MISCmedia by Clark Humphrey » Blog Archive RANDOM LINKS FOR 8/18/11

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RANDOM LINKS FOR 8/18/11

August 17th, 2011 by Clark Humphrey

Ex-SeattleiteÂ Tom Spurgeon wrote forÂ The Comics Journal after I left there, then wrote for theÂ Stranger after I leftÂ there. More recently, he’s had a debilitating medical condition, which he doesn’t fully explain in his hereby-linked essay. What he does discuss are his thoughts during his enforced bedrest, about comics, film, and being human.
At least five enlisted personnel at Joint Base Lewis-McChord haveÂ committed suicide in less than two months. More needless casualties of the two needless wars.
State officials found what they apparently thought was a simple “tax loophole” whose “closing” would generate much-needed revenue. It involves imposing “dance taxes” on bars and nightclubsâ€”retroactivelyâ€”based on a decades-old ordinance intended to regulate exercise studios. Some clubs say it could put them out of business.
Unemployment in our state is still icky big.
Amazon boss Jeff Bezos just gave $10 million to the Museum of History and Industry’s new complex at Lake Union Park, set to open late next year.
If you don’t have enough to be scared of, just think about the “brain-eating amoeba.”
Headline of the day: “Social Security Declares 14,000 Living People Dead Every Year.”
The amorphous tangle of billionaire-funded “populist uprisings” collectively known as the “tea party” is massively unpopular. I mean massively.
PBS’s Judy Woodruff tries to explain the consequences ofÂ extreme wealth inequality on a show underwritten by corporate funders out for a nearly-exclusively upscale audienceâ€¦
â€¦while Amanda Marcotte (no, I don’t expect you to know all these web-pundit names) looks at right-wingers’ replies to the Verizon strike and declares we’re living in a new feudalism. So where are all the Renaissance Faire costumes?
Among the top-grossing movies so far this year, you have to go down to position #8 to find a live-action, non-sequel, non-superhero film (Bridesmaids).