Britain’s Labour Party wants to do away with “non-dom” status, which is essentially preferential tax treatment for people whose primary allegiance is to another country.
As elections in the UK approach, Ben Lauderdale gives a quick primer on UK’s political history.
Russell Saunders says he “probably” won’t #StandWithPaul, but this sounds like an endorsement to me! (Not really.)
Louis Jordan was lost at sea for over two months, and allegedly survived. Experts say it’s not as far-fetched as it sounds.
Should small theaters in Los Angeles have to pay union wages?
Sadly, Canada appears to be undermining its own census process. Even more than we did, it looks like.
“A Louisiana man on trial for murder has claimed that he thought the victim was an alligator.” // I think Florida Man needs to step up his game.
Ron Hira and Hal Salzman argue that the H1-B visa debates aren’t really about immigration. They’re about jobs, and people being laid off to make room for immigrants taking the jobs that Americans can’t and won’t do.
A Pennsylvania phony posing as a lawyer made partner and was president of the county bar.
I think there is some truth to this article about Gamergate ultimately being about a sort of cultural colonialism. I saw some of this when anime started to gain cultural traction. A non-trivial number of die-hards responded very unfavorably to the prospect of something not being “theirs” anymore.
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404 error on the link about immigration…
Fixed
Also, I agree to a certain extent with the Gamergate story. I remember kids in high school talking about how they liked such-and-such band “until they got popular.” Now, granted, I wasn’t that into pop music, but to my ears, I couldn’t hear a difference in the style or quality of music from some of those bands in pre- vs. post-“becoming popular” times.
Part of it is the idea of cachet and ‘secret knowledge.’
Though I can see, if not sympathize with, what the gamers are feeling – I have sighed heavily numerous times when some brand-new knitter goes on to one of the online knitting boards and talks breathlessly about something that’s already been endlessly rehashed, or acts like she invented the whole process. And I feel a certain despair mixed with envy when there’s a big deal made about a MAN knitting, when there are women who do frankly amazing knitted stuff (some of the complex lace) but they get ignored because “knitting’s a woman thing” so people don’t see the amazingness of what they do. (Or how “arm knitting” – a very huge-scale, IMHO kind of ugly thing – is popular now because it’s “new.” And people act like doing it with “sticks” is “so last week.”)
Then again, my usual reaction to that is to sigh and roll my eyes privately a little….I would never flame out at one of the newbies. Because I was a newbie once, even if it was in the era before Internet.
Kind of an annoying story about actors in small LA theaters, It’s presented as a workers-vs-bossy unions story — which it is, kind of, but not as conservatives generally present these things.
The point is, Los Angeles is Los Angeles, almost essentially the center of the world for actors, and being in a small theater production is show casting one’s self for actors (and producers and other people involved with putting on a performance). It lets actors keep their skills (and hopes!) alive in the long stretches between paid acting jobs; it ensures that producers and casting directors and agents will come to appraise their performances; it keeps actors aware of each other in a continuing community; it keeps alive an audience of playgoers who might interact daily with actors as customers at their day jobs or tenants or friends.
These aren’t small things, and they’re what people had in mind years ago when the ordinance was passed that made such small theaters legitimate. (This was in the 1970’s if memory serves; there had been an ongoing tradition that allowed non-union performances in theaters of any size as long as performers were agreeable; a time came when non-union performances in large theaters were seen as competing unfairly with “legitimate” theaters which actually paid actors, and the 99 seat threshold was viewed as a good compromise.)
Yes, in the best of worlds all actors would be paid all the time for their performances. But there are probably 200 actors looking for work for every one that has an acting job, and non-union theater is one of the things that makes the situation palatable. And — I speak selfishly here, having spent a fair number of evenings in small theater audiences — it’s one of the best things about living in LA.
Well said.
This one is for Sheila…
A 20-year-old female college student was murdered by one of her classmates and housemates.
So why did I think of Sheila?
Because the suspect is 30.
Sheila said that she appreciated the distraction from her Sunday Night Court Prep.