointed out that Trump could “order his handpicked FBI Director to arrest and jail his political opponents. He can order the IRS to put liens on the property of media companies who criticize him and jail reporters and editors.” Legal analyst Joyce White Vance noted that a president with such broad immunity could order the assassination of Supreme Court justices, and retired military leader Mark Hertling wrote that he was “trying to figure out how a commander can refuse an illegal order from someone who is issuing it as an official act.”

Asha Rangappa wrote: “According to the Court, a President could literally provide the leader of a hostile adversary with intelligence needed to win a conflict in which we are involved, or even attack or invade the U.S., and not be prosecuted for treason, because negotiating with heads of state is an exclusive Art. II function. In case you were wondering.” Trump is currently under indictment for retaining classified documents. “The Court has handed Trump, if he wins this November, carte blanche to be a ‘dictator on day one,’ and the ability to use every lever of official power at his disposal for his personal ends without any recourse,” Rangappa wrote. “This election is now a clear-cut decision between democracy and autocracy. Vote accordingly.”

Trump’s lawyers are already challenging Trump’s conviction in the election interference case in which a jury found him guilty on 34 counts. Over Trump’s name on social media, a post said the decision was “BRILLIANTLY WRITTEN AND WISE, AND CLEARS THE STENCH FROM THE BIDEN TRIALS AND HOAXES, ALL OF THEM, THAT HAVE BEEN USED AS AN UNFAIR ATTACK ON CROOKED JOE BIDEN’S POLITICAL OPPONENT, ME. MANY OF THESE FAKE CASES WILL NOW DISAPPEAR, OR WITHER INTO OBSCURITY. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”

In a concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas, whose wife was deeply involved in the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election, also took a shot at the appointment of special counsels to investigate such events. Thomas was not the only Justice whose participation in this decision was likely covered by a requirement that he recuse himself: Alito has publicly expressed support for the attempt to keep Trump in office against the will of voters. Trump appointed three of the other justices granting him immunity—Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett—to the court.

In a dissent in which Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson concurred, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that because of the majority’s decision, "[t]he relationship between the President and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law."

“Never in the history of our Republic has a President had reason to believe that he would be immune from criminal prosecution if he used the trappings of his office to violate the criminal law. Moving forward, however, all former Presidents will be cloaked in such immunity. If the occupant of that office misuses official power for personal gain, the criminal law that the rest of us must abide will not provide a backstop. With fear for our democracy,” she wrote, “I dissent.”

Today’s decision destroyed the principle on which this nation was founded, that all people in the United States of America should be equal before the law.

The name of the case is “Donald J. Trump v. United States.”

Heather Cox Richardson

Notes:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/documents/b135ae03-8c5a-467e-96b8-7fd371855fa3.pdf

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/liz-cheney-trump-military-tribunals-b2572220.html

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/01/politics/trump-challenge-hush-money-verdict-immunity-supreme-court/index.html

X:

JoyceWhiteVance/status/1807833078427201845

AshaRangappa_/status/1807828062509191607

NormOrnstein/status/1807807811801448920

AccountableGOP/status/1807855254006124944

DrEricDing/status/1807973035112083460

highbrow_nobrow/status/1807950188071284971

RpsAgainstTrump/status/1807823684175839622

AccountableGOP/status/1807835389865951253

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tribelaw/status/1807936604624826608

https://x.com/davidwblight1/status/1807929332083405056

RonFilipkowski/status/1807884210050326670

JoyceWhiteVance/status/1807903145957409252

joshtpm/status/1807822033239396803

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AshaRangappa_/status/1807837356936122433

Threads:

@gtconway3dg/post/C85O7oQpAWK

[nevinslibrary]

Make It So Friday

Dr. McCoy is thrust into becoming Commander McCoy when he is given the conn by Kirk, who then seems to disappear from not just the planet that he was on, but from everywhere entirely. But, I’m getting ahead of myself, the story starts with the Enterprise being ordered to go to a planet that seems to have 3 distinct species that are conscious of their consciousness. They are also all super unique lifeforms, and mysterious too. The crew goes down, and then, the Captain does. And suddenly, McCoy is in charge, and his time in charge is definitely not a pleasure cruise.

I definitely liked that we get to see Uhura a lot since the Linguists get some great stuff in this book. (The wanting verbs cracked me up). And McCoy is definitely a unique commander too. Then, there were the antagonists in the book. They were awesome, as was how McCoy dealt with them. That was really fun.

This always seems to be a highly recommended TOS book, and, I definitely get why, it was a very different look at what a conscious being can be and what a Starship commander can be too.

