- ‘Bill Wants To Meet You’: Why Political Fundraising Emails Work – “Here’s the thing: as odd as some of these messages appear to be, campaigns know they work. Most political operations conduct meticulous tests to see which appeals work best, before they blast notes out to their bases. It’s an approach perfected by President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, which hauled in about $500 million based on email fundraising.”
- Japan top court upholds law on married couples’ surnames – “Women in Japan were traditionally able to retain their maiden names after marriage, until 1898 when the law was enacted as part of a feudal family system where all women and children came under control of the male head of the household. The system was abolished in 1948 – but the surname law has been retained.”
- In Kenya, so much depends on the orange flesh sweet potato – “On the nutrition front, it addresses health needs for pregnant women. It’s loaded with Vitamin A, an immunity booster, great for vision and crucial for organ development in the fetus. The orange flesh variety also provides a defense against disease for people who are HIV positive.”
- Why The Politics Of The ‘Star Wars’ Universe Makes No Sense – Political scientists dissect the political structures seen in Star Wars.
- Trump Supporters Shout “Sieg Heil,” “Light Him on Fire” at Black Protester – Why are people still pretending that Trump and others are supported by anything other than raw fear and racism.
- Muslim women had to create a crisis safety manual to deal with hate – “Muslim women have responded to the manual with exasperation. Anytime a Muslim commits a crime, they know they’ll be impacted. It may be a tweet, a racist comment on a bus, or a direct threat. So far, Al-Khatahtbeh says Muslim women have dealt with it on their own or with their friends.”
Mary,
Speaking of Star Wars, since Christmas is coming up, have yourself a Merry Star Wars Christmas!
Oh, it’s simple. The Jedi are a group of theocratic warrior-sages who advise a republic whose administrative divisions are ruled by an elected monarchy. See? That makes perfect sense.
This is the reason I’ve never been a fan.
Over complex fantasy plots bore me, and with Star Wars you have a large cast of largely unlikable characters to boot.
No thanks.
Any critique of Star Wars that draws on the prequels is invalid. Those movies never happened.
Lykex,
Sorry but as far as Disney and Lucas Arts are concerned, they did happen. They’re still officially cannon. No matter how much you dislike them, it won’t change that.
Besides were they really that bad? The way they portrayed the “galactic republic” aside, I actually thought they were pretty good stories. Even that didn’t bother me too much at the time.
No, they were really that bad and the biggest problem was the story. People think they have trouble following it but they’re following it correctly – it just doesn’t make sense.
Those movies are a lot like those old Sierra Adventure games. They make a lot more sense in retrospect but that’s because you know what eventually happens.
Remember when the Jedis landed on Naboo? What if JarJar Binks hadn’t been waiting around in that forest? What was their Plan A? Were they going to walk across an entire planet expecting to get there on foot before the people in vehicles? And even if they had, what would they have done? Warned them of the approaching army? Why? Their best defense is to summon help from someone else, and that would have been a lot easier if they hadn’t just stranded themselves on the planet without a spaceship.
In retrospect they had to be there to smuggle Amidala out, but neither the characters nor the audience knew that until it happened.