Neo’s Friends is, of course, short-hand for Democrat voters in general. My mother-in-law is one of them. She is basically conservative but is a “legacy democrat” voter of the FDR generation (age 95) , who has no idea what is actually being promoted by that party.
She’s been listening to the January 6 Committee Kangaroo Court (which even Andrew McCarthy describes as a sham, one-sided, partisan hit job — and he hates Donald Trump). The relentless bias, omissions, spin, and lies are built into the consciousness of the CNNBCBS watchers so thoroughly we can’t make any headway with the actual facts.
Today, one of the talking heads asked a Dem spokes-being about the release of the Capitol Police investigation of the alleged “reconnaissance tours” by a GOP Representative. The Police said no such thing happened. The spokes-spinner said they were going to review the evidence that the Police had examined.
IOW, she basically called the Police Chief a liar.
That’s how high the spin-cycle is running.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cnn-washing-machine/

None, or almost none. Reps support law and order; even Trump-hating Republicans are against illegal violence.

We will go along with the increasing Liberal Fascism (book by NeverTrumper Nat Review Jonah Goldberg).

The Jan 6 kangaroo trial is all about showing how the Democratic Party Deep State is really in power, and any hint of violence, including Rittenhouse style self-defense, will not be tolerated and WILL be prosecuted.

Mass non-violent more-than-Tea-Party conservative marches need to happen. But Neo’s friends don’t even think there’s a problem; and they’re continually being re-mis-informed about the “baseless claims of a stolen election”.

https://www.thefire.org/about-us/history/

The History of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (formerly the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education)
In 1998, University of Pennsylvania history professor Alan Charles Kors and Boston civil liberties lawyer Harvey A. Silverglate co-authored The Shadow University: The Betrayal of Liberty on America’s Campuses. In response, they received hundreds of pleas for help from college student and faculty victims of illiberal policies and double standards. To answer these calls for help and to foster a culture of respect for fundamental rights on campus, in 1999, Alan and Harvey founded the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

Alan took on the role of FIRE’s first president, while FIRE’s first employee, Executive Director Thor Halvorssen, played an important role in launching the organization from a tiny office in Wilmington, Delaware. In 2004, Thor departed as CEO, leaving FIRE firmly established and newly headquartered in Philadelphia, its current main location.

That same year, David French became president of FIRE. He moved the organization to a larger headquarters and led the team through growth until departing in 2005 to serve in Iraq as a member of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps of the United States Army. In 2006, Greg Lukianoff, who joined FIRE in 2001 as the organization’s first director of legal and public advocacy, became FIRE’s president. …

FIRE quickly became the nation’s leading defender of fundamental rights on campus through our unique mix of programming, including student and faculty outreach, public education campaigns, individual case advocacy, policy reform efforts, and, beginning in 2013, lobbying for civil liberties protections in state and federal legislatures….

Since its founding, FIRE has assisted faculty members in vindicating their rights to free speech and academic freedom, but in 2021 we expanded the volume of free legal representation on offer, launching the Faculty Legal Defense Fund to assist more faculty members at public colleges. That same year, FIRE launched two 24/7 hotlines to provide rapid assistance to faculty and to share advice to student journalists looking to safeguard their press freedoms on campus.

The foremost defender of campus rights and a leading college reform advocate, FIRE is also a highly regarded educator on the philosophy and history of freedom of speech, due process, and academic freedom. FIRE published the first Spotlight on Speech Codes report in 2006 and, year after year, has leveraged its ratings system and analysis of campus speech codes to reduce the number of illiberal speech policies on campus. In addition to Spotlight, FIRE regularly releases a report on campus due process; publishes the College Free Speech Rankings, informed by survey data; and maintains databases tracking campus disinvitations, scholar sanctions, and statements about free speech made by college leaders.

…

As of 2022, FIRE’s work on college campuses has won over 500 direct advocacy victories on behalf of college students and faculty members (with thousands more resolved behind the scenes), secured 425 campus policy changes affecting 5 million students, helped pass legislation protecting rights in 20 states, and drove a nationwide reduction in the prevalence of the most restrictive kinds of campus speech codes, from 75% in 2007 to 18% today.