You may like this book If you Liked: Harm's Way by David Mack, Captain to Captain by Greg Cox, or One Constant Star by David R. George, III

Doctor's Orders by Diane Duane

[nordleuchten]

24 Days of La Fayette: December 6th - Major Carter Page

The American born Carter Page (1758 to April 9, 1825) was La Fayette aide-de-camp from June of 1781 until November of the same year. Six eventful months in total. But his war service started long before his stint as La Fayette’s aide-de-camp. Page was commissioned a Captain of the 3rd Virginia Regiment, a Regiment of Dragoons, under the direct command of Colonel George Baylor, on April 10, 1778 – the Marquis de La Fayette in his position as Major-General was the commander of the whole division. On April 11, 1778, George Washington wrote to Colonel Stephen Moylan:

Capt. Jones and Lieut. Page have not been in Camp to my knowledge.

“From George Washington to Colonel Stephen Moylan, 11 April 1778,” Founders Online, National Archives, [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 14, 1 March 1778 – 30 April 1778, ed. David R. Hoth. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2004, pp. 479–480.] (09/04/2022)

Washington still referred to Page by his former rank. While the muster rolls of Valley Forge noted his commission in April 1778, they did not note the date of his arrival at camp. Page came from a prominent Virginian family, and it is therefore no too surprising, that he was made a Captain by the age of 19/20. Further promotions were scarcer, though by the end of the war he had been promoted to the rank of Major. On May 18, 1781, La Fayette wrote in a letter to Nathanael Greene:

There are also Some few Volunteer Gentlemen Under Captain Page. They are Very clever But Volonteers. We Had Some Militia Horse. Their time Was out and they Went Home this Morning. Happy I Have Been that we Have Got Some Accoutrements furnished to them By the public.

Idzerda Stanley J. et al., editors, La Fayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776-1790, Volume 4, April 1, 1781-December 23, 1781, Cornell University Press, 1981, p. 110-114.

Carter Page was at this point in time not yet one of La Fayette’s aide-de-camps and I actually knew of only one letter that La Fayette wrote Page while the latter served in the described capacity. The letter was written on July 5, 1781 and the Marquis instructs the Captain that the British allegedly plan to infect the population of the Williamsburg area with smallpox. La Fayette instructs Page to come up with ideas to thwart this design.

Carter Page was born to Jane Byrd (Page) and John Williamson Page. He was brother to f Mann Page III, William Byrd Page, Jane Byrd Page, Judith Carter (Page) Nelson, Mary Page, Maria Molly Page, Matthew Page, Robert Page, Lucy Page and Thomas Page.

He married twice during his life. Firstly Mary Cary (Page) shortly after the War of Independence on April 4, 1783. The couple were the parents of eight children, namely John Cary Page, Henry Page, Carter Page, Lavinia Randolph Page, Carter Page, Mann Page, William Page and Mary Isham Page. Four of their children, Carter Page, Lavinia Randolph Page, Carter Page and William Page died young, none older than three years old. Their youngest daughter Mary Isham Page also died young. She was killed at the age of 17 in the Richmond Theatre fire in Virginia, on December 26, 1811.

Carter married a second time; 1799, about two years after the death of his first wife, he married Lucy Nelson (Page). With Lucy, Carter had an additional seven children, namely Thomas Nelson Page, William Nelson Page, Lucy Jane (Page) Cushing, Nelson Page, Robert Burwell Page, Thomas Page and Mary Maria (Page) Dame. This time, thankfully all of the children except young Thomas Nelson Page survived infancy and early childhood.

Carter’s children married and had families of their own. Their descendants were still proud to cite Carter Page’s Revolutionary War service and two of his descendants were featured in different books, including elaborate ancestry charts.

First is the Reverend George W. Dame, the husband to Carters youngest daughter Mary Maria:

Frank Munsell, Thomas Patrick Hughes, editors, American Ancestry, Giving Name and Descent, in the Male Line, of Americans Whose Ancestors Settled in the United States Previous to the Declaration of Independence, A. D. 1776, Vol. 7, Joel Munsell and sons, Albany, 1892, p. 189-190.

Secondly we have a veteran of the American Civil War, Richard Canning Moore Page, MD.

The University Magazine, Volume 10-11, Harvard University, Cambridge, 1894, p. 56.

