The Weekend of Foolish Attention

Bits and bytes of the week

Ah! Inspiration! I got a text from my mom on Sunday. “Watch SLY on Netflix he’s you!!” I had the documentary in the queue so I sat down, grabbed a drink, and took it all in. SLY is a 90-minute look at the career of the man who improbably created two of the most iconic characters in the late twentieth century. It’s about his rough relationship with his father, his improbable risk with the Rocky script, his desire to adapt John Rambo into a tragic hero, and his refusal to simply stop. I love Stallone, I loved this documentary.

What? You mean violent men with guns tend to shoot them at people? A study published in 2021 determined that “in more than two-thirds (68.2%) of mass shootings analyzed, the perpetrator either killed family or intimate partners or the shooter had a history of domestic violence” and “that DV-related mass shootings were associated with a greater fatality rate.”

“Gun violence has many forms, but it is clear that a history of interpersonal violence should be a deciding factor in whether or not an individual should continue to have access to a gun,” said Lisa Geller, lead author of the study and the state affairs manager of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.

Additionally, a woman in an abusive relationship is five times more likely to be murdered if her abuser has a gun, and more than half of all intimate partner homicides involve a gun.

Perhaps (and call me a loon if you want) doing everything we can to prevent men who hit their wives, girlfriends, and children from owning guns is a solid idea.

Defining terms.

“Did you just call that guy a twat?”

“I did. Cus he’s a twat.”

“You’re comparing him to a vagina?”

“No. Why would I do that?”

“Isn’t that what it means?”

“Nah. All the best insults come from body parts. I’m an asshole which is off-putting but kind of charming. Your boss is a dick—annoying, obnoxious, and wholly irredeemable. His wife is a cunt because she’s just a truly horrible human being. His son is a cock. That guy? Twat. He’s ineffectual, easily dismissed but keeps showing up to make sure you know he is there.”

“So what am I?”

“You’re a nob.”

Finally more fodder to binge. The actor’s strike is over. Thank god. The low quality heroin provided by dwindling content on streaming platforms has left millions wondering about their lives and in need of distraction. Seriously, anyone who watches more than four hours of TV per day has some gall criticizing kids with phones stuck to their faces.

You say “Censorship,” they say “Hate Speech.” How curious (yet obvious) that those hollering that their political speech in favor of Hamas and against Zionism is being censored while just three weeks ago they were screaming down scientists explaining that puberty blockers might need more testing before giving them to children and that Halloween costumes can be seen as violence.

Po-TAY-to, Po-TAH-to.

Call me an old fashioned liberal but hateful speech is always best countered with better, less hateful speech rather than doing anything to stymy the speech you don’t like.

That’s the week!