While FIRE fights censorship on campus to great effect, the threats to free speech off-campus continues to grow, contributing to illiberalism on-campus and across our culture. On June 6, 2022, FIRE announced the expansion of its mission to include the defense of free expression across the United States and changed the organization’s full name to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

While FIRE continues to fight for student and faculty rights, as it has done successfully for over two decades, its experienced, nonpartisan, and principled staff now take on threats to free speech off-campus, too.

FIRE, a free speech nonprofit, believes in an America in which people overwhelmingly believe in the right of others to freely express views different from their own, and expect their laws and educational institutions to reflect and teach this belief.

I didn’t know David French was one of the early leaders; he seems to have forgotten that himself.
Greg Lukianoff is the most-quoted leader now.

To be sure, the ACLU has gone belly up ethically—straight down the rabbit hole—for some time now (if with the very occasional exception), and is essentially unrecognizable as the org. it once was.

And it’s not the only one, unfortunately.
(It seems that going bonkers has become very “competitive”—a matter of “keeping up with the Joneses”, surpassing them, actually. Simply ludicrous, absurd and pathetic…)

Thanks for the reference to FIRE. I never heard of it, but it seems to be a much-needed organization.

Exactly. There are some trans people who are not noticeable as such. It depends on so many factors.

TBH, you should not have to do this — the issue is not with accepting people who are different (or should not be) — it’s going to the other extreme and embracing or celebrating it. Worse, being socially forced to do so.

Society — the 75%, the 90%, the 95% — should not generally be forced to change its overall processes to satisfy the minority group.

Transvestite femmes should not be using women’s bathrooms — not because of them, but because it opens gaming the whole thing to perverts, and women should be able to trust that the bathroom is a safe space for them, as should young girls, and not need to worry about whether that “guy” in drag is actually some pedo trying to latch onto someone vulnerable.

No, I don’t care how relatively unlikely that is, THIS is one of those “if it stops just ONE” scenarios that really matters.

And trans-femmes should not be able to compete in sports with women. Period. It makes a mockery of the reasons why women compete independently of men.

And no church, anywhere, should be forced to abrogate their principles and perform a gay marriage (voluntary, fine. That’s up to the church, not the “state”).

And if you run a bed and breakfast, and do not allow unmarried couples to sleep in the same room — including gay couples (and you do not recognize gay marriage as valid), you should not be forced to, again, abrogate your principles — a general public accommodation, such as a hotel or motel is one thing. A B&B is generally a person’s home.

And there is a reasonable location of balance, there: Acceptance is reasonable to expect from people. Embracing their difference should not be required.

And thus it is with many people who’re “different”. They TRY to fit in as best they can, and many of us are become bloody good at it (despite the often extreme stress it causes us) because it’s a survival mechanism in a world that generally doesn’t take kindly to people who don’t fit the standard.
I’m autistic myself, I roleplay a “normal” person when out in public for that reason and apart from being “socially awkward” I tend to not draw a lot of attention. But it takes a lot out of me, and at home I often collapse mentally as a result for hours.

From that video’s comments:
Toni Basil, Teri Garr, and Carolyn Barry were dancers on this show.

However, as far as that song goes, perhaps it’s the muddy video-grade sound recording, but Bow-Wow-Wow just owned this song, with a much much better sound mix if not more effective instruments and Annabella Lwin’s voice is quite good in the context of the song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoXVYSV4Xcs
The increased emphasis of both the guitar and the base to match the heavy beat riff really works. I have no idea how the Strangeloves version actually sounded, but it would be hard-pressed to better BWW’s.

Anyone who wouldn’t enjoy that is a philistine. Carole King was awesome. And I like Disturbed, Cabaret Voltaire, and Tool, too… so it’s not like melody, harmony, and consonance are my main preferences in music. If it has rhythm, I like it.

}}} Mickey Rourke

Oh, my lord. He’s almost as bad as Jenna Jamison… maybe worse. :-/

}}} Steve Martin had a real great stretch around that time of LA Story. His ‘Cyrano’ reworking ‘Roxanne’ was also very enjoyable with a killer cast.

I loved the part with the heckler who Cyrano responds to with “I can come up with 25 wittier responses.”… and then promptly runs off **30** — go ahead, count them. 😀

}}} Man, movies suck now.

Nah, they are just different now. Only the wokist crap (which I grant, is far far too many of them… but one is too many) really sucks.

OTOH, there is a LOT of really good TV if you (again) dodge the wokist crap.