[brookstonalmanac]

Birthdays 5.14

Beer Birthdays

Dan Carey (1960)

John Martin (1960)

Mark Cabrera (1964)

Bryan Simpson (1967)

Brian Stechschulte (1977)

Five Favorite Birthdays

Sidney Bechet; jazz saxophonist (1897)

Bobby Darin; singer (1936)

Thomas Gainsborough; English artist (1727)

George Lucas; film director (1944)

Robert Zemeckis; film director (1951)

Famous Birthdays

Archie Alexander; African-American mathematician (1888)

Sophie Anderton; model, actor (1977)

Francesca Annis; English actress (1945)

Diane Arbus; photographer (1923)

Pierre Victor Auger; French physicist (1899)

Jay Beckenstein; jazz saxophonist (1951)

Antonio Berni; Argentinian artist (1905)

Kate Blanchett; actor (1969)

Hal Borland; journalist (1900)

Jack Bruce; rock bassist (1943)

David Byrne; rock musician (1952)

Al Ciner; pop-rock guitarist (1947)

Anne Clark; English singer-songwriter and poet (1960)

Tom Cochrane; Canadian singer-songwriter (1953)

Eoin Colfer; Irish author (1965)

Earle Combs; baseball player (1899)

Sophia Coppola; film director (1971)

Miranda Cosgrove; actor, singer (1993)

Richard Deacon; actor (1922)

C.C. DeVille; rock guitarist (1962)

Billie Dove; actress (1903)

William Emerson; English mathematician (1701)

Richard Estes; artist (1932)

Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit; German inventor (1686)

Alfredo Gobbi; Argentine tango musicians and composer (1912)

Robert Greene; author (1959)

Rob Gronkowski; football player (1989)

Roy Halladay; Toronto Blue Jays/Philadelphia Phillies P (1977)

Heloise; helpful hints columnist (1919)

Steve Hogarth; English singer-songwriter (1956)

Peder Horrebow; Danish astronomer (1679)

Danny Huston; Italian-American actor (1962)

Mike Inez; American rock bassist (1966)

Dub Jones; R&B bass singer (1928)

Alexander Kaufmann; German poet (1817)

Otto Klemperer; orchestra conductor (1885)

Nicholas Kurti; coined term “molecular gastronomy” (1908)

Rudolf Lipschitz; German mathematician (1832)

Norman Luboff; choir director (1917)

Skip Martin; bandleader, composer (1916)

Clay Matthews III; Green Bay Packers football player (1986)

Henry McGee; English actor (1929)

Wim Mertens; Belgian composer (1952)

Tony Pérez; Cuban-American baseball player (1942)

Al Porcino; jazz trumpeter (1925)

Walter Rehberg; Swiss pianist and composer (1900)

Tim Roth; actor (1961)

Amber Tamblyn; actor (1983)

Thomas Wedgwood; English photographer (1771)

Mark Zuckerberg; Facebook founder (1984)

[casbooks]

Books of 2023

Book 36 of 2023

Title: Alone in the Valley: A Soldier's Journey in the Vietnam War Authors: George R. Lanigan ISBN: 9781518825378 Tags: AUS ADF AA Australian Army, AUS ADF AA SAS Special Air Service (ASAS), AUS ADF Australian Defence Force, AUS Australia, B-52 Stratofortress, Bolivia, Buddhism (Religion), C-119 Flying Box Car, C-123 Provider, Catholic, Che Guevara, Cold War (1946-1991), HUN Hungarian Revolution of 1956, HUN Hungary, KHM Cambodia, KHM Cambodian Army (Vietnam War), KHM Cambodian Civil War (1967-1975), KHM Dr Son Ngoc Thanh, KHM FANK Khmer Army / Forces Armees Nationals Khmeres (1970-1975) (Cambodian Civil War), KHM General Lon Nol, KHM Khmer Rouge, KHM Khmer Serei (Cambodia Civil War), KHM Prince Norodom Sihanouk, M-113 APC, Medevac helicopter, Nungs, OV-10 Bronco, PAN Chagres River, PAN Colon, PAN Panama, PAN USA Fort Sherman, PAN USA Fort Sherman - Jungle Operations Training Center, PAN USAF Howard Air Force Base, POW, Rangers, SpecOps, Tamara Bunker Bider (East German Guerilla/KGB), U-10 Helio Courier, US AK Alaska, US AK ALCAN highway, US AK Delta Junction, US AK Gulkana Glacier, US CIA Central Intelligence Agency, US George Peppard (Actor), US Lodge Act, US Martha Raye (Actress), US Medal Of Honor, US OH Kent State University, US OH Kent State University Shootings (1970) (Vietnam War), US OH Ohio, US President Richard M. Nixon, US Raymond Burr (Actor), US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, US USA 117th Assault Helicopter Company, US USA 117th Assault Helicopter Company - 2 Plt - Pink Panthers, US USA 75th Rangers, US USA 75th Rangers - P Co, US USA 75th Rangers - P Co - RT 1-6, US USA ANG Army National Guard, US USA Camp Mackall NC, US USA Col Lamar Welch, US USA Fort Benning GA, US USA Fort Bragg NC, US USA Fort Bragg NC - JFK Special Warfare Center / School, US USA Fort Bragg NC - Smoke Bomb Hill, US USA Fort Gordon GA, US USA Fort Gordon GA - Camp Crocket, US USA Fort Gordon GA - Range Road, US USA Fort Greely AK, US USA Fort Jackson SC, US USA Fort Lewis WA, US USA Fort Mitchell AL, US USA Fort Mitchell AL - Fryar Drop Zone, US USA Fort Wainwright AK, US USA Francis Marion (Swamp Fox), US USA General John L Throckmorton, US USA Major James N. Rowe, US USA NWTC Northern Warfare Training Center AK, US USA Sgt David Dolby (MOH), US USA SP4 Roy Burke (Ranger), US USA United States Army, US USA USSF 5th SFG, US USA USSF 6th SFG, US USA USSF 6th SFG - A Co, US USA USSF 7th SFG, US USA USSF Green Berets, US USA USSF Special Forces, US USA USSF Team ODA-442, US USA USSF Team ODB-36, US USA USSF Team ODB-43, US USAF Pope Air Force Base - NC, US USAF United States Air Force, US USN ASPB Assault Support Patrol Boat, US USN United States Navy, US USO United Service Organizations, VNM ADF AA 1st Australian Field Hospital - Vung Tau (Vietnam War), VNM ADF AA 1st Australian Task Force (1 ATF) (Vietnam War), VNM ADF AA AATF Australian Army Training Team (Vietnam War), VNM Assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem (1963) (Vietnam War), VNM Ba Ria, VNM Bien Hoa, VNM Buddhist Crisis (1963) (Vietnam War), VNM Cam Ranh Bay, VNM Chi Lang, VNM CIA Air America (1950-1976) (Vietnam War), VNM DRV NVA North Vietnamese Army, VNM DRV VC Viet Cong, VNM Hill 282, VNM Hmong Meo Tribesmen, VNM Ho Chi Minh Trail (Vietnam War), VNM I Corps (Vietnam War), VNM III Corps (Vietnam War), VNM IV Corps (Vietnam War), VNM Long Hai, VNM Long Hai Special Forces Camp (Vietnam War), VNM Minh Dam Secret Zone, VNM My Lai Massacre (1968), VNM Nha Trang Air Base, VNM Nui Dat, VNM Operation Arc Light (1965-1973) (Vietnam War), VNM Operation Ivory Coast - Son Tay Raid (1970) (Vietnam War), VNM Operation Ranch Hand (1962-1971) (Vietnam War), VNM Parrots Beak, VNM Phuoc Hai, VNM Phuoc Tuy Province, VNM Quang Tri Province, VNM RVN ARVN Army of the Republic of Vietnam, VNM RVN ARVN CIDG Civilian Irregular Defense Group, VNM RVN ARVN LLDB Luc Luong Dac Biet Special Forces, VNM RVN ARVN RF/PF Regional Forces/Popular Forces (Vietnam War), VNM RVN ARVN Vietnamese Rangers - Biet Dong Quan, VNM RVN Ngo Dinh Diem, VNM RVN RVNP Can Sat National Police, VNM Tan Son Nhut Air Base, VNM Tay Ninh Province, VNM Tay Ninh West Air Base, VNM UITG Chi Lang Training Center (Vietnam War), VNM UITG Long Hai Training Center (Vietnam War), VNM US Agent Orange (Vietnam War), VNM US MACV Advisory Teams (Vietnam War), VNM US MACV IV Corps Advisory Team (Vietnam War), VNM US MACV Military Assistance Command Vietnam (Vietnam War), VNM US USA USSF 3rd Mobile Strike Force (Vietnam War), VNM US USSF Mobile Strike Force (MIKE) (Vietnam War), VNM USA USARV UITG Individual Training Group (Vietnam War), VNM USA USARV United States Army Vietnam (Vietnam War), VNM USN MRF Mobile Riverine Force (Vietnam War), VNM USN NATSB Ben Keo, VNM USN NATSB Go Dau Hau, VNM USN NATSB Naval Advanced Support Base, VNM USN TF 117 MRF Mobile Riverine Force (Vietnam War), VNM Vam Co Dong River, VNM Vietnam, VNM Vietnam War (1955-1975), VNM Vung Tau, VNM Xuyen Moc Rating: ★★★★ (4 Stars) Subject: Books.Military.20th-21st Century.Asia.Vietnam War.ARVN, Books.Military.20th-21st Century.Asia.Vietnam War.Australia, Books.Military.20th-21st Century.Asia.Vietnam War.Cambodian Civil War, Books.Military.20th-21st Century.Asia.Vietnam War.Specops.Green Berets, Books.Military.20th-21st Century.Asia.Vietnam War.US Army.Advisor

Description: In 1968, George Lanigan leaves the University of Maryland and sets off on the journey of his life. He volunteers to serve his country in the Vietnam War and enlists in the army where he becomes an elite Special Forces advisor in a top-secret program. The United States is clandestinely training the Cambodian Army, Forces Armees Nationales Khmeres, and Lanigan is at the heart of the mission. In this personal memoir, LTC George R. Lanigan, USA (Retired), adapts his forty-year-old letters and correspondence to his parents into an emotionally compelling and suspenseful narrative that relates his daily life of survival and political tension. It's an inside, firsthand look at a rare, and previously classified, Vietnam War experience. But its scope reaches beyond the war itself and illuminates the realities soldiers face returning home, building a life, and even visiting war zones four decades later. Its openness and honesty will resonate with war veterans, their friends and family members, those suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, and people of all ages who are interested in American history. Readers will learn about war life, a volatile political environment, and how personal experiences weave together to create the person one eventually becomes.

[ohhkaty]

Record collecting is an expensive hobby but it also honestly brings me so much joy. There’s still so much I want to buy and will buy (tbh) but I keep going to record sales and not remembering what I own and almost buying doubles of the same album, so that’s why this list exists. But I also saw folks publishing their lists earlier and I love seeing what people have in their collections (truly I’d love to see yours if you wanted to post it!) If you ever want to talk records or music I’m your gal ♡ 

A Abba - Super Trouper - Voulez Vous - Greatest Hits Vol. 2 The Animals - The Best Of The Animals Arcade fire - Everything Now Arlo Parks - Collapsed In Sunbeams Aqua - Aquarium

B Bleachers  - Bleachers MTV Unplugged  - Take the sadness out of Saturday night  Beyonce - Lemonade - Renaissance Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever  Barenaked ladies  - Original Hits  Bo Burnham - Inside  Bob Seger - Stranger In Town Billy Joel - 52 Street - The Stranger - Glass Houses - An Innocent Man The Beatles - Help - Yesterday and Today - Abbey Road  - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

C Carly Rae Jepsen - Dedicated - The Loneliest Time Cat Stevens -Tea for the Tillerman Creedence Clearwater Revival - Chronicle Vol. 1 Cheap Trick - At Budokan

D Dirty Honey  - Dirty Honey Dodie  - build a problem  Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia  Dee Gees - Hail Satin  David Bowie - Legacy (The Very Best Of David Bowie) Dolly Parton  - Greatest Hits  Diana Ross - Swept Away - Summer 

E Elvis Presley  - The Essential Elvis  Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong - Ella and Louis  Etta James  - At Last  Edith Piaf  - The great Edith Piaf  Elton John - Greatest Hits  - Greatest Hits Vol. 2  - Captain Fantastic  - Honky Château  - Here and There 

F Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes  Florence and the Machine  - Lungs  - Dance Fever  Frank Ocean  - Channel Orange (yes this is a boot) Fun  - Some Nights  Fleetwood Mac - Rumours - Tango In The Night - The Dance

G Greta Van Fleet  - From the Fires  - Anthem of the Peaceful Army  - The Battle at Garden’s Gate  George Ezra  - Gold rush kid  Grateful Dead  - American beauty Genesis  - Invisible touch  The Guess Who - The Best Of The Guess Who 

H Haim - Forever EP - Days Are Gone - Something To Tell You - Women in Music III Harry Styles - Harry Styles  - Fine Line - Harry’s House Hozier - Hozier - Wasteland, Baby! Hall & Oates - Rock 'n Soul Part 1

J Jill Barber - Chances Jeff Goldblum and The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra - The Capitol Studios Sessions Jeff Lynne’s ELO - Alone In The Universe Joni Mitchell - Blue Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced Janis Joplin - Greatest Hits - Pearl Jefferson Airplane -Surrealistic Pillow Jethro Tull - Stand Up Janet Jackson - Control 

K Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour - Star-Crossed  Khruangbin and Leon Bridges - Texas Sun - Texas Moon Kate bush - Hounds Of Love Kansas - Leftoverture

L Lorde - Melodrama - Solar Power The Lumineers - The Lumineers - Cleopatra Lizzo -Coconut Oil - Cuz I Love You Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill Lana Del Rey - Born To Die Led Zeppelin - In Through The Out Door 

M Maggie Rogers - Surrender Mother Mother - Dance And Cry Mumford and Sons - Wilder Mind Mika - Life In Cartoon Motion Matty Matheson - A Cookbook (yes this is a real cookbook, it comes with a zine!) Marina And The Diamonds -Electra Heart Minnie Riperton - Les Fleurs: The Minnie Riperton Anthology Meatloaf - Bat Out Of Hell Mr mister - Welcome To The Real World 

N Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats - Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats The National - Boxer Nico - Chelsea Girl Neil Young - Harvest Moon Neil Diamond - Live At The Troubadour 

O Orville Peck - Pony - Show Pony Orla Gartland - Women on the Internet Olivia Rodrigo  - Sour 

P Phoebe Bridgers - Stranger in the Alps  Paramore  - After Laughter  Prince - Purple rain  The Mamas & the Papas - The Papas & the Mamas The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta Paul Simon - There Goes Rhyming Simon - Graceland  Pat Benatar - Crimes of Passions 

Q Queen - Greatest Hits

R The Regrettes - Feel Your Feelings Fool - How Do You Love - Further Joy Ramones  - Ramones 

S The Sheepdogs  - Live At Lees  Spice Girls  - Spice  The Strokes  - Angles 

The Struts  - Strange Days 

Silk Sonic  - An Evening with Silk Sonic 

Simon and Garfunkel  - Bridge Over Troubled Water 

T Taylor swift  - Lover  - Folklore  - Evermore  - Midnights  Trixie Mattel  - Two Birds/One Stone - Barbara  Twin shadow  - Eclipse  - Twin Shadow Tears for fears  - Songs From The Big Chair  Toto - Toto IV Toronto  - Get It On Credit  Talking Heads  - Remain in light 

W Whitney Houston - Whitney  - Whitney Houston 

Y Yola - Walk Through The Fire - Stand For Myself Years and Years - Palo Santo

Z The Zombies - Odessey and Oracle - Oddities and Orcales  

123 The 1975 - The 1975 - Being Funny In A Foreign Language

Movie Soundtracks - Labyrinth - The Virgin Suicides - Eternal Sunshine of - School Of Rock - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Promising Young Women - Josie and the Pussycats  - Almost Famous -Rocky Horror Picture Show - Up - Space Jam  - Little Shop of Horrors  - Grease - Saturday Night Fever - Xanadu  - Ghostbusters - St. Elmo’s Fire

Television Soundtracks - The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina - Stranger Things Vol 1/2 - Stranger Things Vol 3 - Euphoria Season 2 - Steven Universe 

Musicals - In the Heights - Hair

[vibrantlifeboringdeath]

Omg what type of music do you make what's your band called is there any music out there???

ohhh my Gosh I must have queued something about this because I do NOT remember posting about it recently but thank you for your interest!!!!!!

So I am in a band over here but I also make my own music that's more my usual style. My band is called Russel and the French Boys which is a VERY funny name because Russel's name is George, none of us are French, and I'm a Girl! Stylistically we're a bit all over the place, it's all music the titular Russel wrote at Uni, it's like. A bit pop-rock, a bit proggy, there's a bit of Ska and pop punk in there too, it really is all over the place! There's some music on Spotify but the only thing I'm actually on on Spotify is the cover of that Christmas song from Love Actually! We ARE working on recording an album though so that will change eventually! As for my solo stuff, it is largely ambient stuff that I make entirely on my own, I know Very little about mixing and mastering but I learn as I go, my earliest stuff is LITERALLY just guitar tracks layered on top of each other but I've started incorporating programmed drums and I LOVE cheesy 80s synths! some of it is pink-floydy ambient vibey stuff, some of it is very synthwave, there's some ill-advised forays into LoFi sort of territory too!

most of it is here:

the stuff I'm most proud of on this one is the 3 with very similar covers, Reach Out, Empty City and Distant signals, I made them in lockdown & had the Most time to like. Really work on the mixing! Searching Part III is a favourite of mine too, the searchign ones are all just Ambient Guitar. It's a mixed bag but the stuff I'm most proud of is here!

I've just started a new bandcamp under my *new* name here:

the only EP there atm is a short ambient thing I put together completely on a Whim of ideas I had sat around, I intend to go in a bit of a different direction with this one though! I have... THREE EPs that are like 70% done I wanna release here, two shoegazey/dreampop-ish (and also a little math rock? idk) ones and one very 70s, gloomy, pink-floydy ambient rock one that I have literally been working on for 3 years, I need to sit down and REALLY work on the really long, ambitious song I want it to end on!

Oh I also have a couple of shitty vaporwave ones here:

Other than this, last halloween I played keyboards for a Ghost tribute band which was SO much fun, and I'm also working on some music for something my friend is writing which is gunna be a bit more folksy and ambient again!

[fictionz]

New Fiction 2022 - December

The Chimes at Midnight by Geoff Trowbridge (2008)

It takes its time to get to the meat until there’s more to chew on in the latter half. Most of these TOS alternate histories were mildly interesting but this one is a cut above.

A Gutted World by Keith R.A. DeCandido (2008)

"What if the Cardassians discovered the Bajoran Wormhole?" This is the question that got me reading all these Myriad Universes novellas in the first place, but because I’m me and a completionist, I couldn’t just skip past the others in the series to get here. I come to Star Trek expanded universe stuff with a DS9 first approach so I was keen to read how the author spun out this alternate history in which the Dominion gets their foothold in the alpha quadrant if they met the Cardassians first. It had a little too much TNG cast for my taste (especially since those characters dominate so many of these stories), but it’s a worthy DS9 tale.

Brave New World by Chris Roberson (2008)

Now we get to a whole lot of Data, so more of TNG. The courtroom stuff doesn’t hit the same way in these stories as it does in the TV episodes, and then all the implications of androids woven into the fabric of the galaxy is strangely not that compelling.

The Embrace of Cold Architects by David R. George III (2010)

Another Data-heavy story. I think these novellas introduce interesting directions with how the Federation will absolutely exploit artificial beings if they have the slightest excuse, but this particular one needed to be its own novel. It ends just as things get interesting.

The Tears of Eridanus by Steve Mollmann & Michael Schuster (2010)

A TOS story that deviates from the prime universe thousands of years before the era we know. It revels in an alternate history in which the Andorians made first contact with Earth, and the Vulcans and Romulans never parted ways.

The Last Generation by Andrew Steven Harris, Gordon Purcell, Bob Almond, Terry Pallot, Mario Boon, John Hunt, Robbie Robbins, Chris Mowry, Neil Uyetake, Andy Schmidt, Scott Dunbier, Justin Eisinger, Mariah Huehner, Bill Tortolini (2009)

I could’ve done without Data and the TNG cast at the center of things (again), but it’s cool to see Sulu flying around being a badass in his Excelsior ship. All these TNG tales feels like the higher-ups asking “Ey, where’s my TNG (money)? I gotta have my TNG (money)!”

Strange World dir. Don Hall (2022)

I loved it, but then I’m a sucker for perilous adventure tales across strange new lands.

Violent Night dir. Tommy Wirkola (2022)

Die Hard meets Home Alone with a blend of Bad Santa and maybe God of War?

Empire of Light dir. Sam Mendes (2022)

I was there for it all the way. Sometimes I remember I’m a normie-ass man but that part that feels like I’m a distant weirdo never goes away, and this movie’s for that guy.

Demon Wind dir. Charles Philip Moore (1990)

I watched this movie within a video game along with its MST3K-style commentary at 2 AM with my youngest brother and what a thing to do and write down.

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio dir. Guillermo del Toro (2022)

I mean, of course it’s great. I haven’t read the original story and it sounds like this hews closer to that than the popular perception from Disney’s takes.

Babylon dir. Damien Chazelle (2022)

This could've been dry but instead it’s constantly running at full charge, and even when we slow down to the granular level of filmmaking commentary it’s still a high pressure romp.

Jack and Jill dir. Dennis Dugan (2011)

Eh, I suppose the most impressive thing here is that Sandler sells the idea that’s he's own twin sister to the point that you consider them separate people.

The Whale dir. Darren Aronofsky (2022)

This had the potential to be bleak but instead it’s just genuinely hopeful. The performances come across a little too staged, as does the whole movie I suppose, so it’s no surprise to learn than this was originally a stage play.

The Outer Limits - "The Sandkings" (1995)

Here we go! I’d been thinking about watching the entire 1995 reboot of The Outer Limits and it’s everything I could’ve hoped for. All the 90s actors I remember from Saturday afternoon sci-fi TV, dated effects and production techniques, stories about man’s reach exceeding his grasp. This first episode even features three generations of the Bridges acting clan. The thing about intelligent alien bugs isn’t so compelling, but the overall production makes up for it.

The Outer Limits - "Vanishing Act" (1996)

I was looking for an episode that features New Year’s Day and found this story about a man who time jumps forward by ten years every time he falls asleep. It’s a sci-fi sort of twist on It’s a Wonderful Life and very reminiscent of something you’d see on Star Trek.

Tales from the Crypt - "And All Through the House" (1989)

And since I plan to also watch Tales from the Crypt after TOL, I skipped over to this story about a bad Santa stalking a bad mom.

The Outer Limits - "Valerie 23" (1995)

Here’s a reminder not to fuck around with robots. Don’t do it! Especially not if they’re hot! There’ll more fucked up robot tales in the seasons ahead...

The Outer Limits - "Blood Brothers" (1995)

We get a few stories here about rich assholes trying to live forever. This one does also present an interesting idea: what if we could all be cured of all ailments and live twice as long in the process? What happens when no one’s dying and the population count explodes? In any case, that’s more thought than what goes into the episode’s story. It’s mostly about a rich guy jumping the gun on proper medical testing and getting screwed as he should.

The Outer Limits - "The Second Soul" (1995)

Oh man, I was definitely on the paranoid side of this story as the events unfold. It was nice to get one of these where it isn’t a bleak or worst case ending.

The Outer Limits - "White Light Fever" (1995)

Another rich asshole who literally wants to live forever. And that’s it. Spoiler: he doesn’t get to.

Don't Hug Me I'm Scared - Series 2 (2022)

I wanna love this because I loved the original web series, but binging a bunch of TV-length episodes just felt like too much of it. I liked them when they were shorter and spaced out more. Binger beware, I know.

[docrotten]

NIGHTWING (1979) – Episode 222 – Decades of Horror 1970s

“I’ve decided to end the world. They all have to go.” Well, you can forget about cleaning the house, then. Join your faithful Grue Crew – Doc Rotten, Bill Mulligan, Chad Hunt, and Jeff Mohr – as they check out some Indigenous American culture infused with apocalyptic horror in Nightwing (1979).

Decades of Horror 1970s Episode 222 – Nightwing (1979)

Join the Crew on the Gruesome Magazine YouTube channel! Subscribe today! And click the alert to get notified of new content! https://youtube.com/gruesomemagazine

Decades of Horror 1970s is partnering with the WICKED HORROR TV CHANNEL (https://wickedhorrortv.com/) which now includes video episodes of the podcast and is available on Roku, AppleTV, Amazon FireTV, AndroidTV, and its online website across all OTT platforms, as well as mobile, tablet, and desktop.

Killer bats plague an Indian reservation in New Mexico.

Directed by: Arthur Hiller

Writing Credits: Steve Shagan & Bud Shrake & Martin Cruz Smith; (1977 novel by) Martin Cruz Smith

Music by: Henry Mancini

Cinematography by: Charles Rosher Jr. (director of photography) (as Charles Rosher)

Visual Effects by: Carlo Rambaldi (special visual effects)

Selected Cast:

Nick Mancuso as Youngman Duran

David Warner as Phillip Payne

Kathryn Harrold as Anne Dillon

Stephen Macht as Walker Chee

Strother Martin as Selwyn

George Clutesi as Abner Tasupi

Ben Piazza as Roger Piggott

Donald Hotton as John Franklin

Charles Hallahan as Henry

Judith Novgrod as Judy

Alice Hirson as Claire Franklin

Pat Corley as Vet

Charlie L. Bird as Beejay (as Charlie bird)

Danny Zapien as Joe Mamoa

Peter Prouse as Doctor

José Toledo as Harold Masito (as Jose Toledo)

Richard Romancito as Ben Mamoa

Flavio Martinez as Isla Laloma (as Flavio Martinez III)

Lena Carr as Pregnant Woman

Virginia P. Maney as Old Squaw

Wade Stevens as Ambulance Attendant

Robert Dunbar as Helicopter Pilot

John R. Leonard Sr. as Helicopter Pilot

When a shaman decides the world must end and all must die, he performs a ritual that releases a very large and murderous Desmodus rotundus colony, commonly known as a guano-load of vampire bats! Nightwing (1979) is the only venture into horror for director Arthur Hiller and writer Martin Cruz Smith. Even so, the 70s Grue-Crew are bat-guano-crazy over their movie. Between the story, the bats, and the cast (Strother Martin’s in the house!), there is plenty of fuel for their talkabout!

At the time of this writing, Nightwing (1979) is available to stream from YouTube and PPV from Prime and AppleTV. The film is available on Blu-ray formatted physical media as part of a double-feature with Shadow of the Hawk (1976) from Mill Creek Entertainment. 

Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror 1970s is part of the Decades of Horror two-week rotation with The Classic Era and the 1980s. In two weeks, the next episode, chosen by Jeff, will be Craze (1974), directed by Freddie Francis and sporting a bunch of Oscar winners. It’s got to be great, right? Right? Why are you laughing?

We want to hear from you – the coolest, grooviest fans: comment on the site or email the Decades of Horror 1970s podcast hosts at feedback@gruesomemagazine.com.

Check out this episode!